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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Pakistani Charity Investigated in London Airline Plot

Aug 21, 2006 by Kay Guinane

See the Aug. 14 New York Times British and Pakistani investigators are trying to determine whether the group of Britons suspected of plotting to blow up as many as 10 commercial airliners may have received money raised for earthquake relief by a Pakistani charity that is a front for an Islamic militant group. The charity, Jamaat ud Dawa, which is active in the mosques of Britain’s largest cities, played a significant role in carrying out relief efforts after last October’s earthquake in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

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Philanthropy Journal Opinion: Policy work needs more workers.

Aug 21, 2006 by Kay Guinane

Philanthropy Journal Aug. 9, 2006 Flawed public policies underlie critical social problems, and nonprofits must raise their voice and push to fix those policies. In North Carolina, a nonprofit-led coalition that includes banks, corporations and trade groups has urged state lawmakers for two years to increase to $50 million from $3 million the annual appropriation to a state fund for affordable housing. In response, lawmakers agreed to one-time increases of $5 million last year and this year, and also agreed this year to spend nearly $11 million for affordable housing for the mentally ill.

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Focus on Family Aims Voter Drive At Churches

Aug 21, 2006 by Kay Guinane

See the Aug. 15 Washington Post In targeting individual churches the way political organizers traditionally pinpointed certain wards, Focus on the Family is filling a void left by the near-collapse of the Christian Coalition and stepping into an area where recent Republican Party efforts have created resentment among evangelicals...

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IRS To Audit Utah Foundation With Ties to Leavitt Family

Aug 11, 2006 by Guest Blogger

According to the : The Internal Revenue Service plans to audit a Utah foundation that has ties to the Leavitt family, which includes the U.S. secretary of health and human services, Mike Leavitt.

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Coburn Examining Earmarks Given to Univerisities

Aug 10, 2006 by Guest Blogger

From the Journal of Higher Ed: Whether earmarks — funds that a member of Congress directs to recipients without the peer-review process that federal agencies use to dole out most research funds — are dangerously and increasingly undermining peer review, or simply a way that legislators can look out for constituents, depends on who’s talking.

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Check Out the New House Lobby Disclosure Website

Aug 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Check out the new House website for lobby disclosure.

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Donors Are Scared to Send Money for Lebanese Relief

Aug 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

There are donations of food and medicine for Lebanon, but charity leaders are finding that no one wants to give them money. Why? From the Washington Post: The problem, according to relief groups, is that many people who are inclined to write checks for emergency aid and reconstruction in Lebanon are afraid of ending up in some government database of suspected supporters of terrorism. [...]

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NY Times Op-Ed on Campaign Finance Reform

Aug 8, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Interesting New York Times editorial by Bob Bauer and Jan Baran.

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FEC Releases Proposed Exemption for Grassroots Lobbying Broadcasts

The Federal Election Commission is set to vote soon on a grassroots lobbying exemption to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's election-season ban on broadcast communications that discuss a federal candidate. On Aug. 3, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) released a proposal to allow corporations and unions to fund advertisements 60 days before a general election or 30 days before a primary, on either television or the radio, discussing a federal candidate's position on an issue. Specifically, the advertisement must:

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GAO Finds More Grantee Input, Standardization Needed in Grants Streamlining

A new report by the Government Accountability Office found that, while some progress has been made in the federal government's effort to simplify and streamline grant-making procedures, there is still room for improvement. Consequently, federal grantees may be continuing to divert resources from program objectives to comply with burdensome administrative requirements.

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