Tax, Legal & Compliance
July 20, 2016 at 10:52 am
It’s not often that a nonprofit organization provides an object lesson in leadership, financial management, culture and governance all at once. But the grim, at times horrifying, tale of Healing Arts Initiative (HAI) is a special case. HAI is—or, it appears, was—a New York nonprofit that supported the area needy and elderly through arts performances.…
July 13, 2016 at 11:17 am
U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida and her chief of staff have been charged with multiple counts of fraud and other federal offenses in a grand jury indictment unsealed Friday after a federal investigation into a fraudulent charity with ties to the congresswoman. Brown, a 69-year-old Democrat, appeared Friday in Jacksonville federal court on charges…
July 12, 2016 at 8:44 am
The Department of Labor in May announced new overtime rules, effective Dec. 1, that will make millions more Americans eligible for overtime. Predictably, reaction has been mixed, but it wasn't clear exactly how the rules would affect the sector. Now, we have a better understanding. National Council of Nonprofits last week released the results of a national survey polling nonprofits with government grants and contracts on the overtime rule changes, and the results are, well, kinda grim...
July 8, 2016 at 10:29 am
FBI Director James Comey refused to say Thursday whether the bureau investigated the Clinton Foundation as part of its probe into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information as secretary of state. “Did you look at the Clinton Foundation?” House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz asked. “I’m not going to comment on the existence or non-existence…
July 7, 2016 at 10:35 am
Navigating the maze of the financial, compliance and reporting requirements for charitable fundraising can be a daunting experience for charities and their fundraisers and sponsors. Currently, 45 states and the District of Columbia have some degree of statutory regulation of charitable solicitation activity conducted within their borders. Many states—though not all of them—require registration and reporting of financial and other information...
July 6, 2016 at 9:08 am
A Jewish group associated with the Kars4Kids charity is trying to wrest a Staten Island synagogue away from its congregation, the synagogue’s members charge. Oorah Inc., which is funded by Kars4Kids, claims in a lawsuit that the Young Israel of Eltingville synagogue owes it $1 million, a sum the congregation says it can’t afford to…
June 30, 2016 at 10:44 am
An earthquake fractured many lives in Haiti in 2010, with 1.5 million losing their homes and 160,000 losing their lives. To help Haitians pick up the pieces, many donated to the American Red Cross, which received about $487.6 million in donations. Those funds went to the Haiti Assistance Project, an initiative that projected to build 700 homes in the nation's poor neighborhood of Campeche...
June 24, 2016 at 10:20 am
A court order forced the IRS to release a lengthy list of groups that applied for nonprofit status and were given extra scrutiny based on their political views...
June 17, 2016 at 8:00 am
A couple of months ago, we talked about inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes, saying that the closer you can get to measuring whether you actually help people, the better you are. Charity Navigator measures the amount spent on activities. So according to the organization, you would be better off spending $20 to help 10 people…
June 16, 2016 at 10:35 am
The House has voted to bar the IRS from requiring nonprofit groups to list their donors on tax returns, saying the agency has failed to keep the information confidential. The bill was approved Tuesday, 240-182. Republicans say the IRS has shown it can't be trusted with the information, especially when it comes to conservative groups.…
