Non-Profit Sites Win Web Awards
Nine Web sites run by non-profit organizations have been honored as the best in their fields. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a professional association for people who work with new communication technologies, presented the third annual Webby Awards in San Francisco last…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Arts Groups to Receive Internet Training
A national program to provide Internet instruction to non-profit arts organizations is expanding its reach. Open Studio: The Arts Online will provide $25,000 apiece to 10 groups so they can train local artists and arts groups to use the Internet to communicate with one another, attract new people…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Leaders of Black Church Call for Increased Accountability in Wake of Scandal
Church leaders are demanding that one of the nation’s largest black denominations make far-reaching changes in its financial-management practices in the wake of a sex-and-money scandal that led to the criminal conviction and resignation of the group’s president. While leaders of the National…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Many Churches Amenable to Government Grants, Study Finds
Two years after the federal government overhauled its welfare programs, only about one-fourth of the nation’s religious congregations ALSO SEE:Good-Faith Effort Off to Slow StartChurch Group Uses Public Dollars to Support Job-Readiness ProgramReligious Congregations, Social Services, and Government…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Church Group Uses Public Dollars to Support Job-Readiness Program
In the fall of 1996, Daniel E. Perkins was shopping at a grocery store when he spied the cover of U.S. News & World Report, ALSO SEE:Good-Faith Effort Off to Slow StartMany Churches Amenable to Government Grants, Study FindsReligious Congregations, Social Services, and Government Funds which…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Good-Faith Effort Off to Slow Start
Few religious charities seek public funds under new welfare law When Congress voted in 1996 to “end welfare as we know it,” the landmark law included a risky and unprecedented proposition: ALSO SEE:Church Group Uses Public Dollars to Support Job-Readiness ProgramMany Churches Amenable to Government…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Following are summaries of recent reports by the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Philanthropic Advisory Service. The service reports on whether charities meet standards for fund raising, governance, financial management, and public information. The service cautions that it does not approve or…
*U.S. Reps. Philip M. Crane, Republican of Illinois, and Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, have introduced a bill, HR 1311, that would allow people age 59 1/2 and older to donate assets from their individual retirement accounts to a charity without incurring an income-tax liability. Mr.…
Court Says IRS Was Right to Strip Church’s Exemption
A federal judge has ruled that the I.R.S. properly pulled the tax exemption of a New York church after it ran newspaper advertisements opposing Bill Clinton as a 1992 Presidential candidate. Under the law, churches and charities must not participate in political campaigns in behalf of, or in…
By Jennifer Moore
Contributor
A Better Chance (Boston): Appointed Monica Alvarez, senior director of international leadership development at the Young Presidents’ Organization (Dallas), to be director of the business and professional partnership program. She will be based in the New York office of this organization that…
Charity, Foundation Leaders Urge Changes at Tax Agency
Two major coalitions of non-profit organizations have written to the Internal Revenue Service, urging it to spend more on charity regulation, publish much more information to educate charities on important issues, and try to end a “brain drain” of experienced workers who have left the tax agency in…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
IRS Revokes Tax Exemption of Charity With Gingrich Ties
The I.R.S. has revoked the tax exemption of a charity, the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation, that had been caught up in an ethics controversy involving former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In a letter to the group, the revenue service said that the organization, which stopped operations in…
By GRANT WILLIAMS
Contributor
Charities Seek Changes to Proposed Excess-Pay Rules
Charity leaders, lawyers, and accountants have urged a panel of federal tax officials to make significant changes to proposed regulations that explain how a federal law designed to discourage overly generous compensation of non-profit officials will be enforced. The law, which Congress enacted in…
By Jennifer Moore
Contributor
Report on Birth Rates Among Teen-Agers Is Cautiously Optimistic
When Teens Have Sex: Issues and Trends reports that although the rate of pregnancy among teen-agers has fallen 14 per cent since 1990, the United States still leads the industrialized world in birth rates among that age group. This study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, in Baltimore, presents…
By C. Quinn Hanchette
Contributor
Paper Studies Irish Volunteerism’s Role in Welfare
Reflections on “Green Paper on the Community and Voluntary Sector and its Relationship with the State,” by Eoin O’Sullivan, analyzes a recent discussion paper that attempted to define the role of voluntary organizations in shaping welfare policies in the Republic of Ireland. Mr. O’Sullivan, a…
By C. Quinn Hanchette
Contributor
‘Tikkun’: New Money and Philanthropy
Members of the baby-boom generation have the potential to transform philanthropy as they inherit money from their parents and decide how to spend their own money, writes Stephen Goldbart in Tikkun magazine. But, he says, too many of the people who grew up as part of the ‘60s counterculture are so…