Executive Issues

The Arizona attorney general's office says it shut down a veterans-charity scam that bilked about $750,000 from seniors across the U.S. suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other memory-related disorders. Attorney General Mark Brnovich and his office terminated three Phoenix telemarketing companies owned by Robert Foster—Happy Hands LLC, Standing Tree LLC and Action Point LLC—as part…

Back in July, Joan Weill, the wife of Citigroup billionaire Sandy Weill, announced she and her husband would donate $20 million to a small, cash-strapped school called Paul Smith's College in New York's Adirondack Mountains with one big string attached: She insisted that the school would have to be renamed in her honor, to forever be…

Groups that solicit and manage donor-advised funds continue to crowd into the upper ranks of America’s biggest charities, according to new Chronicle of Philanthropy data. The United Way hangs on to the No. 1 spot in the Chronicle’s latest Philanthropy 400, the annual list of the U.S. nonprofits that raise the most in private support.…

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is suing the man who organized this year’s “LoziLu” mud races as fundraisers to fight cancer, saying he has violated charity and consumer protection laws. The action targets Frederick Bradley Kellogg and a Minnesota company called Fresh New Taste LLC that were running women-only obstacle mud races around the country.…

A week after donating $10,000 to a group opposing HERO ordinance, the Houston Texans owner wants his money back. In a tersely worded statement, Texans owner Bob McNair recently asked the Campaign for Houston to return his donation. McNair claims the group attributed statements and beliefs to him without his authorization. The donation was first…

NPQ has written many times about the fact that embezzlement thrives in informal situations, which is a good description of many small nonprofits. But in such organizations, the damage done to internal culture and external reputation may prove hard to heal. Nonprofits that take the issue on with transparency may avoid some of that damage;…

Joan Weill, the wife of billionaire Sanford Weill, has inscribed herself in stone as one of the greatest, most insensitive egos in today’s philanthropic world. She recently pledged $20 million to financially struggling Paul Smith’s College in northern New York, located in the heart of the Adirondacks. Her only condition was that the institution, created…

You are losing donations. If you write appeal letters, fundraising newsletters or other donor communications, this video is a must for you to see. With these seven tips, you'll quickly plug some of the holes​ in your fundraising efforts. In the video below, Steven Screen and Jeff Brooks​ walk you through some easy storytelling fixes…

Nonprofit leaders expressed trepidation about the prospect of a $15 per hour minimum wage for all workers in New York, with one putting the cost for the organization in the millions. "There's no way we can deal with that," said Alan Krafchin, president and CEO of the Center for Disability Services, at an Albany Business…

If you’ve been in fundraising for any length of time, you’ve no doubt come across what I call “Busyness Syndrome.” I first encountered this disorder during my second nonprofit development job. I’d been hired as a grant writer for an agency serving disadvantaged women and children. They were an organization I admired and was familiar with from my days working for a large grant-making foundation that funded them often. But what I found inside the organization was disheartening...