Human Services

Join me for Episode 84 of the Investing in Impact podcast as I’m joined by Daryn Dodson, Founder of Illumen Capital, dedicated to advancing gender and racial equity in financial markets.

3 minutes read As Muhammad Yunus said recently “The same road will take you to the same destination, if you want to go to a new destination you need to build a new road”.And this certainly applies when it comes to looking at the programmes and initiatives that are the focus of many philanthropic …

Institutions and major market players must take the lead in challenging our reliance on reactionary philanthropy.

On Monday, Trump appeared to freeze millions of dollars in grants for students and schools. Or did he? Two days later, many aren’t sure.

As Los Angeles battled its largest wildfires in history, parts of the southern U.S. faced a very different kind of disaster — record-breaking snowstorms not seen in over 125 years.

In the weeks leading up to the inauguration of the 47th president, Julio López Varona saw fear and uncertainty ripple through the immigrant communities he works with. It was similar to eight years ago—though this time mixed with a sense of weariness. As the 2025 inauguration approached, López Varona, co-chair of campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), a national network of progressive civil rights organizations, says the “chilling effect” of the returning president’s oft-repeated mass deportation threats was palpable among his friends and constituents.
“People don’t want to talk to each other—people want to, to a certain extent, hide,” he says. “People feel cornered, because in many cases, the people that are living in the U.S. are trying to find a way to become citizens or residents and haven’t been able to do that for a long time, are in this weird limbo.”
In fact, much of the nation was in a “weird limbo” as President Donald Trump’s second term approached. He repeatedly promised (threatened?) day-one policy changes so dramatic “your head will spin,” including astronomical tariffs on imported goods and mass deportations. And he didn’t appear to be bluffing: On his inauguration day, Trump signed dozens of executive orders, among other things mounting what’s been called a shock-and-awe campaign on border security and immigration. While he did not announce any tariffs immediately, he did sign an executive order creating an “External Revenue Service” and said that he was still looking at imposing a 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico by Feb. 1. He had earlier denied reports that he’d accept a “pared back” tariff schedule.
While Trump’s threats and initial actions have created uncertainty within several U.S. industries, the construction industry—which relies heavily on both immigrant labor and imported materials—could be doubly hard-hit. Several industry outlets…

What does it mean to say housing is “affordable”? Let’s begin at the beginning.
PHILOSOPHICALLY
At the most basic level, housing is “affordable” if, after you pay for it, you still have enough left over to cover the rest of your basic expenses. Of course this is finicky to measure, because what constitutes “enough for basic expenses” can be a matter of opinion. Also, different households have different kinds of expenses (for example, medical expenses, larger families, or transportation costs based on location).
THE 30 PERCENT RULE
Because the meaning of “enough” varies so much, we have established a proxy—we consider housing to be affordable to the people living there if that household spends no more than 30 percent of its income on it. This rule is not relevant at income extremes—the very rich could obviously spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing and still have plenty left over, while below a certain income threshold no housing expense will leave enough to meet basic necessities. However, though it is arbitrary and doesn’t always tell the whole story, for a fairly wide income band the 30 percent rule lines up decently well.
The rule explains whether a given home is affordable to a given household. But it still doesn’t tell us what is meant when someone says they are “building affordable housing” somewhere (or preserving it, or creating it in existing buildings). In that case, the first question to ask is “affordable to whom?” The next questions are “available to whom?”, “made affordable how?” and “affordable for how long?”
AFFORDABLE TO WHOM?
With no other qualifications, “affordable housing” in the United States typically refers to housing whose cost is affordable to households that make somewhere between 40 and 80 percent of the area median income.
Below 80 percent…

It’s the first time the MCA will be charging a general entry fee since 2000. The move reflects a global trend of museums facing financial pressure.