Journalism Links via Padraic Cassidy's Web Page. Help:How to research front groups. How to research front groups is a research guide. See the other research guides The Center for Media and Democracy, the publisher of SourceWatch, has produced several books about the public relations industry that can be helpful research sources, in particular Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry and Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future. This web site also contains "search-able" archives of PR Watch, daily news items dating back several years in our Spin of the Day section, and a public discussion forum. PR Trade press and PR/Lobbying Guidebooks The PR trade press is another good source for information.
The web site of O'Dwyer's PR Daily includes online databases that can be searched to find out which PR firms are working for a particular company. These are available to those who take out a subscription which range from $10 for site access for one week through to $295 for a full year subscription. Tips for Research. Heritage Foundation. The best-known and most influential right-wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation owes much of its success to savvy marketing and PR and the generous donations of right-wing benefactors, foundations and wealthy corporations. The foundation boasts about its influence on Capitol Hill yet insists that it does not "lobby. " Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE Washington, DC 20002 Website: www.heritage.org President/Executive Director: Dr. Edwin Feulner Established: In 1973 by Joseph Coors (of Coors Beer) and Paul Weyrich. Read the latest news on the Heritage Foundation on the group's Right Wing Watch index page Principal Issues Heritage Foundation's mission is "to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
" Recent Activities Funding Former Heritage Foundation employees who have served in the Bush Administration History and Background. National Organization for Marriage's 2010 financial records raise questions. National for Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown speaks to a crowd during NOM’s 2010 Summer for Marriage Tour, July 27, 2010 (Photo: Flickr/Lost Albatross). In 2010, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a tax-exempt nonprofit trying to thwart the legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the U.S., reported the highest individual donations it has received since its inception in 2007, according to NOM’s most recent income disclosures to the Internal Revenue Service, recently obtained by The American Independent.
Per NOM’s numbers, just two individuals contributed more than $6 million to the organization’s political arm – accounting for about two-thirds of NOM’s 2010 revenue, while single donations below $5,000 covered only 8 percent of reported revenue. This revelation is not extraordinary for NOM, whose existence from the very beginning has been dependent upon large contributions from a small pool of big-money, mostly anonymous donors.
Vague reporting. Microsoft Word - 990Governance.doc. Our Learning Center includes a bookstore, hundreds of downloadable resources, and a calendar of live and online training programs on how good governance can shape an organization’s missions, finances and strategic direction. Access your Member Resources BoardSource members have access to hundreds of resources on the issues nonprofit leaders face daily. Get Started with a Collection BoardSource has compiled some of its most popular resources into special collections addressing key governance roles and responsibilites. Assess Your Performance Assessments help move your board and board leaders to the next level of performance. Which resources are the best fit for your experience level?
Interested in making a bulk purchase? Demystifying the 990-PF. Understanding the IRS Form 990. IRS Form 990 Governance Guidance. Microsoft Word - Using your 990 to Communicate Effectively.doc. Tate & Tryon's Form 990 Forum: New 990 Design Makes Public Research a Reality. One of the more interesting objectives of the new Form 990 Redesign is the IRS goal to make financial and program services information more readily available both internally and to other public researchers.
The changes in the Program Services section of the core form and the addition of the new Activity Codes should make accessibility to this information a reality. These new Activity codes are not to be confused with the current Exclusion Codes found in the Analysis of Income Producing Activities section. In fact, the Exclusion codes will not be part of the new design. The Activity codes will not be required for the first returns filed on the new 990 forms, to allow the IRS more time to determine which code system will be the most effective.
The most likely system is an abbreviated version of the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities. We won't know which set of codes will be the basis for the new Activity Codes until the final version of the forms and instructions are released. Subrina. Tax Exempt Organizations, NonProfit Corporations, Charities | Taxexemptworld. Locating nonprofit information. National Business Plan Competition for Nonprofit Organizations. Download Paper No.33.9. I. Is it Time for Regulation Fair Disclosure for Nonprofit Organizations. Working Paper Series. Hauser Working Paper Series2000-2008 The Hauser Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000, and ran through the fall of 2008. The Series enabled the Hauser Institute to share important works-in-progress written by Hauser Institute scholars and researchers with a broad audience. 1.
Globalization, NGOs and Multi-Sectoral Relations by L. David Brown, Sanjeev Khagram, Mark H. Moore and Peter Frumkin (July 2000) 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. Hauser Working Paper Series Nos. 33.1-33.9 were prepared as background papers for the Nonprofit Governance and Accountability Symposium on October 3-4, 2006. 33.1 Holding Charities Accountable; Some Thoughts from an Ex-Regulator by Catharine Wells (October 2006) 33.2 Placing the Normative Logics of Accountability in Thick Perspective by Alnoor Ebrahim (October 2006) 33.4 Charity Oversight: An Alternative Approachby Marcus S. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Implications for Nonprofit Organizations. Nonprofit Advocacy. “Arguably, the most important public policies we have in the United States have come from nonprofit organizations lobbying for their causes…. These achievements may be largely attributed to the strong leadership of executive directors and board members who knew that direct service alone would not change the flawed or missing public policies that contributed to the problems their organizations were trying to alleviate.” --David F. Arons, in Nonprofit Governance and Management At its core, this portion of our website is about democracy. When nonprofits engage in advocacy and lobbying activities, they can advance their individual missions. They can also fulfill their collective mission of being sanctuaries where Americans gather to serve as champions of the public’s interests.
The Power of Nonprofits: A Proud Tradition of Serving Americans Advocacy is deeply-rooted in nonprofits’ DNA. The Power of Knowledge: Nonprofit Advocacy Is Legal, Needed, and Easy. How to Make Money With a Nonprofit Organization. 11931529890_201107311504.fec. Tax-Motivated Expense Allocations by Nonprofit Organizations. The Conference Board | Trusted Insights for Business Worldwide. Article3.pdf. The Governance of Not-for-Profit Organizations. Philanthropy Advice - Philanthropy Strategy for Donors - GiveSmart.org. Getting real, lasting results from your philanthropic giving requires planning, strategy, realism and partnership. Whether you're new to philanthropy or farther along, Give Smart can help guide you in your philanthropic journey.
How can you tell whether you’ve wrestled with a philanthropic question sufficiently to move on? If you can check many of these markers off your Monday morning to-do list, then you’re probably well on your way to giving smart! Donors rely on peers for information, view evaluation negatively, and struggle to end established grantee relationships. What is the best way to research a nonprofit organization you’re considering funding? Click the above link for a 10-question diagnostic that will give you a tailored research plan, or go straight to one of the documents below. 10 Great Resources for Creating a Theory of Change Philanthropy411 BlogTools and guides for developing a theory of change that is "plausible, doable, testable, and meaningful.
" How to Read the IRS Form 990 & Find Out What it Means. How to Read the IRS Form 990 & Find Out What it Means 2005 Form 990 Version Written by Peter Swords, former Executive Director of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, with the assistance of Victoria Bjorklund of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Jon Small, Executive Director of NPCC; supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation. May, 2011: A new version of this paper is available at www.npccny.org/new990/new990.htm. There is information in the Form 990 that you may find interesting and helpful for learning about the nonprofit organization that filed the Form 990. But you need to know where to find this information and how to interpret it. To help you do this, we offer a list of the ten most significant pieces of information that can be found in the Form 990 and show you exactly where you can find the information.
Of course, your particular interest in the organization whose Form 990 you are reviewing will influence what information you may consider significant. Example 1. Nonprofit Due Diligence - Light-Touch Research Guide - GiveSmart.org. Should you invest in a particular nonprofit organization? Helping you answer that question is the goal of this guide. We’ll help guide you through the process some call due diligence: learning enough about the results, leadership, financials, and operations of an organization to make the right investment decision, while respecting the limited time of its busy leaders.
And as you learn about your potential grantees, we’ll help you collect information to answer the three most-important questions to making your decision: Does the organization’s mission align with your personal philanthropic goals? Is the organization well-positioned to carry out the proposed project? The best philanthropists take this learning process seriously—but also feel inspired and have fun along the way. Areas to research: The big four You have indicated that you are comfortable basing your funding decision on a lighter-touch approach to research.
