Salvation Army To Announce NFL Draft Pick

If you are a sports fan, you likely know that Radio City Music Hall in New York City has been hosting the 2012 NFL Draft. What you might not know is that the Salvation Army will be announcing a pick for one of the teams.

The organization announced on its website today that Chief Communications Officer Major General George Hood will be announcing the Dallas Cowboy's fourth round draft pick tomorrow morning.

“This is a very exciting opportunity. A way to recognize the long-standing relationship between The Salvation Army and the Dallas Cowboys,” said Major Hood. “It will certainly be an honor for me to announce the fourth round draft pick and on a personal note, should be a lot of fun!“

The Dallas Cowboys, who selected Louisiana State University's Corner Back Morris Claiborne in the Draft's first round last night, have supported the Salvation Army for 14 years in a number of ways. For instance, the team's Executive Vice President of Brand Management, Charlotte Jones Anderson, has served as the nonprofit's National Advisory Board Chairperson. She has also organized the annual Red Kettle Kickoff event at Cowboys stadium on Thanksgiving Day since 1998.

4th round draft choices don't exactly come with the hype of first or even second round picks but that doesn't mean the player chosen won't have an impact. After all, some guy named Tom Brady was the New England Patriot's sixth round draft pick in 2000.

You can read the full story on the Salvation Army's blog.

California Academy of Sciences Tops Most Expensive U.S. Museums

How would you like to spend $30 to go to a museum? That's the amount you will have to shell out if you want to enjoy the California Academy of Sciences.

The San Francisco, Calif.-based museum tops Consumer Search's top 20 most expensive museums in the U.S. Other institutions that made this dubious list were New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art ($25; recommended price), Boston's Museum of Fine Arts ($22), and Washington, D.C.'s International Spy Museum ($19.95).

Museums are mostly nonprofits and thus free from property taxes, which would lead the average citizen to believe they should be relatively cheap to enter. This seems like a rational thought, but there's a number of issues. The pieces that appear in these museums can sometimes go for millions of dollars and those prices have to be subsidized somehow. Museums also have legions of curators, art restorers, and researches on staff, and they don't come cheap either. Finally, government grants to museums have continually decreased in value, according to a study by USA Today.

There are ways to avoid these steep prices. Many of these museums allow visitors to purchase annual memberships which reduce the prices of tickets. There are also some institutions that have free admission on weekends and certain times. Yet D.C. seems to have the best deal: Most of the museums there, outside of the Spy Museum, are free. This includes the National Gallery of Art and the Air and Space Museum.

Want to see Consumer Search's full list? Head on over to their website and see which museums will cost you the most.

U.S. Senate Passes Postal Reform

The United States Senate voted yesterday to pass the Postal Reform Act. The bill will now be sent to the House of Representatives where it awaits an uncertain fate.

As reported by The Washington Post, the Postal Reform Act will make sweeping reforms to the United States Postal Service (USPS). It would, among other things, permit the ending of Saturday mail deliveries in two years if the USPS determines it financially necessary, and would place restrictions on the amount of facilities that can be closed. For example, USPS cannot close a rural post office unless the next-nearest location is no more than 10 miles away. It would also maintain the current nonprofit postage rate.

The bill, passed 62 to 37, is meant to preserve the cash-strapped USPS. The organization has been on the verge of financial collapse for years, and it is no longer able to sustain delivery operations that still process 554 million pieces of mail a day. That is why the Postal Service has pushed to end Saturday mail. While the Senate version of the bill delays that decision, the House bill sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) would permit the USPS to immediately end Saturday deliveries. A strong majority of Republican representatives, including Issa, oppose the current Senate bill.

The House has until May 15, when the USPS will resume closing its facilities, to pass the bill. This is part of its plan to cut more than $22 million in costs by 2015. Direct mail has been in a decline in recent years as e-mail has increased in popularity. According to statistics from the Postal Service, only 168 million pieces of mail were delivered last year, compared to 202.8 billion a decade ago.

You can read the full story in The Washington Post.

Privacy Issues For Mobile Payments?

The popularity of smartphone has led to the rise of better payment technology. More and more companies are allowing customers to pay for products from their cell phones. Nonprofits are also jumping on the bandwagon, with the Girl Scouts of America (GSA) recently making their famous cookies available through mobile payments.

Yet, as The New York Times reported yesterday, this ease of use may be coming at price of reduced privacy. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that focuses on technology laws, recently published a blog post expressing its concerns about mobile payment technology.

One of the organization's issues with this technology is that it can expose payment data to more parties than if you paid with a credit card. For example, when you use Google Wallet your information is not only given to Google, but also to credit card issuers and payment processors. Third-party applications can also potentially get a hold of this data. All of this information comes in small bits but once it is all combined, companies have a very detailed file from which to work.

Another issue comes in the form of telemarketing. Users can still get these unwanted calls even if they are on the national do-not-call list if they use mobile payments. Why? If a mobile payment app collects a user's number, the merchant can make phone or text solicitations.

CDT urged companies to put stronger privacy protections into their mobile payment services if they want to gain the trust of consumers.

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

Seattle Hates Junk-Mail

You think you hate junk-mail? Your hatred is nothing compared to Seattle's crusade against unwanted mail.

The Atlantic reported Monday on a new ranking put together by Berkeley, Calif.-based Catalog Choice, a privacy protection company, shows that Seattle, Wash. is the top city in the country when it comes to battling junk-mail. The organization surveyed its customers and found that the Emerald City had the most people who contacted them to get removed from the lists of junk-mail senders. Other cities that made the list were Santa Fe, NM, Boulder, Col., and Ithaca, NY.

Junk-mail is mostly associated with e-mail these days, but the death of junk direct mail has been delayed thanks to an initiative by the United States Postal Service (USPS). The "Every Door Direct Mail" program will essentially allow business to bombard your house with mail. Companies don't even have to know your address to send to you; they can simply select a neighborhood they want to target and their mail will be delivered to every house in that area.

Spam mail is not only annoying to recipients, it also is very pricey for city budgets. It costs about $40 a ton to send garbage to a landfill. On the other hand, it costs only $10 for them to work with Catalog Choice to get them removed from junk-mail lists.

You can read the full list of cities ranked by Catalog Choice in The Atlantic.

Art Museum Director Paid $1 Million

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, NY paid its director $1.04 million in salary and benefits in 2010, according to a report in Bloomberg.

The article states that Thomas P. Campbell, who was named director in 2009, earned a 2 percent increase from his previous salary. Overall, he made $653,402 when the nearly $389,051 in benefits is excluded. That is way below the average for executives in the arts field, as shown by NPT's 2011 Salary and Benefits Report. Still, it is comparable to other top museum jobs. The Museum of Modern Art's head, Glen Lowry, earned $1.6 million in compensation in 2009.

The increase in salary for Campbell coincided with the museum's highest attendance levels in nearly four decades. For the year ending June 2011, attendance was 5.7 million, a 9 percent increase. This was due in large part to the wildly popular exhibit showcasing clothes and accessories designed by the late fashion designer Steve McQueen.

A spokesman for the Met told Bloomberg that the increased benefits Campbell received was due in large part to his move to a museum-owned apartment in September 2009. The apartment, which is rent-free, is used for museum-related entertainment and events. The spokesman added that Campbell's travel wasn't part of compensation.

You can read the full story in Bloomberg.

Advocacy Group Files IRS Complaint Against ALEC

An advocacy group filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), claiming that the group is violating its tax-exempt status.

The Washington Post reported today that D.C.-based Common Cause accused ALEC of lobbying the government while hiding behind its nonprofit status. ALEC describes itself as a nonprofit that brings together lawmakers and private sector organizations to develop new legislation and policy.

Common Cause disagrees with this premise, saying that the organization's main motivation is to lobby for policies that favorably impact businesses. The nonprofit requested that the IRS conduct an audit of ALEC's work, penalties, and back taxes.

ALEC, which was formed in the 1970s, has long been a target of open government groups that are suspicious of its partnership with legislators. The group has made headlines recently for its support of the "Stand Your Ground Laws," which have played a major role in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Companies that have previously partnered with ALEC, such as Coca Cola, are no longer members, and the group says it is disbanding its task force that was responsible for importing the law to other states.

You can read the full story in The Washington Post.

What Should You Pay Nonprofit Executives?

One of the facts of life is that business executives are rewarded handsomely for their work. Whether or not you think their compensation is fair is besides the point.

Executive compensation is always going to be a hot topic, but it is even more scrutinized at nonprofits where there is an expectation of greater restraint. There have been many cases over the past few years of organizations getting in hot water because of perceived excesses, the most recent being New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's investigation of nonprofit executive pay in the state.

The easiest way to determine whether executives at your nonprofit are being paid appropriately is to look at what the big wigs at similar organizations are making. In NPT's 2011 Salary and Benefits Report, we see that the size of the nonprofit plays a big role in the compensation of executives. Organizations with an operating budget of $0 to $499,999 gave top employees an average salary of $55,766. This number ballooned to $166,867 when the budget was $50,000,000 or more.

The field the agency is in also plays a big role in executive compensation. Our report shows that the Healthcare Sector, which is in great demand, gives out an average salary of $100,603. International/Foreign Affairs salaries are even higher, topping out at $110,057. The area that paid the lowest was the Arts, at $67,454. This isn't too much of a surprises at these institutions have seen a lot of funding cuts in recent years.

Your board should keep these numbers in mind when considering what to pay the CEO or other executive. If you want to learn more, purchase the 2011 Salary and Benefits Report. You should also make sure to participate in our 2012 Salary Survey, so these numbers can stay up-to-date.

Former Nonprofit Treasurer Sentenced To 30 Months

The former treasurer of the Ronald McDonald House Holiday Cruise was sentenced to 30 months in jail after being convicted of stealing thousands of dollars from the charity's fund.

Randall Morrison, 50, was sentenced Monday in a U.S. District Court in Seattle, Wash., according to an article on SeattlePi.com. Morrison was also ordered to pay $112,220 in restitution. He had earlier admitted to stealing $142,000 from the nonprofit's fund, which left the small holiday charity facing bankruptcy. Morrison had no affiliation with the organization's larger affiliate, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Washington & Alaska.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Masada called Morrison's crimes "inexcusable," noting that his salary was at times as high as $160,000 a year. The money stolen from the fund would have been used to finance holiday cruises for sick children and their families who have displaced from their homes during Christmas because of these illnesses. Masada said that Morrison used the money to finance his personal lifestyle. For his part, Morrison said he was motivated to steal because of gambling debts he had while he struggled to deal with his wife's health problems. His attorney, Lynn Hartfield, told the court he has since stopped gambling and is seeking treatment for his addiction.

While Morrison serves his 30 months in prison, the Ronald McDonald House Holiday Cruise has been forced to cut back on its activities because of the lost money. This includes significantly curtailing the Holiday Cruise and festivals on Mother's Day, Father's Day, and an Easter brunch.

Morrison was able to steal the money undetected for years after he joined the organization in 2005 because of a lack of internal safeguards at the organization. The embezzlement only came to light in 2009, when his new employer contacted the charity about discrepancies on his business credit card. An investigation subsequently revealed that more than $100,000 had gone missing.

Further investigation did show that Morrison repaid $30,000 in 2006. In a letter to the court, Hartfield wrote that Morrison is remorseful for his crimes and is "concerned" about the long-term impact of his actions on his wife and children.

You can read the full story on this case on SeattlePi's website.

U.S. Eases Sanctions For Nonprofits Working In Myanmar

The United States has eased financial sanctions that will allow U.S. nonprofits to do humanitarian and development work in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar.

ABC News reported today that the Treasury Department announced the changes to the sanctions as a reward for the military-dominated country, sometimes known as Burma, for instituting democratic reforms. It is the first of many changes that will be made by the Obama administration after Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party won a landslide victory during the country's recent by-elections. The U.S. also plans to ease restrictions to allow some investment to the country and the export of other financial services. Tough sanctions on trade will remain in place for now.

