Retired Corporate Lawyer Takes a Leap Into the World of Volunteering
After more than two decades as a financial-services lawyer, I wound down my corporate career in 2006 and happily retired my BlackBerry. For the first time since law school, the demands of a hectic work schedule no longer drowned out two persistent voices long echoing in my head — “Get in shape” and…
By GARY RINDNER
Contributor
Navigating protocol when checking job seekers’ references
Q. When seeking candidates for position openings, is it recommended (or even ethical) to phone prior employers even if references had not been given when the rsum was submitted? The rsum states, “References available upon request,” but the organization has phoned prior employers even before the…
By EMAN QUOTAH
Contributor
Professional Singer Found Her Voice as Leader of a Washington Volunteer Group
Siobhan Canty is comfortable taking risks in life: As a professional musician, she learned how to succeed in a competitive and unpredictable field. “I trained as a classical singer and did it professionally for 10 years,” Ms. Canty says. However, she adds with a laugh, “during that time I had the…
By Michelle Gienow
Contributor
A Hollywood Journeyman Finds a Nonprofit Fund-Raising Career
I am a first generation Cuban-American, born and raised in Miami. My parents came over to the States shortly after Castro took over. When I was young, it was my ambition to break into the movie business. I went to school at Penn State University and graduated there with a bachelor’s in film and…
Fashion Executive Is Well-Suited to Run a Charity
When Richard D. Vorisek worked as a senior vice president at Polo Ralph Lauren, in New York, he spent half an hour deciding what to wear to work, traveled regularly to Asia to develop new markets, and met with the iconic American designer. In his new job as president of Housing Works Thrift Shops,…
By nicole lewis
Contributor
In its annual report on philanthropy, BusinessWeek magazine (November 25) introduces its articles with this headline: “Who’s Still Giving?” With the U.S. economy stuck in a recession since last December, that’s a question many fund raisers are asking. The magazine finds, in its annual ranking of…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
‘Fast Company’: Social Enterprise
The magazine Fast Company (December/January) has named its 10 social enterprises of the year. Among the groups that received honors from the magazine: an organization that uses the medical-residency model to prepare teachers for inner-city Chicago schools, a charity that develops drugs to treat…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
‘Harvard Business Review’: Results Matter
To achieve real results, nonprofit organizations need to manage their operations with a set of focused, concrete, and realizable goals in mind, rather than a broad mission statement, argue the authors of an article in the December issue of the Harvard Business Review. But, they write, a variety of…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Ruling Could Make It Harder for IRS to Audit Religious Groups
In the latest skirmish over how much authority the government has in regulating houses of worship, a federal court in Minnesota may have given religious institutions across the nation a new defense against potential audits by the Internal Revenue Service. United States Magistrate Judge Jeffrey J.…
By Eric Kelderman
Contributor
Tax Agency Releases Data on Nonprofit Groups
The number of charitable organizations that filed federal informational tax returns rose from 276,199 in 2004 to 286,615 in 2005, an increase of 3.8 percent, according to a newly released report from the Internal Revenue Service. The returns include information about charity finances, activities,…
By Eric Kelderman
Contributor
IRS Discloses 2009 Plans for Nonprofit Review
The Internal Revenue Service has announced its plans to monitor tax-exempt organizations in 2009, including a comprehensive study of fund raising and spending by charitable organizations and a broad effort to educate the agency’s staff members on governance issues. Lois G. Lerner, director of the…
By Eric Kelderman
Contributor
Economy Has Harmed Finances of Many Charities
More than half of the charities in a new national survey say the country’s economic woes have led to cuts in the money they receive from private and government sources, and a quarter of those surveyed report that they have already obtained a line of credit to keep up with expenses. The survey…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Contest Seeks Wireless Fixes for Social Problems
The Vodafone Americas Foundation is sponsoring a competition that will award a total of $600,000 for projects that use wireless technology to help solve critical social problems. Winners of the Wireless Innovation Challenge will receive awards of $100,000, $200,000, and $300,000, to be paid over…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Social-Network Hours Benefit Youths, Report Says
The time that teenagers spend socializing online is actually helping them develop important skills they will need as adults, according to a new report published by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago. “There are myths about kids spending time online — that it is dangerous…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Head Start Preschoolers Get Computer Workstations
Computer learning can be an energetic process at the Edward C. Mazique Parent Child Center, in Washington. A little girl in the center’s Early Head Start program stands at a computer workstation to play a game that lets her put different shapes together to build her own robot. Several classmates…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Charity Leaders See Broad Impact From Ruling on Muslim Charity
The conviction last month of a Muslim charity on federal charges of money laundering, tax fraud, and supporting terrorism has left some nonprofit officials and lawyers worried that many international groups, not just Islamic organizations, will have a harder time raising money and doing their work.…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor