Photo-Sharing Site Offers Free Accounts
Flickr, the online photo-sharing Web site, is donating 10,000 free accounts to nonprofit organizations. Charities and public libraries in the United States and Canada can request through TechSoup, a nonprofit technology group in San Francisco, up to five free premium, one-year accounts, which allow…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Charities Given Tips for Synchronizing Data
Getting different software programs to talk to one another is one of the most daunting technology problems that nonprofit organizations face. A new report details different ways to synchronize information across programs without having to import and export data manually, an approach that can be…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Game Offers Players Immigrants’ Perspective
Breakthrough, a human-rights organization in New York, seeks to spark dialogue and raise awareness about U.S. immigration policies with a new video game, ICED — which stands for I Can End Deportation. In the game, which is free to download, players can choose from one of five characters, each from…
By CANDIE JONES
Contributor
Tips for Dismissing a Leader and Managing a Transition
When a charity’s board concludes that it is time to dismiss an executive director, the key to a ALSO SEE:ARTICLE: A Parting of Ways well-managed transition — one that unfolds with a minimum amount of damage to the organization and the individuals involved — is excellent planning and communication,…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
When Millard Fuller, founder and president of Habitat for Humanity International, was ALSO SEE:ARTICLE: Tips for Dismissing a Leader and Managing a Transition fired by the charity’s board in January 2005, the official reason given was that he had been too outspoken about an investigation into…
By Jennifer C. Berkshire
Contributor
Take Action Early to Avoid Getting Trapped in a No-Win Fund-Raising Job
Fund raisers can often avoid getting stuck in a bad job by taking the following steps before accepting an offer, say veteran fund raisers and executive recruiters. ALSO SEE:ARTICLE: Working It Out Among their suggestions: Check out the organizational culture. Beth Gazley thought she had landed the…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Public Confidence in Nonprofit Groups Slides Back, New Survey Finds
Public confidence in charities has slipped since 2006 and only a quarter of Americans say nonprofit groups do a “very good” job of helping people, according to poll results to be released this month. The findings are a setback for the charitable world, which two years ago appeared in the same…
By SUZANNE PERRY
Contributor
The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas: Humanitarianism. The 2008 Charles Bronfman Prize (New York), which honors significant humanitarian efforts, has been presented to Rachel Andres, director of the Solar…
After a Sudden Loss, a Foundation Looks Ahead With a Veteran Leader
When Lisa E. Goldberg, president of the Charles H. Revson Foundation, in New York, suddenly died from a cerebral aneurysm in January 2007, ALSO SEE: ARTICLE: About Julie A. Sandorf, president, Charles H. Revson Foundation the foundation’s trustees knew they had to seek someone special to replace…
By nicole lewis
Contributor
Advice on Making More-Effective Grants
NEW BOOKS Maximizing Foundation Effectiveness: Aligning Program Strategy, Organizational Capacity, Strategic Planning, and Performance Assessment to Achieve Success, by Paul M. Connolly, argues that though grant makers often say they want “a bigger bang for the buck,” not enough groups take the…
By Anne W. Howard
Contributor
‘New York Times Magazine’: Why People Give
Conventional wisdom about why people give is “too pat, too simple — and sometimes just wrong,” writes The New York Times Magazine (March 9). Now new economic research points toward better ways to raise money. The article outlines studies by two economists who, instead of relying on rules of thumb…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
‘Fortune’: the World’s Hottest Charity
Featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in the former president Bill Clinton’s book Giving, and in dozens of prominent articles and broadcast segments, Kiva might be the “hottest nonprofit on the planet,” writes Fortune (March 3). The organization, which connects lenders in the United States and other…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
Big Nonprofit Groups See Borrowing Rates Rise
The mounting turmoil in the nation’s financial markets, traceable to the problematic “subprime” loans given to less-creditworthy homebuyers amid the housing boom, has claimed new victims: hospitals, colleges, and large nonprofit cultural institutions that are now collectively paying millions of…
By BRENNEN JENSEN
Contributor
Tax Agency Examines Charities’ Business Activities
A new study by the Internal Revenue Service shows that much of the money charities earn from business activities comes from selling products, services, and advertising. Charities in 2004 reported that 74 percent of their $5.5-billion in total business income not related to their charitable missions…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
IRS May Redefine Who Is a ‘Key Employee’
The Internal Revenue Service will probably alter its definition of which workers should be counted as key employees on the newly redesigned Form 990 informational tax form, a change that would require many groups to list the salaries of more people than they do now. Ronald J. Schultz, a senior…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
Charitable Deductions Rose in 2005, Report Says
Statistics released by the Internal Revenue Service show that deductions claimed for charitable contributions rose to $183.4-billion in 2005, compared with $165.6-billion in 2004, an increase of nearly 10.8 percent. From 2003 to 2004, deductions claimed for charitable contributions increased by…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor