Engaging The Next Generation----Maybe

by Gary Snyder

A rising generation of younger donors and philanthropic leaders could bring new money to nonprofits and fresh energy to their boardrooms—if boards can overcome their current dysfunction enough to engage them.

Next-gen donors’ appetite for engagement was cited earlier this year in one of the first large studies of high-capacity donors in their 20s and 30s ---a report that received grant support from the Meyer Foundation.

Next-gen donors as driven by personal values, often those transmitted from their parents and grandparents, and motivated primarily by a desire for social impact rather than a sense of obligation or a need for recognition.

Perhaps most significant for nonprofits and their boards was the desire of younger donors to go “all in” once they engage: to develop close relationships with the organizations and causes they support, to offer their personal and professional talents in support of the cause, and to encourage their peers to give and participate as well.

Yet despite their appetite for deep engagement, younger donors are likely to be put off by board service unless boards can improve the way they function.

A decade’s worth of research suggests that board performance is at best uneven and at worst highly dysfunctional. A majority of executive directors are at least somewhat dissatisfied with their board’s performance; many are very dissatisfied. Large numbers of trustees report low levels of engagement across almost every area of board responsibility. For far too many people, serving on a board is a frustrating and daunting experience, and many trustees wonder whether their service is making a difference. The experience of serving on a board—unless it is high functioning, superbly led, supported by a skilled staff, and working in a true partnership with the executive—is often quite the opposite of engaging.

To engage them, nonprofit boardrooms need to become welcoming places where real work gets done. Nonprofit executives need to get better at tapping the expertise and networks of their trustees. And boards need to have more serious conversations about impact.

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)

Clergy, Sex and Charity Fraud Are Not A Good MIx

by Gary Snyder

A pastor at Mechanicsville (VA) Advent Christian Church who is accused of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from his own church for sexual favors is now out of jail.

Chris Phillips has been released on his own recognizance. A Henrico woman, Tonya Farnsworth, is accused of extorting money from Phillips after he paid her. Farnsworth has been on the run, but they finally found her in Tampa, Florida and brought her back to Hanover to be charged. She is sitting in jail accused of extorting a hundred thousand dollars from a man she met online for sex. She has a previous arrest for prostitution. 

Hanover investigators say Phillips led them to arrest Farnsworth after they say she extorted him out of $100,000.

Police also arrested Phillips saying he embezzled more than $80,000 from his own church. Investigators will not say where that money went.

According to court documents, Phillips paid Farnsworth $200 for oral sex. In that report, Phillips says "he observed someone filming the encounter or taking photographs."

For the next three months, according to court records, Farnsworth sent Phillips text messages threatening to release the pictures unless he paid her. The documents say the threats happened almost daily.  Phillips worked with police to get Farnsworth to confess over text message, according to the affidavit. She tells him "never trust anyone with your fantasy."

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)

A Michigan Crackdown On Charity Fraud

by Gary Snyder

Remember when Nonprofit Imperative told you about the Michigan Attorney General charging a man that created fake veteran charities and tricking people into donating through telemarketing. The man was later sentenced to a year and a half to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution. 

Bill Schuette is at it again---to his credit. He now ordered Southfield Michigan based professional fundraiser Associated Community Services to cease and desist its use of 'misleading telemarketing tactics.'

The AG investigation identified 230 alleged ACS violations, including telemarketers' response to the people who expressed reluctant to donate to charities by using a credit card over the phone. The ACS telemarketers then said, according to a script: "For that very reason, we are on file with the state Attorney General's Office."

According to the release by the AG's office, the "rebuttal" misled donors into thinking the ACS could be trusted with credit card information because ACS was "licensed" by the state. Being on file with the Attorney General's Office, however, means only that the company is licensed to fundraise on behalf of charities in Michigan, and does not endorse the company's ability to protect credit card information of donors.

Schuette plans to bring a civil action suit with fines up to $10,000 for each of ACS's alleged violations "unless ACS satisfactorily responds to this notice within 21 days," according to the news release.

It looks as though Schuette is on a path to clean up Michigan charity corruption similar to the efforts of New York AG Schneiderman.

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)

Nike Bails On Livestrong Charity

by Gary Snyder

Nike, which helped build Lance Armstrong's Livestrong cancer charity into a global brand and introduced its familiar yellow wristband, is cutting ties with the foundation in the latest fallout from the former cyclist's doping scandal. The move by the sports shoe and clothing company ends a nine-year relationship that helped the foundation raise more than $100 million and made the charity's bracelet an international symbol for cancer survivors.


Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)

Surprise (not): Red Cross Still Holding $110 Million of Sandy Money

by Gary Snyder

Readers of Nonprofit Imperative should not be surprised that the American Red Cross has a problem in effectively distributing hard sought after money in times of crisis.

Seven months after Superstorm Sandy, the Red Cross still hasn't spent more than a third of the $303 million it raised to assist victims of the storm, a strategy the organization says will help address needs that weren't immediately apparent in the disaster's wake. (Wall Street Journal)

The Red Cross was also the No. 1 recipient of donations after Sandy. The organization said it still had $110 million remaining from its pool of storm donations as of mid-April, which were the most recent figures available.

Red Cross officials pledged that all the money in its Sandy fund will eventually be spent on the storm recovery and not diverted to other disasters or used to support general Red Cross operations.

Over the next few months, the Red Cross expects to spend as much as $27 million of its remaining Sandy donations on a program providing "move-in assistance" grants of up to $10,000 to families displaced by the storm. About 2,000 households have been assisted by the program so far, with an additional 4,000 waiting for an eligibility determination.

As we reported last week, in the aftermath of 9-11 the American Red Cross created the Liberty Fund and received about $547 million that was ostensibly designed for relief for the victims of the terrorist attacks. However, when the fund was closed after reaching the goals only 30% was spent. The then president announced that the remainder (with collections having now grown to nearly $1 billion) of the money would be spent elsewhere on improved communications, blood supply and money for other attacks. There was a huge outcry and the president was forced to resign. She received a severance payment of $1,569,630.

Hopefully the money for Sandy will go to Sandy relief. Not the case in Oklahoma. In last weeks NewsOK article, a national spokeswoman at the Washington DC ARC headquarters said money donated by texting to the heavily-promoted “REDCROSS” to 90999 will not be going to Oklahoma but instead toward a national disaster recovery fund. "It is not designated to Oklahoma or any specific disaster relief,” she said.

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)

Was The IRS Targeting of Conservative Organizations That Different?

by Gary Snyder

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Internal Revenue Service unit under fire for its reviews of conservative organizations has a long history of targeting groups with extra scrutiny, including foreclosure-assistance charities, credit-counseling services and New York Jewish charities, interviews with current and former employees show. 

The clustering model has been used officially and unofficially for years, and IRS officials called it "centralization." In some cases, it was facilitated by a "Be On The Lookout" Excel spreadsheet, which flagged groups that could be problematic or simply were growing fast in numbers, according to a document released by Congress. The IRS's questionable handling of the tea-party cases follows a long line of other groups selected for extra scrutiny. 

In the mid-2000s, the IRS revoked or terminated the tax-exempt status of more than a dozen credit-counseling firms after finding they operated as businesses that weren't providing counseling or education. The agency developed a more stringent process for reviewing applications in the years following, including guidelines that advised IRS workers to seek to learn whether counselors collected complete financial information.

      

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)