Category: Charity, Philanthropy, Nonprofits
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RVA 5×5 – Holiday Briefing
by Jon Baliles It’s Friday! Which means this newsletter would normally be filled with stories and analysis about what is happening in the RVA region (not all of it good), with an honest and insightful take (so far as that is possible). For instance, this week we could have stories about: A non-profit that presented…
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RVA 5X5: Enrichmond and the City’s Radio Silence
by Jon Baliles I won’t do a “Top Stories of 2022” list for this newsletter, but if I did, one of them would surely be the collapse of the Enrichmond Foundation and the radio silence on all fronts concerning its finances, the groups that depended on it, their assets, and the two historic Black cemeteries…
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Suggestions to Ease Virginia’s Housing Crisis without Additional State Money
by James C. Sherlock The Richmond Times-Dispatch, on cue, wrote in an editorial the other day that more state money was needed to fund local housing. Maybe. But that is not the first place to look. The governor wants to condition development aid to local communities on their reforming land-use policies to permit more construction.…
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The Governor Asks Virginians to Support Food Banks
by James C. Sherlock Amen.
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Homelessness in Petersburg – Part 2
by James C. Sherlock I wrote yesterday about the excellent investigative reporting by the Progress-Index about the knock-on effects of the renewal of fire and building code enforcement in Petersburg. My position is that Petersburg must enforce its codes for public safety and the livability of the city. But I also recognize the need to provide…
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Petersburg Resumes Important Actions Against City Code Violators — Homeless Needs Increase
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes absolutely necessary actions have more than one outcome. Such is the case in Petersburg. Joyce Chu of Petersburg’s indispensable Progress- Index last evening initiated a multi-part series on the impacts of the city’s closure due to safety violations of two motels used by otherwise homeless people. Her first article makes…
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Food Bank Shelves Emptying — Time to Help
by James C. Sherlock Showing the dual effects of inflation — more people need food assistance and the costs of providing that food have risen — a local food bank we have long supported ran out of food this weekend. First time ever. The director told us that this is happening everywhere. See empty shelves…
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Feel-Good Story of the Day: Ambulances for Ukraine
The Richmond Ambulance Authority (RAA) has announced the donation of one of its ambulances as part of the “U.S. Ambulances for Ukraine” initiative. The RAA partnered with the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA), which coordinated donations from HCA Virginia, VCU Health, and the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System to stock the ambulance with medical…
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Not Gilly Sullivan’s Alumni Association Anymore
by James A. Bacon Aiming to address the lamentable decline in state/local news coverage, States Newsroom supports local news operations in 29 states, including Virginia. As Jim Sherlock detailed here, the nonprofit organization was launched in 2017 by the left-of-center Hopewell Fund, which itself is managed by the left-of-center Arabella Advisors. Its Virginia Mercury digital…
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Some Pretty Good Clues to the EnRichmond Saga
by James C. Sherlock Jon Baliles wrote an article about the EnRichmond Foundation. Seems everyone is in the dark. To throw some light, I offer the last Form 990 from EnRichmond that is available online. It was filed October 20, 2020. It offers some clues, such as … the name of the Executive Director; the…
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Embarrassing Non-Action
by John Baliles The EnRichmond saga continues and it’s not a good read. In fact, it’s pretty awful. To recap, the EnRichmond Foundation was founded in the early 1990s and had grown to support more than 80 small, local, all-volunteer groups that worked to help Richmond in various ways, many of which focused on keeping…
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Scandal in Virginia Not-for-Profit Hospital Reported by the NY Times – Regional Perspectives
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes my subscription to The New York Times pays off. This is one of those times. The subtitle on the Times story is: Bon Secours Mercy Health, a major nonprofit health system, used the poverty of Richmond Community Hospital’s patients to tap into a lucrative federal drug program. It is a blockbuster…
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Budget Earmarks for Nonstate Entities
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For many years, the most interesting and fun portion of the state Appropriation Act was a section near the end entitled, “State Grants to Nonstate Entities-Nonstate Agencies.” The 2000 Appropriation Act, appropriating almost $36 million for these nonstate entities, is a good example. It included funding for historic courthouses, local museums and…
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Virginia Needs Better Information Sharing to Provide Mandated Public Services to Illegals Efficiently and Effectively
by James C. Sherlock I am on record as a persistent advocate of improving the quality of both schools and medical services for poor and minority citizens. It has been the main focus of my work for years. In a directly related matter, we read, with different reactions depending upon our politics, of the struggles…
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Where Does Virginia Most Need Charter Schools?
by James C. Sherlock Discussing failing schools in Virginia, people tend to speak in generalities. When an example is needed, the City of Richmond Public Schools is chosen — an uncontested layup. But failed schools are not a problem just in Richmond. And bad public schools in Richmond are not limited to RPS. They are…