News

15 Most Powerful Women in U.S. Philanthropy

140227-Most_Powerful Women_in_philanthropy.png

Seventy-Five North board member Susie Buffett makes the list at no.2. 

Congratulations to our own Susie Buffett for the well-deserved recognition on her work and influence in taking action and leading others to to do the same in charitable and pro-active efforts of giving. An excerpt from the David Callahan article for "Inside Philanthropy";

"2. SUSAN BUFFETT

The low profile daughter of Warren Buffett may not seem like an obvious choice for the number two slot, but hear me out. In essence, Susie Buffett controls not one, but two giant foundations. She's the chair of the secretive Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (named after her late mother), which ranked among the five biggest foundations by giving in 2012, giving out $367 million. She has no real board looking over her shoulder at STBF, and the staff is pretty minimal. (See IP's look inside STBF.) That's a recipe for real power. We'd add that STBF's chief focus—empowering women to control their sexuality, health, and lives—strikes us as among the top areas where philanthropy is likely to effect seismic change in the 21st century. But Susie Buffett also controls a second foundation, her own Sherwood Foundation, which Warren dropped $1 billion on in 2012. Judging by how STBF spends money and how Sherwood has also been spending, Buffett is likely to be focused on putting the new money into play, rather than abiding by anything like normal foundation payout levels. Sherwood also has a wider focus than STBF, meaning that Susie Buffett is going to be influencing a lot of funding areas, given the foundation's expanded assets. My bet is that when we finally get the 2013 financial data, we'll see that the two foundations controlled by Susie Buffett gave away nearly as much money as the Ford Foundation—if not more."

Mixed Income Redevelopment in North Omaha

Part 2 of Meadows' Article for Reuters "Real Estate Review" (Fall 2013)

Proposed site plan for "Highlander" development in North Omaha. (Omaha NE)

Proposed site plan for "Highlander" development in North Omaha. (Omaha NE)

In Volume 41 No 3, (Fall 2012) of the Real Estate Review, Othello Meadows, Executive Director of the Omaha non-profit development corporation, Seventy-Five North, introduced us to a vision for redevelopment in an area of the city that had proved almost immune to the successful accomplishment of such efforts historically. His non- profit, with the assistance of the non-profit Purpose Built Communities of Atlanta, is working to redevelop a 23 acre site of former Omaha Housing Authority housing on Omaha's near north side into a mixed-use, mixed- income community that would attract residents from all socio-economic and demographic groups.

Download the full article here.