9 Sobering Stats About Fraud

Every nonprofit manager knows that fraud is a bad thing but too many operate under the belief that it can never happen to them. It's that attitude that can lead to fraud occurring in the first place.

Managers can’t eliminate human weakness, but they can be vigilant in preventing fraud or, if necessary, dealing with it right away. Further, prevention can be helped in part by awareness throughout the organization.

During the recent AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry Conference, Mitchell Lewis, David McRoberts and William Mellon shared several statistics regarding fraud, taken from the Association of Fraud Examiners 2012 Global Fraud Survey (which includes for-profits). Get ready to be demoralized:

• Asset misappropriation schemes made up 87 percent of reported cases.
• The typical organization loses 5 percent to fraud each year.
• Reported frauds last approximately 18 months before detection.
• Some 77 percent of frauds were committed by individuals in one of the following six departments: accounting, operations, sales, executive/upper management, customer service, purchasing.
• Owners/executives and managers committed median losses at $573,000 and $180,000, respectively.
• The median loss caused by occupational fraud was $140,000.
• Median losses for nonprofits totaled $100,000.
• Approximately 85 percent of fraudsters are first-time offenders.
• Approximately 54 percent of fraudsters were between the ages of 31 and 45.

4 Important But Basic Financial Statements

Executives and board members alike generally don't get much joy from financial reporting. They would rather focus on how to best fulfill their organization's mission yet, in order for that to become a reality, the fact of the matter is that these sometimes tedious tasks are a necessary part of any nonprofit.

As Marci Thomas and Kim Strom-Gottfried explained in their book "The Best of Boards," all nonprofits have at least three or four financial statements that must be completed if the organization is to meet federal and state regulations. These statements, which must be read together to have a complete picture of the organization, were described by Thomas and Strom-Gottfried:

• Statement of Financial Position: Also known as a balance sheet, this statement reports the organization’s assets, liabilities, and net assets at a specific point in time (usually at the end of the organization’s fiscal year).
• Statement of Activities: This statement reports the results of operations (revenues and expenses) and change in net assets for the year.
• Statement of Cash Flows: This statement provides information about the cash receipts and disbursements of the organization that result from operating activities, financing activities, and investing activities.
• Statement of Functional Expenses: This statement provides information about the organization’s expenses by function and by natural classification.

What Can The Nonprofit Salary And Benefits Report Do For You?

Now that the 2013 Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Survey has begun, you are probably asking yourself: "What's in it for me? What do I get for my time?" A large cash prize might not be heading your way for completing the Survey but you will get something even more valuable: Peace of mind for your nonprofit.

Our annual Salary and Benefits Reports are born out of these surveys and they provide important financial information for all nonprofits. Among the things these reports will help you do are:

• Avoid trouble with the IRS by being able to check YES on your Form 990 regarding salaries for your chief executive and key employees set using comparability data for similar positions.
• Learn about 94 employee benefits — going way beyond dental plans and summer hours.
• Get data by nonprofit field, budget size, number of employees, and region throughout the U.S.
• Attract and retain the best employees by knowing how to offer fair and competitive compensation.

In addition to these benefits, participants also receive a FREE executive summary of the Survey, with full salary data for all positions, and will be entered to win an iPod Nano if your survey is completed by July 31! All of that for just an hour of your time.* So what are you waiting for? Start your 2013 Salary and Benefits Survey today!

 *Good news – this year’s survey is streamlined and even easier to complete! And if you’ve participated in past years, you can use your existing data as a jumpstart and just change any data that is different.

Lehman Bros. Seek Bigger Payments From Nonprofits

A year after exiting bankruptcy, Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. is back and is demanding larger exit payments from a host of nonprofits.

Lehman Bros. is not a name that brings back fond memories for most people. The financial institution's bankruptcy in Sept. 2008 was one of the major causes of the financial collapse that ravaged the economy.

According to a report in Bloomberg, the managers of Lehman's estate feel they were shortchanged by some nonprofits that made exit payments on derivatives that crashed after the bank filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, forcing it to sell its assets.

One of these organizations is Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, Calif., which paid Lehman $2 million in Oct. 2008 to cancel a contract with the bank. Lehman has now come back to the organization and demanded $12.1 million more in addition to $4.7 million in interest. These funds are more than half of what the nonprofit spent o Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other diseases last year according to its most recent financial statement.

