The Questions Every Charity Manager Should Ask a Job Seeker’s References
JOB MARKET By Alison Stein Wellner All of the résumés have been reviewed, the candidates have been interviewed, and you think you’ve got just the right person to fill that open spot at your charity. So is it time to offer the job? Not before you check your ideal candidate’s references. Reference…
By Alison Stein Wellner
Contributor
Weighing the Best Strategies for Handling Problem Board Members
IN THE TRENCHES By Tom Chalkley At some charities, all it takes is one board member to damage an organization’s ability to operate effectively. Take three examples: The board of a group that lobbies for the elderly elected Mr. M, a retired labor-union activist, to be its chairman. (In this and…
By Tom Chalkley
Contributor
How Charities Prepare Volunteers for Intensely Emotional Work
Charity managers and consultants offer advice to organizations that wish to better prepare their volunteers for emotionally intense assignments.
By HEATHER JOSLYN and Christine Yackel
The following awards have been presented for achievement in fund raising, management, philanthropy, and research: Corporate community service. The Points of Light Foundation (Washington) has named six companies to receive the 2002 Awards for Excellence in Corporate Community Service for their…
IRS Seeks Advice for Online Filing
By Grant Williams The IRS is asking the public to submit comments to help the service develop a system for nonprofit organizations to file their informational tax returns electronically. In a statement (Announcement 2002-27), the IRS lists a series of questions about its filing project. The IRS’s…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
E-Mail Receipts O.K., IRS Tells Charities
By Grant Williams The Internal Revenue Service has confirmed that charities and churches may fulfill a federal requirement by using e-mail messages to provide acknowledgments to donors for certain gifts. The approval from the IRS comes in a new publication that the revenue service says is designed…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
IRS Keeps Watch on Relief Charities
Amid concern over how charities responding to the September 11 terrorist attacks may be spending donations, the Internal Revenue Service has sent a letter to the groups to say it is keeping tabs on them. “In light of the considerable funds contributed for September 11 disaster relief and the…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Veteran Nonprofit Leader Can’t Pass Up Role of a Lifetime
Reynold Levy was planning a simpler life when the offer came to run Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, in New York. Rather than recuperate from the high-stress presidency of the International Rescue Committee, a worldwide refugee-relief group, Mr. Levy, who turns 58 next month, will oversee…
By Elizabeth Greene
Contributor
Bits: Gateway to Donate Computers, Software for Grass-Roots Groups, and a New Foundation
Gateway plans to give nonprofit organizations as many as 4,500 of the computers the company supplied to the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for use during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The application for the donation program will be available online from April 2 to July 31. Before then, charities…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Programs Offer Discounts to Charities
Two new programs provide discounted technology products to nonprofit organizations. CompuMentor, a San Francisco charity that provides technology assistance to other nonprofit groups, has opened an online store on its TechSoup.org Web site. DiscounTech (http://www.techsoup.org/discountech) builds…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
An Introduction to Using Online Service Providers
The eNonprofit: A Guide to ASPs, Internet Services, and Online Software, by Michael Stein and John Kenyon, shows nonprofit organizations how they can benefit from using application service providers, which are companies that provide software tools over the Internet, usually for a monthly…
By Katy Marquardt
Contributor
Testing an Unconventional Community Leadership Program
Crafting a New Design for Civic Leadership evaluates a method of community leadership that the Pew Civic Entrepreneur Initiative put into practice in 10 cities in 1997. Based on the premise that every locality holds an abundance of untapped leadership, the Pew Partnership for Civic Change recruited…
By Katy Marquardt
Contributor
Pay at New York City Groups Rose 3 to 7 Percent Last Year, Report Says
The September 11 terrorist attacks, combined with the recession, slowed the growth in ALSO SEE:Nonprofit Pay: Salary Ranges at Organizations in New York City nonprofit salaries in New York City last year, according to a new survey. Salaries rose an average of 3 to 7 percent, depending on the size…
By Ian Wilhelm
Contributor
Schools and Service Studied in Report
Foundations and governments should increase spending on efforts to involve public-school students in community-service activities, says a new report from the National Commission on Service-Learning. To prepare the report, “Learning In Deed: The Power of Service-Learning for American Schools,”…
Settlement Made in Baptist Case
The Arthur Andersen accounting company has agreed to pay $217-million to settle lawsuits arising from its role as auditor of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, which collapsed in 1999 owing $570-million to more than 11,000 people who had bought securities from the nonprofit group. The settlement…
Minnesota Charities Go to Mat Over Cuts to State-Financed Programs
Minnesota nonprofit groups last month won the latest round of a budget battle that put them head to ALSO SEE:Bracing for Battle head with the state’s flamboyant governor, former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura. Though their effort helped stop a plan that would have caused organizations around the state…
By DAVID WHELAN
Contributor