IRS Letter on Lobbying Mailed to 275,000 Charities
BY GRANT WILLIAMSCharity Lobbying in the Public Interest, a Washington organization that educates nonprofit organizations about the role that lobbying can play in achieving their goals, has mailed to 275,000 charities a copy of a letter that the Internal Revenue Service wrote last year that spells…
Estate Tax Cut Won’t Hurt Giving, Scholar Says
BY ELIZABETH SCHWINNAs many nonprofit groups mobilize against repeal of the estate tax, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington, argues that eliminating the tax would not hurt charities. Stuart Butler says that even if Congress eliminated the estate tax, giving would not…
New Rules Ease IRA Bequests to Charity
BY ELIZABETH SCHWINNRecent changes to the rules governing individual retirement accounts make it easier for donors to divide their I.R.A. assets between heirs and charity, according to Christopher Hoyt, a law professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. In the past, I.R.A. distributions…
The following awards have been presented for work in management, philanthropy, and volunteerism: Community service. Alice and Leigh Gerdine have received the second Jane and Whitney Harris Saint Louis Community Award for a husband and wife who have improved the St. Louis region with their…
Making Board Meetings More Effective
The Board Meeting Rescue Kit: 20 Ideas for Jumpstarting Your Board Meetings helps chief executives and board chairmen increase the efficiency of trustee meetings. This booklet, from the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, covers meeting procedures before, during, and after board meetings, using…
By Janine E. Guglielmino
Contributor
‘Worth’: Questions of Donor Intent
Wealthy Americans “are increasingly turning to the modern-day equivalent of the pharaohs’ pyramids: the private foundation,” says Worth magazine (April). “Sufficiently endowed, these vessels of immortality get to dispense beneficent memories of the founder long into the future. Over time, however,…
‘Inc.’: the Economy and Venture Philanthropy
The Entrepreneurs’ Foundation, an effort to encourage philanthropy at companies in the start-up stage, is running into some obstacles in its own development, says Inc. magazine (April). The fund was started in 1998 by Gib Myers, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. It has thus far persuaded 73…
California Provides Data on Electronic Drives
By HARVY LIPMANCalifornia’s annual report on commercial solicitors for the first time this year provides information on Internet fund-raising campaigns. The report lists 66 online campaigns, all conducted by Charitableway, an Internet fund-raising company, in San Carlos, Calif., that recently…
By Harvy Lipman
Contributor
Environmental Groups Offered Internet Tools
By NICOLE WALLACEA new organization is building Internet-based tools to help environmental organizations work together to improve their communications efforts. Green Media Toolshed, in Washington, provides its members with a directory of more than 230,000 press contacts in the United States and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Online Option for United Ways
By NICOLE WALLACEA consortium of local United Ways has entered the electronic workplace-giving fray. For the forthcoming fall campaign season, participating United Ways will be able to use the United eWay.org system to work with companies to design customized Web sites that employees can use to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Ecumenical coalition seeks to broaden support, restore faithA half century after its formation and decades removed from its heyday as ALSO SEE:National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA a leading voice of the civil-rights era, one of the United States’ largest religious alliances is…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
IRS Approves Unusual Stock Donation
By ELIZABETH SCHWINNMaking an exception to its usual position, the Internal Revenue Service has told a taxpayer that he may deduct stock he gives to a nonprofit group as a charitable donation even though somebody else retains the right to vote as the shareholder, according to a recent private…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Nonprofit Coalition Takes Stand on Tax Issues
By ELIZABETH SCHWINNAs Congress considers measures to phase out the estate tax, opposition to the plan is mounting among nonprofit groups. Independent Sector, a coalition of charities and grant makers, has spoken out for the first time against repeal of the tax, calling it “a proven incentive for…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Congress Considers Charity Proposals
By ELIZABETH SCHWINNNumerous bills have been introduced in the House and Senate to promote charitable giving. Perhaps most likely to pass this year, charity experts and others say, is a measure that would permit donors over age 59 to donate money from their I.R.A.'s without paying taxes. Lawmakers…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
The following awards have been presented for work in fund raising, grant making, philanthropy, and volunteerism: Corporate community service. The Points of Light Foundation (Washington) has named six companies to receive the 2000 Awards for Excellence in Corporate Community Service for their…
Troubled Pennsylvania Fund Suffers Setback in Civil-Rights Case
By DEBRA E. BLUMA federal appeals court has ruled that the financially troubled Barnes Foundation, in Merion, Pa., must pay the legal expenses for neighboring residents whom the foundation accused of racism in a 1996 civil-rights lawsuit. In a strongly worded opinion, a 2-to-1 majority of the…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor