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September 4, 2012, 4:48 pm
Social Innovation Fund Director to Leave This Month
Paul Carttar, director of the federal government’s new Social Innovation Fund since April 2010, will step down at the end of this month, the Corporation for National and Community Service said.
Idara Nickelson, the corporation’s chief investment officer, will become the fund’s new director, Wendy Spencer, the agency’s chief executive, said in an e-mail to associates.
Mr. Carttar, a nonprofit expert with a wide range of experience in philanthropic, academic, government, and business, was the first director of the Social Innovation Fund, a grants program championed by President Obama to provide money to help nonprofits expand effective social programs.
Housed in the national-service agency, it has a budget of $45-million this year, with additional money provided by nonprofits and foundations.
Ms. Spencer said Ms. Nickelson, who has also served as the corporation’s…
August 29, 2012, 10:42 am
Biden vs. Ryan: Who Gave More to Charity?
Some Republicans have criticized Vice President Joseph Biden for giving a small portion of his income to charity—about 1.5 percent last year and 1.4 percent in 2010.
In the latest jab, the GOP strategist Karl Rove told Politico this week that he makes “more charitable contributions as a percentage of my income than either [President Obama] or the vice president.”
“Of course, that’s not hard when it’s compared with Vice President Biden,” Mr. Rove said. “I think he’s getting his tips on charitable contributions from Hillary Clinton pre-1992: You know, mark up the underwear and give it away to Goodwill.”
But will the critics back off now that the Republican vice presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan, has released his tax returns? The Wisconsin congressman and his wife, Janna, actually gave less of their income to charity in 2010 than Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill,…
August 14, 2012, 10:08 am
New PAC for Nonprofits Endorses Its First Candidates
CForward, a political-action committee that was set up last year to promote candidates who pledge to stand up for nonprofits, has made its first endorsements.
They include five contenders for state legislatures and one each for city council, mayor, and the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Our choices are not based on any single issue, or geography, gender, or political party,” the group said in a statement. With governments cutting budgets across the country, it looked for candidates that would “promote our role in creating jobs, attracting investment dollars and maintaining the civil society required for traditional business to thrive.”
Robert Egger, who founded CFoward, said he hopes that nonprofit employees nationwide will contribute to the candidates’ campaigns. “We want to attract hundreds, if not thousand, of small contributions,” he said in an e-mail. “In a local mayor’s…
July 31, 2012, 8:26 pm
Social Innovation Fund Awards $42-Million
The Social Innovation Fund, a federal program designed to help nonprofits expand effective programs, has awarded more than $42-million to 11 groups in its third round of annual grants, the Corporation for National and Community Service announced today.
The fund, which gives money to grant makers that in turn award it to innovative nonprofits, has allotted $11-million to four new groups and $33.9-million to seven existing grantees.
The newcomers, which will each receive $2-million over two years:
• The Capital Area United Way, for early-childhood programs in the greater Baton Rouge area.
• The GreenLight Fund, for programs to help improve the academic performance of low-income young people in Boston, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay area. GreenLight seeks out the best programs and finances their work in select cities. (See a profile of the fund from The…
July 25, 2012, 6:06 pm
IRS Struggles to Know if Big Nonprofits Pay the Taxes They Owe
Washington
Four years after the Internal Revenue Service started requiring nonprofits to submit more information about their charitable and commercial activities, the agency still struggles to determine which income earned by colleges, hospitals, and other big institutions is taxable, an IRS official said today.
Steven T. Miller, deputy IRS commissioner, made the comment at a Congressional hearing devoted to an issue that has vexed lawmakers and regulators—how to ensure that charities pay taxes on income they generate through businesslike activities such as magazine publishing and retail sales.
Figuring out if an organization’s business income is “substantially related” to its charitable mission, and therefore tax-exempt, “is a remarkably difficult and soft sort of issue to deal with,” Mr. Miller told the oversight subcommittee of the House Ways and Means…
July 19, 2012, 10:37 am
Congressional Hearing to Examine Complex Charity Operations
A Congressional panel will hold the second in a series of hearings on tax-exempt organizations next week, this one focusing on charities that have complicated operations such as profit-generating arms.
“Over the last two decades, the organizational structures of public charities have become increasingly complex, creating compliance and transparency issues,” said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., a Louisiana Republican who heads the oversight subcommittee of the House Ways and Means committee.
He said his subcommittee wants to learn more, for example, about the rules governing the unrelated-business income tax, or UBIT, which applies to money charities raise through commercial activities not directly related to their missions.
It also will explore whether the revised Form 990 tax document that charities must file, introduced in 2008, has made it easier for the Internal Revenue Service…
June 28, 2012, 11:05 am
Tell Us What You Think of the Health-Care Ruling
Credit: Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Newscom
The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld most of the health-care overhaul law, a decision that will please many foundations and nonprofit groups that have been working to put the new law into effect.
The decision will also affect many charities that care for patients on Medicaid. The ruling says the federal government could expand the pool of people who are eligible for the federal-state insurance program, but the court limited the government’s ability to penalize states that do not want to participate in the bigger program.
The Chronicle will provide additional coverage of the ruling later today. Meanwhile, please tell us what you think of the decision. How will it affect you or your nonprofit or foundation? Please comment below or send an email to Suzanne Perry.
June 19, 2012, 9:22 am
Washington State National-Service Leader to Head AmeriCorps
William C. Basl, executive director of the Washington Commission for National and Community Service, has been named director of AmeriCorps, the national-service program.
He will succeed John Gomperts, who left to take a job as chief executive of America’s Promise Alliance, a children’s-advocacy network.
Mr. Basl has headed the commission, which manages AmeriCorps programs in the State of Washington, for 18 years. Before that, he founded the Washington Service Corps, a state youth-service program.
Mr. Basl will report to Wendy Spencer, the new head of the Corporation for National and Community Service. He joins AmeriCorps at a time when its future is uncertain because of Congressional budget battles.
See a Chronicle article about those and other challenges facing AmeriCorps.
Send an e-mail to Suzanne Perry.
June 4, 2012, 11:24 am
Obama Committee Pushes Collaborations on Youth Employment
When paying for projects to help young people get educated and find jobs, federal and private grant makers should give priority to projects that involve collaborations between nonprofits and others, says a report issued today by a White House advisory committee.
“Individual nonprofit services can be fragmented and dispersed, with each organization typically serving a limited population with specific interventions,” says the report, drawn up by the White House Council for Community Solutions.
It says the federal government should do more to ensure that local communities have access to good data about young people and get young people involved by, for example, creating an advisory Presidential Youth Working Group. Employers, schools, and community and national-service programs can also strengthen efforts to prepare young people for jobs.
At least one in six people ages 16 to 24…
May 15, 2012, 2:02 pm
5 Experts to Testify at Hearing on IRS Nonprofit Oversight
A House subcommittee has announced that five nonprofit experts will testify at a hearing it has scheduled for Wednesday to examine several issues related to the Internal Revenue Service’s oversight of tax-exempt organizations.
They are Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector; Roger Colinvaux, an associate law professor at the Catholic University of America; Joanne DeStefano, vice president for finance at Cornell University, who will be testifying on behalf of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO); Bruce Hopkins, a nonprofit lawyer; and Michael Regier, a senior vice president at VHA, a nonprofit hospital cooperative.
Rep. Charles Boustany called the hearing. The Louisiana Republican heads the oversight subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Send an e-mail to Suzanne Perry.
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