In the latest installment of her "Global Diary"series on hope and heroes around the world, Mariane Pearl has profiled Charon Asetoyer, the founder of NCF grantee Native American Community Board. NCF supports NACB's work to improve access to reproductive health services in Indian Health Services facilities, including advocacy around implementation of standardized sexual assault policies.

A new report by the Pushing Prescriptions project of the Center for Public Integrity reveals that the pharmaceutical industry - one of the most powerful lobbying interests in Washington -- spent a record $168 million on Capitol Hill in 2007, representing a 30% increase over 2006. Those dollars appear to have been well spent. Among the industry's successes last year were efforts:

* blocking the importation of inexpensive drugs from other countries;
* protecting pharmaceutical patents both within the United States and abroad; and
* ensuring greater market access for pharmaceutical companies in international free trade agreements.

NCF grantees The National Senior Citizen's Law Center and Center for Medicare Advocacy recently won an important settlement affecting the rights of poor elderly and disabled people across the country. As a result of a national class action litigation brought by these two advocacy groups, the Bush administration has agreed to fix serious coordination problems between government programs that resulted in weeks-long delays for poor elderly and disabled people trying to get essential medications.

The attached New York Times article provides more detail.

As most Americans see their paychecks stretched tighter by rising costs, the huge paychecks and special perks given to the people running publicly traded companies are under closer scrutiny than ever by shareholders. This year, more than 90 "say on pay" resolutions were filed by investors including the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Needmor Fund and the City of New York Pension Fund asking that shareholders be given an opportunity to participate in an advisory vote on executive compensation.

Small tax-exempt organizations whose gross receipts are normally $25,000 or less may be required to electronically submit Form 990-N, also known as the e-Postcard.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation has joined 18 other institutional investors holding 91 million shares of Exxon Mobil stock to publicly press the oil giant to improve its governance practices and take action to address the risks and opportunities associated with climate change. In keeping with its focus on sustainable profits and active ownership, the Foundation co-filed proposal #15 on the Exxon Mobil proxy which asks the company to establish GHG emission reduction goals. This and other climate change proposals filed at Exxon were coordinated by Ceres, an NCF grantee.

Nathan Cummings Foundation is pleased to announce the publication of Visioning Justice and the American Jewish Community a report on the burgeoning field of Jewish social justice.

For the past four years NCF has been the lead funder of the Global Warming Litigation Project headed up by attorney Matt Pawa. Matt managed to bring together eight state Attorneys General (including NY, CA and CT) to sue the largest emitters of global warming pollution. While that case for injunctive relief is pending in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Matt has brought in some interesting new legal talent to sue polluters for damages to the Alaskan village of Kivalina, which is simultaneously being battered by rising seas and sinking into the melting permafrost.

Global climate change is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing our world and future generations. Climate change is associated with direct and indirect emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), primarily through combustion of carbon-based fossil fuels. To address this problem and achieve GHG reductions, The Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) as an associate member.

NCF grantee The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law recently released a new study showing that members of Congress from states with high rates of poverty are less likely to support anti-poverty measures than other members of Congress. The Center's 2007 Poverty Scorecard: Rating Members of Congress assigns letter grades to each member of the United States Senate and House of Representatives according to their voting records on the most important poverty-related issues that came to a vote in 2007, including legislation reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program and bills funding community health centers, head start programs, and low-income energy assistance.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation has revised its guidelines; the new guidelines will be used for grants that begin on or after January 1, 2009. For more details, please consult specific program guideline pages available on the drop-down menu above.

NCF's Board has voted to support Independent Sector's Panel on the Nonprofit Sector's "Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice."

Recent SEC proposals focusing on proxy access and shareholder resolutions have generated plenty of controversy, with the SEC receiving thousands of comments from concerned investors.