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I have no idea what the nonprofit community would do without Rick Cohen of the Nonprofit Quarterly: if there’s an issue affecting nonprofits he’ll have a fresh and useful perspective on it, and this article about the Community Health Needs Assessments required by the Affordable Care Act is no exception. What struck me most was [...]
Archive for the ‘501(c)(3)’ Category
February 7th, 2013
Category: 501(c)(3), Affordable Care Act, charity, Health Care, Illinois, Innovation, NonProfits, public health, Taxation
January 26th, 2013
This is the smartest, ballsiest response I’ve seen to the omnipresent nonsense about how what’s wrong with philanthropy and charity is that they’re too soft-hearted and how all the problems of the world could be solved if they were just more rigorous and did their “due diligence” and brought other failed concepts and consultant buzzwords [...]
January 4th, 2013
Category: 501(c)(3), charity, Education policy, High-stakes school testing, NonProfits, Philanthropy, Public management, Secrecy in government
There’s an old joke about a man who asks a woman to sleep with him for $1 million. She agrees, whereupon he asks her to sleep with him for $1. “What kind of a girl do you think I am?” asks the woman indignantly. “We’ve settled that,” replies the man, “We’re just arguing about the [...]
November 14th, 2012
Making the rounds at law schools for Good Counsel: Meeting the Legal Needs of Nonprofits, I’m heartened to meet so many students interested in serving on charities boards in their communities. My recent talk at Harvard Law School about how law students and young lawyers can start preparing for the trustee role is available here.
October 9th, 2012
Here’s a new wrinkle in the ever-popular saga “Taxation of the Tax Exempt”: members of the Scranton City Council threaten to withhold zoning changes from owners of tax-exempt property unless they make “voluntary” PILOTS (Payments In Lieu Of Taxation). I’m certainly open to the notion that non-charitable tax-exempt organizations should have to pay property taxes, [...]
July 23rd, 2012
Category: 501(c)(3), Arts and Cultural Policy, charity, Good news, Law Notes, NonProfits, Uncategorized
Although nonprofit organizations can make a big impact, they tend to have tiny or nonexistent legal teams. Even for the lucky few charities with a lawyer in-house or close by, it’s impossible for one attorney to know enough about all the different areas of law to be able to address all the organization’s needs. Fortunately, [...]
April 16th, 2012
Category: 501(c)(3), Arts and Cultural Policy, charity, Higher education, Law Notes, NonProfits, Philanthropy
In the nonprofit setting, misconceptions about corporate governance abound. Are board members primarily fundraisers? Cheerleaders? A rubber stamp to legitimize the actions and decisions of the executives? Do they run the organization to the extent staff is unable? Are they window-dressing to spruce up the organization’s letterhead? If they are rich or famous, must they [...]
December 31st, 2011
Category: 501(c)(3), charity, Good news, Higher education, Human rights, Law Notes, Management, Music, NonProfits, Organizing, Philanthropy, Religion and Politics, Think Tanks, Uncategorized
Good Counsel: Meeting the Legal Needs of Nonprofits by Lesley Rosenthal (John Wiley & Sons 2012) As I embarked on writing Good Counsel: Meeting the Legal Needs of Nonprofits, well-meaning and concerned folks cited at least three reasons why no one had written such a book before, and (implicitly) why I shouldn’t try: it’s too [...]
December 20th, 2011
The most powerful argument in this LA Times op-ed piece opposing the charitable tax deduction is that it’s a poor trade-off. Retired foundation executive Jack Shakely points out that charities have permitted themselves to be shorn of their ability to influence policy and politics in return for a mess of pottage. Of course the restrictions [...]
December 5th, 2011
Category: 501(c)(3), Arts and Cultural Policy, charity, NonProfits, Rhetoric and Framing, Uncategorized, Urban policy, Urbanism
(cross-post with nonprofiteer.net) Had a fascinating conversation recently with Margy Waller, a special advisor to Cincinnati’s ArtsWave, which leads the nation in evidence-based approaches to advocating for arts funding. Ms. Waller had reached out to correct my misunderstanding (and therefore misreporting) of ArtsWave’s efforts, noting that the argument is not that the public should fund [...]