Agency Releases Data on Nonprofit Finances
By GRANT WILLIAMSThe Internal Revenue Service has issued a report tracing the growth of charities from 1996 to 1997. The number of charities in the United States that filed informational tax returns with the government rose from 192,059 in 1996 to 198,957 in 1997, an increase of 3.6 percent. That…
By Grant Williams
Contributor
Charitable Deductions Rise, Says IRS Report
By GRANT WILLIAMSNew statistics released by the Internal Revenue Service show that deductions claimed for charitable contributions rose from $99.2-billion in 1997 to an estimated $109.2-billion in 1998, an increase of 10.1 percent. The jump marks the third straight year that charitable deductions…
By Grant Williams
Contributor
Report on Population Growth and the Environment
People in the Balance: Population and Natural Resources at the Turn of the Millennium, by Robert Engelman, et al., discusses the connections between population growth, environmental degradation, and poverty. Family planning, the authors say, has proved to be a “success story for the environment.”…
By Gwen A. Williamson
Contributor
Survey Measures Minnesota Artists’ Financial, Creative Welfare
6 Questions, 2,430 Answers: The Cost of Culture is a follow-up survey to the McKnight Foundation’s 1996 report Here and Now, which described the state of the arts in Minnesota. This survey, which polled 405 individual dancers, writers, musicians, actors, and visual artists in Minnesota, was…
By Gwen A. Williamson
Contributor
$13-Million Raised in On-the-Job Drives
By NICOLE WALLACECharitableway, a company in San Carlos, Calif., managed 12 electronic on-the-job giving campaigns this fall that brought in a total of more than $13-million for charity. The campaigns -- administered for companies such as Agilent Technologies, the Hewlett-Packard Company, Morgan…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bush Transition Sparks Internet Campaign
By NICOLE WALLACESeveral progressive advocacy groups have launched a coordinated Internet campaign to voice their concerns about the Bush administration. For the first 100 days of the new administration, the TransitionWatch.org Web site and e-mail newsletter will feature news and action alerts from…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Group Seeks to Promote Online Giving
By NICOLE WALLACEA new organization has been created to promote an environment in which contributors feel comfortable making gifts online. It also hopes to help charities use the Internet to strengthen their relationships with donors. As its first order of business, ePhilanthropyFoundation.Org, in…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Federal Agency Fines Prudential Securities $800,000 in New Era Philanthropy Scandal
By DEBRA E. BLUMThe Securities and Exchange Commission has fined Prudential Securities $800,000 for its part in a scandal involving the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy. The fine is in addition to the $18-million that the brokerage company agreed to pay in 1996 to settle lawsuits filed by a…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
White House Proposes Tax Breaks to Spur Giving to the Nation’s Charities
By GRANT WILLIAMSWhile most of the national attention last week focused on the White House’s ALSO SEE: Charity Gets a Seat Near the Oval Office Bush’s Charity Aide: In His Own Words Charitable Giving and Bush’s Tax Proposal plan to help faith-based organizations, President Bush says his…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Bush’s Charity Aide: In His Own Words
John J. DiIulio Jr., President Bush’s new White House adviser on faith-based and community initiatives, is a ALSO SEE:Charity Gets a Seat Near the Oval OfficeWhite House Proposes Tax Breaks to Spur Giving to the Nation’s Charities political-science scholar who has written widely about the role of…
Foundations, Consumers Victimized by Growing “Free Cash Grant” Scam
By DEBRA E. BLUMDisabled and on welfare, Bruce Eckelberry could not resist the magazine advertisement he saw a couple of years ago touting “free cash grants” from foundations across the country. He mailed $19.95 to the company that promised to match him with grant makers that might give him the…
Charity Gets a Seat Near the Oval Office
President Bush’s ambitious charity-tax proposals win praise, but his faith-based plans stir controversyWashington President Bush last week made good on his campaign promise to make ALSO SEE: Bush’s Charity Aide: In His Own Words White House Proposes Tax Breaks to Spur Giving to the Nation’s…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Deductions Denied for Cash Gifts
By GRANT WILLIAMSThe U.S. Tax Court has ruled that the Internal Revenue Service was right to deny deductions for charitable contributions that were claimed by an Ohio man. The court’s main reason: The taxpayer could not prove that he actually made the gifts. Stanley Joseph Jennings took more than…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
House, Senate Pick New Tax Leaders
By GRANT WILLIAMSControl of a key House committee that oversees government regulation of nonprofits has changed hands. Rep. Bill Thomas, a California Republican, has been named the new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Thomas replaces Rep. Bill Archer, a Texas Republican, who…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
IRS Has No Plans to Increase Fees
By GRANT WILLIAMSThe I.R.S. has announced that it will not increase the fees that it charges charities for key rulings and applications this year (Revenue Procedure 2001-8, Internal Revenue Bulletin 2001-1). Tax-exempt organizations seeking private-letter rulings from the government on how to…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
New Site Created on Taxes and the Web
By ELIZABETH SCHWINNConcerned that nonprofit groups might not be taking advantage of their chance to shape tax regulations that will govern their use of the Internet, a nonprofit official has created a Web site to encourage charity leaders to post their views on the topic. The I.R.S. last fall…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor