Nonprofit World Faces Many Dangers
American nonprofit organizations have exhibited enormous resilience in the face of an extraordinary array of financial, competitive, accountability, and legitimacy challenges over the past two decades. But the steps they have taken, while allowing them to survive and even to thrive, pose risks to…
By Lester M. Salamon
Contributor
Convenience of Online Education Attracts Midcareer Students
After Kate Whitteker, a supervisor and trainer at a research-services company, was laid off in 1998, ALSO SEE:Majoring in Philanthropy she decided it was time to create not only her own job, but also her own nonprofit organization. As her ambitions for her nonprofit organization grew, she decided…
By Leah Kerkman
Contributor
Franchise Article Missed an Angle
To the Editor: Your article “Building the Charity Franchise” (November 13) presented a very interesting portrait of the new trend in charity franchising. However, I was disappointed that the reporter did not delve into the issue of why charities, and community-development corporations especially,…
Pew’s Shift to Charity Status Goes Against What Is Best for the Public
The Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the nation’s largest private foundations, will become a charity on January 1. The switch is a bad precedent for foundations, and it could have adverse consequences for other charities and the public at large. The Internal Revenue Service’s decision allowing Pew to…
By PABLO EISENBERG
Contributor
Don’t Focus Solely on Overweight Kids
It was gratifying to see The Chronicle recognize the scourge of childhood obesity on the front page (“Helping Kids Fight Fat,” October 16.) In New York City, where the number of overweight and obese children far exceeds the national average, a recent report indicated that 43 percent of the students…
Charities Should Lead the Way in Equal Compensation
To the Editor: I always find The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s coverage of salary gaps for female executives of charities interesting in light of the fact that many charities have missions related to the full inclusion of all people into society and into decision-making positions, and these same…
Offer Donors More Than a Plea for Gifts
Over the next month, mailboxes across the United States will be bombarded with direct-mail appeals from charities. The letters will come in all shapes and sizes, but most of them will describe an urgent need for more money. Some will point to outside forces like decreased federal funds, bad…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Lobbying and Charities: a QuizLobbying by Charities: Answers to the Quiz
To learn more about what nonprofit officials know about federal laws governing charity advocacy, Jeffrey M. Berry, of Tufts University, and his colleagues gave a random sample of charity leaders the following quiz. The correct answers, plus the percentage of nonprofit executive directors who knew…
House Leader Misuses Charity for Partisan Goals
Tom DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas, and his wife, Christine, have long professed a sincere concern for children. They are foster parents who recently won honors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for leadership in child advocacy, and since the late1980s the DeLay…
By Rick Cohen
Contributor