Advice for Obama

In a recent edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy (11/13/08, p.6), non-profit leaders from a variety of different fields (and with a variety of agendas) offered their advice on what our new President can do to promote and support charities and foundations. Here's a sampling of what they had to say:

• Offer extra tax benefits for gifts to antipoverty charities
• Create a cabinet-level philanthropy position
• Help students pay for college, through Americorps and loan forgiveness programs tied to volunteerism
• Streamline the process that ensures that charitable donations do not flow to terrorist organizations
• Allow non-itemizers to deduct their charitable contributions from their adjusted gross income on their tax returns
• Create a National Institute of Philanthropy, similar to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Require Americorps service for all college students who receive federal financial aid

Do you agree with these ideas? Have any new ones?