Overview of Giving in Minnesota
Giving in Minnesota, 2003 Editionoffers a detailed analysis of grant making and private giving in Minnesota in 2001. According to the study, corporations, foundations, and individuals contributed more than $4.1-billion to charities, a 1-percent decline from the previous year. The report breaks down…
By Jessica Kronstadt
Contributor
The Estimated Effect of Repealing the Estate Tax
The Estate Tax and Charitable Giving: State-by-State Analysis, by John S. Irons, provides estimates of how much revenue nonprofit organizations would lose if the federal estate tax were repealed. Mr. Irons, senior economic researcher and policy analyst at OMB Watch, an organization in Washington…
By Jessica Kronstadt
Contributor
How Foundations Can Help Prevent Homelessness
Ending Homelessness: the Philanthropic Roledescribes ways that foundations could help bring about an end to homelessness. According to the report, a very small portion of philanthropic dollars is allocated to helping homeless people, and much of that money provides direct, temporary services. The…
By Jessica Kronstadt
Contributor
New CEO Dives Into Big Project to Clean Up World’s Oceans
Andrew Sharpless has always used the beaches of the Outer Banks in North Carolina to mark important occasions in his life. He got married there, goes back on vacations, and recently took his children there in advance of another major transition, one that will force him to wade out a little further…
By Jeffrey Klineman
Contributor
The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas. Arts. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (Washington), the National Endowment for the Arts (Washington), the National Endowment for the Humanities…
S.F. Charities Must Increase Payments to Low-Wage Workers
Voters in San Francisco last week overwhelmingly approved a resolution requiring that employers -- including nonprofit groups -- increase the minimum wage they pay to their workers. The measure raises the lowest hourly wage in the city to $8.50 -- $1.75 higher than the minimum wage in California.…
By Michael Anft
Contributor
New York Groups Could Face Leadership Gap, Study Finds
New York Almost half of all current nonprofit executive directors in New York City anticipate retiring within the next five years, but the vast majority of organizations have no succession plans in place, nor have they taken any steps to train the next generation of leaders, a new study has found.…
By Rebecca Gardyn
Contributor
IRS Criticized Over Review Process
The Internal Revenue Service has abolished a process through which it restored the tax-exempt status it had stripped from two groups tied to Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House. But ending the independent-review process has not stopped speculation that the IRS’s decision to restore…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Web Site Started to Aid Electronic Filing
A coalition of nonprofit groups has started a Web site to provide information to charities that want to file their federal Form 990 informational tax returns online. The site provides news and information from the Internal Revenue Service, state offices that regulate charities, certified public…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
A Chicago settlement house commits to fiscal responsibility -- and wins grantsChicago It’s never easy for a new administrator to take over a financially struggling organization -- and doubly hard if that charity hasn’t kept in touch with its donors. Ivan Medina, executive director of Onward…
By Maura Webber
Contributor
Gay-Rights Group Settles Dispute With State of Georgia
The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay-rights group in New York, has reached an out-of-court settlement with a Georgia state agency, after challenging the employment practices of a Methodist social-service charity that received state money. Under the terms of the settlement, which were…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Secular, Religious Groups Compared in Study
A new study that compares the effectiveness of religious and secular charities has found that nonsectarian job-training groups in Indiana were more successful at helping clients obtain full-time employment and jobs with health benefits than similar organizations that had religious affiliations. The…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Report Says Foundation Employment Has Risen 80 Percent Since 1993
Foundations now employ nearly 18,000 people, an 80-percent rise in foundation employment since 1993, according to a new report by the Foundation Center. The surge in the number of staff members is a direct result of the rise in the number of large foundations, which has grown at an even faster…
By Leah Kerkman
Contributor
Red Cross Bombing Leads Charities in Iraq to Make Changes
Since the suicide car bombing outside the Baghdad headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross last month, several international charities have evacuated their expatriate staff members from the Iraqi capital and suspended some of their humanitarian work. The decision came after…
By Daniel del Castillo
Contributor
Accountability, the presidential race, and globalization are among topics at major nonprofit meetingSan Francisco Concerns about nonprofit accountability colored many of the sessions at a conference here last week that drew more than 800 nonprofit leaders from around the country. “The era of…
By Stephen G. Greene
Contributor
Franchises Can Offer Benefits, but Charity-Enterprise Experts Advise Caution
Nonprofit groups interested in starting a business as a way to provide job training, stimulate a local ALSO SEE:Building the Charity FranchiseCharity’s Ice-Cream Franchise Hits a Rocky Road During its First Year economy, or earn extra revenue are now starting to consider franchises as an attractive…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor