Where Most Needed

National Night Out Founder Thinks He's Worth a Quarter Million

About a third of the organization's budget goes to pay the president's salary, approved by a five-person board that includes his brother.   And we track down the source of its funding. 

Blogathon Demonstrates Long Tail (Up to a Point)

Shared vision is largely absent from a twenty-four-hour blogging event to raise money for charity, which could be why it wasn't more successful.  And the winner was online editor for a newspaper in Midland, Texas, who blogged from a 30-foot Genie scissors lift in a grocery store parking lot (isn't that cheating?)

IRS Charts Charity Challenges

In response to a request by Sen. Charles Grassley, the IRS outline its efforts to deal with the changed landscape of charities (and charity abuses) in the United States. 

Carnegie Mellon Buys Into Product Placement in Films

University agreed to filming on campus in return for prominent use of the college name throughout the movie.  Could be a symptom of the transformation of universities into corporate Educational Maintenance Organizations. 

Salvation Army Manager Fakes Voids & Pockets Cash

Since 1999, according to the police report, she was able to walk away with an average of $500 a month, because cross checking procedures were not observed.

Foundations Swimming through Apologies (Sorry)

Major foundations are stumbling over themselves to report lessons learned on disappointing initiatives, but there is a suprising sameness in What Doesn't Work. 

Missouri Takes on High-Pressure Police Telemarketers

A lawsuit accuses Police Protective Fund of making false claims about benefits, while most of the funds raised go to professional fundraisers. 

GAO Tax Report Buys Into Charity Industry Myth

Thousands of nonprofit organizations owe nearly a billion in payroll taxes?  Truth is, a few multi-million-dollar scofflaws will account for most of the problem. 

James Irvine Foundation Turns Whoops into White Paper

When a huge foundation initiative failed to show much progress, they brought in outside help to turn it around, completely revamped the project, and wrote it all up for the world to see. 

Attorney Claims Priest Embezzlement is Internal Church Matter

Defense lawyer argues for dismissal of an indictment relating to a million dollars said to have been diverted by a parish priest for the support of his secret family forty miles away from his parishes in rural Virginia.