Remember when we told you about the nation’s 50 worst charities? Florida’s lawmakers noticed that 11 of those worst offenders were based in Florida. In an effort to clean up Florida’s charities, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has proposed a plan to tighten regulations on Florida’s charities and for-profit fundraisers. (The state charity registrar in Florida …
Posts Categorized: Accountability
Lady Gaga Boosts New Tax Plan
Earlier this week we told you that the House Ways and Means Committee is trying to force nonprofits to be more “effective” through a new tax plan. Thanks to Lady Gaga, the Committee has a new example of why such a tax plan is needed. Yes, Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga and her mother co-founded the …
The IRS Wants Your Responsible Party to Keep in Touch
Several times each year we receive letters form the IRS for former clients who failed to update the IRS of changes in their contact information. The result of failing to keep the IRS, or any other regulator, apprised of new contact information can be devastating – including loss of exemption. Perhaps as a result of …
Who's Protecting My Donation from a “Significant Diversion”?
Donors around the country are asking themselves that since The Washington Post published a series of articles reporting that more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations have reported a “significant diversion” of assets since 2008. A significant diversion is one that is more than the lesser of $250,000 or 5% of an organization’s gross receipts or total …
Choose Grant Recipients Wisely
How carefully does your nonprofit’s board choose grant recipients? If you don’t know, here is a wake-up call. One Fund Boston, the 501(c)(3) established to assist victims and families affected by the Boston Marathon bombings, recently approved payment of $480,000 to an individual who is now charged with defrauding the fund. There’s good news for …
Another View on Nonprofit Effectiveness
Has all the recent news about how to measure nonprofit effectiveness left your charity confused? The Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation, a national association of charities and their direct marketers, thinks it has the answer – a set of fundraising principles. The Federation based these principles on how it believes “legitimate” charities conduct fundraising. It …