Beware of charity scams. Do your homework before donating. Those are the warnings issued to the public by CNBC in a recent report about fraudulent nonprofits. The CNBC report focused on an unprecedented enforcement action in 2015. The Federal Trade Commission, along with all 50 states and other law enforcement authorities, filed a complaint against …
Executive compensation at nonprofits is on the rise, according to a recent article by the Wall Street Journal. New data from the IRS shows that the number of seven-figure salaries at charities tripled between 2011 and 2014. The organizations that are paying their employees in the millions range from major hospitals and universities to small …
Have the leaders of nonprofits been overly incentivized to “follow the money,” resulting in a troubling shift in the composition of boards? The answer is yes according to a recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. The trend may be “distort[ing] organization priorities” and may “dilute charitable values.” According to the author, Garry W. …
Form 990 Filing just got more complicated. The online service where 990s are filed electronically has recently been hacked. The Urban Institute, which operates the online filing site for the annual returns nonprofits must file, announced that it “recently discovered that an unauthorized party or parties have gained access to the Form 990 Online and …
It’s official. IRS targeting of nonprofit self-declarers will begin this year. Most organizations that qualify for federal tax-exemption other than non-church 501(c)(3) charities do not need to apply for tax-exemption. Whereas may do, they can simply self-declare that they are tax-exempt. When such nonprofit organizations complete their Forms 990 they need only identify their 501(c) …
In recent years we’ve converted a university and other 501(c)(3)s into for-profit corporations. But is the trend now reversing? Last year, the Law Firm for Non-Profits helped a for-profit private school become a nonprofit. And at the beginning of 2015, Herzing University, one of Wisconsin’s oldest and largest for-profit career colleges, was converted to 501(c)(3) …
