California Grant Makers Share Information Online
By NICOLE WALLACEHealth foundations in California are using an extranet to share information about their grant making with one another. An extranet is a private Web site that staff members from more than one organization use to share information, whereas an intranet is a Web site restricted to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Insurer to Pay $25-Million to Settle Dispute in Hawaii
By STEPHEN G. GREENEAn insurance company for Hawaii’s wealthiest charity would pay $25-million to settle a long-running legal battle between the attorney general and the charity’s former trustees, FROM THE ARCHIVES:9/17/1989: For Trustees Who Run Hawaii’s Bishop Estate, the Rewards Are Influence,…
By Stephen G. Greene
Contributor
Ways That Groups and Individuals Can Foster Civic and Personal Ties
By JENNIFER MOOREDozens of community foundations are adding a new phrase to describe the work that they do: building social capital. The term, which refers to trying to create a new sense of civic spirit and involvement ALSO SEE:Restoring Americans’ Civic SpiritAmericans’ Social Ties: Trends…
By Jennifer Moore
Contributor
Fund Puts Theories of ‘Bowling Alone’ Author to Work
By JENNIFER MOOREThe Winston-Salem Foundation has taken the lead among grant makers in trying to weave Harvard professor Robert Putnam’s theories into its work. Mr. Putnam, who in June published Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, ALSO SEE:Restoring Americans’ Civic…
By Jennifer Moore
Contributor
Americans’ Social Ties: Trends Affecting Nonprofit Organizations
Growth of Nonprofit Organizations Rise and Fall of American Generosity Volunteering Membership SOURCE: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert Putnam, published by Simon & SchusterChronicle charts by Jasmine Stewart Growth of Nonprofit Organizations
Restoring Americans’ Civic Spirit
‘Bowling Alone’ author sees key role for charities in renewing social tiesRobert Putnam is trying to bring about a grand-scale nonprofit revival in America. ALSO SEE:Americans’ Social Ties: Trends Affecting Nonprofit OrganizationsFund Puts Theories of ‘Bowling Alone’ Author to WorkWays That Groups…
By Jennifer Moore
Contributor
Update on Donor Funds Offered by IRS Handbook
The Internal Revenue Service is providing its agents with new advice on its positions on several key issues, including tax-exempt “donor-advised funds” set up by charities and others. Copies of the I.R.S. publication, Exempt Organizations Continuing Professional Education Text, may be obtained for…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
House Does Not Thwart Veto of Estate-Tax Repeal
The House of Representatives has failed to override President Clinton’s veto of a Republican-backed bill to repeal the federal estate tax and its deduction for charitable bequests. The vote was 274-157. An override would have required a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress. In a…
By Thomas J. Billitteri
Contributor
Congress Takes Up IRA Charity Provision
Congress is considering legislation that has a far-reaching provision long sought by non-profit organizations: Allowing people age 70½ and older to make tax-free withdrawals from individual retirement accounts for donations made directly to charities or through such planned gifts as charitable…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
‘U.S. News’: Students Volunteer for Credit
More and more college students are getting class credit for doing community work, reports U.S. News & World Report (September 11). In 1998, 30 percent of undergraduates took a “service-learning” course that required them to volunteer, according to researchers at the University of California at Los…
By Vikki Kratz
Contributor
‘Trusts & Estates’: Era of Transparency
With new federal disclosure laws and the Internet making it easier than ever for donors, journalists, and others to obtain access to an organization’s tax returns, charities need to become more aware of their public images, says Trusts & Estates magazine (September). “An organization that fails to…
By Vikki Kratz
Contributor
‘Worth’: Americans’ Convenient Volunteerism
Americans may be volunteering in large numbers, but “the kind of volunteering most people prefer to do is, quite understandably, the convenient kind,” writes contributing editor Eric Alterman in Worth magazine (October). “A day at a soup kitchen here, an afternoon at the community center there.” So…
By Vikki Kratz
Contributor
‘Forbes’: Charity Adviser Helps the Stars Give Back
When stars want help giving away their fortunes, they turn to Marc Pollick, head of the Giving Back Fund in Boston, says Forbes magazine (September 18). The Giving Back Fund works like a community foundation, allowing celebrities to set up accounts administered by the fund that can then be used to…
By Vikki Kratz
Contributor
Merger of 2 Watchdog Groups Raises Concern Among Observers
Supporters of the planned merger of two of the biggest organizations that monitor charities believe the move was a natural one. They note that the two groups -- the National Charities Information Bureau and the Philanthropic Advisory Service of the Council of Better Business Bureaus -- have long…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Bits: Data Standards and a Survey on Non-Profit Issues
By NICOLE WALLACE The Open Philanthropy Exchange Forum, a group of technology companies that provide products and services for charities, will meet in Chicago on September 21 to discuss the non-profit data-exchange protocol it introduced this summer (The Chronicle, August 10). The protocol is a set…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
N.Y. Activist Finances Online Lobbying Campaign
By NICOLE WALLACEAn activist in New York has invested $43,000 of her own money -- and countless hours of her time -- in an online lobbying campaign to persuade Congress to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. Irene Weiser, a mediator at a dispute-resolution center, also heads the board of a…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor