The Wyoming Republican Party is a nonprofit that seems to have some trouble filing accurate and timely reports with the Internal Revenue Service. Blame the accountant and the accounting software!

On any given day, one can find scads of articles about the Jerry Sandusky scandal involving Penn State and Second Mile, the at-risk youth charity Sandusky founded in 1977. Some of the articles describe how Sandusky and Second Mile sidestepped nonprofit oversight and accountability.

When nonprofit hospitals are handing out six- and seven-figure bonuses to CEOs who are already making six- and seven-figure salaries, some might ask exactly what makes them nonprofits. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s task force on charity salaries may be asking that exact question.

Bernie Madoff may be in jail, but half-pint imitators are still out and about pitching absurdly far-fetched investment strategies to unsuspecting charitable investors. A $27 million Ponzi scheme preying on individuals, churches, and charities in the District of Columbia has cost a two-centuries-old children’s charity half of its $16 million endowment.

In preparation for a special legislative session in Washington state, the CEO of the United Way and a leader of a faith-based organization make a case for the value of the services they provide along with the ongoing need for state financial support.

Wal-Mart and the Washington, DC government have signed an unenforceable “community benefits agreement,” under which Wal-Mart would build as many as six big box stores in return for making some purported hiring and contracting concessions. One of the purported concessions is a commitment to make $21 million in charitable contributions. Can the District be bought so cheaply, or is this a good deal for DC—or any city, for that matter?

Teach for America has almost iconic status within the federal government, receiving lots of federal money for its programs. But some experts say that the jury is still out on TFA, and TFA’s own data on its performance because of “flaws” in its data-collection system. Is this evidence-based performance that warrants tens of millions in federal grants?

What if supercommittee was under a Pay-for-Performance contract? …like so many nonprofits are? Maybe then it would have gotten its appointed work done. Where is the accountability process for these kinds of high stakes endeavors by our elected officials? 

12,000 feral cats in South LA—what to do?

Some nonprofits have the hang of public policy advocacy. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life counts 212 religious groups in DC that are spending large and growing sums on public policy advocacy.

The IRS is rethinking the concept of nonprofit newspapers. The result is that 501(c)(3) applications have been delayed as the IRS ponders whether newspapers can be anything other than commercial.

Imperious doesn’t even cover it when Pierre Cardin takes a French village for his own from his perch in the former abode of the Marquis De Sade, and calls it philanthropy . . . will he be whipping the servants next?