Charity Helps Rural Women Gain Access to Contraception
Set on the Wisconsin River, Wausau is clean, bright, and friendly, a town of 38,000 souls whose downtown is dotted with bookshops, a florist, an organic grocery store, and a restaurant called the Way Back Cafe. A park sits where the old courthouse used to be. Located about 100 miles from the city…
By Mary E. Medland
Contributor
‘Good’: Promoting Corporate Responsibility
Leaders of nonprofit groups that run businesses to promote their causes offer their advice for success in Good magazine (November/December), which devotes a special section to “the power of business to do good.” Among them are Jessica Flannery, co-founder of Kiva, an organization that enables…
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
‘Portfolio’: Are Rich People Giving Enough?
Are the 50 wealthiest Americans giving enough money, relative to their wealth, to charity? That’s the question the editors of Condé Nast Portfolio magazine attempt to answer in the magazine’s “Generosity Index” (November). To compile its rankings, Portfolio relied on several sources of information,…
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
National-Service CEO Plans to Step Down
By Suzanne PerryDavid Eisner, chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service since 2003, said he plans to step down in mid-November. Mr. Eisner, who was appointed to the post by President Bush, told his board and staff members that he plans to leave after the November 4…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor
IRS Denies Organization’s Application as a Church
The Internal Revenue Service has taken the unusual step of denying a group’s application for tax-exempt status as a church, in part because of concerns about the proposed organization’s lack of governance policies. The IRS issued a letter ruling to the applicants in July, saying the group did not…
By Eric Kelderman
Contributor
Charity Hospitals Report Data in Divergent Ways
While nonprofit hospitals largely agree on what should and shouldn’t count as a “community benefit” when justifying their tax-exempt status, there are large disparities in the way they measure and report that information, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the…
By Eric Kelderman
Contributor
Bits: Webby Awards To Honor Nonprofit Sites
The Webby Awards, which annually honor the best Web sites on the Internet, will accept nominations for the 2009 competition in a variety of categories, including one for nonprofit sites, through December 19. The winners will be announced in June. For more information: Go to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Guide Helps Small Charities Develop Technology Plans
How much technology is enough — and how often does it need to be replaced? Such questions continue to be a challenge for many nonprofit organizations, according to two reports. NPower Seattle and NPower Indiana, two affiliates of the national technology-assistance organization, have developed 12…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Site Offers Information About Social Causes
Change.org, a Web site started 18 months ago to connect donors with charitable causes, has reinvented itself as a network of blogs that discuss social issues. People interested in a specific cause — be it humanitarian relief, homelessness, or social entrepreneurship — can come to the site to read…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
It is 1:30 on a Friday afternoon, and Lorna Khawaja is stuck in traffic on a Chicago freeway. She is on her way to visit a client, a woman who recently lost her husband to pancreatic cancer at the age of 63. Ms. Khawaja, 44, founded and heads No Wooden Nickels, a nonprofit organization in nearby…
By Kimberlee Roth
Contributor
Nonprofit Leaders Urge Next President to Promote Charitable Giving
As charities grapple with the economic crisis, their executives would like to see the next president take steps to promote giving and strengthen the nonprofit work force, according to a study released last week. The survey asked charity executives what a new presidential administration could do to…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Religious groups say election could alter federal-grants effortPresident Bush will soon leave the White House, but his efforts to steer government aid to religious charities — one of his signature policies affecting nonprofit groups — will stay in place in some form. John McCain and Barack Obama…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Tenacity and Warmth Bring Gifts to Hospital
By Brennen JensenAnn Isaly Wolfe has raised more than $400-million for Nationwide Children’s Hospital here, in part because of her tenacity (a local businessman recently gave $5-million to Nationwide following a decade of dogged pursuit by Ms. Wolfe) and warmth (she’s been known to bring pots of…
By BRENNEN JENSEN
Contributor
Donor Driven to Raise Funds to Help Find Diabetes Cure
For more than 20 years, James C. Tyree suffered extreme complications from diabetes, including spending a month in a coma in 1997 following a sharp spike in his blood sugar. His ability to overcome those challenges provided good material for the many speeches the financial executive has made over…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
A Former Grant Maker’s Persistence Benefits a YMCA Chapter
John Pencer should have known what was coming. He and his wife were sitting down for a meeting with Ervie Smith, his colleague on the YMCA of Santa Clara Valley’s Board of Directors. The topic: a donation Ms. Smith hoped he would make to the $19.6-million capital campaign she was leading to rebuild…
By Eric Frazier
Contributor
Passion for Causes Fuels Volunteer’s Third Career
It’s not unusual for lunch with John C. Whitehead to cost upwards of $100,000. That’s because the retired investment banker is likely to ask his dining companions to make a generous contribution to one of the many nonprofit organizations that are close to his heart. During his nearly 40-year tenure…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor