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Category: Nonprofit Fundraising

Trump Plan to Cap Itemized Deductions a Concern for Nonprofits

Trump Plan to Cap Itemized Deductions a Concern for Nonprofits

As has been widely reported, President-Elect Donald Trump’s plan to change the U.S. tax system includes placing a cap on itemized deductions–$100,000 for a single person, and $200,000 for a married couple. Sound like plenty to cover your deductions? (It sure is for mine.) But we all have cause for concern about the impact on U.S. nonprofit organizations, because charitable donations are on the list of potential U.S. tax deductions. Suddenly, the wealthiest of donors will have less incentive to give….

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Online Places to Do Holiday Shopping for a Cause

Online Places to Do Holiday Shopping for a Cause

A shout-out to Nonprofit Tech for Good for compiling a list of 30 Online Stores That Benefit Nonprofits, just in time for the start of the holiday shopping season. My family could have used this the year I announced (in classic Berkeley style) that I wanted to reduce consumerism and overconsumption by having us give and get only gifts from nonprofits that year. I think I confused them. I received things like shrunken wool sweaters from Goodwill. Perhaps, like many people I’ve…

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Hmm, Maybe a Scoreboard Wasn’t Quite What This Donor Thought He Was Funding

Hmm, Maybe a Scoreboard Wasn’t Quite What This Donor Thought He Was Funding

Here’s one you can file under, “Complying With the Letter of the Law Won’t Necessarily Keep You Out of Trouble.” The University of New Hampshire seems to have been, legally speaking, properly handling a testamentary donation when it used one fourth of the $4 million that thrifty library cataloguer Robert Morin saved and left to the college for–are you ready?–a football scoreboard. Mr. Morin had, it appears true, made a mostly unrestricted gift. By law, a nonprofit that receives such a gift must simply put…

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New Edition of “Effective Fundraising for Nonprofits” Hits the Shelves!

New Edition of “Effective Fundraising for Nonprofits” Hits the Shelves!

Nolo’s all-around guide to raising money for small to mid-size charitable organization has been a success since it was first published, not only becoming a resource for not nonprofit staff, but used at many universities to teach fundraising principles. We’re please to announce that the book has just been released in its fifth edition. Like every Nolo book, we take pains to update and freshen it up before issuing a new version. This latest one features: Detailed new advice on running a…

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Charity Navigator Eases Pressure on Nonprofits to Show Minimal Overhead

Charity Navigator Eases Pressure on Nonprofits to Show Minimal Overhead

A back-end change to the rating system metrics used by a watchdog organization for nonprofits may not sound like a big deal, or make for snazzy headlines. But the recent announcement by Charity Navigator that it is “upgrading” the way it evaluates charities and ultimately decides how many “stars” each one merits (one a one to four scale) represents a huge change in attitude, and one that will hopefully trickle down through the entire philanthropic community. The main change to…

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