The property tax status of charter schools would seem to be obvious, as they are chartered by public school systems.  But for-profit investors see charter schools as a big business opportunity and that raises questions for local authorities responding to requests for charter school tax exemptions. 

The economy of India is booming.  Charitable giving in India has been nearly as robust, but signs of change are emerging among Indian charitable donors. 

In Illinois, taxpayers can donate to charity through the use of check-off boxes on their tax forms. But it has now come to light that the nearly $1.2 million that was donated this year was “borrowed’ by the state instead of being sent along to the intended recipients.

This is a great model worth replication! On Thursday, June 23rd the Seattle Foundation sponsored “Give Big”, a day of giving to promote community contributions to 1,000 local nonprofits. It put up a half mill as a match and raised $3.5 million.

In this article in the Wall Street Journal, the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar discusses some of his philanthropic investments, all of which have a focus of promoting citizen access to the information they need to participate in community and national decision-making.

WIth the launch of a new online service, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation seeks to help relieve people in communities nationwide of the guesswork in determining the quality of their local doctors and hospitals.

Salon columnist Alex Pareene calls for "nuking" the Aspen Ideas Festival.  Do you agree?

HUD and Paterson, N.J., are duking it out over $3.2 million in homeless shelter funding administered by a nonprofit long ago because of insufficient record-keeing by the group.  Is it warranted or a misguided bean counter exercise? 

Analyst Carl McDonald of Citi Investment Research & Analysis, issued a report earlier this week showing that, nationwide, some 33 nonprofit plans are sitting on almost $29 billion in capital reserves, up $18 billion since 2008.  

There is no doubt that it is harder times than ever for many nonprofits and communities, as budget reductions are occurring at multiple levels, often negatively affecting multiple agencies in a single community.

Though a six-year British experiment with “pay for success” funding mechanisms for social programs has just recently begun, the concept has already taken root quickly in the United States as one, but not the only, strategy for future nonprofit funding.