In what may be a semi-coordinated operation, Occupy Wall Street sites around the country are being raided and dismantled, but last night the “mother ship” in Zuccotti Park was cleared by police in a raid that ended in 142 arrests in the park alone and 50 to 60 more on streets nearby.
Getting natural gas from underground rock formations isn’t quite as environmentally friendly as the natural gas industry would have us believe, due to the dangers in the relatively unregulated process of “fracking.” Some 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) groups are serving the interests of their oil and gas contributors and benefactors by promoting natural gas industry interests in freewheeling fracking.
If you were to look at one scandal that acts as a poster child for the nonprofit leader who has lost perspective with the aid of a dozing board, it might be United Way’s Bill Aramony. The scandal occurred almost twenty years ago but lives on the memories of many who themselves spent years having to answer donor concerns.
This story’s relevance to you has to do with the value of board that stays awake enough to pick up on a pattern of misbehavior that extends over many years. How would YOUR board know if something like this were occurring in YOUR organization?
If you wanted a statement on how the Israeli government really feels about democracy you might want look at two bills that are making their way through the legislative system right now – both are tailored to smother human and civil rights by imposing limits on funding.
With the rapid growth of smartphone use in the United States, many are predicting the end of cash and physical credit cards within the next five years, and a surge of mobile wallet services in 2012. How will this transformation from tangible money to digital currency affect fundraising for nonprofits?
To qualify for school vouchers in Indiana, kids need two semesters of public school attendance prior to applying. Vouchers have prompted some public school pupils to move to private (frequently faith-based and nonprofit) K–12 schools, and, oddly, some from private schools to re-enter public schools in order to qualify.
Foundations engaged in “spending down” their corpus rather than managing it to last in perpetuity sometimes finding spending is harder than they think. The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund will close up by the end of 2012, in part by dividing the assets among the foundations of the three Goldman children.
Is President Obama’s announcement of putting some Head Start contracts out for “recompetition” a big step toward performance improvement or simply his taking credit for new Head Start benchmarks that have been required since 2007—before his election?
Let’s look at the charity established by alleged pedophile Jerry Sandusky, former assistant coach of the Penn State football team under the legendary coach Joe Paterno. It now appears that Second Mile clearly knew of charges against Sandusky for inappropriate behavior, but did nothing and maintained a relationship with and payments to Sandusky for years longer. Now it appears that the local judge who freed Sandusky on $100,000 unsecured bail is a volunteer with Second Mile, but that didn’t come out until the press looked at her old law firm bio. Donors and board members are trying to disassociate themselves from Second Mile which may have been as culpable as Penn State in turning a blind eye to the charges against Sandusky.
In the Mishneh Torah, the famous Middle Ages scholar and physician Maimonedes made anonymous giving the second and third of his eight levels of charity, calling it a “mitzvah solely for the sake of Heaven.” The anonymous Maryville Academy donor described in this article has done a great mitzvah even though he’s Jewish and the recipient is a Catholic institution.
There’s a growing body of research indicating that generosity makes people happier, more popular and more likely to live longer. Would it be tacky to appeal directly to this quite selfish reason for giving?