Senate Committee Asks IRS for Muslim-Charity Records
Washington As part of an expanding Congressional investigation into alleged ties between charities and terrorist groups, the Senate Finance Committee has asked the Internal Revenue Service to turn over confidential records, including donor names, of 24 Muslim charities and foundations. Some Muslim…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
Americans Say Charities Need Volunteers More Than Money
Half of adult Americans think that volunteering their time is more important than giving money to charity, according to a new survey by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a Minneapolis financial-services organization. Fifty percent of 1,000 respondents to the survey identified volunteer work as more…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
Three New State Reports Show Results of Phone Drives
Three new state reports show that charities that have recently used telemarketers to solicit donations on their behalf have often received less than half the funds raised. In New York, less than one-third of the money raised by professional telemarketing campaigns went to charitable groups, while…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
New Report Finds Nonprofit Groups Are Borrowing Less
Uncertainty about the economy led many nonprofit organizations to borrow less money for capital improvements ALSO SEE: New Nonprofit Bond Ratings By Moody’s Investor Service during the past year, while fallout from the recent economic downturn has increased the possibility that more groups might…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
Public Confidence in Charitable Organizations Continues to Lag, Report Finds
Public confidence in charities, which sank after the September 11 attacks, has been rising but remains below what it was before the terrorist strikes, a new report says. More than a third, or 262, of 770 respondents to an October survey by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, said…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
Study: Charity Fraud Exceeds $1-Billion
High-level charity officials stole or misused at least $1.28-billion from 152 nonprofit organizations during the past seven years, but the organizations recovered less than half that amount while many perpetrators received minor punishment, according to a new study. The study, by Harvard…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
New Method Proposed to Place Value on Gifts
Cincinnati In an effort to help fund raisers determine the value of charitable annuities and other planned gifts more accurately than in the past, the National Committee on Planned Giving proposed new gift-valuation standards at its annual conference here. The recommended standards are intended to…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
Decade of transformation pays off for preservation charityTen years ago the National Trust for Historic Preservation was itself in need of restoration. Chartered by Congress in 1949 to preserve historic buildings, the trust was far better at fixing aging facades than at fund raising. It had never…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
Big charities suffer first drop in donations in 12 yearsFor the first time in a dozen years, contributions to the nation’s largest charities declined in 2002, ALSO SEE:DATABASE: Philanthropy 400 ResultsDoing the Numbers: How the Philanthropy 400 Survey Was CompiledCHARTS: The 400 at a GlanceCancer…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
Cashing Out to Avoid Annuity Risk
Some charities transfer assets to insurers, but others dislike ideaEconomic strains and financial-market uncertainties have prompted a growing number of charities to engage in a controversial, but potentially money-saving, practice: giving insurance companies the millions of dollars donated through…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor