Kevin Laskowski, research and policy associate, contributed substantially to this commentary.

Former Congressman Steve Gunderson recently left the helm of the Council on Foundations, a philanthropic trade association whose 1,700 members give away some $20 billion annually in grants. The Council wisely solicited comments on the...

By Aaron Dorfman and Bob Edgar.

This week, a few hundred people who lead foundations will gather in Scottsdale, Arizona., for the annual meeting of Philanthropy Roundtable, an organization that promotes independent giving to solve America's challenges while encouraging laws and regulations that make it easy for wealthy people to...

Leaders of our nation's nonprofit sector are vehemently opposing the cap on itemized deductions proposed by President Obama as a way to help pay for the American Jobs Act. Instead of acting out of a concern for the common good, these charity leaders have been acting to protect the narrowest...

Kudos to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies for making a $50 million grant to the Sierra Club for its work to advocate and organize against coal-fired power plants in the United States. The story broke in Thursday's Washington Post.

The grant...

This is the second and final part of a series of posts that looks at why I am skeptical that The Giving Pledge will have the kind of impact many people are saying it will. In Part I, I explored how the pledge is likely to...

Last week, 17 more billionaires signed on to the Giving Pledge and declared their intention to give away to charitable organizations at least 50 percent of their wealth. The initiative is being spearheaded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates.

I've been following this effort since it...

There's a new report touting how the foundation world came charging to the rescue of nonprofits during the recent historic recession. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but nonprofit groups serving vulnerable communities don't exactly feel that foundations should pat themselves on the back quite yet.

The...

There were more than 100 charitable foundations that lost a combined total of more than $2 billion to Bernie Madoff and his Ponzi scheme. These are funds that were intended to serve the public good and cannot be replaced.

The blame for this rests overwhelmingly with Mr. Madoff, who cleverly...