Human-Rights Advocates Decry Ousting of Aid Charities From Sudan
Sudan’s expulsion this month of 13 international aid groups from Darfur is already putting added strain on the region’s sprawling displacement camps and will have horrific consequences in the weeks to come, aid workers say. The ousted groups — 12 charities and one for-profit relief organization —…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Texas Nonprofit Groups Join Forces to Fight Breast Cancer
The Rose, a Houston charity that helps prevent and treat cancer in low-income women, used to try to do everything. In addition to providing screening, diagnostic, and follow-up procedures, such as mammography, ultrasounds, and bone-density screening, the Rose also attempted to do things for which…
By EMAN QUOTAH
Contributor
Joining Forces in the ‘Back Office’
Small and medium-size charities can be at a disadvantage when it comes to handling financial and personnel issues. Many can only afford to hire a single person to handle a number of specialized tasks, says Stan Birnbaum, president of a collaborative effort known as MACC CommonWealth Services, in…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
For years, Brewster Center Domestic Violence Services and Tucson Centers for Women and Children ran shelters a few miles from each other in the southern Arizona city. Then last spring, the two domestic-abuse charities did something that more and more nonprofit groups are considering in this…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Going Forward by Staying Together
The administrative to-do list Robert A. Kret faced when he became director of the Hunter Museum of American Art was lengthy. The Chattanooga, Tenn., museum didn’t have a computer network. Its accounting and personnel policies were weak. Department heads didn’t receive regular financial reports, and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Economic Woes Bring More Charities Together
The turbulent economy is creating new incentives for charities to cooperate. More organizations are starting to share fund-raising and marketing ideas, while others are considering merging, combining “back offices” to handle administrative duties, or other formal alliances. “Five years ago, if we…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Plan to Lower Charitable-Giving Deduction Loses Steam but Hangs On
Members of Congress have so far not mustered much enthusiasm for President Obama’s proposal to limit tax breaks for charitable gifts to raise money to help revamp the country’s health-care system. But the plan remains on the table — and the charitable world is still measuring how to respond. Two…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor
Layoffs and Other Cutbacks at Charities
Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia) The natural-history museum has adopted salary cuts and imposed a hiring freeze. Staff salaries will be cut by 5 percent. Employees making $30,000 or less will not experience a pay cut. American Ballet Theater (New York) The ballet company is eliminating…
AARP (Washington): Appointed A. Barry Rand, former chief executive officer of Avis Group Holdings (Parsippany, N.J.), to be chief executive officer. American Jewish World Service (New York): Appointed Robert Bank, chief operating officer at Gay Men’s Heath Crisis (New York), to be executive vice…
Muslim Coalition Raises Concerns About FBI Treatment of Islamic Organizations
Several large Islamic groups announced last week that they are considering ending their cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, saying actions by the government agency had undermined their trust. The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections, a coalition in Newark,…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
IRS Considers Taxing Trustees of Funds That Were Victims of Madoff Scam
The Internal Revenue Service may take steps to tax board members of private foundations who placed all or some of their organizations’ assets with Bernard L. Madoff, the investor who ran a $65-billion pyramid scheme, according to Douglas Shulman, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue. Under…
By Grant Williams
Contributor
House Approves Expansion of National Service
The House of Representatives last week adopted a bill to expand the country’s national-service programs and create new funds to help charities duplicate innovative programs and recruit and manage volunteers. The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act, passed by a vote of 321…
By Suzanne Perry
Contributor
Alfred U. (N.Y.): Appointed Amy Jacobson, director of the university’s Women’s Leadership Center, to be director of gift planning. American Chestnut Foundation (Asheville, N.C.): Appointed Bryan Burhans, director of land-management programs at the National Wild Turkey Federation (Edgefield, S.C.),…
The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas: Arts. The Council for the Arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge) has presented the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts to Bill Viola, a video…
Charity Official Delivers Message in Washington
Jeffrey Jordan had his first experience with international development back in the mid-1970s when, as a high-school student in Charlotte, N.C., he helped his church raise money for a water and sanitation project in Haiti. Now, after more than 15 years working for organizations that promote…
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
Voice-Mail Charity Distributes Alerts
Community Voice Mail — a charity in Seattle that provides free voice mail in 46 cities to people who are homeless, fleeing domestic abuse, or otherwise do not have phone service — teamed up with three federal agencies to distribute information about the recent salmonella outbreak and recall of…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor