State and Local Funding Crunch: Crisis or Creativity Driver?

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, but it’s not real pretty out there. Some state and local governments are faced with frightening shortfalls in federal funding if budget hawks have their way in the next several weeks, which…
Read more ›*Update* Follow the Bouncing Budget

Budget figures for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 continue to be a rapidly moving target.
Read more ›Should Grant Programs Become "Pay-For-Performance?"

Yesterday’s New York Times included a provocative article by David Leonhardt, and we wanted to hear what you think about it. Leonhardt claims that policymakers don’t really know which programs work and which ones don’t, “because rigorous evaluation is rare in…
Read more ›The Truth Behind the Three-Day Rule

So you just drew down federal funds for your grant program. Okay, now the clock is ticking to disburse those funds within three days to meet the “three-day rule.” Or is it? As it turns out, there is no specific…
Read more ›Will Rural Pols Cheer or Jeer $12M in Hospital IT Grants?

Before, during and since his State of the Union address last month, President Obama has been emphasizing infrastructure investments as a high priority for his administration. That priority folds neatly into Obama’s recent focus on innovation as a differentiator for…
Read more ›High-Speed Rail: Express to the Future or the Third Rail?

Despite a looming showdown over spending and budgets, the Obama administration demonstrated just how committed it is to a national high-speed rail network today. Vice President Joe Biden announced a six-year, $53 billion plan to help reach the goal President…
Read more ›How can small organizations engage potential donors?

The other day, I retweeted the following bit from Michael Chatman (@michaelchatman): “Most fundraising problems are not fundraising problems at all. They are org dev probs that poison fundraising success”
Read more ›Education Fares Better than Others in Proposed Budget Cuts

(This post was written by Charles Edwards, Thompson’s senior executive director for education products.) Taking the first official steps toward their promise of cutting spending for the current fiscal year, House Republican budget leaders released their official 2011 budget guidance…
Read more ›House Budget Committee Settles on $32 Billion in FY 11 Cuts

The debate over spending levels for the rest of the current fiscal year ratcheted up a notch today. According to its website, the House Budget Committee will set the spending cap for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 at $1.055…
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