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Author Archives: Lisa Chiu
February 16, 2012, 11:37 am
Santorums Gave 2.2% of Income to Charity
Rick Santorum and his wife, Karen, gave 2.2 percent of their income to charity from 2007 to 2010, according to tax returns the candidate for the Republican presidential nomination released last night to Politico, a newspaper that covers politics.
The Santorums gave 1.8 percent of their $930,227 in total income to charity in 2010. In 2009, they donated 2.7 percent of their $1,127,266 total income.
The tax returns do not disclose the names of the organizations they supported.
The four years of returns show that the Santorums’ giving is about average for people in their income range who itemize their taxes.
Americans who make $500,000 to $1-million gave on average 2.6 percent of their total income to charity in 2009, the latest year for which the Internal Revenue Service has provided data. People who earn $1-million to $1.5-million gave on average 2.9 percent of their income…
February 7, 2012, 6:36 pm
IRS Makes Finding Charity Status Easier
The Internal Revenue Service has developed an online database of 400,000 nonprofits that have lost their tax-exempt status for failing to file tax returns.
Previously, the IRS released information about groups that had lost their tax-exempt status only by state, which made it difficult to find groups by other criteria. The new Exempt Organizations Select Check is updated monthly and is on the same Web page as the agency’s main database of all nonprofits that can accept tax-deductible donations.
The tax agency in June unveiled a list of 275,000 organizations that had lost their tax-exempt status for failing to file tax returns for three consecutive years. Since then, about 125,000 more have been added to the list.
Most of the groups—63 percent—were charities. Eleven percent were nonprofit advocacy groups, and 7 percent were social and recreational clubs.
Groups can apply…
January 24, 2012, 10:36 am
Romneys Gave 16% of Their Income to Charity
Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, gave more than 16 percent of their income to charity in 2010 and 2011, according to tax returns made public Tuesday
Mr. Romney, the Republican candidate for President, had been facing mounting public pressure to release his tax returns. Newt Gingrich, who is challenging Mr. Romney and others for the Republican nomination, disclosed recently that he had donated 2.6-percent of his income to charity in 2010.
According to the records released by the Romney campaign, the couple reported $21.6-million in income in 2010 and gave $3-million to charity. In 2011, they reported $20.9 million in income and made $4-million in charitable gifts.
Most of the Romneys charitable contributions over the two years were cash donations that totaled $4.1 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They also gave $500,000 to their family foundation, the
January 19, 2012, 8:38 am
Does Charity Advocacy Pay Off?
A study released today from a foundation watchdog group says that advocacy efforts by charities can pay off, to the tune of billions of dollars to communities.
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy study examined 110 charities in 13 states and found that work such as pushing for more aid to schools and housing for the poor resulted in $26.6-billion in benefits to communities over five years. Money for the campaigns came from foundations and other donors.
The study comes as the watchdog group is urging foundations to step up their spending on efforts to influence public policy and running a campaign called Philanthropy’s Promise, which asks grant makers to commit to devoting at least 25 percent of their grants each year to advocacy.
Altogether, the report said, the charities spent $231-million on efforts to influence policy makers and the public, meaning every $1…
January 12, 2012, 1:52 pm
IRS Urged to Improve the Process of Reinstating Dropped Charities
Nonprofits that automatically lost their tax-exempt status last year face unnecessary obstacles if they attempt to get reinstated, the Internal Revenue Service’s internal monitor said this week, as part of her annual report to lawmakers.
More than 385,000 nonprofits were knocked off the tax-exempt rolls after they failed to file their tax returns with the IRS for three consecutive years. But while the IRS allows groups to regain their tax-exempt status, Nina E. Olson, the tax agency’s national taxpayer advocate, says the process is marred by bureaucracy.
She says under the current process, groups can’t challenge whether the IRS was wrong to take away their status. Instead, they are simply told to send in the same form they originally submitted to seek tax-exempt status.
That form can take as long as seven months to process, and groups must then wait several more months before…
November 22, 2011, 11:10 am
‘Super Committee’ Breakdown Could Hurt Nonprofits
Nonprofits could soon face significant cuts in government aid in the wake of Monday’s announcement of an impasse among members of a Congressional committee seeking to close the mounting federal deficit.
Congress voted this summer to require the federal government to slash spending in 2013 if lawmakers don’t pass a deficit-reduction bill by December 23. Now that the “super committee” in charge of drafting such a measure failed, that deadline will be hard to meet.
“The only way these spending cuts will not take place is if Congress gets back to work and agrees on a balanced plan,” President Obama said, challenging lawmakers to devise a plan after they return from the Thanksgiving holidays.
He said that if no such agreement was reached, the cuts would indeed take effect in 2013.
The spending curbs would not affect Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, or…
November 16, 2011, 10:55 am
White House and Nonprofits Start Leadership Effort
The White House and a coalition of nonprofits plan to start a new effort to improve the quality and diversity of nonprofit leaders following a daylong program in Washington yesterday.
The Initiative for Nonprofit Talent and Leadership will be led by Independent Sector in collaboration with the White House. Also among the sponsors are American Express, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Aspen Institute Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation, the Center for Creative Leadership, Commongood Careers, and Public Allies.
At Tuesday’s event, more than 200 nonprofit leaders set loose goals for promoting diversity, developing talent, equipping leaders to face tough challenges, and spurring governments and private donors to spend more on leadership training.
The White House also used the opportunity to reiterate President Obama’s support for nonprofits. The administration has…
November 14, 2011, 5:07 pm
White House Hosts Meeting on Nonprofit Leadership
The White House has invited leaders from about 200 nonprofits to Washington to take part in a daylong program that will focus on the role of nonprofits and how charities can develop effective leaders.
The event, which takes place Tuesday at the national office of the American Red Cross and is closed to the public, will feature discussions led by White House officials and business and nonprofit leaders.
Speakers include Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama; Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation; Joshua DuBois, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; and Kenneth I. Chenault, chief executive of American Express.
The White House worked with American Express as well as the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Aspen Institute Program on Philanthropy and Social…
November 11, 2011, 3:40 pm
Charitable Deduction Not Discussed at Deficit Talks
Republican members of the congressional deficit committee are discussing plans that would limit some tax breaks to help close the federal deficit, The New York Times reports. But a top Congressional aide says lawmakers have not been talking about placing any limits on charitable deductions.
The committee is working to trim more than $1.2-trillion from the federal deficit over 10 years.
Republicans have said previously that they are against raising taxes of any kind, including placing new limits on how much wealthy people can deduct by making charitable gifts. As pressure mounts to strike a deal, however, Republican leaders could be softening their stance on some tax increases.
A congressional aide who asked not to be named said recent discussions have included proposals that would limit tax credits and deductions. But the aide said that the charitable deduction has not been…
November 2, 2011, 1:56 pm
Health Charities Say TV Lobbying Spoof Wasn’t Fair
Three of the nation’s biggest health charities found nothing to laugh about when Comedy Central’s The Daily Show this week featured a segment mocking them for opposing a bill to encourage Americans to exercise, quit smoking, and take other steps to improve their health. Now they are fighting back to explain their side of the story.
In the four-minute segment, former Representative Kathy Dahlkemper, a Pennsylvania Democrat, told the comedian Wyatt Cenac that the charities essentially killed a proposed 2009 bill that would have required health-insurance companies to provide discounts to consumers who tried to reduce their risks of heart attack or other diseases.
In the taped piece, Ms. Dahlkemper accused the charities of preventing the bill from getting approved with their lobbying. She said that in the week after she introduced it, “we started getting visits from the…
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