February 3, 2012, 10:48 am
By Suzanne Perry
Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to require the richest Americans to pay a minimum share of their income in taxes, but allow them to continue claiming a deduction for charitable giving.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, aims to put into effect the so-called “Buffett Rule” that was championed by President Obama in his State of the Union address.
It would require taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $2-million, including capital gains and dividends, to pay at least 30 percent in federal taxes. The minimum tax would be phased in for people earning more than $1-million but less than $2-million under a formula that is spelled out in the legislation.
Donors would be able to deduct their charitable gifts from their adjusted gross incomes to lower their tax bills, thus preserving a giving incentive that has been fiercely defended …
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January 24, 2012, 10:36 am
By Lisa Chiu
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
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January 20, 2012, 11:11 am
By Suzanne Perry
Newt Gingrich, the Republican presidential contender, and his wife, Callista, contributed $81,133 to charity in 2010, while the couple’s foundation made $120,000 in grants, according to tax returns Mr. Gingrich released last night.
The Gingriches, who reported adjusted gross income of about $3.1-million, said they donated $9,540 to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, $3,100 to miscellaneous causes, and $68,493 in unspecified cash contributions through their business operations.
The Gingrich Foundation reported revenue of $152,609 in 2010, all from one of the candidate’s companies, Gingrich Holdings—which shares the same address as the foundation in Washington. The grant maker gave money to 14 cultural, educational, and health charities, including the Alzheimer’s Association, the Atlanta Ballet, and Luther College.
The tax form said Ms. Gingrich is…
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January 19, 2012, 8:38 am
By Lisa Chiu
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…
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January 18, 2012, 8:57 am
By Suzanne Perry
A raft of health charities and patient-advocacy groups have filed briefs urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the new health-care overhaul law, which has been challenged as unconstitutional for requiring most Americans to buy health insurance or face a penalty.
The groups told the court, which is set to hear oral arguments on the case in March, that the health-insurance provision, known as the “individual mandate,” is critical to making the new law work effectively.
“Without that requirement, healthy people tend to avoid buying insurance until they need it, leaving insurance plans to cover a sicker population and driving up costs for everyone in the health care system,” said the American Cancer Society, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Diabetes Association, and American Heart Association, which filed a “friend of the court” brief last week.
They…
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January 12, 2012, 1:52 pm
By Lisa Chiu
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…
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January 12, 2012, 8:32 am
By Suzanne Perry
The inspector general’s office at the Corporation for National and Community Service has warned Congress it will have to lay off at least three-fourths of its 33 staff members and sharply curtail its activities because of a “severe and damaging” budget cut.
Congress cut the office’s budget from $7.7-million to $4-million in the 2012 spending bill it approved last month.
“This budget reduction caught me and my executive staff by surprise,” Kenneth C. Bach, the corporation’s deputy inspector general, wrote in a letter this week to more than a dozen House and Senate members.
He said the 48-percent cut was in “stark contrast” to the 3-percent reduction in the corporation’s overall budget—and “will substantially inhibit me from performing my duties.”
The inspector general’s office monitors federal volunteer and national-service programs, including AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and…
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January 10, 2012, 4:12 pm
By Suzanne Perry
President Obama today appointed a former nonprofit leader, Cecilia Muñoz, to be his top domestic-policy adviser.
Ms. Muñoz, who replaces Melody Barnes as director of the Domestic Policy Council, is an immigration expert who worked for 20 years at the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group, most recently as senior vice president of research, advocacy, and legislation. She left that position in 2009 to become Mr. Obama’s director for intergovernmental affairs.
In her new position, Ms. Muñoz will oversee the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, the White House unit that has the most contact with nonprofit leaders. It works with the Corporation for National and Community Service to promote volunteerism, national service, and the Social Innovation Fund, a grants program to help nonprofits expand effective programs.
The office also operates the White…
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January 9, 2012, 2:46 pm
By Suzanne Perry
The Corporation for National and Community Service board has elected Laysha L. Ward, president of community relations for Target, its new chair.
Ms. Ward, who was appointed to the board in 2008, replaces Mark Gearan, president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who has left the panel.
For the moment, Ms. Ward is heading a skeletal operation. The federal agency’s bipartisan board, which is supposed to have 15 members, has shrunk to six, and some positions have been vacant for more than two years. President Obama nominated people to fill seven seats about 18 months ago, but they have not been approved by the Senate.
The troubled agency, which runs AmeriCorps and other national-service programs, has also been operating without a permanent chief executive since Patrick Corvington resigned unexpectedly last April.
A Senate committee has approved President Obama’s nomination to …
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December 20, 2011, 11:11 am
By Suzanne Perry
Patrick Corvington
When Patrick Corvington announced in April he was leaving his post as head of the Corporation for National and Community Service after just 14 months on the job, many people speculated about the circumstances behind his abrupt exit.
At the time, Mr. Corvington said he was leaving to take an unspecified “opportunity in the nonprofit community”—and corporation and White House officials declined to comment beyond that.
After learning that Mr. Corvington now works for Habitat for Humanity International, serving in a new senior position that oversees the organization’s volunteer programs, The Chronicle contacted him to ask about his new position and about his departure from the national-service agency.
In an interview, Mr. Corvington said he…
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