Mary McEachron, Buck’s chief administrative officer and general counsel, declined to comment on the situation to Bloomberg, saying only that the matter has not yet been resolved.

One other organization targeted by Lehman Bros. is a 5,000-student liberal arts college in Boston called Simmons College. The school paid Lehman $5.5 million in Jan. 2009 to exit from three interest rate swaps. In its June 30, 2012 financial statement, Simmons stated it held back $800,000 of that payment for out-of-pocket expenses. This didn't set well with Lehman, which now wants to enter a settlement through mediation with the college.

Lehman exited the bankruptcy process in March 2012 and has since liquidated about $46.2 million in assets. The bank needs $65 million more to repay its creditors by 2016.

You can read the full story in Bloomberg.

Webinar: Nonprofit Accounting Software Experts Live

Update: Missed yesterday's webinar? You can view it in its entirety online.

****

It can be very difficult at time to keep up with the latest advances in nonprofit accounting software. It seems like new trends emerge everyday, making for major headaches when deciding which program to use. That's why anyone who is having trouble with these issues should attend The NonProfit Times' latest webinar with Intacct.

"Nonprofit Accounting Software Experts Live," presented by nonprofit accounting software experts Taylor Macdonald of Intacct, and Susan Campbell, vice president of Soft Trac, will lay out the right direction for those who are having trouble choosing a new accounting system. Using there many years of experience in the field, Macdonald and Campbell will show you how to simplify the process of selecting new software.

This free webinar will also teach you how to:

• Determine what you need from a new accounting system;
• Make sure the system you select maximizes financial transparency and accountability to the board;
• Find the right vendor by following five best practices;
• Take advantage of new options made possible by cloud computing; and,
• Calculate the return on investment (ROI) you can expect from a new cloud financial management and accounting system.

The webinar will begin on March 21 at 2:00 p.m. EST. Register for free today to help your nonprofit take the next step in the world of accounting.

D.C. Nonprofit Declines To Say How It Spent Money

An embattled D.C. nonprofit reported receiving $25 million in a recently filed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) report, but decline to say how it spent all of that money.

The D.C. Children & Youth Investment Corp., which was involved in a theft scandal which sent former councilman Harry Thomas Jr., to prison, also did not identify any grantees in its annual tax filing with the IRS, according to a report in The Washington Times. While the Trust did report $25.7 million in funding for the period spanning Oct. 2010 to Sept. 2011, sections of the report for expenditures -- including compensation -- were left blank.

The Trust's senior director of finance, Earl Thomas, told The Times that the organization plans to file an amended report with the IRS as soon as outside auditors finish reviewing two years finances. In a Jan. 29 post on this blog, it was reported that those audits would be released in 30 days.

The nonprofit has been trying to get back on track after the bad publicity from the Thomas Jr., situation. The former D.C. councilman was sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to using grant money meant for local children for personal uses, including trips, clothes, a new car, and shoes.

The Trust reported a deficit of almost $3 million last year and, without the completed audits and the incomplete IRS filing, it is unclear whether its finances have improved or worsened.

You can read the full story in The Washington Times.

IRS Bought To Court Over 'Dark Money' Organization

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is being sued by a former congressional candidate who alleges that the agency wrongly allowed a so-called "dark money" political organization to operate as a tax-exempt entity.

Dr. David Gill is a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran to represent Illinois' 13th district in the 2012 elections. According to a report on The Huffington Post, Gill and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) are arguing that the IRS should not have allowed the American Action Network (AAN) to spend $2.6 million in ads against Gill while at the same time enjoying tax-exempt status.

Gill and CREW allege that the agency misinterpreted tax laws when it released regulations for social welfare nonprofits. IRS guidelines state that these organizations must be "primarily" focused on social welfare, while the federal statute states they must be "exclusively" focused on it.

"It is offensive that the IRS turns a blind eye to reality and allows partisan political groups to seek refuge in a provision of the IRS code that is meant to govern organizations such as volunteer firefighter companies and homeowner organizations," Dr. Gill said in a statement.

Dr. Gill and CREW filed the civil lawsuit Tuesday under the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, which allows those who have suffered "sufficient harm" to file suit against the IRS. Gill can certainly claim to have suffered, as he believes that his close defeat -- he only lost by 1,002 votes to Republican Rodney Davis -- was due to "misinformation" spread about his support of Medicare in AAN's ads. One of those spots claimed that Gill would eliminate Medicare and replace it with single-payer healthcare.

