ALERTS
ALERTS
are "policy issues or concerns that affect nonprofits" and are included
in each edition of ZimNotes, a free monthly E-newsletter, sent to
your email address once a month, with articles and information to
help your nonprofit forge a better future. For recent Zimnotes articles
please visit our Free Resources or
subscribe to ZimNotes.
2010.
May
2009
Obama
Signs a New & Expanded Community Service Act
The
Serve America Act greatly expands the number (to 250,000 by 2017)
of participants in Americorps
(paid stipends and education/health benefits for volunteer labor for
nonprofits), including funding for Seniors (those 55 and older can
enroll and give their educational allotment to children, foster or
grandchildren); creates a Social Innovation Fund to provide money
for "social entrepreneurs;" funds the recruitment and management of
volunteers and new capacity building for nonprofits; and tracks civic
participation. See the Chronicle of Philanthropy's synopsis
of the bill.
February
2009
Special
Alert: The Stimulus Package: Is Your Nonprofit Receiving Funds (or
Should It)?
January
2009
Ten
Nonprofit Policy Suggestions
Since we have a new administration that is open to new ideas and supportive
of the nonprofit sector, here is an interesting starting place for
nonprofit policy suggestions by the Aspen Institute. "The stature
and importance of the social sector has grown considerably in recent
decades, yet - except for issues of oversight and accountability -
policymakers pay scant attention to nonprofit organizations. An enormous
opportunity exists to develop public policies that enhance the sector's
capacity to benefit our communities. This set of proposals
provides a starting point for a bi-partisan commission to focus on
maximizing the relationship between government and civil society."
IRS
Online Mini-Courses on Redesigned Form 990
If somehow you missed the fact the IRS has redesigned the annual
Form 990, you can take one of these new IRS
mini-courses (web based) on the redesigned Form 990. This major
revision includes a renewed focus on executive compensation and overhead
costs and new reporting on how organizations are managed (so critical
that Board members also understand what goes into their organizations
990s). StayExempt.org, which provides online IRS educational resources
for tax-exempt organizations, provides information on preparing to
file the new Form 990 as well as a walk-through of the entire form
and frequently used schedules. P.S. Small nonprofits --those with
annual gross receipts below $25,000 -- didn't have to file the 990
annually, but now every year must file the new Form 990-N. See also
Six
Things Every Board Member Should Know About the NEW 990 by Jeanne
Bell, CEO of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services.
November 2008
New
Advocacy/Public Policy Free Resource
Now more than ever
nonprofits need to step up to the plate to ensure policies are created
that help our communities and our sector. "Whether it relates to market
regulations and incentives, support for social services, or corporate
decisions, public policy matters intensely to the people and causes
served by nonprofit organizations," said the Center for Lobbying in
the Public Interest, creator (with the help of the Kellogg Foundation)
of a new tool to help nonprofits more effectively engage in the public
policy process, entitled "Effective
Advocacy at ALL Levels of Government." It does a good job of explaining
why and how to engage in effective advocacy, including sample strategic
plans and case stories.
IRA
Rollover Donations OK'd
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (the so-called "bailout bill")
renewed a law allowing individuals aged 70-and-a-half and older to
donate up to $100,000 from their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
and Roth IRAs to nonprofits tax-free. (THIS IS GOOD NEWS). The National
Committee on Planned Giving estimated that this tax break produced
more than $140 million in donations in one year. Additional provisions
in the bill extend deductions that businesses may take for gifts of
food and donations of books and computers to schools. For more details
on the bailout bill provisions for nonprofits or for more information
on the IRA
donation
(see link).
Nonprofit
Gender Gap Narrows
OK this in only partial good news…. women narrowed the pay gap in
executive compensation but still lag behind men in almost every category.
GuideStar's annual compensation report found that the median increases
for female chief executive officers slightly outpaced those for men
at organizations of most sizes. At the biggest organizations, female
CEO's earned 34.8 percent less than their male counterparts. You need
a subscription but see article
at Chronicle of Philanthropy.
September
2008
ALERTS
SPECIAL: CAMPAIGN 2008 NONPROFIT RESOURCES
Since
this is an important election year ZimNotes is providing you with
a number of resources geared to nonprofit issues and concerns.
What
Can Nonprofits Do in an Election Year?
The Alliance for Justice has a checklist
of dos and don'ts for nonprofits in election years, and other resources.
You can work to get out the vote, educate voters on your policy
issues, hold candidate forums (be sure to invite all the viable candidates),
send all candidates questionnaires; you can't endorse any candidates.
