9/11 Disaster Fund Set to Award Grants
The American Red Cross plans to solicit proposals from nonprofit organizations nationwide for a $50-million program to help people affected by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The effort will draw upon funds from the Red Cross’s Liberty Disaster Fund, which was established after the…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
United States Ranks Below the Netherlands and Norway on New Civil-Society Index
The world’s most highly developed voluntary sectors are in the Netherlands and Norway, according to a new index ALSO SEE: Ranking of Countries by Health of Nonprofit Groups that ranks 34 countries according to the scope and influence of their nonprofit institutions and organizations. The United…
By Stephen G. Greene
Contributor
Charity Watchdog Group Unveils Plan to Bring Evaluation Process Online
Next month the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a charity watchdog group, will start using a new online system to collect and evaluate charity data -- a move that the organization hopes will allow it to increase significantly the number of charity reports it issues. The alliance evaluates charities based…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
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
Charities Say Congressional Plans Could Put the Brakes on Car Donations
Washington Nonprofit groups that benefit from car-donation programs are scrambling to preserve what has become a small but steady source of income while responding to Congressional concern that donors are claiming inflated deductions and that charities are getting too little financial benefit.…
By Lauren Kafka
Contributor
Overhauling Oversight of Charities and Foundations: Key Ideas Offered by Senate Aides
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST:Ideas raised by Senate aides: Laws designed to prevent conflicts of interest and “self-dealing” among foundations would also apply to charities. Penalty fees for those found guilty of legal abuses would be increased. Current law: Although charities are covered by provisions to…
Senate panel offers 200 ideas for revising nonprofit regulationWashington In one of the most sweeping Congressional discussions of nonprofit groups in the past two decades, key senators ALSO SEE:Overhauling Oversight of Charities and Foundations: Key Ideas Offered by Senate Aides and nonprofit…
By Brad Wolverton
Contributor
$25-Million Donated to UCLA; Other Gifts
The Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles has received $25-million from Terry S. Semel, chairman and chief executive officer of Yahoo, in Sunnyvale, Calif., and his wife, Jane Bovingdon Semel, founder of ijane inc., a Los Angeles nonprofit production company that…
Ford Foundation’s Antiterrorism Provision Draws Rebuke From Civil-Liberties Group
Note: The article below inaccurately describes the American Civil Liberties Union’s deliberations and actions over restrictions imposed by the Ford Foundation and other grant makers to guarantee that no grant money is used to finance terrorism activities. On July 9, the board of the civil-liberties…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Charities find that donors are willing to give more for the opportunity to honor someone elseNot long after the Sciencenter, in Ithaca, N.Y., completed a $5.6-million capital campaign, Carl A. Batt, a food-science professor at Cornell University, stopped by one of the museum’s new permanent…
By Holly Hall
Contributor