Some large accounting firms are selling stock plans to charities Charities have long used car allowances, country-club dues, and other corporate-style perks to attract and retain top executives. But one compensation technique -- the stock-option plan -- has remained out of place in the charity…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Federal Rules Discourage Many Foundations From Making Direct Grants to Labor Unions
Foundations have made few grants to labor unions over the years, partly because giving money to a labor organization involves jumping over a pair of imposing regulatory hurdles. ALSO SEE:Organizing Better Links to Labor‘Unlikely Partners': the Long History of Ties Between Foundations and Unions One…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
‘Unlikely Partners’: the Long History of Ties Between Foundations and Unions
Soon after Richard Magat began work on a history of relations between organized labor and philanthropy, he told a colleague that he hadn’t been able to turn up any research on the subject. ALSO SEE:Organizing Better Links to LaborFederal Rules Discourage Many Foundations From Making Direct Grants…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Organizing Better Links to Labor
Foundations begin to see unions as allies on social-policy fronts After eight years as executive director of the Arca Foundation, a small grant maker in the District of Columbia, Janet Shenk switched hats last summer and went to work for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. as its first-ever liaison to the foundation…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Foundation Investment and Governance Policies Detailed in New Report
Nearly 15 per cent of foundations take special steps to avoid investing in companies that sell tobacco or liquor or otherwise violate the grant makers’ social and ethical standards, according to a survey by the Council on Foundations. ALSO SEE:Related facts & figures The proportion of funds that…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
A Safety Net for Aging Activists
Coalition sets up first pension plan designed for social-justice crusaders Charles Taylor has worked as an organizer for the Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment, in Greenville, S.C., for 18 years, helping low-wage residents assert their economic rights. “This is what I love and want to be doing,”…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Major Marketer of ‘Split-Dollar’ Insurance Amends Several of Its Plan’s Provisions
A California company is making changes in its approach to a controversial giving technique in which charities and wealthy donors divide the proceeds of life-insurance policies purchased with tax-deductible dollars. InsMark, a San Ramon, Cal., company that is among the nation’s most aggressive…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Charity Officials Evaluate Proposal to End Estate Tax
A long-debated proposal that would eliminate the tax deduction for charitable bequests appears to be gaining momentum in Congress, leading some fund raisers to worry about a significant decline in major gifts from the estates of wealthy donors. Nearly 200 House members, almost all of them…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Common Form for Charity Registration Is Now Accepted in 31 States and D.C.
Thirty-one of the 38 states that require charities to register before soliciting donations within their borders now accept a standardized form for that purpose. ALSO SEE:Map: Charity Registration in the States Over the past year, 11 states have agreed to accept the common form, which was introduced…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Report Presents Mixed Picture of Giving by Protestants
Protestant church members are donating slightly more after-tax income to activities that directly benefit their local congregations than in the recent past, a new report says. However, they continue to hold back when it comes to giving money for soup kitchens, overseas missions, and other external…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor