NonProfit Pro

Firsthand Tales of Creativity and Success
February 1, 2015

Lisa Mummert, senior account executive for Image Source Inc. in Santa Rosa, Calif., shared a promotion she and a winery created to support Murphy-Goode Operation Homefront, an organization that provides financial and practical aid to veterans in need. They sent thank-you bundles to veterans that included USBs loaded with information about Operation Homefront.

Survey Says ... 2015 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report
February 1, 2015

Each year, Nonprofit Marketing Guide President Kivi Leroux Miller and her team release the Nonprofit Communications Trends Report. The 2015 report, released in January, has more than a few interesting findings, perhaps the biggest being that donor retention surpassed acquisition as a goal for the first time in five years. Here are some other noteworthy findings from the report, which was fully completed by 1,535 nonprofits.

The Mobile Tipping Point
February 1, 2015

The "mobile tipping point" (the point at which more than 50 percent of your audience arrives on mobile devices) for some of you has already passed or will happen in the next 12 months. Get your team to estimate which month/year the mobile tipping point will occur for your organization. It may startle you.

Court Orders IRS to Release Computer-Readable Charity Tax Forms
January 30, 2015

A federal judge handed open-records activist Carl Malamud a victory in his battle to get the Internal Revenue Service to release Form 990 tax returns in a format that can be read by computers, thus making information about nonprofit operations far more accessible. U.S. District Judge William Orrick rejected the IRS's argument that producing the documents requested by Malamud's group, Public.Resource.Org, would create a significant burden on an overstretched agency.

Cruz Calls for Investigation Into State Department-Funded Nonprofit
January 30, 2015

Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R., Texas) office called for an investigation on Thursday into the State Department’s funding of a nonprofit group that is assisting a campaign aimed at defeating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The OneVoice Movement, a U.S.-based nonprofit group that is partnering with the V15 effort to oust Netanyahu in Israel’s March elections, received two grants from the State Department in the past year.

Nonprofit's Taxpayer Funding Spiked the Year It Employed Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes
January 30, 2015

An Orgeon nonprofit saw its funding from the state of Oregon soar eightfold the year it put First Lady Cylvia Hayes on the payroll. Hayes only lasted in the job a few months, and right after she left, Gov. John Kitzhaber's administration cut state payments to the group to almost nothing. State records show that the nonprofit, Rural Development Initiatives, saw its state funding grow from $25,000 in 2010 to more than $214,000 in 2011, the year Hayes went to work there. RDI saw its state funding fall to just $2,500 the year after Hayes left.