NonProfit Pro

(Press release, Feb. 17, 2015) — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) was saddened to learn that industry veteran Robert "Bob" DeLay passed away on Friday, Feb. 14, at the age of 96. DeLay served as president of DMA and its predecessor organizations for more than 26 years, spanning from 1959 to 1984. Inducted into DMA's Hall of Fame in 1988, he also played a key role in the launch of the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation in 1966.

A Koch brothers advocacy group contends California Attorney General Kamala Harris has no business demanding the names and addresses of its donors, who might face “grotesque threats” if identified. Americans for Prosperity Foundation, co-founded by billionaires Charles and David Koch, promotes limited government and free markets and conservative causes. Compelling disclosure of the nonprofit organization’s contributors may put them at risk of being targeted by the group’s opponents and intimidate would-be donors, the foundation is set to argue in federal court in Los Angeles.

A proposal to give the Pennsylvania General Assembly the authority to decide when hospitals and other not-for-profit organizations receive tax exemptions cleared the Pennsylvania Senate Tuesday over opposition from Democrats. The proposal, which would amend the state Constitution, passed both legislative chambers in 2013. If it passes the House this year or next, it will appear on a ballot for approval by the voters.

Local governments have opposed the amendment, arguing that handing the Legislature the power to determine tax exemptions would diminish local officials’ prospects in seeking tax revenue from nonprofit organizations.

Recent tweets from folks you should follow.

Two years ago I decided to launch my blog. I never promised it would be pretty, but I did promise some tough nonprofit fundraising and marketing issues would be discussed.

Ted Hart speaks with Clint O'Brien, chief operating officer of Engaging Networks, about social fundraising on his Nonprofit Coach radio show.

For anyone who cares about the health and viability of the nonprofit sector, recent regulatory changes in the way the federal governments fund nonprofits deserve attention. The new rules stipulate that nonprofits should receive additional funds to cover their indirect costs. Indirect expenses, overhead, administrative costs: These terms mean roughly the same thing in the nonprofit sector. They are costs associated with running the non-constituent-facing operations of an organization. This includes such indispensable organizational activities as fundraising, executive management, human resources and information technology.

Attention fundraisers: Stop trying to pull on men’s heartstrings, advises a Stanford University study. Researchers documented an "empathy gap" between men and women when it comes to charitable giving. To get men to respond to cash appeals, it’s best to tell them how the donation will benefit them rather than others in need, according the authors of a forthcoming article in the journal Social Science Research.

Princeton University lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to rescind its New Jersey property-tax exemption for 2014, a ruling that could cost the school millions of dollars and jeopardize the tax status of all nonprofit colleges. Tax Court Judge Vito Bianco ruled Thursday that a lawsuit by four residents of the town of Princeton will go forward, lawyers said. They sued to revoke the school’s tax exemption, in part because it shares royalties with faculty, mostly from a patent that Eli Lilly & Co. turned into the cancer drug Alimta.

A state lawmaker from St. Cloud, Minn., is proposing to exempt nonprofit organizations from having to pay their workers the new higher state minimum wage. Republican Sen. John Pederson is chief author of a bipartisan bill introduced last week that would reduce the minimum wage that tax-exempt nonprofit organizations would have to pay.