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Author Archives: Peter Panepento
April 13, 2012, 1:26 pm
Obamas Gave 22% of Their Income to Charity
President Obama and his wife, Michelle, gave nearly 22 percent of their income to charity in 2011, according to tax returns made public today.
The couple reported $789,674 in income and gave $172,130 to charity.
The largest gift was a $117,130 contribution to the Fisher House Foundation, a group that provides free or low-cost housing to military personnel and their families while they are receiving treatment at military medical centers. Mr. Obama has been giving the charity the after-tax proceeds of the sale of a children’s book he wrote.
The Obamas’ giving represents a bigger share of their income than that of the presumptive Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney, and his wife, Ann, according to an estimate of their 2011 taxes, released in January. They reported they had given more than 16 percent of their income to charity in 2010 and 2011.
According to the Romney …
October 14, 2011, 2:21 pm
Video: How Much Does the Charitable Deduction Matter?
The Senate’s powerful Finance Committee will play host to a hearing Tuesday that will discuss how some key proposals to change the federal tax code would affect nonprofits.
One of the key topics of discussion at the hearing will be the future of the charitable deduction—the write-offs that high-income people can get for their charitable donations.
The Chronicle recently produced a pair of videos that explain the charitable deduction—and what’s at stake if lawmakers decide to change how the deduction works. You can check them out below.
June 14, 2011, 10:19 am
IRS Plans Monthly Updates of Tax-Exempt Roster
The Internal Revenue Service—which last week announced that 275,000 nonprofits had lost their tax-exempt status after failing to file legally required documents for three consecutive years—isn’t done trimming its list of officially registered nonprofits.
Moving forward, the tax agency plans every month to release the names of groups that fail to file their paperwork. Organizations that do not file for three years will be placed on the list, which will be separate from IRS announcements about nonprofits that have lost their tax-exempt status for other reasons.
The monthly lists won’t be nearly as large as this month’s massive release, which was the result of a 2006 law designed to help the IRS remove defunct organizations from its database of registered tax-exempt groups.
Ms. Lerner says she expects the monthly lists sometimes to include thousands of groups and sometimes…
January 27, 2010, 11:21 am
Religious Leaders Urge Obama to Show ‘Active Leadership’ in Health-Care Debate
More than 20 religious leaders sent a letter Wednesday to President Obama urging him to show “active and public leadership” to get Congress to pass a health-care overhaul bill.
“We implore you to make it plain to all Americans that the decisions of Congress have moral consequences,” it says. “Letting this life-line lapse would be a failure of historic proportions.”
The letter, sent as the president prepares to deliver his State of the Union address tonight, was signed by representatives of groups including Catholics in Alliance for the Public Good, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Hindu American Seva Charities, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, National Council of Churches USA, and Sojourners. The signers include more than a third of the White House Office for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships
“Too many people in our congregations and communities have waited too long for …
October 19, 2009, 5:53 pm
Why Charities Need to Pay Attention to State Registration Laws
Is your nonprofit group registered to solicit money in all 50 states?
In the past, it wasn’t necessary for many groups to file registration papers outside of their home states. But with the advent of online fund raising, many organizations are probably violating laws in some states because they are collecting donations without letting state authorities know.
Tony Martignetti, a planned-giving adviser in New York and author of Charity Registration: State-by-State Guidelines for Compliance, says he believes as many as 90 percent of all nonprofit groups have not complied with state registration laws.
And some states are starting to crack down.
This month, for instance, a foundation operated by H. Lamar Willis, an Atlanta city-council member, was fined $25,000 by Georgia regulators because it was not registered in that state, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
What should…
August 20, 2009, 5:46 pm
The Health-Care Debate: Explaining AARP’s Approach
Haunted by memories of the failed effort to revamp health care during the Clinton administration, some nonprofit groups this summer are taking a more aggressive approach to pushing their ideas for a health-care overhaul.
But do nonprofit groups and foundations have the clout — and the money — to make a difference in the high-stakes battle over the future of America’s health-care system?
The membership organization AARP believes it does. With 40 million members, AARP is using its size and influence to help lead efforts to support health-care legislation that would benefit its far-flung membership.
To learn more about what the organization hopes to accomplish, listen to The Chronicle’s latest edition of Philanthropy This Week, a podcast about and for the nonprofit world.
July 7, 2009, 2:47 pm
Audio: Why Charities Should Care About State Budget Crises
As California, New York, and other states grapple with massive deficits, many nonprofit organizations are facing the prospect of significant cuts in government support.
Nonprofit groups stand to be among the most affected by these budget shortfalls because they have done a poor job of standing together to argue their cases to lawmakers, says Robert Egger, president of D.C. Central Kitchen, in Washington, and founder of the V3 Campaign, an effort to get nonprofit views considered in elections at the city, state, and federal levels.
Mr. Egger discusses the issue in more detail in the latest episode of Philanthropy This Week, the Chronicle‘s new podcast about the nonprofit world.
May 7, 2009, 5:49 pm
Obama Budget Would Eliminate Some Social-Services Programs
The Obama administration’s proposed 2010 budget would eliminate money for some social-services programs that had been staples of the Bush era.
Several other longstanding programs would receive about as much as they do now.
The White House would eliminate spending for the Compassion Capital Fund, which helps charities and religious groups provide social services through the Department of Health and Human Services. The fund received $48-million in 2009.
Mr. Obama sought no money for abstinence education; the government now spends about $133-million on such efforts.
Mr. Obama is, however, asking for $164-million for programs designed to reduce pregnancy among teenagers.
The budget also proposed no money for a program that now offers about $10-million to rural community facilities.
Several other programs to provide services to children and families would receive the same amount…
May 7, 2009, 3:39 pm
Budget Plan Includes $164-Millon to Prevent Pregnancy Among Teenagers
The Obama administration’s proposed 2010 budget includes $164-million to create a new program to prevent pregnancy among teenagers that would be administered largely by nonprofit groups.
Much of the money would be awarded to groups that can run programs based on evidence of what works best to prevent teenage pregnancy. In addition, money would be awarded for research and evaluation to further determine what works.
The program would be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Pregnancy-prevention advocates are campaigning Congress to approve the measure.
“During an economic downturn and at a time when the teen birth rate is on the rise after 14 straight years on the decline, it is particularly important that public dollars be devoted to those interventions that have evidence of success,” said Sarah Brown, chief executive of The National Campaign to Prevent…
May 7, 2009, 12:43 pm
Arts Groups Would Get Slight Increase in Obama’s Budget Plan
Arts and humanities groups could see increased money from the federal government in 2010, if Congress approves all of President Obama’s budget request.
Under the proposal, the National Endowment for the Humanities would receive about $171-million, up $16-million, or more than 10 percent, from 2009. That figure includes $10-million allocated for the National Capital Arts program, which is being shifted from another agency.
The administration has proposed increasing the appropriation for the National Endowment of the Arts by about 3.9 percent to $161.3-million. Congress had given the endowment $155-million in 2009 — a figure that does not include a separate $50-million appropriation to the endowment through the federal economic-stimulus law.
In addition, Mr. Obama’s budget proposal includes $38.16-million for the arts-in-education program at the Department of Education — a figure…
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