Philanthropy’s top political story of 2009? If this blog is any indication, then the new White House Office of Social Innovation dominated the nonprofit world’s political chatter this year.

Even though Sonal Shah was thought to be a shoe-in to lead the fund months before her selection was confirmed by the Obama administration in April, an article about her appointment got more attention than any other article on The Chronicle‘s Government and Politics blog.

A January article discussing speculation about the then-amorphous office, which is devoted to identifying and supporting innovative nonprofit groups, and a July article in which the Obama administration finally revealed some details about when the Office of Social Innovation might provide grants were the second- and third-most popular posts.

An article discussing the National Council of Nonprofits’s examination of how the ...

The number of charitable organizations that filed federal informational tax returns rose from 286,615 in 2005 to 301,214 in 2006, an increase of 5.1 percent, according to a newly released report from the Internal Revenue Service.

The tax returns — the Form 990 and the Form 990-EZ — include information about charity finances, activities, and compensation of top officials.

Charities reported $1.37-trillion in revenue, 9.4 percent more than the $1.25-trillion in 2005.

The charitable groups held nearly $2.55-trillion in assets, an increase of 13.7-percent compared with 2005, while their liabilities increased by 12.2-percent, to $932-billion.

The figures do not include charitable organizations that did not have to file the Form 990 or Form 990-EZ, including most churches and certain religious organizations, as well as most organizations with gross annual receipts totaling less than $...

The Internal Revenue Service has released a “compliance guide” for charities that discusses the activities that could jeopardize an organization’s tax-exempt status.

The publication also identifies “general compliance requirements on record-keeping, reporting, and disclosure” for charitable organizations.

Among many topics discussed in the guidebook:

• Federal informational tax returns or notices that must be filed by charities.

• “Record-keeping: why, what, when.”

• “Governance considerations.”

• “Changes to be reported to the IRS.”

• “Required public disclosures.”

• “Resources for public charities.”

The Internal Revenue Service has announced its annual changes affecting charitable deductions when charities provide low-cost premiums to contributors in fund-raising campaigns.

The IRS announcement updates the rules on deductions for 2010 to account for inflation.

Federal law allows donors to take charitable deductions only for the portions of their contributions that are outright gifts. Donors must subtract the value of any item they receive in return for their gift, not including token items of nominal value.

The IRS said that a charity could tell a donor that gifts are fully deductible if:

• The donor gave $48 or more and received a premium worth $9.60 or less. In 2009 those figures were $47.50 and $9.50.

• The donor received premiums that had a fair-market value equal to no more than 2 percent of the amount of the contribution, or $96, whichever was less. In 2009 the ...

The Corporation for National and Community Service today released a long-awaited draft notice spelling out how it will award grants under the $50-million Social Innovation Fund.

The “Notice of Funds Available” — which was delayed by slow Congressional action to approve the agency’s budget — says the corporation plans to award approximately five to seven grants of $5-million to $10-million during the 2010 fiscal year, which ends September 30.

The money, which will be awarded for periods of up to five years, will go to “intermediary grant-making organizations” that will in turn award grants of at least $100,000 annually to promising nonprofit groups. Both the intermediary organizations and the nonprofit groups must provide matching funds.

The draft notice, which will be finalized after a comment period that ends January 15, also offers a definition of “social innovation” and...

The House of Representatives passed a $154-billion jobs bill on Wednesday that includes $200-million in fresh money for AmeriCorps, the national-service program.

The money, provided in the Jobs for Main Street Act, H.R. 2847, would allow AmeriCorps to add 25,000 members as part of a broader effort to tackle the country’s high unemployment rate by creating and saving public-service jobs.

“AmeriCorps members conduct vital services for nonprofits and communities including financial counseling, disaster response, housing support, and after-school programs,” says an explanatory note about the legislation.

The jobs bill would also pay for public-works projects; help states hire teachers, police officers, and firefighters; and extend federal unemployment benefits and other safety-net measures. About half of the money, including the AmeriCorps allocation, would come from a federal fund...

Several wealthy people today added their voices to a campaign to get Congress to extend and strengthen the estate tax, calling it a key incentive for people to leave money to charity.

“The federal estate tax encourages individuals and families such as mine to direct a significant portion of their estates to philanthropy,” Richard Rockefeller — chairman of the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the industrialist and philanthropist — told a telephone conference call.

His sentiments were echoed by William H. Gates Sr., co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and John C. Bogle, founder and chief executive of the Vanguard Group, the financial-services company.

The phone call was organized by United for a Fair Economy, in Boston, a nonprofit group that works to lessen income inequality. The group is pushing Congress to act before its ...

The Senate on Sunday approved a spending bill for fiscal 2010 that increases the budget for national-service programs and provides $50-million for the new Social Innovation Fund.

The bill raises the Corporation for National and Community Service’s budget to almost $1.15-billion — up from about $890-million in 2009. However, it cuts the budget for a Volunteer Generation Fund to $4-million, down from $10-million proposed by President Obama, and allocates only $1-million for the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program, down from $5-million proposed by the original congressional sponsors.

The bill now goes to the president for signature.

See The Chronicle’s previous coverage and a Corporation for National and Community Service summary for background.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a “guide sheet” and a “checklist” to help its agents as they gather data about the governance practices and related internal controls of charities they are auditing.

“The data collected will be included in a long-term study to gain a better understanding of the intersection between governance practices and tax compliance,” the IRS said.

Michael W. Peregrine, a lawyer in Chicago who advises nonprofit organizations, says the materials released by the IRS “demonstrate that, to the IRS, charity governance is a serious matter.”

The IRS’s interest in charities’ governance practices has been controversial. The federal tax code does not explicitly set out governance standards for the IRS to enforce, but the tax agency has shown increasing interest in keeping an eye on the governance practices of organizations.

The IRS’s revised Form 990...

The House of Representatives today approved a spending bill that increases the budget for the Corporation for National and Community Service to almost $1.15-billion in fiscal year 2010, up from about $890-million in 2009.

It sets the budget for the Social Innovation Fund at $50-million, the Volunteer Generation Fund at $4-million, and Nonprofit Capacity Building Program at $1-million.

For more background on the budget deal, see this article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.