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Love this account of a pissing match between Warren Buffett and Mitch McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky has been urging the Sage of Omaha to make voluntary contributions to the Treasury if he felt he was undertaxed. Buffett has now responded that he’ll match any such contributions made by Republican Senators. This dialogue makes in [...]
Archive for the ‘NonProfits’ Category
December 31st, 2011
Category: 501(c)(3), charity, Good news, Higher education, Human rights, Law Notes, Management, Music, NonProfits, Organizing, Philanthropy, Religion and Politics, Think Tanks, Uncategorized
Good Counsel: Meeting the Legal Needs of Nonprofits by Lesley Rosenthal (John Wiley & Sons 2012) As I embarked on writing Good Counsel: Meeting the Legal Needs of Nonprofits, well-meaning and concerned folks cited at least three reasons why no one had written such a book before, and (implicitly) why I shouldn’t try: it’s too [...]
December 20th, 2011
The most powerful argument in this LA Times op-ed piece opposing the charitable tax deduction is that it’s a poor trade-off. Retired foundation executive Jack Shakely points out that charities have permitted themselves to be shorn of their ability to influence policy and politics in return for a mess of pottage. Of course the restrictions [...]
December 5th, 2011
Category: 501(c)(3), Arts and Cultural Policy, charity, NonProfits, Rhetoric and Framing, Uncategorized, Urban policy, Urbanism
(cross-post with nonprofiteer.net) Had a fascinating conversation recently with Margy Waller, a special advisor to Cincinnati’s ArtsWave, which leads the nation in evidence-based approaches to advocating for arts funding. Ms. Waller had reached out to correct my misunderstanding (and therefore misreporting) of ArtsWave’s efforts, noting that the argument is not that the public should fund [...]
November 8th, 2011
Category: 501(c)(3), charity, Income distribution, Moral philosophy, NonProfits, Philanthropy, Rhetoric and Framing, Uncategorized
. . . wrote Andy Rooney in this long-ago essay. This makes as much sense as anything else Andy Rooney ever said, which is to say, not much. What does it mean to “deserve” charity, beyond needing it? As George Bernard Shaw’s Alfred Doolittle memorably explained in Pygmalion, If theres anything going, and I put [...]
November 2nd, 2011
Ellen Alberding’s interview with the Chicago Tribune in advance of the Independent Sector‘s meeting in Chicago earlier this week was not her, or philanthropy’s, finest hour. Ms. Alberding, head of the Joyce Foundation, described the Foundation’s approach to what even she characterizes as a perfect storm of increased need and reduced resources in the nonprofit [...]
October 27th, 2011
Category: 501(c)(3), charity, Income distribution, Most interesting thing I learned today, NonProfits, Policy Analysis, Taxation
Kudos to my nonprofit consulting colleagues Campbell and Co. for sponsoring a study by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy to determine the impact on giving of increased marginal tax rates and a cap the charitable-giving deduction. While some of us have been arguing that both of these moves toward social justice should be supported [...]
August 26th, 2011
Category: Arts and Cultural Policy, Built Environment, Health Care, Higher education, Illinois, Law Notes, NonProfits, Supreme Court, Taxation, Urban policy
When Harold Pollack wrote about the recent Illinois Department of Revenue decision to withdraw property tax exemptions from three hospitals, he naturally focused on the impact of the decision on health care. But those of us who work in other areas of the nonprofit sector are worried by the decision as well-or, if we aren’t, [...]
August 16th, 2011
Category: Health and Medicine, NonProfits
Safety-net providers and urban teaching hospitals might come out ahead if one could trade the nonprofit exemption for a functional Medicaid system.
May 27th, 2011
Category: NonProfits
My sister Kelly, speaking to the Fellows of the University of Chicago Public Interest Program, tells you everything you need to know about why it’s hard to run charities, as opposed to non-profit businesses. The talk starts at minute 2:15.
