Posts Categorized: Board

To Take Or Not to Take … (A Scandalous Donation)

America’s historically black colleges and universities are facing a hard choice: continue struggling for much needed funds or accept a donation from David and Charles Koch. From one perspective, this is a win-win scenario. The colleges get funding in the face of decreases in government funding and aid and the Koch brothers will perhaps attract …

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Vendor Warning

Do you check references before you engage vendors for your organization’s fundraising events? If not, you should. The New York Times Haggler recently reminded us why. In a recent post, the Haggler investigated a company called CreditCardMachineRentals.com, which charged a nonprofit a wrongful late fee of $8,100 for returning borrowed credit card machines weeks late …

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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 …

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Horror Stories from the Trenches

October 15, 2013 Posted by Jessica Shofler in Board, Director Duties, News

With Halloween quickly approaching, now is the time to face your non-profit demons. Do you consistently lose sleep worrying whether your non-profit is operating lawfully? Do you ever wonder whether you should be doing more as a director? Stop burying your head in the sand. Instead join Arthur Rieman, managing attorney of The Law Firm …

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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 …

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Another View on Nonprofit Effectiveness

July 18, 2013 Posted by Jessica Shofler in Accountability, Board, Fundraising, News

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 …

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