Government & Regulation

Legal Potpourri: 6 Questions (and Answers) for Your Nonprofit
March 28, 2017 at 8:29 am

We take a moment to explore the many legal questions nonprofit organizations face on a daily basis. Just as nonprofits themselves are diverse and cover many topics, so too are the legal issues they face—employment law, tax questions and queries straight out of Business Law 101...

Jacob Harold’s State of the Sector: The GuideStar Chief Talks Election
March 22, 2017 at 8:37 am

Seeing some of the conversation in the media, to me, reflected a lot of common misconceptions and misunderstandings about the role nonprofits play in our society. And so we did a piece of analysis to kind of take advantage of all this attention and hope we could provide some education, and to show, for example, some of the differences between the two institutions...

Meals on Wheels Sees Donations Surge After Trump Proposes Funding Cuts
March 22, 2017 at 8:32 am

Senior citizens in one suburb could see Meals on Wheels deliveries cut in half if President Trump’s budget cuts become reality, Jenny Bertolette, a spokeswoman for the network, told CNN, as it anticipated “deep cuts” to a nonprofit that serves 2.4 million Americans. But private donations have surged in response, Bertolette told The Washington Post.…

Trump Budget Plan Declares War on ‘War on Poverty’ Programs
March 21, 2017 at 8:37 am

President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to Congress calls for eliminating social programs dating to President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and would cut spending on assistance to needy counties in Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta, as well as hungry schoolchildren in Cambodia. Grants for rural water projects, funds for local transit systems and a host…

Nonprofit Developers Oppose Campaign Donation Ban
March 20, 2017 at 8:45 am

Supervisor Mark Farrell’s attempt to regulate money in politics may backfire, as nonprofit developers are lining up to oppose what they say is "an ill-conceived piece of legislation that would prevent them from spending public funds on political campaigns." The controversy indicates a political miscalculation by Farrell who boldly introduced the bill as exposing “dark…

Australia's Charities Regulator to Crack Down on Political Advocacy After Complaints
March 17, 2017 at 8:36 am

Australia’s charities regulator has warned it will crack down on improper political advocacy in the sector and lobby to remove “frustrating” secrecy provisions that gag it from speaking about its work. The Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC) released its latest compliance report on Wednesday, outlining its activities over the past 2 years. The commission used…

Nonprofit Hospitals Focus on Community Needs Under the ACA
March 15, 2017 at 3:46 pm

For the past 6 years, Mardi Chadwick has run a violence prevention program at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The program’s goal is to address broader, community-based health issues and social problems that make people ill or expose them to injury. In Chadwick’s view, this endeavor has made a big difference in neighborhoods. But its profile…

IRS Strips Tax-Exempt Status From Richard Spencer's White Nationalist Nonprofit
March 14, 2017 at 6:45 pm

The nonprofit run by one of America’s most prominent white nationalists, Richard Spencer, has lost its tax-exempt status for failing to file tax returns with the federal government, according to Internal Revenue Service records. An inquiry by The Times also raised questions about whether Spencer had properly filed paperwork allowing the National Policy Institute to…

CBC Foundation Received Over $500K in Taxpayer-Funded Government Grants
March 13, 2017 at 2:47 pm

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation was awarded more than $500,000 in taxpayer-funded government grants since 2010, records show. Seven of its leaders additionally paid themselves six-figure salaries, according to the group's most recent tax filings. The CBC Foundation, a nonprofit that is separate from the Congressional Black Caucus, carries a mission of advancing "the global…