Tips for Turning Reluctant Volunteers Into Eager Fund Raisers
VOLUNTEERISM By Janet Tate The Knoxville-Knox County Animal Center broke ground this month on a new, expanded facility, a $3-million building project that depends, in part, on the efforts of volunteer fund raisers. And yet, though the Tennessee charity’s mission -- caring for homeless pets --…
By Janet Tate
Contributor
Registering an Organization for Nonprofit Status
Q. How do I register my organization for nonprofit status? A. It takes two steps to register a charity: File with the Internal Revenue Service to get your federal income-tax exemption, and register with your state. First you’ll want to spend some time with the 60-page document Publication 557,…
By Alison Stein Wellner
Contributor
Advertising and Marketing Jobs for Nonprofits
Increasingly, nonprofit organizations are looking at the marketing discipline as a path to better communicating with their audience and thus enlisting them in helping them with the mission.
By Alison Stein Wellner
Contributor
Maintaining Fund-Raising Skills While on Family Leave
The best things that you can do while you’re taking an extended absence from working is to keep a toe in by sharpening your skills and volunteering.
By Alison Stein Wellner
Contributor
How Boards Meet the Challenge of Growing Beyond Start-Up Organizations
IN THE TRENCHES By Kimberlee Roth Nobody at the Bensalem Rescue Squad will ever forget the time when the organization had to be resuscitated by the township it serves. Founded in Bensalem, Pa., in 1980 by five volunteers, the nonprofit ambulance squad hired its first three employees three years…
By Kimberlee Roth
Contributor
Draft Report on Foundations Would Simplify Laws
A panel of lawyers advising the Exempt Organizations Committee of the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association is seeking comments on a draft of a proposal to revise federal rules for private foundations. The draft report summarizes some of the “more important differences” in the way the…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Professor Challenges ‘Parsonage Exemption’
A law professor has filed a court motion challenging a longstanding tax law that allows ministers and other religious leaders to receive an income-tax deduction on money they receive from their employers to pay for housing. Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor at the University of Southern…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Health Groups Face ‘Intermediate Sanctions’
The Internal Revenue Service has won its first big test of a 1996 law designed to crack down on people who receive improper financial benefits through their involvement with nonprofit organizations. A Mississippi family and the group of health organizations it oversees are subject to so-called…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
New Leader Sets Sights on Rebuilding Hale House
As Lawrence F. Davenport takes the helm of Hale House this month, the former federal appointee and nonprofit financial manager will look to steer the New York charity out of controversy and back toward its mission: caring for needy infants. Once hailed by its Harlem neighbors and international…
By Michael Anft
Contributor
The Rich Register: A Directory of America’s Wealthiest People 2002 is a reference book listing 4,800 Americans worth at least $25-million. The book, which is used by charity officials who are seeking information on potential donors, lists information on wealthy people arranged alphabetically by…
By Katy Marquardt
Contributor
A New Angle: Arts Development in the Suburbs, by Carolyn Bye, examines the rise of arts activity and development in recent years in metropolitan suburbs, using Minnesota’s Twin Cities as a case study. The report, commissioned by the McKnight Foundation, in Minneapolis, challenges stereotypes about…
By Katy Marquardt
Contributor
Finance Magazines Cover Donor Funds
By Nicole Lewis More wealthy Americans are turning to donor-advised funds to give to charity, say Forbes (June 10) and Money (June). The funds allow people to donate cash, stock, or other assets, claim a tax break, and then recommend how money in the fund should be distributed to charities. After…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
‘Lilith’: Growth of Jewish Women’s Funds
By Nicole Lewis In the last decade, more than a dozen new Jewish women’s foundations have been created to improve the lives of women and girls in the United States and Israel, says Lilith magazine (Spring). Driving their creation is Jewish women’s increasing awareness of their “charity clout” and…
By Grant Williams and Nicole Lewis
‘Washington Monthly’: Car Donations
Although many nonprofit organizations heavily promote them, car-donation programs often benefit everyone but the charities they are intended to help, says The Washington Monthly (June). “Most charities don’t have the resources to run car-donation programs themselves, and instead rely on private…
By Grant Williams
Contributor
Charities Facing Crisis as Board Seats Go Unfilled
Nonprofit groups are facing a “critical shortage” of qualified candidates to serve on their boards of directors, according to a new study that is based in part on interviews with charity, civic, and corporate leaders from across the country. Nearly 1.8 million board seats become available each…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
New study shows that few ads for nonprofit causes get noticed or rememberedNonprofit organizations frequently promote themselves with magazine and newspaper advertisements, ALSO SEE:Ads for Good Causes: What Works? but more often than not they are wasting donations of the space and any money they…
By Elizabeth Greene
Contributor