In case you missed our blog about this story earlier in the year, the nanny-state strikes again. Back in January, we told you about a new consumer “protection” law, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, that was going into effect…
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, aka ACORN, was, until the past year, a relatively unknown organization to most Americans. Founded in 1970 and based in New Orleans, Louisiana, ACORN’s most visible face is that of a 501(c)(3)…
One of the most challenging situations your nonprofit organization can face is the need to expand. It is also an exciting challenge. Compared with the alternative of diminishing effectiveness and shrinking support, growth is a good thing. At least it…
Fraud is a word that conjures up many images in your mind. Maybe your definition of fraud is someone lying to you, stealing from you or conspiring against you while pretending to help you. All of these are true…and it…
The idea for this article came from my good friend, Belinda from Madison, Alabama. A few weeks ago, she wrote us an email asking the following: “Due to the economic downturn and, with the increasing requests for benevolence assistance, are…
At the end of every newsletter, we put out the call for “topic requests”. We have used quite a few reader questions or topic suggestions for article topics. Some questions or topics do not require a whole article to answer or discuss. …
Charitable Solicitations Registration. “Never heard of it,” you say. Well, you are not alone. As astounding as it may seem, estimates of noncompliance range from 85-95% of charities and nonprofits nationwide. This level of noncompliance has persisted primarily because of…
You’ve seen the news. You know it’s tough out there. Just this morning I saw the following headlines on my Chronicle of Philanthropy RSS feed: “Charitable Donations Fell by Nearly 6% in 2008”, “Ford Foundation Offers Buyouts to One-Third of…
Occasionally, you have to protect people from themselves. Even those with the best of intentions can mess things up so badly that it can jeopardize what they are trying to accomplish. In the nonprofit world, there are best practices, good…
Once upon a time, there were two websites, each belonging to a different charity. Our tale follows the adventures of these websites. The first website…we’ll call it “the good site”…was considered a real asset to its owner. While not fancy…