GuideStar recently published an interview it conducted with Amit Sharma, Treasury’s senior advisor to the assistant secretary for terrorist financing, focusing on the topic of charities and antiterrorism. Among Sharma’s responses were the following comments: "… the threat is very real, and it is ongoing." "Designated terrorist groups around...
Charities and Political Campaign Activities – All Saints Episcopal Church
On September 21, 2006, All Saints Episcopal Church declared that it will refuse to comply with an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for possible violation of tax laws prohibiting charitable organizations described under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code from engaging in political campaign activities. The investigation...
Anti-Terrorist Guidelines: Revised Best Practices for Charities
The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a revised version of its Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines: Best Practices for U.S.-based Charities (the "Guidelines") on September 29, 2006. According to the accompanying Treasury press release, this latest version takes into consideration "the comments and suggestions provided by the public to assist...
Starting a Nonprofit: Delays in Processing Federal Tax-Exemption Applications
The Internal Revenue Service recently published a notice "Where is My Exemption Application?" in response to the delay caused by a backlog of exemption applications. The notice details the manner in which applications are processed: The Process: Upon receipt, exemption applications accompanied by the required user fee are initially...
New Nonprofit Law – IRA Charitable Rollover
Taxpayers 70½ years of age and older can make tax-free "qualified charitable distributions" of up to $100,000 annually from their IRAs (including Roth IRAs) in 2006 and 2007. A qualified charitable distribution is any distribution from an IRA directly by the IRA trustee to a public charity (or other...
Internal Controls, Risk & Fraud
The recent CAN Conference featured a program on Internal Controls, Risk & Fraud prepared by Tana Davis of Davis & Dash. The program defined "Internal Control" using the following definition provided by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting: "a process, effected...
Accountability and Integrity for Nonprofits: Nonprofit Law Trends
Here are some highlights from Flo Green’s presentation on Accountability and Integrity for Nonprofits at the recent CAN Conference: The political environment is changing: More accountability. More investigations. More penalties. Public trust is declining: Charities waste a great deal or fair amount of money – 66%. Charities do a...
New Nonprofit Law – Substantiation of Charitable Gifts
All cash gifts must be substantiated for a donor to take a charitable deduction. Substantiation may include a cancelled check or a written communication from the recipient charity showing the name of the charity, the date of the contribution, and the amount of the contribution. This new requirement, part...
Peninsula-Silicon Valley Conference: Raising Money in the Real World – A Nonprofit Law Perspective
I recently returned from participating as a "Curbside Consultant" in the Peninsula-Silicon Vally Conference: Raising Money in the Real World co-sponsored by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (recently created by the merger of the Peninsula Community Foundation and Community Foundation Silicon Valley) and held on...
Google.org – Not a Nonprofit
Google.org, self-referred to as the philanthropic arm of Google, was featured in the September 13, 2006 issue of The New York Times. The interesting aspect of Google.org, which will focus on on several areas including global poverty, energy and the environment, is that the organization has been established as...