Top 10 Events in 2014

Top 10

2014 was another year full of events affecting the nonprofit sector in the United States.  Nonprofits were at the forefront of movements issuing demands for reform and played a critical role in achieving successes in areas such as marriage equality and immigration.  They also helped to increase awareness of inequalities and injustices that still exist and to highlight areas in which significant progress still needs to be made, including domestic violence, civil rights, and global wealth disparities.  Nonprofit workers showed, and continue to show, tremendous courage and leadership in fighting the tragic Ebola outbreak and in providing assistance to those affected by it.  On the administrative and legislative front, the IRS eased the process of obtaining tax-exemption for many small nonprofits through the introduction of the Form 1023-EZ and the nonprofit landscape was potentially subject to significant changes due to tax reform and the midterm elections—with the full impact of each of these changes on the nonprofit sector remaining to be seen.   Here’s our list of the top ten events that had the largest impact and a sampling of a few links discussing each:

1.  The shooting of Michael Brown, the following protests, and Black Lives Matter

2.  The Ebola outbreak

3.  Ray Rice and increased attention to intimate violence in the NFL

4.  Immigration reform

5.  Midterm elections

6.  IRS released new, streamlined Form 1023-EZ

7.  The Tax Reform Act of 2014

8.  Developments in same-sex marriage laws

9.  The advance of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the CIA Torture Report

10. Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century and increased attention to global wealth inequality