Whether it's an ornament at the bottom of the box, or a nutcracker collecting dust in the attic, hand-me-down decorations can find a new home thanks to one local high school student and his mom. Grant Benedum and his mom, Christine, created a mission called, 'Giving Garland,' earlier this year. They have partnered with Norwood-Fontbonne Academy and Our Mother of Consolation Catholic Church in Chestnut Hill to collect decorations from students, parishioners, and their families.
Ellison's $40 billion promise to personally back his son's Paramount deal is not a charitable donation in the classic sense. It is something more emblematic of this billionaire era: philanthropic capitalism, where vast personal fortunes are deployed through markets rather than around them, and "giving it away" increasingly means reshaping industries instead of writing checks to traditional charities. It lands at the exact moment that the older model of billionaire philanthropy-epitomized
"I vividly remember what it's like as a kid backpacking around the world to need a shower, to need a place to wash your clothes," Steves told a crowd who gathered on Wednesday to celebrate the purchase over cake and with words fait accompli written in red icing. Many homeless people had come to depend on the Lynnwood Hygiene Center, which had operated rent-free on the property since 2020.
Members of Brownie Troop 60125 volunteered at the Family Giving Tree warehouse in Sunnyvale on Dec. 7, sorting, wrapping and organizing gifts and getting them ready for bagging for the nonprofit's Holiday Wish Drive. The troop also hosted a Virtual Giving Tree along with Junior Troop 60174, adopting 25 wish cards, and used cookie sale proceeds to shop for gifts at Pennyland Toys in Campbell, which offered the troops a discount.
Clenching a broom in one hand and a dust pan in the other, Amber Levine-Mickel furiously sweeps a dirt walkway in Sunnyvale, bending small pebbles, fallen leaves and branches to her will. For over an hour, the 31-year-old and her companions from Life Services Alternatives (LSA) are braving the cold to tidy the grounds of Animal Assisted Happiness, a family-friendly barnyard in the city. Levine-Mickel loves to volunteer there every Thursday morning, even if the tasks can get tiresome.
MoEngage, a customer engagement platform used by consumer brands across 75 countries, has raised $180 million in a Series F follow-on round just over a month after securing $100 million, with a majority of the latest funding providing liquidity to investors and employees through secondary transactions. In the latest raise, about $123 million was secondary, including a $15 million employee tender that provided liquidity to 259 current and former employees, while the remaining $57 million was raised as primary capital and went into the business.
One proposal would reduce capital stock and capital reserves, allowing funds to be transferred to surplus. This would enable dividends, share buybacks, or bitcoin acquisitions without increasing the number of outstanding common shares. Another proposal seeks to increase the company's authorized share count, including the introduction of new preferred share classes. Metaplanet said this would allow it to raise capital in the future to fund bitcoin purchases while preserving flexibility in its capital structure.
I already said thank you, but should I say anything else? GENTLE READER: What would you say? Something along the lines of, I have no use for this, so I'm going to get rid of it? Countering generosity by mentioning what a failure it was does not make anyone's Christmas merrier. Not even yours, next Christmas, when this client will have been discouraged by the effort to please you and will give up trying.
Solomon Smith said he founded the charity with money from his job as a youth worker after being unable to secure funding for the project. He began helping others after witnessing poverty among his peers as a child. He said: "We got cooked meals every day. It's not until I was actually going to my friend's house, when I realised poverty. I realised that if they didn't go out and steal, they were not eating."
It's possible I was in attendance that very same year: my father, a street racer in his youth, was certainly aware of PIR and my mother had always been a Christmas lights enthusiast, trucking us from neighborhood to brightly-lit neighborhood. I'm not certain, but I do have distinct childhood memories of slowly circling that track, watching the festive lights go by.
The deal, via Collegiate Athletic Solutions, known as CAS, follows failed talks earlier in the year for a direct investment into the Big 12, and would mark the first major conference-wide capital deal in major US college sports. The partnership would offer the 16 member universities a line of credit of roughly $30 million each and is close to being finalized, the person added, asking not to be named discussing private information.
Atkins noted that the number of publicly registered companies has fallen over the past 30 years as mergers and bankruptcies have outpaced new listings. His goal, he said, is to "make it cool to be a public company" again-something he believes has "taken a hit over time." Atkins outlined three obstacles he believes are holding issuers back. The first is what he described as expensive, overly long disclosures that impose an unnecessary burden on issuers.
The company apologized and issued changes. GoFundMe used to charge a platform fee to cover the costs of running their business. However, in late 2017, the company removed that platform fee and shifted to an optional tipping model. And some 7 On Your Side viewers argue that model can be unfair and misleading. Brenda's nephew has stage 4 pancreatic cancer and has been in the hospital for the past month.
Year-end giving can be a moment of reflection, but for businesses and philanthropy alike, it should also include looking forward and asking the question, what's next? One throughline from this past year is uncertainty. Uncertainty has rewritten how we work, live, and lead. Yet, one thing that still holds true is we share a responsibility to keep systems strong so no one is left behind, especially children.
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Hundreds of law enforcement officers from 23 different agencies coming as far south as Salinas and north to Los Altos descended on a Target store in San Jose on Wednesday, armed with big smiles and goodwill to join nearly 200 elementary school students on a holiday shopping spree. This was Shop With a Cop Foundation of Silicon Valley's 18th annual event, which many officers some wearing Santa hats and reindeer antlers call their favorite day of the year.
Reimagining Philanthropy explores transformative and decolonialized approaches to philanthropy that can shift our sector from traditional top-down models toward more equitable, community-centered practices. In community, we explore how philanthropic organizations can share power authentically, center affected communities in decision-making, and build truly reciprocal relationships. "How can you think about creating civic spaces when those who fight for them are being threatened?" Funding, safety, democracy promotion, and community control in the Global South cannot be understood in isolation from one another.
While standard at-home ovulation tests predict fertile days by tracking estrogen and Luteinizing hormone (LH), they don't measure the hormone that confirms your ovulation, which is progesterone metabolite PdG. Inito allows women to measure estrogen, LH, progesterone (PdG), and FSH on a single test strip. Inito's AI models interpret these levels to reveal fertility hormone patterns, track fertile days, and confirm ovulation.
The company plans to sell Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, known as SATA. The offering allows Strive to issue shares into the market at prevailing prices rather than through a single sale. The structure gives the firm flexibility to raise capital as demand allows. SATA carries a 12% dividend and an effective yield near 13%. The preferred stock is modeled on Strategy's STRC perpetual preferred equity, which has been used as a funding tool for bitcoin accumulation.
PLANBUREAU studio designs a metallic piggy bank made of paper, which can encourage people to save up money and donate from a young age. The project is created for the Hungarian branch of Red Noses International, an organization that supports clown doctors who work with children in hospitals. The group needed a product for their charity shop that could help children learn how to save money and how to donate it.