But the idea of getting onstage in front of strangers, just one person and a spotlight, and talking until they crack up – that’s new. “We’re trying to give new sources of funding that we think can make change in this region.Cavemen whacked one another in the nuts for cheap yuks, and Medieval fools jabbered in a flop sweat to keep from being beheaded. “We’re not competing with any other foundation,” Dewan said. He stepped down from his role as a trustee at Vanguard Charitable last year after serving his term. ![]() In 2014, Dewan was tapped to join the board of trustees of Vanguard Charitable, a donor-advised fund based in Malvern.ĭewan lauded Vanguard’s efforts as a sponsor for donor-advised funds - which means it’s a fund manager - because it does make regular grants despite not being required to do so under tax law.įor example, its donors granted more than $2.6 billion to nonprofits in 2023, an uptick of 39% compared to 2022. Now the goal is to start meeting with donors to offer insight about what’s possible. “We have a large pool of money marooned out there. “Once you set up a donor advised fund you don’t have to grant out anything if you don’t want to,” Dewan said. Sometimes private foundations hit their payout requirement by donating money to these donor-advised funds which don’t have to be granted to any nonprofits so it’s a closed loop system. There’s interest in donors stashing money in these special funds because there’s the ability for individuals to get bigger tax deductions than a traditional foundation and there’s fewer rules about transparency of who the donors to a fund might be. In 2022, contributions to donor-advised funds hit $86 billion - which is $8 billion more than in 2021 - according to the National Philanthropic Trust. There’s a shift where many ultra-wealthy individuals have decided to park money inside of donor-advised funds instead of foundations, which are required to grant at least 5% of their assets each year, in accordance with the Internal Revenue Service. One reason was poorer stock market performance but also high inflation for individual donors - which accounts for $319 billion in donations nationwide - declined by 13.4% when adjusted for inflation.ĭonations to environmental and animal organizations, like any zoos, declined to $16 billion when adjusted for inflation - that’s a nearly 9% drop. charities down from $516 billion in 2021. In 2022, there was an estimated $499 billion donated to U.S. The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy in Indianapolis tracks all types of charitable giving, including individuals, foundations, corporations and legacy gifts, or money left in wills. “Philanthropy in the United States has hit a wall,” he said. “It’s because they don’t have the financial resources to really be able to pull off what is oftentimes a long-term mission.”ĭewan said he’s noticed the available pool of money to promote social good is shrinking rather than growing. ![]() “Nonprofits don’t fail because of the urgency of their mission or the things they’re working on,” he said. Now Dewan, after restructuring the financial model of the zoo for sustainability to keep supporting animals like those tigers, is turning his gaze to all nonprofits, which he’s concerned are just as endangered. Over the years, he also supported an effort to source food for the animals from local suppliers within 100 miles of the zoo.There was even a hydroponic farm plan where local neighbors could grow food and sell it to the zoo for animal feed as an economic development effort that would be a business with a social impact. In Philadelphia, it’s also an urban zoo where many local visitors “will not get a chance to to Brazil, Indonesia or Australia to see the magnificence of our planet up close” but those trail systems help close the gap. Amur Leopards are critically endangered, with only about 100 living in the wild. Kira, an Amur Leopard, walks along the cat walk at the Philadelphia Zoo. “We started to think about in three dimensions and we built these overhead trails that connected the animal habitat area, giving animals the ability to roam between exhibit areas,” he said about something that now 60 zoos worldwide have adopted. He’s also credited with reimagining how visitors experience the zoo while stabilizing a boom and bust cycle of attendance and revenue. There’s now paid internships for high school and college students hailing from the neighborhoods of Brewerytown, Fairmount, Parkside, Mantua and Belmont, which surround the zoo in West Philly. ![]() “What we realized is that we were creating this economic barrier for many people to enter this profession.” “It became very easy to pick the person who had the longest list of internships - the vast majority of which were unpaid,” he said about the competitive hiring process for zookeeper jobs. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor
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