AAN was the only 501(c)(4) nonprofit to spend significant money in the 13th district campaign.

You can read the full story on The Huffington Post.

Troubled D.C. Nonprofit To Release Audit

A Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen by a former D.C. councilman will release an audit of its finances.

Keva Sturdevent, development director of the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp., told The Washington Examiner that the organization will release its fiscal year 2010 audit in the next 30 days. Former Councilman Harry Thomas Jr., pleaded guilty last year to stealing $353,000 from the organization in 2010, as well as other charges of tax fraud. He was accused of transferring the money to his bank account for personal use and was sentenced to three years in prison.

"There is no excuse," Thomas said during his sentencing. "What I did was wrong." He went on to explain that he stole the money because he had a sense of "entitlement."

The D.C. Council has long pushed for the release of the 2010 audit, arguing that it could provide valuable insight into Thomas' activities. DC Children and Youth Investment Trust receives the majority of its funding from the District government.

 "We have an unaudited organization that has millions upon millions [of] dollars of D.C. funds," said Councilman Jim Graham, who oversees the organization as chairman of the council's Human Services Committee, on Monday. "The audit is going to tell the story."

Graham was one of the leading voices to get the trust to release its 2010 audit. He had previously asked Council Chairman Phil Mendelson to appoint him as a non-voting member of the nonprofit, and he was subsequently nominated for that position earlier this month.

Robert Bobb, the trust's chairman, criticized that decision in a letter to the council, insisting that his organization could only "prevent repeating the problems of the past by erecting a barrier between the Trust and elected officials."

Graham eventually removed his name from consideration.

The trust says it plans to conduct audits of 2011 and 2012 as well, but has not yet announced when those would be released. The organization's new executive director, Ed Davies, admitted to The Examiner that the trust isn't as independent from politics as it should be, and de-politicizing remains his top priority.

You can read the full story in The Washington Examiner.

NY AG Requests Sandy Aid Info From Nonprofits

Nonprofits across the country have been busy raising money in support of relief efforts in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman now wants to know the exact details of those fundraising efforts.

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Schneiderman's office sent letters to at least 75 nonprofits on Tuesday requesting disclosure of their fundraising efforts for Sandy. The information will be compiled online by the attorney general's office Charities Bureau in an effort to improve transparency and donor confidence.

"In the coming weeks and months, we expect to reach out to you for additional information, including more detailed information about how donations have been expended and the steps taken to prevent fraud and/or misuse of resources," Jason Lilien, chief of the Charities Bureau, wrote in the letter.

Lilien goes on to write that he expects to get responses from the organizations by Dec. 11. The information that is being requested includes amounts raised and spent so far and whether the donations received will be used solely for storm relief. In addition, information regarding services provided to victims, funds forwarded to other groups, and plans for any surplus or direct grants to individuals, families or businesses.

The nearly 75 organizations contacted by the the Charities Bureau include the American Red Cross and the AARP Foundation. Letters to more nonprofits are expected to be sent in the coming weeks.

As of  this writing, the agency has only received a small number of complaints about Sandy-related relief efforts by charities, reports which are currently being investigated.

You can read the full story in The Wall Street Journal.

New York Nonprofit Salary Information

There are few states that have as much diversity in the nonprofit sector as New York. From famous organizations such as Charity: Water in New York City, to the government-related nonprofits of the Capital region, there are plenty of opportunities in the Empire State.

That's why, for the 2012 Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Reports, The NonProfit Times released a dedicated report for New York nonprofits.

The 2012 Nonprofit Organizations New York State Salary and Benefits Report is the ideal guide for managers who want to make sure they are offering compensation in line with competitors. It stands to reason that a large charity in Manhattan will offer vastly different salaries and benefits to workers than in smaller regions of the state, which is why the report offers a baseline on salary and benefits so you will be in line with your peers.

As any successful nonprofit manager knows, salary is just half of the picture when it comes to compensation, especially with top-of-the-line jobs. That's why the New York Salary and Benefit Report lists the top executive perks given in the state. Additional vacation days and a car or car allowance were most common among New York's nonprofits, with more than half offering these perks to their top executives. It should be no surprise, then, that these positions have some of the lowest turnover rates of those surveyed for the report.

Other information included in the NY Salary and Benefits Report include:

• Annual Salary Increases (executive and non-executive);
• Base Salary and Total Cash Compensation data with percentile rankings for each position;
• Total compensation costs as a percentage of operating expenses;
• Employee profile data: number of full/part time; exempt vs. nonexempt;
• Retirement Plans (maximum contributions, eligibility, plan offerings, participation rates);
• Executive Employment Agreements (organizations offering, terms and conditions);
• Part Time Employee Benefit Offerings;
• Overtime Practices – exempt vs. non-exempt staff;
• Flexible Spending Accounts (offerings, maximum contribution percentile rankings); and,
• General Benefit Offering (covers 34 unique benefit programs).

This report can be purchased, along with the four other Salary Reports, on The NonProfit Times' online store.

The 2012 Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Reports

The NonProfit Times, the leading business publication for nonprofit management, has released the 2012 editions of its annual Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Reports. In partnership with Bluewater Nonprofit Solutions, these five reports will give managers the most up-to-date information on current trends in nonprofit salaries and benefits so they can properly fill out their IRS Form 990s.

This year brings the introduction of a new report to the standard four that were available in previous years: The 2012 Nonprofit Organizations New York State Salary and Benefits Report. All of NPT’s reports are based on responses from around the United States, but this is the publication’s first report to collect information based on a specific state. The New York Salary and Benefits Report contains information on mid-level salary information, complete benefits coverage, and key benchmarking information, including base salary and total cash compensation data with percentile rankings for each position.

The other reports released by NPT today are:

• 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Salary and Benefits Report: The information in this report will give you the salary range for nearly 252 positions in the nonprofit sector.
• 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Salary Report: This is useful for organizations that already have a handle on their benefits packages, but need information to create competitive salary structures.
• 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Benefits Report: Similar to the report above, this is the one to purchase if your nonprofit only needs help with creating competitive benefits packages for its employees.
• 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Top Executive Positions and Special Perks Report: Nonprofit executive compensation is so important to understand thoroughly. In order to attract the best people to be a part of a nonprofit organization, a very competitive environment, you need to make sure that you offer appealing compensation packages for hiring individuals who you wish to play an important role in your organization.

All five of the reports are available for purchase immediately on The NonProfit Times’ online store. Purchase one, or more, today so that your organization can attract the best and brightest employees, and stay on top of those Form 990s.

9 Accounting Principles For Nonprofit Executives

Nonprofit executives, generally, are not the best at accounting, but they still need to know the basics in order to get their organizations on the right fiscal track. Even the basics can take a while to learn, however, and an executive’s time is precious.

In his book "The Entrepreneurial Nonprofit Executive," Thomas A. McLaughlin comes to the rescue of executives that are struggling with basic accounting practices. He listed nine principle they must memorize if they are to have the knowledge necessary to keep organizational finances stable. The principle are:

• The principle of the entity: Accounting records are kept for a single, definable entity. Accounting energy should focus ultimately on the corporation as whole, not just individual projects.
• Money measurement: Accounting deals only with things that can be measured in terms of money.
• The dual aspect nature of accounting: An organization’s assets, or things of value, must always equal the organization’s liabilities plus its equities, or claims of ownership.
• The going concern concept: Always assume that the entity will continue to exist indefinitely unless there is some evidence to the contrary.
• The cost concept: Whenever an organization buys something substantial, that asset is listed at its cost.
• Conservatism: Deliberately take the most cautious approach possible by accepting as real any decreases in equity as soon as they are reasonably possible, while accepting increases only when they are certain.
• Materiality: Good accounting deals only with matters having some significance in the overall scheme of things.
• Realization concept: Whenever an organization delivers a service, it is entitled to say that it is owed some money of that service.
• Matching concept: The idea that costs associated with the revenues in any given accounting period are expenses of that period.

Webinar: Is It Time To Change Your Accounting Software?

What are the top accounting issues facing your organization today? Answer our quick two-question survey on this subject, the results of which will be revealed during the webinar on Wednesday.

***

Are you struggling with financial reporting and analysis? Are excel driven manual processes draining your accounting team’s productivity? It’s time to consider new accounting software for your nonprofit, but for what should you be looking?

In The NonProfit Times' latest webinar with Intacct Corporation, all the information you need to decide what type of accounting system your organization needs will be discussed. Speaking during the event will be Bob Blake, founder of Xanergy, and Lisa White, senior channel executive at Intaact. Both individuals have decades of combined experience in the accounting software industry for nonprofits, and their tips will be valuable to showing how to simplify the process of selecting new software for your organization.

Here are a few of the topics that Lisa and Bob will be touching on during the webinar:

• Determine what you need from a new accounting system.
• Make sure the system you select maximizes financial transparency and accountability to the board.
• Find the right vendor by following these 5 best practices.
• Take advantage of new options made possible by cloud computing.
• Calculate the ROI you can expect from a new cloud financial management and accounting system.

As always, it is completely free to register for this webinar, which will begin on September 26 at 2:00 PM EST. Sign up today and learn how you can get your organization on the right track when it comes to accounting.

Seattle Nonprofit Undergoes Audit

SouthEast Effective Development (SEED) in Seattle is undergoing a review of its programs and goals as well as an outside audit, reviews that could determine the organization's direction in the future.

In addition to these developments, SEED's executive director -- Earl Richardson -- is on indefinite leave and its finance director was recently dismissed, according to a report in The Puget Sound Business Journal. Richardson, who has lead the nonprofit since 1995, has said his leave is due to medical issues and he is not sure when he will return.

The audit of SEED was requested by interim executive Mark Flynn, a retired U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) executive. He said the audit's purpose is to make sure the organization is current on all of its accounts. The housing nonprofit recently had a three-month stretch when it stopped making payments on a $925,000 loan connected with a retail space.

SEED was founded in 1975 and was a major player in Seattle's effort to bring economic and community development to the city's ethnically and economically diverse areas. The organization was responsible for the revitalization of the Columbia City retail district in the 1980s and 90s. A 2010 IRS filing showed that SEED managed more than 700 housing units "through ownership, sponsorships, and contractual assistance."

Virginia Kenyon, SEED's board president, said the organization is considering returning to economic development, which it abandoned after the private United Way funding that sustained those efforts dried up in the 1990s and 2000s. Changes could potentially include the dismissal of Richardson as executive director, as Kenyon noted that positions serves at the discretion of the board.

You can read the full story in The Puget Sound Business Journal.

Choosing Your Nonprofit's Fiscal Year

The words "fiscal year" always seem to make an appearance when reading reports about nonprofit finance or accounting. Contrary to popular belief, a fiscal year doesn't just begin when the new year starts; it begins whenever the nonprofit wants it to.

Well, almost.

As explained by Thomas Wolf in "Managing a Nonprofit Organization," a nonprofit's fiscal year can begin at any point during the year as long as its end date is specified in the documents in which it is mentioned. These dates are usually not chosen at random. Whether it's to honor the organization's anniversary or the birthday of a high level executive, fiscal years can have a lot of meaning. As such, great care should be taken in choosing a date.

What makes a good beginning and end to a fiscal year? Wolf laid out three considerations to keep in mind:

• It should roughly parallel the organization’s program year. That is, one year’s program activities should not fall into two fiscal years.
• The fiscal year should end, whenever possible, just before a period of relative inactivity.
• The fiscal year-end may be chosen to coincide with a primary funder’s fiscal year-end and resulting reporting requirements. For example, if a major portion of an organization’s support is from the state government, the nonprofit may select the same fiscal year-end as the state to simplify reporting on state grants.

Defining Your Accounting System Requirements

Yesterday, we posted a preview from our upcoming webinar showing how inefficiencies in accounting systems can lead to a lack of focus in business leadership. We have one final preview from the presentation today, which documents one of the important decisions nonprofits have to make when choosing new software: Your requirements.

Just as a job seeker wouldn't settle for the first opportunity that came his way, organizations should have pretty high standards about what they want from an accounting system. While every nonprofit is going to make different decisions, Bob Blake, founder of Xanergy, and Taylor MacDonald, vice president of channels at Intacct, recommend some requirements to keep in mind:

• Document the issues with your current system.
• What do you want to achieve with your new system?
• What type of information does management need to make better organizational decisions?
• What is the impact to the organization?
• Which processes do you want to automate?
• Tap into outside experts and your peers.
• Document expected improvements and return on investment and total cost of ownership.
• Use a third-party expert to help.

To learn more about the decisions you will have to make if you decide to choose a new accounting system, attend our free webinar tomorrow at 2:00 PM EDT.

Accounting System Inefficiencies Can Hurt Focus On Leadership

In two days, Intacct Corporation and The NonProfit Times will be holding a free webinar on accounting systems for nonprofits. We'd like to take this time to give readers a sneak peek at some of the content in the presentation.

