News

Donors still wary of no-strings cash gifts to tackle poverty

Every few minutes on the GiveDirectly news feed an image pops up along with the story of someone who has received one of the US charity’s money transfers. For example, 23-year-old Millicent, who has a pastry business in Kenya, is using a recent transfer of $39 to fix her oven, and Anna, a 51-year-old Ugandan … Continued

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How the Giving Pledge Pushes Smarter Philanthropy

Originally, Bill and Melinda Gates had hoped to do more than encourage giving by the wealthy. They envisioned the Giving Pledge as a way to promote effective philanthropy that would help solve the world’s big problems — a mission not unlike that of the foundation that bears their names and reflects their values. The Gateses and Warren … Continued

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PRESS RELEASE: City and Robin Hood Announce New “Know Your Rights” Forums for Immigrant Communities & Workers

Combined, investing $350,000 to inform immigrant New Yorkers about latest federal immigration policy shifts and how City’s here to help City expects to reach over 5,000 New Yorkers at forums across the five boroughs by Summer 2019, particularly immigrant and domestic workers MANHATTAN—Today, Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Bitta Mostofi joined City agency and community partners—including Lutheran … Continued

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PRESS RELEASE: The Charles Bronfman Prize Names Amy Bach as 2018 Recipient

The Charles Bronfman Prize announced its 2018 recipient: Amy Bach, Founder, Executive Director and President of Measures for Justice, the first organization to publicly measure how the entire criminal justice system is performing in all counties across the United States by collecting, analyzing and comparing county-level data. “Amy’s work revealed a critical gap in our … Continued

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PRESS RELEASE: Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center and Fit4D Secure Robin Hood Foundation Grant to Offer Diabetes Management Program

Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center and Fit4D have received a major grant award from the Pershing Square Immigrant Opportunity Fund at Robin Hood. This grant will provide both organizations with the opportunity to offer personalized coaching to diabetes patients in managing this disease. Bronx-Lebanon’s Department of Family Medicine will be spearheading the initiative. Diabetes is a chronic … Continued

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A Better Gala—Here’s How This Foundation Marked a Key Milestone

When David Callahan, Inside Philanthropy’s founder, was unable to attend the Pershing Square Foundation’s recent 10th-anniversary gala, he conscripted me to go in his stead. He told me the foundation, started by the hedge funder Bill Ackman and his wife Karen, is one of the more interesting new funders to emerge from the finance world … Continued

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Ackman, Counting Philanthropic Wins…

… Commitments have risen and fallen with his funds’ performance, but the foundation has pledged a total of about $400 million since inception and generated plenty of success stories that were shared at the group’s 10th anniversary celebration. Frederick Wiseman thanked Ackman for supporting his documentaries like the one on the New York Public Library … Continued

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Behavioral ‘nudges’ offer a cost-effective policy tool

Governments around the world have increasingly turned to behavioral science to help address various policy problems – new research shows that some of the best-known strategies derived from behavioral science, commonly referred to as ‘nudges,’ may be extremely cost effective. The new study, which examined the cost-effectiveness of nudges and typical intervention strategies like financial … Continued

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ACKMAN COMMITS NEW FUNDS FOR CANCER RESEARCH ON VACCINES, DRUGS

President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget isn’t kind to science funding, but Bill Ackman is. One day after Congress received the administration’s request to cut almost $6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, the hedge fund manager and his philanthropic team awarded six scientists $200,000 a year each, for up to three years. The fourth … Continued

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PRESS RELEASE: New York City Based Scientists Awarded Funding For Their Innovative Work In Cancer Research By The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Alliance

The Pershing Square Sohn Prize winners are making bold advances in research for leukemia, lymphoma, melanoma, pancreatic, prostate, skin, lung, and breast cancer NEW YORK, May 7, 2015 – Six winners of the second annual Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research were announced today by The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research … Continued

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