NonProfit Pro

Recent tweets from folks you should follow.

America’s 50 most generous donors increased their giving by 27.5 percent last year — powered in large part by a $1.5 billion gift from Bill and Melinda Gates and a stunning rise in the number of tech entrepreneurs under 40, three of whom gave more than $500 million each. The increase is striking compared with 2012, when giving by the Philanthropy 50 rose just 4 percent.

Recent changes to Facebook’s news feed algorithm have brought about a significant decline in “organic reach,” the number of people who see a post that hasn’t been boosted by paid advertising. Two years ago, organic reach for many posts was at about 16 percent, but over the last several months it’s been throttled to 2 percent or even less. Nonprofit organizations are getting caught in the algorithmic filter, and some say the change has crippled their ability to share critical information and maintain the online communities their memberships rely on.

A bipartisan pair of senators introduced a bill on Friday that would require the IRS to give a nonprofit organization ample notice before revoking its tax-exempt status. Sens. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) are co-sponsoring the legislation that they say will give charities and tax-exempt groups more time to ensure they have filed the right paperwork to maintain their status.

A man who sometimes held his coat together with safety pins and had a longtime habit of foraging for firewood also had a knack for picking stocks — a talent that became public after his death when he bequeathed $6 million to his local library and hospital. The bequest of $4.8 million by Ronald Read, a former gas station employee and janitor, to the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and $1.2 million to the town's Brooks Memorial Library were the largest each institution has ever received. Read also made a number of smaller bequests.

My scope of work for clients kept broadening until one day I realized that desire for recognition was a much more powerful motivator than I had originally thought. And, I realized that the same human inclinations work in the other parts of my life in which I need to get people to do stuff — leading a company, raising teenagers, serving on boards, trying to buy big-ticket items for less ...

Doing the same thing over and over is relying on increased dollars, donors and gifts without expanding the number of prospects, number rated, number solicited, etc. Break out of Bill Murray's cycle in the movie "Groundhog Day" and the experience of déjà vu. Complete fundraising success depends upon your 360-degree view of the total fundraising process.

(Press release, Feb. 5, 2015) — Innovairre Communications, a world leader in fundraising, introduced Innovairre MC, a fully integrated fundraising platform that leverages a social database framework and acts as the central nerve system for a nonprofit's operations.

After testifying to the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told reporters that revised regulations governing nonprofit political activity might not be issued in time for the next election cycle. “It’s not clear when we’re going to be able to get to it. My only focus on 2016 is to make sure that whatever we do, it doesn’t look like we’re trying to influence the 2016 election.”

Dan Pallotta, the marketing executive who has been leading a campaign to get donors to stop evaluating charities based on their overhead costs, announced in August he was planning a three-day, 60-mile walk next June to raise $1 million to defend nonprofits against critics of their spending. In a news release sent to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, it was relayed that the three-day march planned for June 2015 has been postponed.