Strategy and results What is the organization’s mission and strategy? Understanding Collaboration Among Nonprofit Organizations ... Nonprofit Organizations - How Not to Lose Your Tax-Exempt Status. Congratulations if you have jumped through all of the hoops to become a 501(c)(3) organization. But now you must be careful that your actions don't draw attention from the IRS or cause you to lose your exempt designation. Following are some of the activities that could cause your organization to lose its tax-exempt position: Private benefit/inurement A nonprofit differs from a for-profit organization in that it does not benefit the private interests of any individual or organization. A nonprofit organization must serve the public good. Profits are not paid to individuals but channeled back into the organization's activities. However, you can pay reasonable salaries to staff. Inurement goes a bit further in that it prohibits the nonprofit from allowing any of its income to be paid to, or property improperly sold (below fair market price), to insiders such as officers, directors, or employees.
Lobbying An organization lobbies when it attempts to influence legislation. Fraud in Charitable Organizations. Craigconnects | Connecting the World for the Common Good. 501c4-Reporting.pdf. Audit Report. Deal or No Deal Decision Making Under Risk in a Large-Payoff Game Show.pdf. Nonprofit Groups Funneled Money For Abramoff. Newly released documents in the Jack Abramoff investigation shed light on how the lobbyist secretly routed his clients' funds through tax-exempt organizations with the acquiescence of those in charge, including prominent conservative activist Grover Norquist.
The federal probe has brought a string of bribery-related charges and plea deals. The possible misuse of tax-exempt groups is also receiving investigators' attention, sources familiar with the matter said. Among the organizations used by Abramoff was Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. According to an investigative report on Abramoff's lobbying released last week by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Americans for Tax Reform served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns.
Norquist has long been an architect of tax-cutting policies and political strategies that have boosted the Republican Party. Deal or No Deal Risk Calculator. This page is my attempt to put some numbers and analysis behind the popular game show Deal or No Deal. In a nutshell, what separates Deal or No Deal from a random game of chance is the fact that you can turn in your set of unopened cases for an offer at the end of each round.
The offer is approximately the statistical mean of your unopened cases, whether it's a single case or a set of cases (note that the show will deviate their offer from the statistical mean). By allowing a group of cases to be turned in for an offer, the more cases in your group, the closer your mean will be to the original mean of the group. As the game continues on, your group shrinks and your mean value becomes more volatile and unstable, but it will eventually stabilize on your final case selection (in the show, it's the first case you select). Please contact me if you would like to throw in your $0.02. Reza.naghibi@yahoo.com Home.
About the National Center for Public Policy Research - A Conservative Think Tank. Download our latest newsletter Download our Progress Report to learn our history Download our latest tax return Download our latest independent audit Download our board of directors list Read our privacy policy About Us The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today's public policy problems.
We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century. In 1982, we started The National Center to provide the conservative movement with a versatile and energetic organization capable of responding quickly and decisively to fast-breaking issues. Today, we continue to fill this critical niche through a top-flight research and communications operation driven by results and the bottom line. Proven Success Powerful Resources Funding. N.R.A. VP Wayne LaPierre: 'Call Me Crazy'
NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre (NBC) Despite a national outcry on Friday against his official response to the Sandy Hook massacre, N.R.A. Vice President Wayne LaPierre maintained his position on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday morning. "If it's crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre told NBC's David Gregory. "I think the American people think it's crazy not to do it. It's the one thing that would keep people safe and the NRA is going try to do that. " He added that the United States is now spending $2 billion to train police officers in Iraq and asked why federal funds could not be spent to train school guards to protect schools in the United States.
Asked about restricting the size of ammunition magazine or clips, LaPierre said, "I don't believe that's going to make one difference. Feinstein, D-Calif., was the author of the 1994 ban on certain types of semiautomatic firearms which expired in 2004. NRA Leaders by Ties | Meet the NRA Leadership. Norquist and the NRA? Yep, he's on their board of directors. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) | Influence Explorer: Campaign Finance. 501(c)(3) - Sunshine Review. Worldandnation: Groups hide behind tax code. The Violence Policy Center - National Rifle Association Receives Millions of Dollars From Gun Industry "Corporate Partners" New VPC Report Reveals (04/13/2011)
What The NRA's Wayne Lapierre Gets Paid To Defend Guns. Umberto Eco. What the NRA is Assuming (and Why They are Wrong)