In a Surprise Move, Head of NAACP Announces Resignation
Following the surprise resignation last week of its high-profile president, Kweisi Mfume, the NAACP was preparing to seek a successor even as it coped with an Internal Revenue Service investigation into its activities and worked to strengthen its finances and membership rolls. Mr. Mfume, a former…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Federal Budget Measure Cuts Spending on Many Charity Programs
Congress has passed a $388-billion spending bill for 2005 that would cut a broad array of federal programs that support ALSO SEE:AIDS on the Home FrontFuture of Federal and State Funds for Domestic AIDS Services ‘Pretty Bleak’ charities and the people they serve, including programs in housing,…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Future of Federal and State Funds for Domestic AIDS Services ‘Pretty Bleak’
Many charities are at the mercy of federal budget priorities. For organizations that provide services to ALSO SEE:AIDS on the Home FrontFederal Budget Measure Cuts Spending on Many Charity Programs people with HIV and AIDS those priorities can often be literally a matter of life and death,…
By Alison Stein Wellner
Contributor
Domestic nonprofit groups face increased demand, lean budgetsEarl Pike, executive director of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, was reviewing a grant proposal when he was ALSO SEE:Future of Federal and State Funds for Domestic AIDS Services ‘Pretty Bleak’Federal Budget Measure Cuts Spending…
By Alison Stein Wellner
Contributor
American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science (New York): Appointed James Gurland, assistant director at the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest (Whippany, N.J.), to be associate director for the New York region and director for New Jersey. AACA Museum (Hershey, Pa.): Appointed Chad…
Following are summaries of recent reports by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. This private group reports on whether charities meet standards for fund raising, governance, financial management, and public information. The alliance does not approve or disapprove of charities, and urges potential donors…
People who use their cars in their volunteer work for charities continue to fare poorly in the federal tax code compared with those who use their automobiles for business purposes. Under the law, volunteers may deduct 14 cents a mile for their car costs (or be reimbursed by a charity at that rate…
By Grant Williams
Contributor
Pittsburgh charities pool efforts to hire a personnel managerFor more than a decade, when the Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery had a job opening, ALSO SEE:Online Resources for ManagersHuman Resources From ScratchExperts Offer Advice to Inexperienced Human-Resources Managers the…
By Marilyn Dickey
Senior Editor, Copy
Protecting Civil Rights and American Values
To the Editor: One of the American Civil Liberties Union’s primary missions is “to defend the rights of all Americans.” One of the Ford Foundation’s primary missions is “to strengthen democratic values.” So when the ACLU declines future funds from the Ford Foundation (“Civil-Liberties Group Rejects…
How a Nonprofit Group Sought to Help the Poor
To the Editor: Your October 14 issue highlighted an article in the September-October issue of Foreign Policy by Sebastian Mallaby (Press Clippings) where he asserts that some nongovernmental organizations purporting to represent the poor actually hurt them. His argument is that social and…
The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas. American Indians. Ecotrust (Portland, Ore.) has presented its 2004 Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership to Clarence Alexander, co-founder of the Council of Athabascan…
Rural Red Cross Leader Looks Back on a Productive Tour of Duty
When Mason Hollifield retired for the first time, he was still a young man -- a 42-year-old military veteran who was looking for a new challenge. At the time, he wasn’t sure what that challenge would be, though Mr. Hollifield says he was sure he didn’t want to spend the rest of his working years…
By PETER PANEPENTO
Contributor
Va. Court Rules That Charities Can Be Sued for Serious Errors
Even though Virginia law says charities can’t be sued over routine mistakes by employees or volunteers, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that nonprofit groups can be sued when they are accused of making serious errors resulting from extreme negligence. The court said the legislature intended to…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Charities Aren’t Filling Senior Jobs, Report Says
Many nonprofit groups are not filling senior-manager vacancies, according to a new study conducted by BridgeStar, a nonprofit group in Boston that recruits senior executives and provides other management-consulting services to charities. The survey, which was conducted in September, asked 138…
By Sharnell Bryan
Contributor
‘Town & Country’: Women and Their Philanthropy
As women control a larger and larger share of the nation’s wealth, they are becoming more independent of the fathers, husbands, and male trustees who previously made key decisions about philanthropic giving, says Town & Country magazine (December). To look at the different styles of female donors,…
By M.J. Prest
Senior Editor, Solutions
‘Fortune’: the Walton Family and Their Giving
The philanthropy of America’s richest family -- the widow and four children of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart -- “is a giant just beginning to stir,” according to a profile of the heirs in Fortune magazine (November 15). “What the family does with its great wealth -- think Rockefellers for a…
By Grant Williams
Contributor