I have the great pleasure of speaking with Syvia Strobel (ACM) and Deborah Vinsel (Thurston Community Television) at the 2013 Alliance for Community Media National Conference on Wednesday, May 29. Our session description follows:: Nuts and Bolts of Nonprofits and Their People Nonprofit organizations provide critical services, but often do...
2013 Annual Private Foundation National Conference – Day Two
Highlights from the morning sessions of Day Two of the 2013 Private Foundation National Conference in Seattle below. BREAKING NEWS: Greg Colvin's Committee housed within Public Citizen drafted a proposal on clarifying IRS rules on political intervention. See Bright Lines Project (just published yesterday). Direct Charitable Activities –...
Nonprofit Tweets of the Week – May 24, 2013
This week's selection of nonprofit tweets is coming from Seattle, where I'm attending the Fourth Annual Private Foundation National Conference. Have a listen to local group The Postal Service perform Such Great Heights while perusing the list: Nonprofit Quarterly: Congress stumbles toward a sharper understanding of what happened...
2013 Annual Private Foundation National Conference – Day One
I'm in beautiful Seattle for the Fourth Annual Private Foundation National Conference. Day One highlights below: Primer on private foundations - Jody Blazek Motivation for starting a private foundation must be charitable Special rules and excise taxes apply to private foundations (n/a to public charities) Self-dealing penalties cannot be...
All Eyes on Delaware’s Public Benefit Corporation Legislation
Last month, with great fanfare, Delaware’s governor Jack Markell introduced legislation providing for the creation of public benefit corporations. Enjoying broad, bipartisan support, the new law is expected to be quickly approved and put into effect as early as August 1, 2013. That Delaware has decided to legislatively...
Nonprofit Tweets of the Week – May 17, 2013
Quite the week for the IRS. Have a listen to Radiohead's Electioneering while perusing this week's serving of tweets: Rick Hasen: WaPo learned 5 things from the IRS report: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/five-takeaways-from-the-irs-report/2013/05/15/5d3d0802-bd73-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_blog.html … NPR learned 10 http://n.pr/17wiBJi Nonprofit Quarterly: The IRS scandal should be a wake-up call for all that...
Treasury Inspector General Report on IRS “Scandal”
On May 14, 2013, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released its report on the IRS targeting of conservative groups in reviewing applications for exemption under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. The report, Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exemption Applications for Review, and problems will...
IRS/EO apologizes for improperly targeting conservative groups
Earlier today, Lois Lerner, the director of the Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations division, apologized for the acts of its employees in singling out the exemption applications of Tea Party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny. The IRS added in a statement that such mistakes "were in no way...
Nonprofit Tweets of the Week – May 10, 2013
I'll be on Nonprofit Radio today at 10:30 am PT / 1:30 pm ET talking with Tony about Dan Pallotta's viral video on TED, The way we think about charity is dead wrong. You can catch us live or on iTunes. Listen to Depeche Mode's Wrong as you...
Socially Responsible Businesses Get a Boost from Local Governments
In the past year, San Francisco and Philadelphia have taken an exciting lead in encouraging socially responsible businesses by offering them financial incentives. In April 2012, San Francisco passed an ordinance granting California Benefit Corporations a bidding preference on city contracts. During each stage of the proposal selection...