Calif. Passes New Law on Charity Accountability
California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has signed a controversial bill that will change the way many ALSO SEE:The California Law: Key Requirements nonprofit organizations manage their finances and how they seek contributions within the state. The new law takes effect on January 1, 2005. The…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Health-Care Costs Rise Quickly for Many Charities, Study Finds
The cost of providing health benefits to employees has been rising fast for many nonprofit groups, according to a new report by the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Civil Society Studies. More than 60 percent of the 250 organizations in the study said their health-benefit costs had increased…
By Lauren Kafka
Contributor
Tax Agency to Stress Audits of Charities
As part of a stepped-up effort to monitor nonprofit organizations, the Internal Revenue Service plans to develop a statistical approach to determining which groups are most likely to have committed fraud or financial abuses and therefore should be audited, says Martha Sullivan, the head of the tax…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
IRS Gives Approval for New Kind of Gift
The Internal Revenue Service has approved a new type of charitable gift that allows donors to take an immediate tax deduction for the contribution while retaining the ability to oversee how the money is invested in the charity’s behalf. According to the ruling issued by the revenue service, donors…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Charity Efforts to Overhaul Operations Examined
Although most charities agree on the importance of spending time and money on technology upgrades, long-term planning, and other efforts to help an organization run more efficiently, “donors and boards often underestimate the need for capacity building during hard times,” writes Paul Light, a…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Senators Ask for Suggestions to Shape Nonprofit Legislation
With Congressional concern about nonprofit groups deepening, the Senate Finance Committee has asked Independent Sector to assemble a national panel of nonprofit experts to recommend legislative actions to help stamp out abuses at charities and foundations. In a letter that leaders of the Finance…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
United Way Drives Dropped 3.2% in Most Recent Campaign Season
As United Ways start their fall fund-raising campaigns, United Way of America has announced that donations to the ALSO SEE:Donations Reported by 432 United Ways for 2003-4 nation’s 1,350 United Ways declined by 3.2 percent in 2003-4 -- slightly more than the 2-percent drop that the organization…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
Donations Reported by 432 United Ways for 2003-4
United Ways across the country raised $3.59-billion in their 2003-4 campaigns, a decline of 3.2 percent from the previous year after adjusting for inflation. United Ways also raise money through other means; the total revenue of United Ways was $4.05-billion, or 2.8 percent more than the previous…
60,000 Books Donated to Emory U.
Raymond Danowski, a retired art dealer and collector of modern English-language poetry, has donated an estimated 60,000 books to Emory University, in Atlanta. The gift from Mr. Danowski, a former New Yorker who now lives in South Africa, was years in the making. Ronald Schuchard, a literature…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
College Gets $ 37-Million; Other Gifts
Four universities and two other nonprofit organizations have received large gifts: City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College has received three big donations to its capital campaign. William Newman, a 1947 graduate and real-estate executive, and his wife, Anita, gave $25-million for…