A week or so ago, Bank of America announced it would put a hold on its foreclosure proceedings while it reviewed the processes that moved the foreclosure claims past lawyers, whose signatures were required. Other financial institutes followed suit. The decision came in the midst of growing fears that the foreclosures on tens of thousands […]
A Compendium Of Recent News About (The Effects Of) Unemployment
Perhaps rainy days and Mondays can get us down, but so can recent economic news. And we have had a fair amount of that in the last few days. For example, the last jobs report before the midterm elections shows a notable reduction in public-sector jobs (mostly caused by the ending of the last of […]
#Fundraising: What Is Next For Philanthropy? Acting Bigger And Adapting Better
Earlier this summer The Monitor Institute released a significant white paper penned by Katherine Fulton, Gabriel Kasper, and Barbara Kibbe that wants to challenge philanthropic organizations to see beyond the present fundraising doldrums toward the structural changes that requires such organizations to behave differently, whatever the economic environment. Their answers challenge some of the standard […]
Is Your Organization’s Status With The IRS Up-To-Date?
In our final follow-up/ announcement concerning a subject we (and many others) have periodically discussed over the last year, the IRS has established 15 October (in but one week!) as the deadline for all tax-exempt nonprofits and charitiable organizations to re-assert their status via the Form 990. Tax-exempt organizations are likely to keep their status […]
TARP: Unpopularity Of Program Belies Its Success
In the interests of full disclosure and blogospheric transparency, I should admit I was against the TARP program when proposed by the flailing George W. Bush administration in 2008. It seemed a rush job and a chance for the administration’s friends to get painlessly out of an operation they had botched themselves with absurdly risky […]
#Philanthropy: Baltimore’s Long Tradition Of Civic Philanthropy Unbroken By Great Recession
Baltimore likes to call itself the ‘City of Firsts,’ which has given it a proud heritage of innovation, civic uplift, and educational creativity. The city has struggled, like so many others on the eastern seaboard and in the upper midwest, with declining industrialization and population shifts to exurbs and to the Sun Belt. And yet, […]
George Soros Enjoys Close Ties With Charm City
George Soros has made billions – yes Billions- of charitable donations over the years, and he has most recently given over $100 million to Human Rights Watch (HRW) in an effort to encourage its autonomous status. His wealth comes mostly from his work as a co-founder of the Quantum [Hedge] Fund through the 1980s, but […]
Crowdsourcing Platforms Designed For The Mission-Based Community (Part II)
We continue our introduction into some of the ‘crowdsourcing’ websites and applications that have been developed to links not-for-profits and mission-based organizations with their ever-connected constituents and benefactors. The list presented here yesterday and today is hardly exhaustive, but we believe we have touched upon some of the significant types of websites for various sectors […]