Giving Circles and Fundraising in the New Philanthropy Environment

Looks at giving circles, groups of like-minded individuals who pool their resources to support charitable causes. Provides lessons learned from leaders of charitable organizations about how to approach and develop a relationship with a giving circle

Growing philanthropy through collaboration: The landscape of giving circles in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Recent efforts to grow philanthropy in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland have focused on increasing the number of donors and size of donations, rather than on developing new methods of giving, despite this latter approach sharing the same objective. This article explores the rise of one such new vehicle - giving circles - defined as groups of individuals who donate money and/or time and have a say in the distribution of these resources. Scholarship on giving circles has largely focused on the United States (US), yet they are found increasingly in other parts of the world. This article focuses on how giving circles in the UK and Ireland are structured and administered; how and why they are formed; their key activities; typical characteristics of members; and why people join. It concludes by noting distinctive characteristics of giving circles in the UK and Ireland and setting out a future programme to further understanding in this area

Time Evolution and the Nature of the Near-Infrared Jets in GRS1915+105

We observed the galactic microquasar GRS1915+105 in the K ($2.2 \mu$m) band on October 16 and 17, 1995 UTC using the COB infrared (IR) imager on the Kitt Peak National Observatory 2.1-m telescope with a 0.2-arcsec/pixel plate scale and under good ($\sim 0.7$-arcsec) seeing conditions. Using a neighboring star in the image frames to determine the point spread function (PSF), we PSF-subtract the images of GRS1915+105. We find no evidence of extended emission such as the apparent near-IR jets seen by Sams et al. (1996) in July, 1995. Simple modelling of the star + jet structure allows us to place an upper limit on any similar emission at that position of $K>16.4$ at the 95% confidence level, as compared to $K=13.9$ as seen by Sams et al. (1996). This lack of extended IR flux during continued hard X-ray flaring activity confirms the hypothesis that the extended IR emission arises from the superluminal radio-emitting jets rather than reprocessing of the X-ray emission on other structures around the compact central object. Given the large apparent velocity of the radio-emitting jets, by the time of our observations the Sams et al. feature would have moved $>1$ arcsec from GRS1915+105, and we can place a limit of $K>17.7$ (95% confidence level) on any infrared emission in this region. We can thus place an upper limit on the radiative timescale of the feature of $\tau < 25$ days, which is consistent with synchrotron jet emission.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; submitted to ApJ Letter

Towards a typology of critical nonprofit studies: A literature review

This review examines scholarship in key nonprofit journals over four decades. Its purpose is to: 1) analyze the extent, nature, and contribution of critical nonprofit scholarship and its trajectory over time, and 2) call on scholars, research institutions, and journals in the field to engage the kinds of insights these increasingly marginalized approaches bring, providing space for them to join, challenge and shape the research conversation. Findings show only 4% of articles published within the period examined adopt critical approaches, with great variability in the ways articles exemplify core tenets of critical scholarship, and a general dampening of critical work over time. This conservatism may result from the rejection of less understood philosophies and methodologies of critical inquiry in favor of more mainstream (positivistic) models of social science. Our primary contribution is to advance a typology explicating the pluralism inherent in critical approaches to nonprofit studies, their strengths and limitations

QPO Frequency - Color Radius Connection in GRS 1915+105: a Possible Turnover supporting AEI predictions

It is widely believed that the low frequency quasi-periodic X-ray oscillations observed in microquasars are correlated to, but do not originate at, the physical radius of the inner edge of the accretion disk. Models relating the QPO frequency and color radius are hindered by observations showing contradicting trend correlations between the microquasars GRO 1655-40, XTE J1550-564 and GRS 1915+105. The first shows a negative correlation and the latter two a positive one. By taking into account relativistic rotation in the accretion disk, the Accretion-Ejection Instability (AEI) model predicts a turnover in the frequency-radius relationship, and has been successfully compared with observations of GRO J1655-40 and GRS 1915+105. We present further evidence supporting the AEI model prediction by using observations of the microquasar GRS 1915+105. By combining a data set including $\theta$-, $\beta$- and $\alpha$-class X-ray light curves, we observe positive, negative and null correlations in the frequency-radius relationship. This is the first time a single source has shown a possible inversion in the QPO frequency-color radius curve predicted by the AEI model