Ask
U.S. Candidates Questions About Nonprofits
A new website,V3
Campaign, lets any nonprofit employee, volunteer, funder or friend
--with the push of a button--ask candidates for office to detail how
they would partner with and strengthen the nonprofit sector to achieve
their vision for their city, state or the country. Yes it's ok to
ask questions! ZimNotes did this and had a response within hours!
CA
Get Out The Vote Button
California's Secretary of State is looking to nonprofits get out the
vote in the upcoming election. Resource information is available online
by clicking here
and nonprofits and other organizations are urged to add the MyVote
Election Information button to their website..
One-Stop
Shop For Nonprofit Voter-Participation
The Nonprofit
Vote Campaign, created by the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network,
provides training, information, legal resources, how-to guides, and
materials such as bumper stickers and posters to help nonprofit groups
in all 50 states get voters to the polls for the November elections.
This is a "one-stop shop" for information and resources about nonprofit
voter-participation activities.
Campaign
2008
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has compiled a resource called Campaign
2008 with information about where the candidates for the White
House stand on the issues that matter to nonprofit causes, information
on getting the vote out, and the rules about the laws governing nonprofit
involvement in political and advocacy activities.
May
2008
New
Resources: Campaign 2008 and V3 Campaign
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has compiled a new resource called Campaign
2008 with information about where the candidates for the White
House stand on the issues that matter to nonprofit causes, information
on getting the vote out, and the rules about the laws governing nonprofit
involvement in political and advocacy activities. Another good resource
on these issues is V3 Campaign
whose motto is "V3 will make the voice of the nonprofit sector heard,
its value realized, and its votes counted in EVERY election in America
by Inauguration Day, January 20th, 2017." It's worth checking out
their website to see the cool flashing statistics on the home page
about nonprofits (such as 14 million folks work and 80 million volunteer
in nonprofits every year).
IRS
Getting Tough on Governance Issues
If anyone thought that the IRS is backing off governance issues, they
are sadly mistaken. An IRS spokesperson recently said they will spend
more effort monitoring the "efficiency and effectiveness" of nonprofits.
IRS would try to "create and enforce a standard to ensure that organizations
spend in line with their resources," a so-called commensurate test
- to determine whether nonprofits are using their money in an acceptable
way. Allegedly Congress and the public are frustrated that nonprofits
with significant assets are doing little or nothing that would be
considered "charitable;" in particular they point to educational institutions
that are haording large endowments. See "Putting
Charity to the Test: IRS considers controversial measure for charitable
activity." Lawmakers are also considering tougher penalties for
groups that fail to fill out key lines of the Form 990 and for groups
that fail to accurately report information on the form and may revisit
plans to calculate ratios that show how much of a nonprofit's revenue
is used to fulfill its mission versus how much pays for executive
salaries and fundraising costs. In addition the Postal Service is
talking about making nonprofits reveal fundraising costs in more detail
than is already required by 990s. "Proposal
to Improve Disclosure of Fund-Raising Costs Debated."
April
2008
IRA
ROLLOVER
The IRA Charitable Rollover (making it easier to donate to nonprofits
from IRA accounts) provision contained in the Pension Protection Act
of 2006 expired December 31, 2007. The previous IRA Rollover had already
led to millions of dollars in new donations ($110 million to nonprofits
in 2007). In early March 2008, the House and Senate budget resolutions
for the 2009 fiscal year proposed to extend the IRA charitable rollover.
Still preferable is the passage of a stand-alone IRA Charitable Rollover
provision that is permanent, would remove the $100,000 annual limit
on donations, and would lower the starting at age from 701/2 to 59
1/2. For
more info and how to support this effort.
ESTATE
TAX
This issue is back on the table. Recently the Senate Finance Committee
held hearings to build consensus for a bipartisan compromise on the
estate tax. According to Brookings Institution scholars, repeal could
cost U.S. charities at least $10 billion in lost charitable giving
per year. For more information on the estate tax and how concentrated
wealth affects the economy, see www.faireconomy.org.
For a fact
sheet on the repeal of estate tax's affect.
WANT
TO KNOW WHAT THE IRS THINKS ABOUT GOVERNANCE PRACTICES?
Good governance, while not dictated by federal tax law, is nonetheless
a new focus of the IRS. To encourage such internal oversight, the
IRS "commends"
a series of policies and practices.
February
2008
NEW
FORM 990
Recently, the IRS released a redesigned Form 990, the main tax form
for nonprofit groups, for tax year 2008 (to be filed in 2009). The
new form requires nonprofits to disclose more information about
their financial operations than is currently required. Smaller nonprofit
organizations, worried about the extra time it will now take to fill
these out, were given a phased in three-year period. Although a goal
was simplification, the main part of the redesigned Form 990 consists
of an 11-page document-accompanied by 16 supporting schedules. By
comparison, the current Form has a 9-page main section and two schedules.
