Religion and Education Groups Grew the Most
About 40 percent of the nation’s charities -- or more than 300,000 organizations -- gained tax-exempt status in just the past decade, a growth record that is unprecedented in recent American history. In comparison, during the previous 10 years fewer than 170,000 organizations were granted charity…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Financial Outlook for Charities Said to Improve
The financial outlook for nonprofit organizations has improved, says one of the nation’s major credit-rating services. Moody’s Investors Service said the outlook was “cautiously stable” and better than the “mixed” picture it had previously used to describe the situation. In a report issued last…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
IRS Asked to Investigate Charity That Fights Limits on Alcohol, Fatty Food
“No food for you,” the Soup Nazi barks at an overweight restaurant customer at the front of a line of patrons who must be weighed before they are permitted to eat. The character made famous on the Seinfeld television show, played by the actor Larry Thomas, is appearing in a commercial produced by…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Va. Court Rules That Charities Can Be Sued for Serious Errors
Even though Virginia law says charities can’t be sued over routine mistakes by employees or volunteers, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that nonprofit groups can be sued when they are accused of making serious errors resulting from extreme negligence. The court said the legislature intended to…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Telemarketers Kept 66% of Gifts, Study Finds
Slightly more than one-third of the money professional fund-raising companies raised on behalf of Connecticut charities ended up in the hands of the nonprofit groups, according to a report by state officials. That was the highest percentage to go to charities in the 17 years that the state has been…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Nonprofit Group Trims Research Unit
Washington Independent Sector, a coalition of 600 charities and foundations, has announced that it plans to greatly reduce the amount of original research that it conducts and concentrate instead on ensuring that work done by academic and other researchers is distributed throughout the nonprofit…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Harvard to Return $2.5-Million to Donor
Harvard University is returning a $2.5-million gift to its divinity school at the request of the donor, the president of the United Arab Emirates, ending a four-year controversy over whether the university should keep the money. In a statement posted on its Web site last week, the divinity school…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
N.Y. Orders Officers to Repay Loans From Their Charities
New York officials in the past five months ordered officers and directors of numerous charities to repay more than $500,000 in loans they received from the organizations, the state’s top charity regulator told a Senate hearing last month. William Josephson, assistant attorney general-in-charge in…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Nonprofit Hospitals Under Examination in Congress and in Court
Nonprofit hospitals are coming under increasing scrutiny in Congress and in the courts over their performance. Underlying the questioning is whether the hospitals provide sufficient services to warrant their exemption from taxes, and some experts say that additional attention may soon be given to…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Foundation Endowments Grew 17% in 2003, New Study Finds
Foundation endowments grew by 17 percent last year, according to a new study by the Commonfund Institute. The study, ALSO SEE: » Related tables: Foundation Endowments based on data from 272 private, community, and public foundations, said foundations had average losses of 8.7 percent in 2002.…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor