With only a few months to go before the new administration takes office, we examine the notion of ‘grass-roots‘ as associated with popular movements or opinions came into the American lexicon at the turn of the twentieth century. The, er, ‘grass roots’ of the term, according to Answers.com came a generation earlier and specific to […]
#NONPROFIT: The 501(c)4 Conundrum & The IRS’s Challenges To Tea Party Groups
The scuttlebutt over the IRS’s double-standards concerning political nonprofits associated with the Tea Party and those associated with other center-right causes is likely well known to our readers. What underlies the conflict has less to do with politics, though, and much more to do with semantics. If the case forces the issue of tax reform […]
#ADVOCACY: Google Does Harm To Privacy & Suffers An Hour’s Income For Infractions
What you think about Google’s (and Facebook’s. And Twitter’s…) efforts to collect personal information of its users probably says quite a bit about what you think about human nature: If you don’t mind a database of your online activities being used by social networks and search engines, then you are likely comfortable with the fact […]
#FUNDRAISING: Crowdfunding Response To Boston Bombing Raises Hope & Caution
One of the wonderful qualities of Americans is the way we respond with our time and our money when a terrible shock or natural disaster hits our fellow countrypeople. The bombings in Boston on the 15th were certainly ‘terrible shocks’ and as homemade and smartphone videos make clear, volunteers and fellow marathon watchers ran in […]
#FUNDRAISING: Presidential Candidates Ramp Up Mobile Giving
With the (delayed) start of the Republican Convention in Tampa earlier this week, the really officially serious campaign season starts. For the next 10-odd weeks, most American start to focus on the candidates, their platforms, and their messages. There has been much talk about the low level of discourse that has driven the campaign thus […]
#CIVICS: Nonprofits Should Watch Their Politics On Their Social Networks
As the now-famous comic writer Andy Borowitz has posted on Twitter: “Only a billion more lies until the election.” Not only is it easy to get swept up in the horse-trading, haranguing and name-calling during an election, it’s what you’re supposed to do. We live and thrive in a government “of the people, by the […]
#TECH: Once Developed By Apple, Now Abandoned By Apple: EPEAT Standards
It can be tough to love Apple, Inc. Stock prices over $600? Check. Over $100 billion in cold, hard, cash? You bet. Products loved even by those who don’t even own one? Of course! Profits over $6.5 billion a quarter? No sweat. Charitable organization? Er… Recycle program for its gadgets? Well, up to a point. […]
#CIVICS: Apple’s Billions In Tax Dodges Come Under Scrutiny
Apple Inc. is making it difficult to feel sympathy for Apple Inc. When the blogosphere challenged Apple the business and Steve Jobs the CEO to act like a good corporate citizen by offering some philanthropic goodwill, we took a fairly conciliatory position that Apple’s job is innovative technology and Apple’s innovative technology has been a […]
#SM4NP: Kony 2012 Will Get A Sequel & More Context Today
As any Hollywood mogul will confirm, when your movie is watched by 100 million people, you need to make a sequel. That market is just too big to pass up. And the renown viral video Kony 2012 has been viewed well over 100 million times. Nevertheless, the reasons the San Diego based firm ‘Invisible Children’ will […]
#PROAGING: Republican Budget Realigns Medicare But Ignores Long-Term Care
The macro-economics of aging over the next 40 years do not look great: the first Baby Boomers reached the age of Social-Security eligibility 15 months ago, but the crest of this so-called ‘Silver Tsunami’ will not come until about 2030. It will not recede for another couple of decades. The issue is not the number […]
#SM4NP: ‘Kony 2012’ Still Stirs Engagement, Controversy, And Embarrassment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc”
The controversy surrounding the viral video ‘Kony 2012’ continues even as its
#SM4NP: Kone 2012 Video Goes Viral, But Maybe For Wrong Reasons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc”
Today is yet another day in the Republican Primary Season. Today is another day many thousands of Republicans will not want Barack Obama re-elected, but nor will they rally around a viable contender. Yet today also is the day possibly the 75 millionth person watches the viral video phenomenon ‘Kony 2012’. The video tells the […]
#PUBLICPOLICY: Online Privacy Becomes Concern For Service Providers
Online privacy has been a notable concern for many citizens almost since the inception of the internet, and certainly we have often discussed the issue on our blog over the years. A decade ago, the question of privacy largely was answered with calm warnings to use common sense and with explanations of the averages working […]
#Communications: Postal Rates Raised Last Week – Not For Nonprofits
The United States Postal Service has been struggling financially for the last few years. The Bush Administration saddled the service with pre-paying its future retiree benefits for a decade (2006-2016), a demand uniquely imposed on the USPS. Bush’s policy meant the service went from profits in the $1.4 billion range in 2005 to one that […]
#Tech: SOPA Inspiring Blackouts & Lobbyists – Should Nonprofits Care?
On the surface, not much seems to be of relevance in the ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ (SOPA, H.R. 3261) because nonprofits aren’t really in the business of selling digitized content, much less pirated content. Nevertheless, nonprofit organizations and consumer protection groups are decrying the bill and calling for an internet ‘blackout’ on 18 January as […]
#SocialNetworks: Primary Politics Offer Models For SM Strategy
As voters in New Hampshire head to polls to divvy up delegates for the Republican Convention (and the uncontested Democratic one), all the candidates are doing what Barack Obama did so singularly in 2008: developing social-media strategies meant to expand their bases, to parry jibes from their opponents, and to launch a few of their […]
#Tech: Net Neutrality Supported in Europe – Not Unsupported in US
The European Parliament voted last week to continue to encourage net neutrality as a means to foster innovation and to encourage the dissemination of information. The resolution states, in part, its ambitions “to ensure that internet service providers do not block, discriminate against, impair or degrade the ability of any person to use a service […]
#ProAging: GAP Index Highlights Global Challenges Of Care For Aging
http://vimeo.com/18687471
The fact of the aging of the global population is something our readers are likely at least acquainted with. The phenomenon has arisen as life expectancy has lengthened even in developing countries and populations in developed countries often are not having enough children even to replace themselves. The result is that most national populations whose […]
#ProAging: AARP Busts Some Social Security Myths
As we enter ‘crazy time’ in the electoral calendar (a calendar that now runs from the Friday after the last election to the day of the next one), we will hear ever more about the desperate need to balance the federal budget and pay down the national debt. Few will strongly argue against these budget-balancing […]
#SocialNetworks: Prepped For A PR Disaster? You Better Be…
We all have our brain freezes/brain farts, though few of us have them in front of millions of people. Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has made what will perhaps be the single most famous of these gaffes of this generation. This viewer felt some sympathy as he tried to wade back out […]
#ProAging: Bringing Ballots To Nursing Homes Via The iPad
When the people of Oregon needed to replace Congressional Representative David Wu this week, the state Board of Elections used the opportunity to develop means to get ballots to older citizens in nursing homes. The traditional means to do so were to send absentee ballots out, but such ballots waste a great deal of payer, […]
#ProAging: Mandated Cuts In Medicare Stifle Expansion Plans
This past October 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) put into effect new regulations concerning the payment or reimbursement of services to skilled nursing facilities and certain types of housing for older Americans. The reductions in payments were targeted at 3-4%. As the regulations were being finalized late this summer, we posted reactions […]
#ProAging: How Might The 7 Billion Humans Age?
Earlier this week, the human race passed the 7-billion mark, and continues to expand. Much of the attention given to that milestone as focused on the many thousands of births that take place each second all around the world, but especially in India and subsaharan Africa. Yet, the other side of the demographic story must […]
#Philanthropy: President’s Jobs Bill & Tax Proposal Not Warmly Welcomed By Charities
As arguments over what to do with and about the US economy and the federal deficit continue to shed more heat than light, President Obama sought to take the fight back to the Republicans with the ‘American Jobs Act’ announced last week. The act contains a mix of tax realignments likely to gain some Republican […]
#Economy: The Loss Of A Functional Middle Class
The oft-discussed possibility of a double-dip recession still looms darkly on the near horizon. Sure, the Stock Market is more often up than down, but those numbers represent only about 40% of the economy. Unfortunately, some 1% of the people in the economy control and profit from the 40% takings from that particular casino. For […]
#Aging: Medicare On The Chopping Block Of Debt ‘Compromise’
As most of us raise a sigh of relief that the debt ceiling was raised and a vague compromise to trim $1.2 trillion of the national debt was reached, we should not assume that all government spending will be trimmed equally. The social safety net weaved by Social Security and Medicare remains the most conspicuous […]
#Aging: Medicare’s Support To Home Health Agencies Likely To Be Cut 3+%
With government cuts (or default) looming, everyone is talking about cuts. The battle is really over how much cutting will be done, and who will bleed most. The two federal programs that are most often discussed as targets for cutting are Social Security and Medicare. And every political stripe agrees that as the growing number […]
#Public Policy: Charities’ Off-Shore/Tax-Free Holdings Brought Under Congressional Scrutiny
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e23_1282179202
All the talk about US domestic politics and economics at the moment focuses on the federal budget and the possible default that will result if the US debt limit is not raised by 2 August. As our readers are surely aware, Republicans keep floating grand proposals of “Cut, Cap, and Balance“, while Democrats deride the […]
#Aging: AARP Flips, Then Flops, On Defending Social Security During Budget Debate
The American Association of Retired People (AARP) was founded in 1958 to further the political, economic, and social needs of Americans 50 and older. The association was established to present “collective purpose, collective voice and the collective power of the 50 and over population to change the market based on their needs.” One of the […]
Philanthropy: After Momentous News, What Are Your Next Steps?
As you surely know: Last night, President Obama announced the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The news is developing as we post, and we are not going to pretend we can add anything to this ‘momentous occasion.’ The much more modest proposal today is to ask “What am I going to do next?” The question […]
#Aging: Hearings On Fed Aid For Assisted Living
The passage of Health Care Reform last year hardly ended the debate about health care reform. Since the Republican takeover of the House in November, symbolic efforts have been made to repeal the law. Though repeal will go nowhere unless or until President Obama leaves the White House, hearings and committees have sprung up to […]
Public Policy: Federal Debt Not So Divisive Outside DC
The news is full of stories about tensions among Democrats, Republicans, and Tea Party Freshman Congresspeople about how to deal with the federal deficit. The heat generated by the debate in the nation’s capital should be of special concern among nonprofits and charities, as the quick political response has been to cut deep into the […]