The House of Representatives has approved legislation to extend through the end of 2010 several key tax incentives for charitable donations, including one designed to encourage older people to make donations through their individual retirement accounts.

The bill, HR 4213, will be considered by the Senate when it returns to work the week of June 7.

Both the House and Senate had previously agreed to extend the charitable incentives, which expired at the end of 2009. But the two sides have had differences over how to merge their two versions of the bills and how to pay for the ideas included in the legislation.

The bill passed by the House would allow people age 70 1⁄2 and older to continue giving up to $100,000 a year tax-free from their individual retirement accounts to charity.

The bill would also extend tax provisions to encourage donations of property, food inventory, books to...

A White House event on Thursday will highlight a coalition of more than 20 grant makers that have pledged nearly $5-million over three years to help broaden the impact of the Social Innovation Fund, the new federal grant program for effective nonprofit groups.

The grant makers, which include big foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Atlantic Philanthropies along with venture-philanthropy groups like New Profit and SeaChange Capital Partners, are paying for an effort called "Scaling What Works."

"The economic crisis reveals that even strong nonprofits with compelling evidence of their results struggle for capital," said a statement by Kathleen P. Enright, president of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, or GEO, the group that is operating the new program. She said the grant makers want to support the Social Innovation Fund's goal of helping "result-driven...

The White House has planned an event for Thursday to announce "philanthropic commitments" that have been made to support the Social Innovation Fund, the new federal grants program to help nonprofit groups expand effective social efforts.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Patrick Corvington, chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service, will make the announcement at the First Lady's Garden.

The national-service agency is in the process of selecting 7 to 10 recipients of this year's $50-million in grants that will go to "intermediary" grant makers, which will in turn provide money to innovative nonprofit groups. Both the grant makers and the nonprofit groups must provide equal matching funds.

Thursday's announcement will reveal which grant makers have stepped forward to offer an "initial phase" of matching funds, as well as other "investments in innovative community...

Congressional leaders announced this morning they would unveil new legislation to extend through the end of 2010 various tax incentives for charitable donations, including gifts made by older people from individual retirement accounts.

The bill would also ease rules governing employer contributions to defined-benefit pension plans, a move that would offer relief to charities whose plans have suffered investment losses during the economic downturn.

Those measures will be included in the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, H.R. 4213, a package of wide-ranging proposals in areas including unemployment insurance and health benefits, small-business loan programs, aid to states, tax cuts, Medicare payments, disaster relief, and mine safety.

Both the House and Senate have previously agreed to extend the charitable incentives, but the two sides have been wrangling over how to ...

Americans reported making donations of $52.8-billion in noncash gifts in 2007, a 12.8-percent increase over the previous year, according to a new report from the Internal Revenue Service.

The figure covers gifts from taxpayers who said they made more than $500 worth of noncash gifts in the year.

The number of tax returns showing noncash donations increased by 12.3 percent, from 6.2 million in 2006 to 6.9 million in 2007.

The biggest shares of noncash contributions, said the report, consisted of corporate stock, clothing, land, and household items.

The IRS said the amount of donations of land increased by $1.8-billion, or 80.3 percent, from 2006 to 2007.

"This increase occurred despite the fact that the number of taxpayers donating land decreased 40 percent from 13,000 in 2006 to 7,800 in 2007," the IRS said. "The average land donation for these taxpayers increased from more than $17...

The Humane Society of the United States and Mothers Against Drunk Driving filed an ethics complaint last week charging the American Beverage Institute, a group that represents restaurants, of engaging in illegal lobbying.

The beverage group is led by Richard Berman, a Washington lobbyist who oversees several nonprofit organizations that have attacked charities including the Humane Society and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. (See this Chronicle article on an anti-Humane Society advertising campaign conducted by the Center for Consumer Freedom, which is run by Mr. Berman).

The two charities registered a complaint with the New York State Commission on Public Integrity, saying that the American Beverage Institute violated the state's lobbying law in 2008 when it ran advertisements in The New York Times and New York Post without being registered in New York as a lobbyist. State law requires ...

The Internal Revenue Service has announced a delay until next year in its release of a new Web-based software program that is designed to help nonprofit groups prepare "complete and accurate" applications for charity status.

The delay for the software program, which is called Cyber-Assistant, means that a reduced fee for charity-status applications will not be available until 2011. The IRS said last year that the software program would be ready in 2010.

Currently the tax agency charges a fee of $850 for applications by organizations with annual gross receipts that average more than $10,000 in the four years before they apply or for applications by new groups that anticipate such receipts in their first four years.

Organizations with actual or anticipated annual gross receipts of $10,000 or less are required to pay $400.

The IRS has said that it will offer lower fees to groups that...

The Corporation for National and Community Service board has elected Mark Gearan, president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges since 1999, as its new chairman. Mr. Gearan, a Democrat, formerly served as director of the Peace Corps under President Clinton and held several positions in the Clinton White House.

Mr. Gearan, who has served on the bipartisan board since 2000, will become chairman on June 1, replacing Stephen Goldsmith, a Republican who has been named deputy mayor of New York.

His previous positions include director of federal state relations for Massachusetts and executive director of the Democratic Governors' Association. He was also campaign manager for Al Gore's vice-presidential campaign in the 1992 elections.

The national-service board—which supervises AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and other volunteer programs, along with the new Social Innovation Fund grant program for ...

The Internal Revenue Service has appointed new members to its influential Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities.

The new members of the committe are Karen A. Gries, a certified public accountant in Minneapolis, and Celia Roady, a lawyer in Washington.

In 2008, the committee released a high-profile report on that urged the IRS to be cautious in its stepped-up efforts to promote good governance by charities.

More than 30 nonprofit organizations wrote to President Obama today urging him to ease antiterrorism restrictions that the groups say hinder legitimate charitable giving and aid work abroad.

The organizations -- which include American Jewish World Service, the Charity and Security Network, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council -- reminded Mr. Obama of a statement he made last June in Cairo in which he said that some charitable rules have made giving difficult for American Muslims and that he would work with them to help fulfill their religious obligation to donate.

"While the speech was in the context of U.S. relations with the Muslim world, the problems you cited adversely impact all kinds of charities, humanitarian aid groups, grant makers, and donors," the organizations wrote.

Among the problems they cited: harassment of donors by law-enforcement officials; absence of clear...