$30-Billion Contributed to Churches
American church members contributed nearly $30-billion to 65 Protestant denominations in 2000, according to a new report by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. The 2002 edition of the ALSO SEE:Contributions to U.S. Protestant ChurchesContributions to Canadian Protestant…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Report Gives Companies Tips to Evaluate Projects
A new report offers companies that support community-development projects a way to evaluate whether their involvement makes business sense. The report, published by the Conference Board, a nonprofit research group in New York that is financed by businesses, explains a method for calculating what it…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Donors Increasingly Use Legal Contracts to Stipulate Demands on Charities
More and more donors not only want control over the gifts they make to charity, legal and ALSO SEE:Ties That Bind fund-raising experts say, but they also are demanding that the terms of that control be put in binding, sometimes exhaustive, contracts. The written agreements often contain a host of…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
More donors specify terms for their gifts to charityA $20-million gift to a university for a new student center last year came with a 12-page contract. ALSO SEE:Donors Increasingly Use Legal Contracts to Stipulate Demands on Charities The agreement gave the donors, a New York couple, the right to…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Minnesota Business Mergers Could Chill Gifts, Report Says
A growing number of mergers and acquisitions involving Minnesota businesses ALSO SEE:Pulling the Plug on Charity may pose a threat to the tradition of companies in the state giving generously, according to a new report. The report, based on interviews with 63 business executives and nonprofit…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Court Rules Against Bikeathon Company
A court in Los Angeles has denied an event-planning company’s request to stop two California AIDS groups from organizing what the company described as a copycat fund-raising event. Pallotta TeamWorks had asked the Los Angeles County Superior Court to stop the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
New proposals designed to enlist support of local organizationsUnited Way of America is considering changes aimed at improving its effectiveness, building donor loyalty, and quelling discord over how much control it should have over the roughly 1,400 local United Ways that it serves. The proposed…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Write-Offs: Rulings on a Tax Deduction and on Oversight of Donor-Advised Funds
A donor who swapped a charitable remainder trust for a charitable gift annuity is entitled to a charitable income-tax deduction as long as the present value of the money the donor would have earned from the trust is greater than the present value of the payments the donor will receive from the…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Protestant Donations to Churches Are Rising
Protestants have been donating an increasingly big share of their income to their churches in recent years, according to a new report. An analysis of 29 Protestant denominations shows that in 1999, the latest year for which data are available, church members gave an average of $597, in…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Organizers of California AIDS Ride sue two charities to block a competing fund-raising raceAn event-planning company in Los Angeles that has helped raise millions of dollars for charities that serve people with AIDS is suing two California AIDS groups to stop them from organizing what the company…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor