From donor disclosures to wage disparity: My 2015 nonprofit news round-up

Seasons’ greetings loyal Ankhacia Rising readers! This is my last blogpost of 2015. It’s truly been a blessing sharing insights and information with you this year and I hope you’ve found them helpful in your work. As your most avid cheerleader, I thank you for all the lives you’ve positively impacted this year.

I know it’s not been easy, as you’ve had the welfare of your organization as well as yourself and your family to juggle.

For this post I thought I’d recap all the stories that appeared this year in “News from the 3rd Sectorsphere”, a feature of my RDsquaRD Connect newsletter. I know it’s difficult to keep up with all the ever-flowing information that is and can affect your NPO so I do it for you by scanning the nonprofit horizon and selecting stories that I feel you need to know about. Issues are released twice a month and I hope you make it mustreading. Here’s where you can sign up to get on the mailing list.

I’ve segmented the entries into categories to make it easier to read.

Governance

The personal cost of director inattentiveness is made painfully clear in an important federal appeals court decision. The court determined that directors were aware of the mismanagement yet took no action. This breach of care led to $2,250,000 in joint and several compensatory damages.

IRS and Federal Government

President Obama’s 2015 SOTU: Your NPO’s template for action? Here’s one perspective on what he said and didn’t say and how it could affect your organization.

Protect your NPO from unreasonable search and seizure by government charity officials by invoking your Fourth Amendment rights. This organization did.

Donors who want to contribute to your NPO’s long-term needs through their IRA’s without incurring penalties got a little encouragement that their chance to do may be reinstated by Congress through a bill introduced on May 1 to make rollovers permanent.

The Postal Regulatory Commission concluded that the statutory exception allowing higher rates when needed to respond to extraordinary financial circumstances, should only continue as long as those circumstances remained extraordinary.

An early transcript of the recent Senate Budget Committee hearing on social impact bonds or pay-for-success programs reveals plenty of nuggets for nonprofits and social enterprises to ponder.

The IRS is asking for your input on a potentially harmful proposal that could leave your NPO open to hackers and impede your ability to fundraise.

Fundraising and donor management

Would you sell access to your NPO’s data for profit? Venture philanthropy can provide a unique stream of income, but what conflicts, moral or otherwise, can it present?

California appeals court ruling supporting donor disclosure: could it be a statement on Citizens United and other PAC donor-financed nonprofits?

Labor and Employment

The movement to no longer require job applicants to reveal whether or not they have been convicted of a crime, is growing among municipal, state and private entities, and is supported by a myriad of foundations, the EEOC and President Obama.

The National Labor Relations Board highlights that notwithstanding apparent and intended separateness, two separate legal entities may be found to be joint employers of certain employees if the entities “share orco-determine” matters governing the essential terms and conditions of employment for the employees.

Health and Human Services

Is your NPO advocating for or (by your own business practices) contributing to the plight of low-wage workers in the U.S.? This article offers some powerful points of fact on the matter.

Atlanta tops the list of big cities with the greatest income inequality for two years running…and the gap is growing.

Strong statistical evidence suggests Western NGOs play a continued non-diverse, paternalistic and often contradictory role in purporting to aid the world’s most vulnerable populations.

It is completely understandable that in this day and age of severe financial challenges and “tax exhaustion,” local governments are looking for revenue wherever they can. Are hospitals now under attack?

Add Oregon and Colorado to the list of states whose nonprofit consumer oriented health insurance cooperatives have shut down. Find out how this decision is affecting NPOs.

Georgia is among more than half the states rejecting the resettlement of Syrian refugees. Is it enforceable? Some nonprofits say no and are standing up against the edicts.

I really enjoy providing this service to you and hope you enjoy receiving it. If you have any suggestions for categories you’d like to see included in RDsquaRD Connect, or if you have feedback of any kind, please add your comments below. You can also reach out to me here.

Happy New Year and let’s keep Building Purpose Fully in 2016!