Phone Billing Option Offered to Encourage Donations
Some 150 charities are now offering donors the chance to give on line though donations that are charged to their telephone bills. The new service is designed to appeal to donors who are leery about giving out their credit-card account numbers over the Internet. Here’s how it works: After a donor…
By Debra E. Blum and Holly Hall
New Shopping Sites Benefit Charities
Charities may soon benefit from the billions of dollars consumers spend making purchases on line. Three new companies -- 4charity.com, Millennium Projects On Line, and Shop2Give -- have each introduced Web sites in recent months that allow users to shop on line and direct a portion of the price of…
By Debra E. Blum and Holly Hall
Salaries at Foundations Outpace Inflation, Study Finds
Median salaries at U.S. foundations grew by 5 per cent this year, outpacing inflation for the third year in a row, according to a new report by the Council on Foundations.
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Help for Charities in Putting Their Tax Forms on the Web
Numerous organizations are working to help charities make their informational tax returns, known as Forms 990, accessible via the Internet. Among them: ALSO SEE:Return of the FutureFor Charities’ Form 990, Final Destination Is an IRS Warehouse in UtahA Sampling of Common Errors on Forms 990 AIDS…
For Charities’ Form 990, Final Destination Is an IRS Warehouse in Utah
Hundreds of thousands of federal informational tax returns line the shelves of the Internal Revenue Service’s warehouse here near the shore of the Great Salt Lake, just south of Ogden. ALSO SEE:Return of the FutureA Sampling of Common Errors on Forms 990Help for Charities in Putting Their Tax Forms…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
A Sampling of Common Errors on Forms 990
More than 600,000 tax-exempt organizations file informational tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service each year. The agency says that it cannot estimate how many of the returns contain mistakes, but that a sampling of the forms found the following errors that could not be resolved without…
Insurance Association Proposes 2 Model Gift-Annuity Laws
A national association has proposed a pair of model laws on gift annuities, including one designed to appeal to states that impose few or no restrictions on the popular planned-giving instruments. ALSO SEE:2 Fund-Raising Groups Denounce Commission Payments to Gift-Annuity AdvisersThe full texts of…
2 Fund-Raising Groups Denounce Commission Payments to Gift-Annuity Advisers
Two influential fund-raising groups have joined forces to discourage a national charity from paying commissions to financial advisers who help donors set up charitable gift annuities. The organizations say the practice is unethical -- and could lead state and federal regulators to impose new rules…
By Holly Hall
Contributor
Celebrity Cards Help Group Ring Up Sales
The Starlight Children’s Foundation has increased its sales of Christmas and Hanukkah cards by asking celebrities to design them. ALSO SEE:Spreading Holiday Cheer Last year the organization, which provides entertainment and other diversions to seriously ill children, netted about $60,000 on the…
Architects Collect Canned Goods by Design
Architects and engineers in 18 cities across the country collected 300,000 pounds of canned goods for food pantries last year through an unusual design competition organized by a charity called Canstruction. ALSO SEE:Spreading Holiday Cheer Using cans of food, either donated by food companies or…