The international work that will be done by nonprofits should bring much needed help to a country that is one of the poorest in Southeast Asia after 50 years of military rule.

You can read the full story on ABC News' website.

Nonprofit Health Exec Accused Of Scammed Tax Returns

New York authorities have accused the former manager of a Long Island, N.Y.-based Head Injury Association (HIA), a nonprofit health agency, of stealing the IDs of more than 50 brain injury patients in an effort to get better tax returns.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Benjamin Achampong is facing indictment on the charges in Suffolk County. Achampong hasn't worked at HIA since 2006, and the organization is cooperating with investigators.

The list of charges against Achampong are very serious. He allegedly used patients' Social Security numbers and other IDs to file false tax returns. He's also accused of collecting more than $20,000 in NY state tax refunds, and from New Jersey and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Achampong is being held on $50,000 bail in Suffolk County Jail.

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

April 15 Issue Released

The April 15, 2012 edition of The NonProfit Times has been released! If you haven't already received it in the mail, you can take a look at some of its content on our website.

Articles

• Advocacy In A Flash: Nonprofits are finding that flash mobs are a great tool to advocate for a cause; and to generate traffic to websites.
• Corporate Deal Masks Comp At Special Olympics International: J. Brady Lum is a full-time employee of Special Olympics International, yet the compensation he is getting from the Coca-Cola Company remains a mystery.
• Nonprofits Lead Jobs Retraining During Tough U.S. Economy: Nonprofits are leading the charge in job retraining programs, helping people get back on their feet in a difficult economy.

Columns:

• Who Has Money?: What does a 90-years-dead Italian economist know about modern nonprofit fundraising? Plenty, according to Josh Whichard, Jeffery Hunt and Kevin Shulman, who spoke about a principle developed by Vilfredo Pareto in the early 20th century, popularly known as “the 80/20 Rule.”
• Your 403(b) Plan: When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced that it was going to start auditing 403(b) plans for the 2009 tax year, the notification, for the most part, received scant attention.

You can view all of the articles via our website.

What Can Nonprofit Board Members Be Paid?

The recent case of Greg Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute has led some to wonder whether being a nonprofit board member and a salaried employee are mutually exclusive.

According to Maryam K. Ansari, Esq. of FindLaw.com the answer is no -- with some qualifications.

In an article featured in Reuters, Ansari wrote that it is perfectly within the law of tax exempt organizations for board members to have salaries, as long as the pay is "reasonable." What defines reasonable? This is defined by law. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has intermediate sanctions rules that require checking salaries at like organizations to ensure there isn't private gain.

Ansari also wrote about another factor in the pay of board members: A conflict of interest and compensation policy. These are put into place to prevent the individual from deriving any extra benefits from the nonprofit. Standard conflict of interest policies usually state that when the board votes on the pay for a member, that individual must leave the room during the process.

A compensation policy will lay out how the salary for that employee is to be determined. Things that will be considered are the duties of the position and the average salary paid for the job. All of these procedures must be documented to ensure that the decision was impartial.

Nonprofit board pay can be a very sticky subject, so it's important to follow the best practices that Ansari laid out. To read her full article, head on over to the Reuters website.

UK Prime Minister's Office: Wealthy Abuse Charitable Deduction

Some wealthy people in Britain are making donations to charities that don't do a lot of charitable work in an effort to increase their charitable deduction, according to a report from the Prime Minister's office.

BBC News' report on this story came after Chancellor George Osborne announced a budget that placed a cap on tax relief from charitable donations. You might recall similar controversy in the U.S. from President Barack Obama's continuing desire to also cap charitable deduction. Osborne's Budget announced that starting in April 2013, the maximum amount that can be claimed from tax relief is £50,000 or 25 percent of the individual's income, depending on which is greater.

In an interview with the British paper The Daily Telegraph, Osborne said he was "shocked" by what he saw as a large scale attempt by the rich to avoid taxes through charitable donations. That interview, and the chancellor's budget, was criticized by leading philanthropists and charitable organizations. John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, told BBC News that the Chancellor is wrong to equate tax relief on major donations as tax avoidance. He went on to say that a blanket cap on deduction will cost charities millions by making it more difficult for donors to make major donations.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister's office defended the cap, saying it was necessary to prevent abuse by some wealthy citizens.

You can read the full story on BBC News' website.

Free Webinar: Secrets of Nonprofit Financial Reporting in the Cloud

Our last webinar with Intacct dealt with moving your nonprofit financials to the cloud. In just a couple of weeks, this important topic will be in the spotlight once again.

On April 19 at 2:00 PM EST, The NonProfit Times and Intacct will host a free webinar entitled "Secrets of Nonprofit Financial Reporting." Managing your nonprofit finances is complicated. You have a diverse set of stakeholders that need powerful reporting. You need to manage and track different funding sources and you need to ensure your financial results are impeccable, especially in today's unstable financial climate.

Buu-Linh Tran, RAFFA, CPA and Manager, and Gordon Quick, Product Marketing Leader at Intacct, will be lending their expertise in this hour long event. They will be advising attendees on the following issues:

• How to meet the most common nonprofit reporting requirements and challenges.
• How cloud computing delivers real advantages for nonprofit finance.
• How to best set up your chart of accounts to fit your nonprofits' requirements.
• How to use cloud computing to organize, analyze, and communicate your financial results.

Interested in attending? Register today to learn all about these issues and more!

Housing Nonprofit Files Complaint Against Wells Fargo

A Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit filed a complaint against Wells Fargo with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

According to a report from Reuters, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NHFA) accused the bank of failing to maintain foreclosed homes in minority neighborhoods. The nonprofit claimed that, when compared to houses in white areas, the foreclosed homes suffered from a lack of regular maintenance.

The complaint comes after NHFA completed years of investigations of Wells Fargo-owned properties in eight cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, and Miami. The complaint cites statistics to allege that the properties in white neighborhoods received much better care. For instance, NHFA reported that 56 percent of the foreclosed buildings surveyed in minority communities had significant trash build-up, compared with 30 percent in white areas.

A Wells Fargo spokesperson, Tom Goyda, responded to the complaint by saying that the bank conducts all lending activities in a consistent manner with no regard to race. He went on to say that, because the complaint does not cite specific properties, Wells Fargo cannot investigate the allegations in the areas NHFA lists.

You can read the full story in Reuters.

Outgoing Nonprofit Chairman Calls For Executive Director's Resignation

The outgoing chairman of a Charlestown, Mass.-based nonprofit is calling for the resignation of the organization's executive director.

The Boston Herald reported today that the Rev. Daniel Mahoney resigned from Life Focus Center last week in the wake of a state auditor blasting the nonprofit for allegedly spending $100,000 in taxpayer funds on outside expenses during a Disney World vacation.

In the letter announcing his resignation, Mahoney said he only heard of the charges when a reporter from The Boston Herald sought to interview him about the state auditor's report. Writing that he was embarrassed by the report, he urged Executive Director Jack Millerick, who is accused of charging $130,000 on the nonprofit's credit card in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, to step down. Mahoney wrote that he has lost all "confidence and trust" in Millerick as a leader. He also wrote that the nonprofit still hadn't fully addressed the concerns in the state auditor's report.

A Life Focus Center spokesperson told The Herald that Millerick has no plans to step down.

You can read the full story in The Boston Herald.

Choosing Your Direct Mail Font

All of the talk these days is about high tech communication. Whether it's e-mail or texting, there's very little mention of direct mail when we talk about communicating with supporters. But don't bring out the shovel yet; direct mail isn't dead.

In a story in the February 1, 2012 edition of The NonProfit Times, Kory Christianson, executive director of St. Joseph's Indian School, talked about his organization's use of direct mail. For example, they send a letter with an e-mail follow-up confirming they received it. This is one of the many ways a nonprofit can continue to make use of direct mail.

