On October 29, many received an email from Christopher Oechsli, president of Atlantic Philanthropies, saying the New York foundation was planning on randomly giving away $1 million. The email stated that recipients should consider themselves to be “lucky individuals.” Unfortunately for these email recipients, the foundation, which announced plans to stop its operations by 2020, …
Posts Tagged: tax-exempt organizations
Red Cross Responds to Mismanagement Reports
We told you earlier this week about a joint investigation by NPR and ProPublica into the mismanagement of the American Red Cross’ responses to Hurricanes Isaac and Sandy in 2012. In an interview with PBS NewsHour, Suzy DeFrancis, Chief Public Affairs Officer for the Red Cross, responded to that investigation. DeFrancis explained that the investigation …
Media Declares Botched Red Cross Responses
After two major hurricanes hit the east coast in 2012, many responded in a typical fashion – by donating to the American Red Cross. Indeed, the Red Cross received hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to assist with the storm relief. Did the donations go to waste? According to a joint investigation by ProPublica …
Court Dismisses Tea Party Suits Against IRS
How do you solve a problem like a tea party group lawsuit? The IRS may have just found the answer: give the group tax-exempt status. In the wake of the Treasury Inspector General report that called out the IRS for using discriminatory labels to sort through exemption applications, such as the term “tea party,” more …
IRS Catches Up on Exemption Application Processing
Has your organization been waiting a long time for its IRS exemption? If so, you may be hearing back soon. Last week Matthew Weir, director for the IRS Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division, reported that this year the unit has closed 117,000 exemption applications, a 121% increase from last year. Weir pointed out that everyone …
Ex-Charity Head Faces Allegations of $3.8M Embezzlement
Russell Brace, the former head of United Mid-Coast Charities Inc, a social services organization located in Maine, is facing allegations in a civil lawsuit of embezzling $3.8 million from the organization. The organization alleges that over 13 years Brace deposited millions of dollars in donations intended for the charity into bank accounts he controlled. The …