Government & Regulation

In February 2015, Robert Bruce, a 34-year-old from Tennessee, was indicted by a grand jury on six federal wire fraud charges related to the charity he created to honor the victims of December 2012’s Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in Newtown, Conn. Now, Bruce has agreed to plead guilty, having reached a plea deal with the U.S. attorney’s office, The Associated Press reported...

As Seattle struggles to respond to a growing homelessness crisis, a local nonprofit is closing 15 overnight shelters due to a funding shortage, leaving about 300 people looking for somewhere else to sleep. Representatives from the nonprofit SHARE/WHEEL said they're $75,000 in debt and unable to sustain the homeless shelters they operate in church basements…

Andrew Caspersen, a senior private equity executive with PJT Partners, has been arrested and charged with attempting to defraud investors out of around $95 million. In addition to the criminal charges filed by Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Caspersen is the subject of a parallel civil complaint filed…

A South Dakota couple who died in a murder-suicide last year stole hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to be used to help improve Native Americans' college readiness, among other things, state Attorney General Marty Jackley said Wednesday. Investigators believe the total amount that Scott and Nicole Westerhuis stole exceeded $1 million, based on a…

In response to mounting criticism and a potential exodus of major donors after independent investigations by CBS News and The New York Times questioned its spending habits, Wounded Warrior Project last night announced that it has fired CEO Steve Nardizzi and chief operating officer Al Giordano...

Last month was not a good one for billionaires’ new vision of global philanthropy. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, argued that he just wanted to provide bare bones Internet access, free of charge, to poor, unconnected communities in India. The problem was that the service, called Facebook Free Basics, would let users visit certain sites…

More than 30 years after being created to raise money, charity bingo is facing renewed scrutiny across Texas for not living up to its promise. The Texas Lottery Commission has yanked the licenses of fewer than a dozen bingo operators statewide, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The state can revoke a bingo license if the operator…

Fundraising is difficult, no matter how you slice it. Your fundraising team is hard at work, finding prospects, writing letters and grants, “following up” countless times—you know the story. So why hamstring yourself further by ignoring state charitable solicitation requirements? You could be losing crucial gifts and credibility with donors without even knowing it...

With many of the largest U.S. college endowments at record values, two congressional committees that determine tax policy jointly opened an inquiry about how the wealthiest schools manage and spend those funds. The Republican leadership of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee emailed letters late Monday to 56 private schools…

To those optimistic, persistent souls who have a vested interest in seeing positive social change in the U.S., here’s a sobering message: If you are looking for meaningful government support, don’t hold your breath. Political gridlock and mounting federal debt effectively have rendered the U.S. government impotent, robbing it of its historic ability to spur…