Appearance is everything when it comes to sending out letters. This all starts with choosing the right font when composing your message. It's all well and good to use the default font in your word processor (usually Times New Roman), but that can be a little bland. It's worth experimenting to see if there are other fonts that can jazz up your message without making it look over the top.

In his book "Direct Mail for Dummies," Richard Goldsmith wrote about four types of fonts that can give your direct mail increased readability:

• Serif Type: These fonts have little tails hanging off the ends of the letters. Serif fonts are easier to read.
• Sans Serif Type: These have no tails and are harder to read in small type. Sans serif fonts are often used for things like headlines.
• Reverse Type: This is white letters in a background color. It’s also more difficult to read depending on size.
• Italic Text: Although good when used to emphasize important words or phrases, italic text is difficult to read when it’s used for long paragraphs.

Goldsmith also urged writers not to mix too many typestyles or sizes. This will make your direct mail message look random and unprofessional. 

Amazon's Philanthropy Nearly Non-Existent In Seattle

Amazon.com, one of the largest and most popular online retailers, was originally conceived in downtown Seattle, Wash. Yet while other organizations born in the Emerald City have been very active in their hometown's philanthropy, Amazon has been noticeably absent.

According to a report in The Seattle Times, the online retail giant has been a minor player in Seattle's philanthropic scene.  The United Way of King County which, as The NonProfit Times reported, received a record $117,390,119 last year. Microsoft made a corporate donation of $4 million in 2011.

The list of Amazon's no-shows for its hometown is quite extensive. The Times reported that many nonprofit officials find it difficult to find someone at the company who will talk to them, and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos didn't attend a January 2011 luncheon meant to honor him as "Executive of the Year." Even more important for the city, Amazon has made no significant donations for Seattle-area causes.

Major companies  are usually found on lists of major donors for local nonprofits, but that's not the case for Amazon. The Seattle Times found no record of Amazon donations to Seattle-based nonprofits like the Seattle Symphony, Washington's Special Olympics, or YMCA of Greater Seattle. Most of its financial support has gone to writers' groups. Since 2009, Amazon has supported 80 writers' groups in the U.S., including 19 in the Seattle area, with grants of about $25,000. It also gave the University of Washington $51,000 over a three-year period.

Bezos has defended his company by saying that its most important contributions come in the form of its core business activities. He also expressed skepticism, in a 2010 interview with PBS' Charlie Rose, that philanthropy was the best way to solve problems. He noted that the Kindle, the company's e-reader, could be seen as a low-cost way to distribute books to the needy.

Yet that is really the extent of Amazon's philanthropic activity in the area. What do you think of this story? Can you think of any reason why Amazon would be reluctant to engage in philanthropy in Seattle? Make sure to read the full story in The Seattle Times.

Florida United Way Sees Increase In Charitable Giving

Charitable giving seems to be on the rise, led by a significant increase for a United Way affiliate in Florida.

The Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday that Heart of Florida United Way -- which covers Orange, Osceola, and Seminole Counties -- raised $19.4 million dollars through a fundraising campaign for the past year. That number is nearly $2 million more than the year before and also represents the highest total since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The money raised was $1.6 million more than the organization's goal.

These numbers would seem to indicate that charitable giving is on the rise after the low points of the Great Recession. Indeed, a recent report by Charleston, S.C.-based software firm Blackbaud indicated that charitable giving increased more than 3 percent for the three months ending January 2012.

Another positive sign is that, as The Sentinel reported, charities in the Orlando area have launched capital campaigns in the last year to construct new facilities or expand programs. A study by the Community Foundation of Central Florida (CFCF) showed that of the 600 central Florida nonprofits tracked, 136 were involved in a capital campaign in 2011, and 86 percent were on target to bring in a collective $561 million through those campaigns.

About 400 companies participated in Heart of Florida United Way's fundraising campaign, which targets employees to donate through regular paycheck deductions and asks executives and corporate foundations to give at least $1,000.

How is the fundraising in your area? Have you seen similar results as United Way?

You can read the full article in The Orlando Sentinel.