N.Y.’s Struggling Beth Israel Hospital to Shut Down
Facing debts of more than $200 million, the 127-year-old Lower Manhattan institution will shutter and re-create itself as a much smaller facility, The Wall Street Journal writes.
Minn. Sues Telemarketer Over Charity ‘Pledge Reminders’
The state’s attorney general filed suit Wednesday against fundraising firm Associated Community Services, which regulators allege barraged people who had declined to donate to a veterans organizations with follow-up calls and emails seeking payment of supposed pledges, the Star Tribune reports.
U. of Massachusetts to Drop All Fossil-Fuel Investments
The UMass system said Wednesday that it will sell all of its $770 million endowment’s holdings in oil, coal, and gas, reportedly becoming the first major public university to fully embrace fossil-fuel divestment, writes The Boston Globe.
Ill. First Lady’s Charity Joins Budget Suit Against Governor
An early-childhood-education nonprofit headed by Diana Rauner, the wife of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, has joined a coalition of charities suing her husband and several members of his administration over failure to pay off state human-service contracts, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
Ex-NBA Player Charged With Embezzling From Africa Charity
A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses Kermit Washington, a forward who played with several teams in the 1970s and ‘80s, of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a nonprofit he founded to help needy people in Africa, the Associated Press writes.
Regulators Say Limiting Donor ID Could Hit Anti-Fraud Work
State authorities charged with ferreting out nonprofit malfeasance are concerned their efforts could be hamstrung by legislation now before Congress that would lift the requirement that tax-exempt groups disclose major donors to the Internal Revenue Service, Reuters writes.
Aid Summit Produces ‘Grand Bargain’ to Cut Overhead Costs
Meeting in Turkey this week at the World Humanitarian Summit, governments and aid groups reached agreement on a plan to reduce relief groups’ administrative spending by about $1 billion a year and ensure more donor money reaches people in crisis, reports the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Former Trustee Jailed in $52 Million Alaska Charity Fraud
Mark Avery was sentenced to 13-plus years after being convicted of using charitable funds for a spending spree on aircraft, boats, and personal expenses in the mid-2000s, The Boston Globe and Alaska Dispatch News write.
How a Nonprofit Motivated Staff to Give to a Capital Campaign
Getting executives, employees, and board members to donate, a Philadelphia hospital generated buzz and then momentum among donors.
By Timothy Sandoval
Contributor
Critics Say Charities Help Drug Companies Cover for Price Spikes
Big pharmaceutical firms are using contributions to “co-pay charities” to deflect criticism of massive price hikes for lifesaving medications, according to a Bloomberg BusinessWeek investigation.
Humanitarian Aid Reached Record $28 Billion in 2015
Relief funding, including $6.2 billion from private donors, increased 12 percent from 2014 but still failed to keep pace with the galloping need for crisis assistance, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports, citing new data from a research group Development Initiatives.
Planned Parenthood Takes Funding Fight to Nation’s Courts
The nonprofit’s lawsuit against Ohio, filed last week to challenge the state’s revocation of funding for non-abortion health services provided by Planned Parenthood clinics, is the 15th the organization has filed since July amid a wave of such state-level restrictions, Bloomberg writes.
D.C. Consultants Get Windfall From ‘Dark Money’ Nonprofits
Much of the money funneled into election and issue campaigns via nonprofit “dark money” groups ends up with a handful of political-advertising and -consulting firms in Washington and its environs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Mich. Targets Firefighters Group for ‘Deceptive’ Fundraising
State officials have effectively shut down a charity that purported to aid firefighters and victims of home blazes but made only a handful of grants and paid most of the millions of dollars it raised to telemarketers, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Russia’s ‘Foreign Agent’ Law Ensnaring Service Charities
Russian nonprofits addressing HIV, refugees, and other social issues are increasingly facing pressure under a law restricting groups deemed by authorities to be engaging in foreign-funded political activity, according to International Business Times.
Job and Budget Cuts Loom at Brooklyn Museum
The New York institution has offered voluntary buyouts to staff members as part of a belt-tightening aimed at erasing a projected $3 million deficit, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal write.