Senate bill could spur charitable giving

New legislation, recently introduced in the Senate, would create tax-free "personal philanthropy accounts" to encourage pre-tax charitable giving. S 3881, introduced by Senators Isakson (R - Georgia) and Lautenberg (D - New Jersey), would allow workers to contribute up to $15,000 to nonprofits annually by payroll deduction.

By making these deductions "pre-tax," it increases the employee's take-home pay (compared to making the donation after-tax) by reducing the amount on which taxes are calculated. This, of course, is should act as an incentive to charitable giving in the workplace.

It will probably be the next session of Congress that will actually vote on this, in both the Senate and the House, but depending on the wording of the final bill it could be a good giving incentive, and a vehicle for nonprofits to base their annual campaigns on.

I learned about S. 3881 from the 501 strategies Nonprofit Blog. We are each members of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange.

Tags: nonprofit, giving, taxes, deductions, legislation, Senate

It's a dot-org world, after all

According to the Public Interest Registry (PIR), the folks responsible for the ".org" top-level domain, there are now over 5,000,000 registered dot-orgs worldwide.

"This is a significant milestone for the .ORG registry and we are excited that the number of .ORG registrations worldwide has increased by over 25 percent in less than 1 year," said Edward G. Viltz, President and CEO of PIR.

The .ORG domain, which has come to be associated with noncommercial activities, is the Internet's third largest "generic" or non-country specific top-level domain."

PIR, itself a dot-org and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has achieved much of the recent growth in dot-org registrations through promoting it in "developing regions" of South America, Asia, and Africa.

So, the question I have to ask you is this, "Has your nonprofit organization registered its dot-org name yet?"

Even if you don't think you need a web site (you do), you should be concerned about protecting your brand and your identity. That means, getting your organization's name (dot-org) before somebody else does.

Tags: nonprofit, dot-org, web, domain names

The Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants - #13

Greetings and welcome to the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, edition #13. This carnival is the creation of Kivi Leroux Miller of the Writing 911 blog (and more). Each edition of the carnival is a collection of the best advice and resources that consultants and other support organizations are offering to nonprofits through their blogs each week. I am your guest host/consultant for the week, Ken Goldstein.

In choosing this week's entries, I wanted to focus not simply on what the authors had to say, but on the questions that their posts raise for other nonprofit organizations. Each issue raised here is important, but each also leaves room for us to question our own business practices and find new lessons to learn. So... on with the carnival!

"A Fundraiser" of Don't Tell the Donor submits Ashton Kutcher - the fundraiser and asks, "a celebrity, a movie promotion, and a myspace profile... tri-fecta?" When celebrities use their charitable gifts to promote their projects, is it still "philanthropy?" Check out the links, then discuss amongst yourselves.

Nancy Schwartz of Getting Attention (dot org) submits CDC's Verb Campaign to Get Kids Active Drops the Ball on Engaging Teachers and Parents. "[T]he end of the campaign comes just as the data is coming in, showing that it was surprisingly effective.... [E]ven though the campaign appeared to be working, Congress failed to renew funding, and now Verb's out of money." Have you experienced data coming in too late to save your nonprofit's program?

Mike Burns of Brody Weiser Burns submits Nonprofits and Sarbanes-Oxley 3. "An independent Audit Committee is the third principle outlined by the American Bar Association (ABA) in considering the corporate governance implications that arise from Sarbanes-Oxley reforms," she begins. Does your organization have an independent Audit Committee?

Leila Johnson of Data-Scribe Blog submits Grant Writing Tips from a New Funder. The four basic items discussed are: Show specific examples of success, Be positive, Do some research on the funder, and Address all of the application's criteria. Yes, you recognize these as pretty much common sense, but how many do you regularly follow in your grant writing habits?

Finally, as this week's host I also get to select a posting from the blogs I've been reading. Pam Ashlund of Non-Profit Eye wrote about Non-Profit Doublespeak: Excessive Compensation. Have you heard this complaint? That nonprofit executives are overpaid? Pam pulls no punches in comparing nonprofit CEO pay to for-profit sector CEO pay. Think you could do with a raise?

Thank you for joining us this week. For more information about up-coming carnivals, and to submit your own posts, please see the carnival home page.

Tags: nonprofit, consultants, blog carnival, philanthropy, Sarbanes-Oxley, funders, compensation

The Carnival is Coming to Town!

Well, maybe not to town, but to this blog.

On Monday I will be hosting the next edition of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. ... "What's a nonprofit consultant carnival?" ... It is a collection of the best advice and resources that consultants and other support organizations are offering to nonprofits through their blogs each week.

My posts have been featured in several previous editions of the carnival, and on Monday it will be my responsibility to choose the best recent postings from all the other nonprofit consultant blogs.

If you blog on nonprofit topics, you can still get in your entry... Go to BlogCarnival.com to submit your post using the form there or send an email to npc.carnival AT yahoo DOT com with your name, your blog's name and the URL of the post (not your blog homepage). The deadline is tonight, Friday, September 15, 8:00 p.m. ET.

Come back on Monday to join us at the carnival!

Tags: nonprofit, consultants, blog carnival

Delays in IRS Nonprofit Approval

Posted to the IRS' web site:

Where Is My Exemption Application?

Many exempt organizations and practitioners may have noticed an increase in the timeframe to process an application for tax-exempt status.

We apologize for any delays you may be experiencing and we are taking steps to decrease processing time. This delay is the result of a backlog of exemption applications.

The page goes on to explain the process and you can do about it (not much: "There is no need to call.").

Thanks to the Charity Channel's Don Griesmann for the alert.

Tags: nonprofit, IRS, applications, delays