Helen Flannery
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helenofips.bsky.social
Helen Flannery
@helenofips.bsky.social
710 followers 1.3K following 200 posts
Queen of Charts. Researching the relationship between charity and inequality at the US Institute for Policy Studies.
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helenofips.bsky.social
#Handsoff #Poutine
#Vermont ❤️ #Canada
A man in a red baseball cap holds a sign. The sign has two pictures on it. On the left is a picture of poutine, a classic Canadian dish made with French fries, duck gravy, and cheese curds. The poutine has a green checkmark above it and a caption saying "Poutine." On the right is a picture of Vladimir Putin holding a baby. There is a red "X" mark above Putin and a caption saying "NOT Putin."
April 6, 2025 at 3:10 AM
helenofips.bsky.social
Great turnout today in rainy Montpelier, VT
#Handsoff #Vermont #VTPoli #Poutine
One woman is holding two signs. One says "The power of the people is greater than the people in power," and the other one says "Back off chumps." Another woman is taking a picture with her phone. A man in a red baseball cap holds a sign. The sign has two pictures on it. On the left is a picture of poutine, a classic Canadian dish made with French fries, duck gravy, and cheese curds. The poutine has a green checkmark above it and a caption saying "Poutine." On the right is a picture of Vladimir Putin holding a baby. There is a red "X" mark above Putin and a caption saying "NOT Putin." A woman is holding a sign that says "Know your parasites." Under the title of the sign are pictures of ticks, tapeworms, and billionaires (including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk). A picture of the lovely Vermont state capitol building with its newly refurbished gold dome. A huge crowd is in front of the capitol, and most of the people are holding signs or umbrellas.
April 6, 2025 at 3:03 AM
helenofips.bsky.social
Happy New Year from #Vermont
#happynewyear #newyear
A snow-covered field with a hay tedder in the middle of it. Behind the tedder is a row of pussy willow trees covered with frost. A pussy willow tree in the snow with the sun behind it shining through ice crystals on the branches. The Vermont state capitol building in Montpelier, at night, lit up by floodlights. There is a pine tree in front of the capitol covered with rainbow-colored lights and there are also lights on the smaller trees to either side of the building.
January 1, 2025 at 4:13 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
#greensky #dataviz challenge: anyone have any guesses what "crucial data about the clean energy transition" this graph might be trying to show me?

(Graph of the Week 📊 from my local paper)
A line graph titled "Energy analysts keep increasing their forecasts for 2024 solar installations." The graph has seven lines on it, each in a different color. There are no labels on the lines so you cannot tell what the lines represent, and there is no x-axis so you can't be sure what they are graphing.
November 12, 2024 at 4:55 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
Election observers across from my polling place in Vermont this morning #gotv #goats #geese #VT
A picture of a fenced-in yard in rural Vermont. Inside the fence are a shed, four geese, and a goat. The goat is staring at you.
November 5, 2024 at 4:27 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
#BirdSky people: I just downloaded the Merlin app and I really like it. So far there's just one type of local bird it hasn't been able to identify from its call.
A close-up photo of Dora the Explorer, a Rhode Island Red chicken, in profile, standing in the grass. There are two chickens behind her, out of focus. A photo of Mimi Parker Bobbsey, a Barred Rock chicken, standing in the grass and looking straight at the camera. Dressy Bessy, a Black Sex Link chicken, is poking around in the grass behind her.
October 6, 2024 at 10:10 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
Welcome to the world of Fossil Fuel Philanthropy! It's our sparkling new report on the donors pouring hundreds of millions in taxpayer-subsidized dollars into US nonprofits to spread #climate disinformation. 🤝🌎

