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Monday, February 28, 2005

New Report Investigates Social Security Administration
A new report by the Committee on Government Reform (Minority) investigates whether the Social Security Administration has altered its communications to the public to build support for President Bush's Social Security Proposals.

Posted by Jennifer Lowe, 02:33:13 PM

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Alabama Senate Passes Nonprofit Accountability Bill
Over the objections of the Christian Coalition, the Alabama Senate approved legislation Tuesday that would require organizations to disclose their donors when they run issue ads during election seasons in Alabama.

Political action committees, which contribute to candidates and run ads urging the support or defeat of a candidate, already have to disclose their donors. The bill targets the use of ads by nonprofit organizations that criticize a candidate, but stop short of telling people to vote against the candidate. 501(c)(3)s can criticize an office holder, but Federal rules prohibit increased activity during election season. It also prohibits organizations from advocating for or against a candidate.

The bill's lone opposition stated that Federal rules already bar the actions that this bill proports to prevent.

According to the bill's sponsor, "They don't ever enforce that."

Hm. Maybe he should check with the 60 organizations currently being investigated by the IRS for doing just that.

A report by the IG of the IRS on Election Activities by Tax-Exempt Orgs

Also, latest Watcher on the report.

See also the Decatur Daily article!

Posted by Jennifer Lowe, 03:53:13 PM

Uganda Grant - More Evidence the Grant was Unfounded?
This week, we did a Watcher story about USAID giving an abstience grant to a Ugandan nonprofit that recieved a negative rating by an independent panel.

Today, the New York Times documents a new study about the ineffectiveness of the promotion of abstience in Uganda. Interesting. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/national/24aids.html

Posted by Jennifer Lowe, 03:19:27 PM

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

New California Nonprofit Legislation
A new California law requires more nonprofits to get annual audits, recruit qualified volunteers for new oversight committees, and take other steps to assure better oversight and show they are fair, requirements some say will divert nonprofits' money and time from their causes, the Sacramento Business Journal reported.

Posted by Jennifer Lowe, 03:02:40 PM

Thursday, February 03, 2005

New E-Filing Available to Nonprofits!
Tax-exempt organizations can file their information returns for tax year 2004 electronically via a new free web service launched by the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS).

Last year, more than 450,000 organizations sent the Internal Revenue Service paper copies of Form 990, the annual information return for tax-exempt entities. With 990 Online -- available at http://efile.form990.org/ -- these organizations can file returns with the same ease and accuracy enjoyed by individual taxpayers who e-file.

Earlier this month, the IRS released regulations requiring certain tax-exempt organizations to e-file their information returns. Although the rule does not go into effect until 2006, many nonprofits can get a head start this year by e-filing through NCCS's 990 Online.

For more information, visit the Urban Institute's website.

Posted by Jennifer Lowe, 10:49:02 AM

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