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Monday, June 2,
2008 |
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The NPT Weekly Update:
Table of Contents
News
Update
Red Cross Beats J&J In Federal
Court
Tips of the
Week:
Advocacy ...
Get candidates
educated about you
Online ...
7 dangers in getting donors to give
now
Finance
...
Understanding Foundation
Expenses
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News
Update
Red Cross Beats J&J
In Federal Court
By Mark Hrywna
The American Red Cross (ARC) is
free to use the red cross emblem on products it sells to further
its mission under protections granted by Congress in its federal
charter more than a century ago, a federal judge ruled.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J), a New Brunswick, N.J.-based
healthcare conglomerate, filed eight claims last September
regarding the human service agency’s use of the red cross
emblem on health and safety products, some of which were sold by
J&J’s competitors. A judge dismissed some of the
claims in November.
(Click
here for more)
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Tips of the Week
Advocacy ...
Get
candidates educated about you
As oxymoronic
as it sounds, there is such a thing as candidate education, that
is, providing political candidates with basic information on a
subject.
For private
foundations, candidate education can be beneficial, but it can
also cause problems with government regulation of lobbying,
which is forbidden to foundations.
The Alliance
for Justice has published information about candidate education
that can help foundations avoid legal problems or financial
penalties while still allowing them to try to make a difference.
The Alliance emphasizes that several cautions should be taken
into consideration when providing information to candidates.
This would apply whether the foundation is providing the
information on its own initiative or it has been requested.
The Alliance
suggests:
-
Either offer
to or provide all other parties in the particular race with the
same materials.
-
If the
material provided expresses a view on specific legislation, be
cautious of providing the material to an incumbent. Rules for
political activity and lobbying intersect here.
-
Do not
develop new materials in response to a request from a candidate
or party. This could be seen as supporting the candidate or
party requesting the material.
-
Carefully
consider whether to ask a candidate or party to pledge support
for the grantmaker’s position on an issue. Publicizing
which candidates or parties pledged support the
grantmaker’s position could be seen as support for those
who make the pledge.
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Online ...
7 dangers in getting donors to give
now
Donate now. It’s a concept that
is becoming familiar to a growing number of nonprofit
organizations, as well as the people to visit their online
sites.
Organizations are coming to realize the benefit of using a
Web site as a fundraising tool, as well as simply providing
information about its existence or mission.
Like any good idea, however, this one requires preparation
and planning, so that the organization gets the best possible
return and avoids pitfalls.
In her book Donate Now, Laura S.
Quinn suggests a list of factors to consider when setting up an
immediate online donation system.
- Merchant bank fees. This makes a good starting point for
comparison shopping because some vendors require an organization
to use their accounts but others require that the group open its
own account.
- Startup charges. These can range fro nothing to tens of
thousands of dollars for full donor-management packages.
- Monthly fees. These usually run less than $100.
- Transaction fees. This can be either a percentage of
donations or a flat fee.
- Reliability. It is recommended that a nonprofit ask for a
vendor’s financial results and client list.
- Personality. Most designers will design a payment page to
look like it is part of an organization’s Web site.
- Security. This is not an area to skimp
on.
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Finance ...
Understanding Foundation
Expenses
The world of foundations is a mysterious one to outsiders,
and many of them are suspicious when they are mystified.
In an effort to inform public policy debates and foundation
practices, the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and
Philanthropy, the Foundation Center and GuideStar collaborated
to create The Foundation Expenses and Compensation Project.
The Project issued a paper, “What Drives Foundation
Expenses & Compensation?”, a study focusing on the
years 2001-2003 to document the characteristics of the 10,000
largest U.S. grantmaking foundations. It did not include
operating foundations. Together, the foundations in the study
were responsible for 78 percent of foundation giving and 77
percent of foundation assets.
The study issued five key findings:
- Foundations exhibit enormous diversity in their structures,
resources and operating characteristics, which significantly
affect their expense levels.
- The size of the foundation, number of staff and
staff-intensive activities all tend to increase cost
ratios.
- Most foundations do not compensate board members, although
compensation is influenced by the type and size of the
foundation and the complexity of its programs.
- There is relatively little year-to-year change in the
factors that drive expense ratios or in how foundations allocate
their charitable administrative expenses during the study
period.
- The status of the economy, particularly the stock market,
affects assets and giving levels and thus the relationship of
foundations’ charitable administrative expenses to
qualifying distributions.
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Copyright ©
2008 The
NonProfit Times.
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