#GreenSky @ips-dc.bsky.social @climatecriminals.bsky.social
ips-dc.org/report-fossi...
A bar graph showing the amounts donated to U.S. climate disinformation nonprofits from 2020 to 2022, by the top ten private foundations and donor-advised funds that fund them. The top funder is the National Philanthropic Trust, a donor-advised fund sponsor, which donated 242 million to climate disinformation charities over that time. A bar graph showing the amounts received by the top ten U.S. climate disinformation nonprofits from 2020 to 2022. The top recipient is the Seminar Network, which received 446 million over that time.
September 18, 2024 at 1:05 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
We already knew the private jet lobby was using "sustainable aviation fuel" as a marketing ploy (ips-dc.org/report-green...). And now - surprise surprise - it turns out sustainable fuels aren't even sustainable.
August 8, 2024 at 12:56 AM
helenofips.bsky.social
I wonder if it’s an accident that on my copy of this book, the “T” in “CAN’T” is wearing away.
Cover of the Sinclair Lewis novel “It Can’t Happen Here”
July 1, 2024 at 3:09 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
Vu Le on how hyper-localism in philanthropy has become a "barrier to justice and equity"
nonprofitaf.com/2024/05/how-...
[Image description: The earth as seen from space, one half of it seeming to be on fire and disintegrating into embers. Image by TheDigitalArtist on Pixabay]
May 28, 2024 at 12:29 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
This great new report by my colleagues at @ips-dc.bsky.social shows how the private jet industry is using unrealistic claims about Sustainable Aviation Fuel to deflect concerns about emissions. "Any new moves to subsidize private jet travel on a warming planet would be absolutely indefensible."
A bar graph showing the huge shortfall between the aviation industry's targets for Sustainable Aviation Fuel and the reality.
May 15, 2024 at 7:00 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
It can still be amazing with clouds! (Central VT last night)
May 11, 2024 at 5:52 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
Your phone may be able to pick up what your eyes can’t. This is central VT tonight, even with clouds:
May 11, 2024 at 4:14 AM
helenofips.bsky.social
Solar flare = #NorthernLights
Amazing.
May 11, 2024 at 3:45 AM
helenofips.bsky.social
Us too — I’ve never seen anything like it.
May 11, 2024 at 3:41 AM
helenofips.bsky.social
Taking the train from Montpelier VT this morning and came across reading material left by a previous traveller @scalzi.com
April 17, 2024 at 5:58 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
Eclipse + Venus
St. Albans, Vermont
#Eclipse #Eclipse2024 #Vermont
April 9, 2024 at 7:08 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
From my colleagues at @ips-dc.bsky.social: A new report showing that between 2018 and 2022, 35 major U.S. corporations—like Ford, Netflix and Tesla—paid their executives MORE than they paid in federal income taxes.

ips-dc.org/report-corpo...
March 14, 2024 at 1:23 AM
helenofips.bsky.social
A new Ipsos poll shows "surprising cross-partisan consensus" that we need to change philanthropy to benefit charities, not the 1%. In other words: if we can't agree on anything else, we can agree that donor-advised funds need a payout requirement. 🤝 @ips-dc.bsky.social
inequality.org/research/cha...
A bar graph showing the percent of people on different sides of the political spectrum who believe that Congress should raise foundation payout from 5% of assets to 10%, and require that donor-advised funds have a 10% payout to active charities. The bars read: LEFT 81%, MODERATE 68%, and RIGHT 69%.
March 11, 2024 at 1:36 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
Donor-advised funds, or DAFs, are cheaper, more anonymous, and more tax-advantaged than foundations, while still giving their donors power over grants. So at @inequality.bsky.social we wondered: are a lot of US foundations being converted to DAFs?

Our results here: inequality.org/great-divide...
A bar graph with five very tall orange bars on the left and five very short blue bars on the right. It shows that over the past five years, the size of foundations converting to DAFs (on the left) is a whopping eleven times bigger than the typical dissolving foundation (on the right).
February 1, 2024 at 9:36 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
The National Philanthropic Trust just released the latest data on donor-advised funds. DAFs are now taking in *27%* of all individual giving in the U.S.

In a report out today from the Institute for Policy Studies, we explain why this is not great for U.S. charity. 🤝 ips-dc.org/report-true-...
A line graph showing data from 2008 through 2022. One line shows private foundations going from 13% to 14% of all U.S. individual giving. The other line shows donor-advised funds going from 4% to 27% of U.S. individual giving.
November 15, 2023 at 1:56 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
Sadness in the nonprofitsky world: Chuck Feeney was the embodiment of responsible, principled major giving. If only we had more than one or two examples of that today.
Billionaire Chuck Feeney sitting at a table in a small, somewhat cramped, cluttered room. There are children's drawings on the walls behind him, and a pink blanket is draped over the chair he is sitting on.
October 9, 2023 at 9:09 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
"A quarter-trillion dollars sitting in 'charitable' investment accounts is a tragic waste and won’t do a damned thing to fix anything." Nonprofitsky blogger Al Cantor pulls no punches about the parties that have an interest in blocking DAF reform:
www.alancantorconsulting.com/2023/10/the-...
A laughing wealthy philanthropist sits astride a tunnel, watching as bags of money are detoured away from charity and into charitable intermediaries like foundations and donor-advised funds.
October 3, 2023 at 3:56 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
ICYMI nonprofitsky: a great panel discussion on philanthropy yesterday hosted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, with Chuck Collins, Jan Masaoka, & Craig Kennedy, among others. Gratifying to see political left and right united for charity reform. Recording up at:
www.philanthropy.com/events/virtu...
Graphic advertising the webinar "Reshaping the Conversation: How to Rebuild Public Trust in Philanthropy", with a graphic showing two hands putting the pieces of a thought bubble together
September 27, 2023 at 1:42 PM
helenofips.bsky.social
Cross-posting here for nonprofitsky:
This is a great story in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on donor-advised funds as "the bullet trains of philanthropy." It highlights our research showing that DAF sponsors now are 7 of the top 10 charities in the U.S. 😲

www.philanthropy.com/article/a-sh...
A bar graph showing the top 20 public charities receiving the most contributions in 2021. 11 of the top 20 are donor-advised funds.
September 21, 2023 at 1:29 PM