New Watchdog Group Puts Charity Ratings Online
A New Jersey nonprofit organization has entered the charity-rating business, and donors can check out the group’s findings online. Charity Navigator rates nonprofit organizations’ financial health based on both their short-term spending practices and their long-term prospects for success. So far,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: A Technology Conference; and Help Raising Money on the Web
“Thriving as a Dot Org: The Fourth Annual Silicon Valley Conference on Nonprofits and Technology” will be held on May 9 in San Jose, Calif. The meeting is being organized by the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, and CompuMentor, in the Bay Area. For more…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Technology Playing Role in Economic Development
For the most part, local economic-development organizations have the hardware and software they need to do basic administrative tasks, but they are not able to take advantage of more sophisticated information technology in their work, says a new report entitled “The Evolving Role of Information…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
SBC Communications Offers Grant Program
SBC Communications will award grants totaling $25-million through its foundation this year to nonprofit technology projects in the 13 states in which the company provides telecommunications services. The San Antonio company is calling the new effort SBC Excelerator. The SBC Foundation will award…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Charities’ Need for Better High-Tech Tools Was Highlighted by September 11
Orlando, Fla. Technology chores, such as upgrading anti-virus software and backing up computer networks, need to be made easier for charities, a nonprofit consultant told participants at the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network Roundup here. That need became especially clear to charities that…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Local nonprofit groups use radio to spread ideas, preserve culturesChurchton, Md. The signs on the studio’s wall offer the first clue that the radio station here, which serves small towns on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, is unusual. One admonishes on-air personnel to speak directly into the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Software Aids Taxpayers Who Donate Goods
What’s the fair-market value of a pair of gently used Rollerblades? A box of old murder mysteries? Or a men’s three-piece business suit? As the April 15 tax deadline approaches, many Americans who want to claim a deduction for the goods they donated to charity find themselves facing these kinds of…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Web Site Promotes Arab-Jewish Relations
Named for the common ancestor of both Jews and Arabs, the Abraham Fund makes grants to organizations working to improve relations between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. Its latest tool, a new Web site, provides information about the organization’s work in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. “The…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Technology Campaign Raises $94-Million
The United Negro College Fund, in Fairfax, Va., has raised $94-million for its Technology Enhancement Capital Campaign, with cash gifts accounting for $28-million and in-kind donations totaling $66-million. The goal of the campaign is to help the fund’s member institutions, 39 historically black…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Gateway to Donate Computers, Software for Grass-Roots Groups, and a New Foundation
Gateway plans to give nonprofit organizations as many as 4,500 of the computers the company supplied to the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for use during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The application for the donation program will be available online from April 2 to July 31. Before then, charities…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor