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Author Archives: Marie LeBlanc

Philanthropy in the Classroom

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By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Did you think about studying philanthropy in college? Take any classes on nonprofit management? Would you have taken those courses if you had the chance? I didn’t and yet my career has mostly stayed within the bounds of the nonprofit and philanthropy sectors. However, for a small group of graduating undergraduates at Indiana University, philanthropy has been both an in- and out-of-classroom pursuit during their college years.

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has long been an academic leader in philanthropic studies, but only recently started offering degree programs in the field. In 2008, the first Doctorate in Philanthropic Studies was awarded by the university, and this year marks the first class of graduating undergraduates, earning Bachelors’ in Philanthropic Studies. (Note: when I say the “first,” I mean the first degrees ever issued in this area — not just from Indiana University.)

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Why Philanthropy?

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By Marie LeBlanc, Catalogue Community Partnerships Coordinator

As a relative newcomer to the sector, I often ponder the “big picture” of philanthropy. Coming from a social science background, I find it tempting to sort all of society’s actors into two categories: market or state, business or government. But philanthropic and nonprofit organizations fill a void between the two that defies simple categorization. Government and business’ roles in society are mostly accepted and understood (forgive me for by-passing the partisan debate on the purpose of government) — but philanthropy is a bit more complicated. Why does philanthropy exist in the first place, and how will philanthropy grow and continue to evolve in the future? What new voids will open that philanthropy can best fill?

I found intriguing answers to these questions in a few pieces of news this week. One, authored by Michael Moody and published in the Nonprofit Quarterly blog, explored the issue mentioned above — whether it’s most helpful to consider philanthropy solely in the dualistic terms of the state and market. Moody argues that the dualist perspective might not be the most helpful, and suggests focusing instead on the positive and unique attributes that philanthropy offers as a field. Consider his short-list of things that philanthropy is uniquely good at:

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In Our Schools

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By Marie LeBlanc, Catalogue Community Partnerships Coordinator

Today’s political and economic conversations tend to revolve around one problem and its many side-effects: the struggling economy, and thus high unemployment rates and student loan debt, especially among youth and recent graduates. However, for one segment of the population, even the burden of student debt is out of reach because they don’t have the opportunity to go to college. Today, drop-out rates in the US are startling. According to American Graduate, 1.3 million students drop out of high school each year. DC’s high school graduation rate is 76%, with significantly different rates depending on race. Students who don’t complete high school are ineligible for some low-skill jobs, never mind the high number of professions today that require at least a Bachelor’s degree.

The American Graduate Initiative tackles this issue head on, with the support of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. WAMU published a series of articles addressing the dropout crisis in the area. Reporter Kavitha Cardoza explores the “causes and consequences of the dropout problem” in DC, and also look at innovative support for at-risk students provided by a variety of community organizations.

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