News/Stats/Studies

(Press release, Dec. 17, 2014) — The V Foundation for Cancer Research, one of the nation's leading cancer research funding organizations, is pleased to announce proceeds of Dick Vitale's latest book, "It's Awesome Baby! 75 Years of Memories and a Lifetime of Opinions on the Game I Love," will benefit pediatric cancer research. Covering Vitale's career as a coach and announcer, the book includes personal memories, insights and much more. The proceeds will be added to the more than $12 million Vitale has raised for pediatric cancer research through his annual gala for The V Foundation.

Three charitable tax provisions were among the dozens included in a bill that passed the Senate Tuesday night that retroactively extended expired tax provisions through the end of this year. The U.S. Senate approved the “Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014” (H.R. 5771) by a vote of 76-16 (with eight senators not voting). Nay votes came from both parties, with eight Democrats and eight Republicans, while those not voting were composed of one Independent, one Democrat and six Republicans.

(Press release, Dec. 15, 2014) — Billhighway, creator of cloud-based automation software that simplifies finance and fundraising operations, announced it has been named a National 101 Best & Brightest Company to Work For by the National Association for Business Resources. This is the third straight year Billhighway has achieved this honor.

An Atlanta college is suspending its endowed professorship with Bill Cosby amid allegations by more than two dozen women that the comedian and actor sexually assaulted them. Spelman College is the latest school to disassociate itself from Cosby. Spelman says in a statement that the program was established in the name of Cosby and his wife, Camille, to bring positive attention and scholars to the campus.

Congress ended the week poised to revive a popular tax provision that encourages charitable donations of individual-retirement-account assets.

The charitable IRA rollover provision, which expired at the end of 2013, allowed IRA owners and IRA beneficiaries 70½ or older to donate up to $100,000 in IRA assets to charity without reporting the withdrawal as taxable income. Experts expect Congress to revive the provision, as it has several times in recent years.

An agency tied to the State University of New York has agreed to pay the federal government $3.75 million to settle claims that its employees doctored audits to hide the number of ineligible people receiving Medicaid benefits. Federal prosecutors accused the Research Foundation of SUNY of falsifying its audits of how efficiently the state was running its Medicaid program between October 2007 and September 2008.

On Monday morning, Invisible Children, the organization behind the hugely popular "Kony 2012" viral video, announced major changes to its operations. The company will close its San Diego-based headquarters, it announced, and transfer its African-based operations to local partners over the next year.

It's a significant change for the company — and it may well spell its end. The staff in the U.S. office will be cut from 21 to four before the end of the year, while the number of staff working in Africa will be scaled down from 20 to 10 in March.

The former executive director of the Peninsula Symphony is facing up to 16 years in prison after being convicted of embezzling $272,000 from the orchestra of volunteers, Santa Clara County prosecutors said Thursday.

Prosecutors are seeking an unusually long sentence for the nonviolent offense because Stephen Jay Carlton, 46, has a prior "strike crime" on his record. About 20 years ago, Carlton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the strangulation of his wife.

Several nonprofits that use for-profit companies to collect donated goods say that they will look more closely at such arrangements, following a Minnesota decision that called for Savers LLC to change its business practices.

Minnesota’s Attorney General’s Office filed a compliance report in November stating that "Savers mixes its identity with that of the charities and fails to disclose the amount of a donor’s donation that is received by the charity versus the amount that is retained by Savers, a for-profit corporation."

For most people, giving money to charity feels great. Asking for the money back is a whole different story. Yet philanthropy experts say donors increasingly are doing just that: requesting “refunds” on gifts they feel have been misused, ignored or spent in a way that strays from their original reason for giving.

The ease of accessing financial data on the Internet, as well as a string of high-profile court battles involving donors seeking refunds, are behind the shift, experts say.