News

• Published date: 01 February 2017
• Date: 01 February 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30285

12

FEBRUARY 2017NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

EMPLOYMENT LAW (continued from page 11)

News

timing of being red was further undercut by events

that predated his FMLA leave. He said that the job

performance was suffering long before he requested

FMLA leave, he was referred to remedial training and

he was warned he would be terminated unless his job

performance improved.

Judge Castel granted summary judgment in favor

of the authority.

[Hockenjos v. Metropolitan Transportation Author-

ity, et al., U.S. District Court for the Southern District

of New York, No. 14-cv-1679, 05/18/2016]. ■

Bloomberg pledges $360 million

for tobacco-cessation

Bloomberg Philanthropies has pledged $360

million to support evidence-based policies to curb

tobacco use and increase awareness of the dangers

of tobacco in low- and middle-income countries. The

new round of funding raises Bloomberg’s total giving

on this public health initiative to nearly $1 billion and

builds on 10 years of support for the implementation

of tobacco control laws and policies around the world

through the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco

Use, the organization said. To date, the initiative has

supported 59 countries in passing laws or policies,

reaching nearly 3.5 billion people and saving an esti-

mated 30 million lives.

According to the group, the additional funds will

“enable tobacco control advocates and public health

ofcials to expand and accelerate effective MPOWER

policy strategies to Monitor tobacco use, Protect the

public with smoke-free laws, Offer help to quit smok-

ing, Warn about the dangers of tobacco use through

pack labels and public awareness campaigns, Enforce

advertising bans, and Raise taxes on tobacco.” The

funds will go toward holding the tobacco industry

accountable and deepening efforts on raising the price

of tobacco products, the group said.

Independent Sector

announces layoffs

The Independent Sector has announced it will lay

off about a quarter of its workforce in an effort to

become a more efcient and adaptable organization.

In a letter to its stakeholders, Dan Cardinali, IS CEO,

said the organization would be shedding 11 of its 45

workers, a reduction he said was “personally and

professionally painful but absolutely necessary for

moving our organization forward.”

Cardinali explained the reasoning behind the

downsizing as follows:

“Our board has recognized that we are living

through a moment of adaptive change, and that often

means that difcult decisions need to be made. Inde-

pendent Sector needs to build a community, not an

institution. We need to enable the experts, not always

be the experts. We need to be more strategic and less

structural. We need to connect and catalyze, listen,

and learn. And, like all organizations, we need to be

good stewards of our resources. Our strategy has a

clear destination, but getting there will require an

organization that is more responsive and adaptive. By

making difcult choices now, we gain the exibility

to pursue new opportunities that will be, we believe,

important to the sector we serve.”

Google.org commits $30 million

to spread use of mobile technology

Google.org has announced $30 million in grant fund-

ing to nonprots to bring phones, tablets, hardware and

training to communities that can benet from them

most. The new funding brings its total grant funding

for nonprots in 2016 to more than $100 million.

The funding will support groups and projects that

have requested Chromebooks and other technology

via the educational giving platform DonorsChoose

.org, which will receive a $5 million grant. The funding

will provide more than 150,000 K–12 students across

the United States with critical learning resources, the

company said on its blog.

Google.org will also support nonprots whose pro-

grams ensure that everyone has a chance to participate

equally in society—from people experiencing home-

lessness to individuals disconnected from pathways

out of poverty. For example, in the San Francisco

Bay Area, it will support Abode Services, which will

help more than 1,200 rehoused homeless people re-

ceive laptop computers and related training in order

to provide access to employment, social services and

transportation information. ■