News

RBF President Stephen Heintz is among nearly 70 foundation leaders asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to require corporations to disclose their political spending. In an interview with NPR, he said that shareholders have a right to know how public companies are using unreported spending to influence elections.

In considering the specific challenges and opportunities facing today’s democracy and democratic engagement in the United States, the Fund has revised the program guidelines for its Democratic Practice–United States portfolio. The revised guidelines recognize that the goal of advancing a vital and inclusive U.S. democracy is both to improve democratic systems and to enable U.S. citizens and residents to leverage these systems to advance social, racial, and economic justice.

The Carbon Tracker Initiative won the award for Innovation in Communicating Sustainability at the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards on May 14, 2014. According to The Guardian, Carbon Tracker's April 2013 report, Unburnable Carbon: Wasted Capital and Stranded Assets, reframed the climate debate by translating climate risk into energy demand and prices.

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) has been awarded a 2014 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting. CPI was recognized for reporter Chris Hamby's three-part series about how some doctors and lawyers worked against coal miners who were sick and dying of black lung disease. Mr. Hamby spent a year uncovering thousands of pages of previously hidden legal documents for the series, "Breathless and Burdened: Dying from Black Lung, Buried by Law and Medicine."

The National Priorities Project has been nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. For 30 years, NPP has been committed to providing clear and transparent information about the United States' federal budget process, making it easier for citizens to oversee and influence how their tax dollars are spent. The unusual nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize recognizes NPP's important role in informing Americans about the nation's war spending.

The Investigative Reporting Workshop has released the trailer to its upcoming series, Years of Living Dangerously, which will air on Showtime in April 2014. The eight-part series examines the impact of climate change around the world, covering it from three angles: how it is affecting people, the politics that surround the issue, and solutions to address the problem.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is pleased to announce the appointment of Keesha Gaskins as director of the Democratic Practice program's U.S. portfolio. Ms. Gaskins is responsible for program development and grantmaking to advance democratic reforms and other strategic efforts to strengthen the vitality of democracy in the United States.

In June 2013, the RBF contracted with M+R Strategic Services to conduct an impact assessment of the Democratic Practice program's money-in-politics grantmaking. The purpose of the impact assessment was to step back after 10 years of grantmaking and  review the money-in-politics portfolio, including related transparency grants.

According to the 2013 CPA-Zicklin Index, released last month, the number of large American companies ranked highest for transparent political disclosure and accountability grew by more than 150 percent since last year. The index is a joint effort between the Center for Political Accountability, a Rockefeller Brothers Fund grantee, and the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research .

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has found new and surprising ways to reach audiences through arts. CIR has partnered with Tides Theatre in San Francisco to adapt investigative news articles and a documentary film into one-act plays. CIR is also collaborating with arts organizations in Berkeley, California to showcase animated shorts based on the news. Another CIR initiative brings spoken-word poet José Vadi onto its staff.