On Monday, the Wall Street Journal featured an opinion piece by Pablo Eisenberg that took foundations to task for how they support and work with non-profits.  In it, he decried many things in a list of recommendations, but notably the decrease in funding foundations are providing organizations in these troubled economic times.

What stuck out to me was how that is such a good reason for non-profits to have diverse sources of funding.  Too many groups – especially small ones – are either so reliant on a handful of major gifts (including from foundations) or have a full-time staffer dedicated to filling out mountains of foundation grant requests – usually without much success – yet haven’t even thought of an individual giving program. (Read on …)

The New York Times lauds individual donors today calling them “philanthropy’s newest hero.”

“We are deluded by the attention paid to the large contributors in our country,” said Wendy Smith, author of “Give A Little: How Your Small Donations Can Transform the World.”

“Small checks coming through the mail are the bread and butter for most organizations.”