The right accounting system for your nonprofit should work smoothly so that the organization's focus remains on the important issue of business leadership. Unfortunately, too many accounting programs are inefficient, which means more time is spent on them. In the upcoming webinar, the top issues CFO organizations are facing:

• Managing cash and budget: 24 percent.
• Improving information provided to managers in the organization: 23 percent.
• Improving operational business processes: 23 percent.
• Improving finance and accounting business processes: 15 percent.
• Improving controls and compliance: 8 percent.
• Managing investments: 3 percent.
• Implementing a new ERP system: 2 percent.

The top bottlenecks these same organizations face in the monthly close process are also discussed. They are:

• Manual processes rather than automated: 26 percent.
• Systems not integrated: 24 percent.
• Staff shortage: 12 percent.
• Inadequate data: 10 percent.
• Processes not followed: 9 percent.
• Staff lack of skills: 8 percent.
• Processes undefined: 7 percent.

As you can see, organizations are facing a host of problems with their accounting systems. If you want to find out how to better tackle these issues, we encourage you to attend our free webinar on July 19th at 2:00 PM EDT.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another preview of the webinar!

Webinar: Is It Time For A New Accounting Software?

Accounting plays a big role in the day-to-day operations of a nonprofit. If you are finding your methods of this important practice are a little behind on the times, it may be time to consider a new accounting software for your organization.

Join The NonProfit Times and Intacct Corporation on July 19 at 2:00 PM EDT for a free webinar on how to select accounting systems. Attendees will hear from two experts in this field: Taylor Macdonald of Intacct and Bob Blake, founder of Xanergy. With their years of experience in the accounting software industry and the nonprofit sector, Macdonald and Blake will show you how to simplify the process for your organization. Here are some of the topics they will discuss:

• How to determine what you need from a new accounting system.
• Best practices for finding the right vendor.
• Making sure the system you select maximizes financial transparency and accountability to the board.
• New options made available by cloud computing.
• Calculating the return on investment (ROI) you can expect from a new cloud financial management and accounting system.

We encourage everyone who wants to attend this webinar to register today. Hope to see you there on July 19!

Hundreds Of NYC Nonprofits Lose Tax Exemptions

New York City is pulling the property tax exemptions of 925 nonprofits after they couldn't prove they deserved them in a city survey, according to a new report in The New York Post.

The Finance Department said that its actions will begin on July 1. The survey it conducted was designed to determine which nonprofits were gaming the system and which actually deserved the waivers. The outreach came in the form of warning letters to organizations that were in danger of losing tax exemption and in-person visits by assessors.

American Youth Hostel (AYH) is one of the 925 organizations that will be seeing increases in their taxes. A city official told The Post that the organization was not carrying out its mission. AYH plans to appeal the ruling, arguing that it has been registered as a nonprofit since 1934.

The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) will be seeing its exemption reduced from 100 percent to nine percent, as it rents out a large portion of its midtown offices for commercial purposes. UJA does not plan to argue the ruling.

These organizations will not be the only ones having bigger bills from the government. A recent report by The NonProfit Times found that 63 percent tax exempt institutions end up paying some form of fees in the form of payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs). These are usually applied to larger nonprofits.

You can read the full story in The New York Post.

Things Not "A-OK" For Pakistani Sesame Street

Amid allegations of fraud and abuse, the United States has cut funding to the Pakistani version of the popular children's show, "Sesame Street."

"Sim Sim Hamara" had previously been awarded around $20 million in funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), according to a report in The International News. The agency eventually received credible tips that the organization chosen to manage the show, Rafi Peer Theater Workshop, had used the funds in a fraudulent manner. A State Department spokesman declined to go into the specific allegations.

Faizaan Peerzada, the head of Rafi Peer, told The International News that he had been told that the program would be ending because funds had ended. It wasn't until he read the reports in the media that he learned of the fraud allegations, which he fully denies. He claimed the organization's first audit report had been approved and that the second was due in July.

In a statement posted on their blog, Sesame Workshop wrote that it was "surprised and dismayed" to learn about the allegations against Rafi Peer. The statement went on to say that Sesame Workshop is awaiting the results of the ongoing investigation, and that they hope that "the achievements of 'Sim Sim Hamara', and the gains we have made in the lives of children in Pakistan, will carry on."

You can read the full story in The International News.