The ultra-rich continued to give big to American nonprofits in the past year, with the sum of the 10 largest single donations of the year nearly equaling the combined top 10 of 2013. The top donation of 2014 was a $1 billion bequest from Ralph Wilson Jr., a Detroit businessman who owned the Buffalo Bills football team. He died in March at age 95, and now his heirs are deciding how best to adhere to his wishes as his charitable foundation expands.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida has resigned from each of his corporate and nonprofit board positions, an aide confirmed Thursday, the latest indication that he is moving toward starting a presidential campaign. Bush, a Republican, gave up positions at an online education firm, his own education foundation and his post on the board of Michael R. Bloomberg’s philanthropic foundation this week, the latest nonpolitical commitments from which he has detached himself as he looks toward the 2016 race.
The Natan Fund, a Jewish giving circle, launched a website and resource library to help potential philanthropists join the growing movement of collaborative charity in small groups. Launched in September, Amplifier: The Jewish Giving Circle Movement, has more than 40 member organizations. Its creators set their goal at attracting another 50 in 2015.
Giving circles are formed by individual donors with common interests and are most popular among women, minorities and donors under 40. Participants pool their charitable contributions and decide as a group where to allocate those philanthropic funds.
Check out this infographic from Happify, and next time you ask someone for money, remember that giving is just as valuable to the giver as the recipient.
Those under age 30 now are more likely to say citizens have a "very important obligation" to volunteer, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds. The embrace of volunteering is striking because young people's commitment to other civic duties — such as voting, serving on a jury and staying informed — has dropped sharply from their parents' generation and is lower than that of Americans overall.
Among six civic activities in the AP-GfK poll, volunteering is the only one that adults under 30 rated as highly as older people did.
A startup insurance company loaned $145 million by the U.S. government under Obamacare is running out of money and being taken over by state officials in Iowa.
The company, CoOportunity Health, which also serves Nebraska, was placed under Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart’s supervision this week and is no longer accepting new enrollees, according to a statement from his office. While Gerhart’s agency will operate the company for the time being, it’s urging policyholders to seek a new insurer.
The federal government is cracking down on nonprofit hospitals under ObamaCare in an attempt to prevent harsh collection practices and steep charges for the uninsured. Newly finalized regulations from the Internal Revenue Service, announced Monday, will require nonprofit hospitals to “take an active role in improving the health of the communities” by making payment methods more fair and making costs more transparent.
Local Pa. government leaders have complained for years that the property tax exemption enjoyed by large nonprofit organizations such as hospitals deprives counties, municipalities and school districts of critical revenue they could be using to provide services.
Charities have argued they provide critical public services that far outweigh the taxes they would otherwise be paying.
The debate could land on the ballot in Pennsylvania next year in the form of a constitutional amendment that would grant lawmakers, and not the judiciary, the right to determine which nonprofits qualify for the tax break.
On New Year’s Eve, the International Rescue Committee — a charity created in 1933 to aid refugees and those displaced by war, persecution or natural disasters — will be getting some unprecedented exposure. It is the first charity to be officially designated as a partner of the iconic New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, which is watched by more than a billion people worldwide.
Nonprofits employ roughly 11.4 million nationwide, accounting for more than 10 percent of all jobs in the United States outside the public sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released for the first time. That puts nonprofit employment ahead of all but two industries — retail trade and manufacturing — and signals that tax-exempt organizations are becoming an increasingly prominent player in the national economy, experts say.
