Protecting Nonprofit Rights

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

September 11, 2001 Tragedy: Resources to Help

Our hearts, minds, thoughts, prayers, and condolences go out to every family, friend, colleague, and life affected by the horrific set of tragedies of September 11, 2001. There is so much feeling and so many words one could try to express. All the space in the world would never be sufficient to accommodate or do justice to them all. Please take a moment to put aside differences, honor the departed, respect those suffering and in need in this time, and provide assistance when and where possible. Our hope is that the following resources may help facilitate this. Criminal Investigation

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Strategic Fundraising Through E-mail

The following material is provided merely for background and reference information, and should not be considered or substituted for legal advice. Please consult with your organization's legal counsel for more information.

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Impact of Administrative Advocacy Online

One type of nonprofit advocacy that does not always get a lot of attention in the context of online advocacy is administrative advocacy. This describes attempts to understand and intercede in agency deliberations and rulemaking processes on the federal, state, or local level. It can include:

efforts to influence regulatory issues
the shaping of executive branch and agency budgets and grants
teaching or assisting others with the filing of comments on governmental actions and proposed regulations
monitoring program operations

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Spam and Bulk E-mail

The following material is provided merely for background and reference information, and should not be considered or substituted for legal advice. Please consult with your organization's legal counsel for more information. I'm not one to touch it in a can I'm not prone to read it at 9 a.m. I do not like e-mail called spam I do not like it, spam. I am... ...

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Congressional Attitudes Towards Constituent E-mail

The Congress Online Project is a two-year effort run by the Congressional Management Foundation to help address issues regarding the information and communications flow among Congress, citizens, public interest groups, and lobbyists. On March 19th, COP released "E-Mail Overload in Congress: Managing a Communications Crisis," a report based on work done in conjunction with George Washington University.

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Public Interest Policy Information and Media Advocacy

Portions of the following information are drawn from previous postings on the NPTalk discussion list. It is difficult to know for certain whether the Internet has helped to make more high-quality policy information available to the public, or simply more information.

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Advocacy and Virtual Organizations: Theory and Considerations

The following material is provided merely for background and reference information, and should not be considered or substituted for legal advice. Please consult with your organization's legal counsel for more information.

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The Benefits of Zaplets to Nonprofits

Think about what you like about e-mail. It's pretty basic, easy to use regardless of the specific client, platform, operating system, etc. Now think about what you don't like about e-mail. It piles up quickly, is pretty static in terms of the range of content that can be delivered, and it's not rally good for time sensitive information if recipients are not paying attention to their inboxes.

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Conservative and Progressive Online News Sites

Concerned that mainstream media is too left of center, and you can't find anywhere to turn for right-of-center commentary online? J.D. Lasica wrote about the growing popularity of conservative online news websites and communities, evidenced during the presidential campaign, in an 11/21/00 Online Journalism Review article.

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Access to Electronic and Online Federal Court Records

A staggering amount of personal information is contained in federal court records, almost all of which is available to the public by federal law-- but relatively little of it available in electronic formats that promote greatest public accessibility, ease of use, and remote public access through online means. Locating information about, and within, the legal arena, therefore, can be a time-consuming task, requiring no small amount of digging among paper courthouse records in an attempt to piece together information to inform advocacy activity. You Get What You See(?)

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