Pam Fessler

When President Obama first took office in 2009, he had an idea called the Social Innovation Fund.

"We're going to use this fund to find the most promising nonprofits in America," he said when announcing the plan. "We'll examine their data and rigorously evaluate their outcomes. We'll invest ...

The tornado that devastated much of Moore, Okla., has drawn loads of donations from across the country: food, clothing, medical supplies, toys. Much of it is needed by the victims, but not everything.

After every disaster, relief groups usually ask for one thing: money. But writing a check or ...

Poverty has grown everywhere in the U.S. in recent years, but mostly in the suburbs. During the 2000s, it grew twice as fast in suburban areas as in cities, with more than 16 million poor people now living in the nation's suburbs — more than in urban or rural areas.

...

Congress decided last week to ease the effects of the across-the-board federal spending cuts on travelers upset over airport delays. But low-income Americans who rely on government housing aid are still feeling the pain.

Housing authorities across the country have all but stopped issuing rent vouchers as they try to ...

Two years ago, we reported on an ambitious campaign to end homelessness in downtown San Diego, a city with one of the largest homeless populations in the nation. The effort involved an unprecedented coalition of business leaders, community groups and government agencies.

At the time, some advocates for the ...

President Obama has established a new bipartisan commission on election administration, something he promised to do in his Feb. 12 State of the Union address. He signed an executive order Thursday making it official.

The Presidential Commission on Election Administration is being headed by two longtime Washington attorneys, ...

As this year's tax deadline approaches, hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans are relying on free services to help them with their returns.

Tax preparation fees — even a few hundred dollars — can be a burden for those living on the margins. And taxpayers desperate for cash can fall ...

Tony Lithgow and Andrea Mayer have been living under a highway overpass in downtown Baltimore since last year. He's 49 and has been homeless on and off for eight years. She's 51 and has been homeless for 10 years.

Living on the streets has clearly taken a toll on the ...

If aging is not for sissies, that's especially true if you're homeless. You can be on your feet for hours, or forced to sleep in the frigid cold or seriously ill with no place to go. But, increasingly, the nation's homeless population is getting older. By some estimates, more than ...

It happens after every disaster. People want to help, but their donations often turn out to be a burden. Newtown, Conn., for example, was so inundated with gifts, it asked people to s...

Bad weather was making its way across the eastern part of the U.S. on a busy post-Christmas travel day. Hundreds of flights were canceled and roads were treacherous in many East Coast and Midwestern states.

Some charitable organizations that were in the path of Superstorm Sandy were left in as bad shape as their clients. With Thanksgiving around the corner, they wonder how they will feed the storm's victims and the poor.

With the presidential election looking to be very close, the outcome could come down to relatively few votes in a battleground state. That has the political parties, state election of...

Neither President Obama nor Republican Mitt Romney has focused much attention on the poor. They've talked about creating jobs and opportunity, but mostly for the middle class. Advocat...