Former Financier Brings Business Skills to Charity Post
For the past eight years, Common Impact, in Cambridge, Mass., has played matchmaker between corporate volunteers and nonprofit groups, with the goal of helping charities improve how they operate. In January, Common Impact hired John McGeehan, a veteran corporate executive, to help improve its own…
By nicole lewis
Contributor
Talking Back to Bill Gates: Do His Grants Matter?
During a recent morning in the Tenleytown neighborhood here, about 700 students at Woodrow Wilson High School meandered into an auditorium to be part of an unusual experiment in philanthropy. Slowly finding their seats, the rowdy students settled down as a short video of the MTV celebrity Sway…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Budget Plan Would Keep Estate Tax at Current Levels
Congress has adopted a budget outline that would permanently keep the estate tax at levels that are already in effect this year. That’s the approach many charities have been seeking, because they say it will help them appeal to donors. President Obama also has endorsed the idea. In 2001, Congress…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Improving the Supply of and Demand for Information in the Nonprofit World
NEW BOOKS The Nonprofit Marketplace: Bridging the Information Gap in Philanthropy, explores ways in which nonprofit groups might communicate better with donors who want to give their money to the charities that are doing the best work. The first section looks at how nonprofit groups can improve…
By Cassie J. Moore
Contributor
Internet’s Reach Changing How Groups, Individuals Take Action
The Internet is transforming the way groups come together and take action, Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, told 1,400 charity technology officials, consultants, and company representatives gathered here at the Nonprofit Technology Conference. “We are living in the middle of the biggest…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Young Nonprofit Workers Encouraged to Embrace New Opportunities
The economic crisis could push some young people to leave the nonprofit world but may present others with new opportunities to advance, said speakers and participants at a conference here last month. “Business as usual is out,” said Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector. “You may have thought…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Tough Economy Offers New Opportunities for Charity-Run Businesses
The tumultuous economy will test the leaders of charity-run businesses in a way they have never been tested before, Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls Jr., authors of Mission, Inc., told participants here at the Social Enterprise Summit last month. At the same time, they said, the downturn offers…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Obama’s Pick for National-Service Chief Described as ‘Fiery’ and ‘Committed’
Ask nonprofit leaders about Maria Eitel, President Obama’s nominee to run the Corporation for National and Community Service, and descriptions like “fiery,” “committed,” and “energetic” tend to be the first words uttered. But while Ms. Eitel has earned a strong reputation in her current job as…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
When President Obama signed into law a sweeping national-service bill last month, few savored it more than Alan Khazei. As head of a nonprofit group he founded in 2007, Be the Change, Mr. Khazei had worked relentlessly for more than a year to help put together a broad coalition to press for the…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor
Recession and the Arts: Act II
One of the nation’s biggest cultural institutions, the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis, announced in March that it was cutting its operating and program expenses, freezing salaries, instituting a mandatory furlough, and eliminating seven jobs that were already vacant. The center’s director, Olga…
By Sue Hoye
Contributor
Dorothy Cullman, Philanthropist
Age at death: 91 Major philanthropic effort: With her husband, Lewis B. Cullman, Dorothy Culluman gave more than $250-million to arts, educational, human-rights, and science organizations in New York. (The couple is shown at right.) How she made her mark: “Dorothy was really a renaissance woman,”…
Human-Rights Expert to Head Global Conflict Group
Louise Arbour first became acquainted with the International Crisis Group by reading its reports on instability in the Balkans, when she worked as chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. A dozen years later, she joins the think tank as its president. Ms. Arbour enters…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Many Charities Avoid Business-Income Tax
Only 40 percent of the nearly 13,200 charities that reported receiving business income not related to their missions wound up paying tax on those earnings for the 2005 tax year, according to new statistics released by the Internal Revenue Service. These charities reported a collective gross income…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
IRS Watches for Abuses in Bad Economy
The Internal Revenue Service is working to help “protect the trust and confidence” in nonprofit organizations during the current economic crisis and will be watching for possible abuses, says Lois G. Lerner, who oversees the IRS office that monitors charities and foundations. “During hard times,…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Estate Tax Causes Congressional Split
The House and Senate have passed budget outlines that differ significantly in how they would apply the estate tax. The House version follows what President Obama has proposed and umbrella groups of nonprofit organizations have embraced: keeping the estate tax at levels that are already in effect…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Nonprofit Lobbyists Protest Restrictions Imposed by Obama Administration
People who hear about President Obama’s efforts to curb the influence of lobbyists on government might conjure up the image of someone like Jack Abramoff, the high-profile lobbyist who was convicted of corruption in 2006. But a “lobbyist” can also be someone fighting for human rights, the…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor