Tax, Legal & Compliance

Dennis Daugherty wanted to give back, so he decided to host a charity golf tournament for Make-A-Wish Foundation. It would be perfect. Picturesque greens, the whoosh of swinging drivers cutting through the fall breeze, golfers raising money for a great cause—you can't beat that. But there were two minor problems...

Back in February, BBB Wise Giving Alliance alerted the charitable community about a fake-check overpayment scam. It appears this scam is continuing using different names and affiliations, but the same scenario. Charities receive an email from an individual expressing interest in making a five-figure donation, and the individual then sends the gift using overnight mail.…

The CEO of Goodwill Omaha resigned last week in the wake of a World-Herald investigation showing that the charity’s top-dollar executive pay has consumed the profits of its signature thrift stores, leaving scant dollars for programs to help disabled and needy job seekers. Frank McGree, the 64-year-old who led the Omaha charity for 30 years,…

A Portland, Ore., bookkeeper—who said she couldn't stay quiet about "disturbing" spending by a nonprofit organization that was supposed to help Oregon's foster children—is suing her former employer for $375,000, claiming she was wrongfully fired from her job. Deborah Muller said in a lawsuit filed last week that she lost sleep after her boss, certified…

According to "The Nonprofit Almanac, 2016: The Essential Facts and Figures for Managers, Researchers and Volunteers," updated and released by the Urban Institute, growth in the sector occurred mostly in the health care and social assistance sectors, which include hospitals, mental health centers, crisis hotlines, blood centers, soup kitchens, senior centers and similar organizations. That…

Some Minnesota nonprofits are starting to boost their wages as a moral and economic good. Nonprofit landlord and developer Aeon raised the minimum pay for its workers to $15 this year, $5.50 more than the state’s minimum—ensuring a raise for 34 of its 119 employees. People Serving People, which helps homeless families, has set a…

For nonprofit organizations, finding high-quality, low-cost IT resources can be a challenge. You may not have the budget, or the in-house with a deep enough background in technology to know what the best decisions are. This is especially true when it comes to data protection. Your donors are your greatest asset, and the last thing they want is to have to worry about whether or not you are preventing their personal information from being stolen...

Leo DiCaprio is cooperating with the feds and plans to return more than $1 million worth of donations tainted by a massive international corruption scandal, according to a statement from his charitable foundation Tuesday. The Oscar-winning actor bowed to increasing public pressure that he make amends for his ties to infamous party animal Jho Low,…

A woman of Islamic faith has filed a $1 million lawsuit against a Portland nonprofit, alleging she was fired because of her religion, national origin and disability of asthma. The lawsuit filed last week by Sharmin Rahman contends she was fired by Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare after wearing a head scarf, asking for prayer breaks and…

Nonprofit accounting is hardly donor-friendly. Annual ­required disclosures on IRS Form 990 are murky and outdated, and nonprofits use all kinds of tricks to conceal how they’re spending contributions. So relief seemed at hand when the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the rule-setting body for the accounting profession, recently announced the first major changes…