Spring 2013 – Digital Issue

Nonprofits Taxes: It's Your Agenda

Features

• Welcome
  
  
• The Nonprofit Ethicist
  Drama bombs exploding in your boardroom? You are not alone. When problem personalities plague your organization, the Nonprofit Ethicist is here to hand you a flak jacket and a battle plan for navigating those tricky minefields. by Woods Bowman
  
  
• The Case against Rainy-Day Framing of Budgets and Taxes
  Few things are more loathed by the public than taxes, and our cultural models encourage us to view government as something to be resisted and our tax system as a faulty or rigged vending machine. So how do we change these entrenched ways of thinking? The FrameWorks Institute has some ideas. by Susan Nall Bales and Yndia Lorick-Wilmot, PhD
  
  
• Tax Equity and the Nonprofit Sector
  When it comes to taxation, our country isn’t broke, just twisted—with a system skewed to favor the super-rich. What can nonprofits do to help? The author proffers seven ways to promote tax progressivity. by Chuck Collins
  
  
• Participatory Budgeting in the United States: What Is Its Role?
  Participatory Budgeting allows communities to shape their own fiscal destiny. Originating in Brazil and spreading across Latin America, it has now arrived in the United States. Where is PB headed, and what hurdles does it face? by Daniel Altschuler, PhD
  
  
• Nonprofits and State Tax Systems: The Big Picture
  In order to weigh in on tax reform, nonprofits must first understand how states raise their money—which, thanks to murky documentation, is no easy feat. This investigative report delves into state taxation schemes and how they affect the nonprofit sector. by Rick Cohen
  
  
• Death by a Thousand City Fees: How Local Governments May Be Weakening Their Own Delivery Systems
  In the current climate of reduced government, the screws are being put to nonprofits and our tax-exempt status is being re-examined. How do we fight back? by Jeannie Fox

Departments

• Dr. Conflict
  Got a problem with your personnel committee getting too personal? Dr. Conflict issues a surprising prescription. by Mark Light, MBA, PhD
  
  
• “Deliberate Deployment” or Perpetuity? Questions to Inform Timing Strategies for Philanthropy
  Billionaire philanthropists have many options for doling out their mega-funds, and many will opt for traditional private foundations. But how do we raise questions about the timing of long-term grantmaking? And does the “spend down” model need rebranding? by A. W. “Buzz” Schmidt
  
  
• Bottom-Up Versus Top-Down Land Conservation
  Most land-conservation efforts are not community based, which can leave protected lands prey to poachers, miners, and other threats. In this article the authors explore the effectiveness of the grassroots, bottom-up approach. by Steven I. Apfelbaum, MS, Alan Haney, PhD, and Alvaro F. Ugalde, MS
  
  
• Islamophobia in Public Discourse: A Case Study in Building an Online Communications Hub
  Many groups are interested in building an online hub of shared resources that will get members “on message,” but few do what it takes to get it right. This study shows how, by joining forces, a network of organizations reframed the discussion of the “war on terror.” by John Hoffman, MBA
  
  
• Nonprofit Branding 2013: What Has Changed?
  After participating in an online roundtable discussion on nonprofit capacity building, the author was inspired to extend the ideas to nonprofit branding. by Carlo Cuesta, MBA

Satire

• Introducing the Center for Ineffective Philanthropy
  In a confidential letter to George Soros, Phil Anthrop outlines the SEVEN POINTS for undermining institutional philanthropy. by Phil Anthrop