10 Ways Colleges Can Work With Their Communities

Does your college have an uneasy relationship with their community? Has a mistrust of academe been born out of a history of broken promises and projects that have never reached completion? Have students volunteered for brief periods, bound to their course schedules and academic terms, often with little regard for the disruption to the organizations they are assisting, harming the underresourced neighborhoods that depend on the services offered? As the Obama administration has ushered in a renewed commitment to service in our country, especially for higher education, The Chronicle of Higher Education suggests 10 opportunities for colleges to assist their communities during their call to service.

Full-text post by Gregor V. Sarkisian and Sylvie Tayloris available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/7/09.

Nonprofit Groups Upset at Exclusion From Health Bills

The health care bill proposed by the Congress and the current administration, awarding a tax credit to small businesses that provide their employees with health insurance, is upsetting nonprofits who do not pay income taxes and thus would not benefit. President Obama’s statement in his health-care speech last week that a health-care system overhaul would benefit “families, businesses, and government” is fueling the fire from nonprofit groups, which say they are being left out of efforts to give employers relief from rising health-care costs.

Full-text post by Stephanie Strom is available via The New York Times, 9/13/09.

Obama Sticks to Charitable-Deduction Limits in New Budget Proposals

President Obama plans to stick to his proposal to cap the federal tax breaks wealthy people can get for itemized deductions, including charitable donations, when he submits the final piece of his budget plans on Monday, Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, confirmed.

Full-text article by Suzanne Perry is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 5.9.09.

A Struggle to Slice Stimulus Fund Pie

More than 2,000 applications have poured in to the National Endowment for the Arts from cultural organizations all over the country seeking a piece of the stimulus pie allotted to the arts by President Obama.

Now the Endowment faces the tough task of sorting through these applications to determine which groups are the most deserving. The criteria are clear: each arts group seeking funds must demonstrate how it would use the money to preserve jobs or pay contractual workers.

Full-text article by Robin Pogrebin is available via The New York Times, 4.10.09.

The Obama Budget: What to Expect

Tax changes are likely, but health-care reform and emissions caps may have to wait.

Full-text article by Anne Kates Smith is available via Kiplinger's Personal Finance, May 2009.

Poll Finds New Optimism on Economy Since Inauguration

President Obama is enjoying some success in rebuilding confidence in a troubled nation, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Full-text article by Adam Nagourney and Megan Thee-Brenan is available via The New York Times, 4.6.09.

Taxes and Charitable Giving

Much discussion has centered around the Obama Administration's budget proposal to reduce the maximum deduction on charitable gifts. Eugene R. Tempel, President of the Indiana University Foundation offers his perspective via the IUF website.

Tax Change Should Not Affect Charities, Obama Says

Under the plan announced in Obama's budget in February, tax deductions for charitable contributions from people earning $250,000 a year or more would be limited to 28 percent, down from 35 percent.

Charity groups worry that the change will reduce giving at a time when demand for their services is rising because of the recession.

Obama said it would simply bring the tax benefits for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans in line with everyone else who gives to soup kitchens, medical research groups and other charities.

Full-text article by Andy Sullivan is available via Reuters, 3.24.09.

A Deduction From Charity

President Obama's proposal to limit the tax deductibility of charitable contributions would effectively transfer more than $7 billion a year from the nation's charitable institutions to the federal government. But the high-income taxpayers affected by the rule change are likely to cut their charitable giving by as much as the increase in their tax bills, which would, ironically, leave their remaining income and personal consumption unchanged.

Full-text editorial by Martin Feldstein is available via The Washington Post, 3.25.09.

Will Obama Tax Plan Hurt Religious Groups?

President Obama's proposed 2010 federal budget contains a 7% cut in charitable tax deductions for the nation's wealthiest taxpayers. Some religious groups are asking how that will affect their bottom line.

Full-text article by Karin Hamilton is available via The USA Today, 3.22.09.

Giving and Taxes

President Obama’s plan to cap itemized deductions for high-income taxpayers at a 28 percent rate flew like a lead balloon in Congress, reportedly sending the White House in search for other sources of revenue.

Full-text editorial available via The New York Times, 3.19.09.

Obama's Tax Plan Will Hurt Nonprofits

A 28% cap on deductions would reduce giving at a time when charities already are reeling.

Full-text article by Sandy Weill is available via BusinessWeek, 3.12.09.

The Charity Revolt

Among those shocked by President Obama's 2010 budget, the most surprising are the true-blue liberals who run most of America's nonprofits, universities and charities.

Full-text opinion piece is available via The Wall Street Journal, 3.11.09.

British Fund Raisers Warn Against Changing Gift Tax Break

British fund-raising experts consulted by Third Sector Online warn against adapting the Obama administration’s plan to curb tax breaks for upper-income donors to the comparable British program, known as Gift Aid.

The British tax-collection authority, HM Revenue & Customs, is conducting research on how much tax breaks motivate giving.

In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal blasts the Obama plan, noting appeals by “the true-blue liberals,” which the paper says dominate the nonprofit world, against trimming the charitable deduction for households earning more than $250,000 a year.

Full-text article by Hannah Jordan is available via The ThirdSector, 3.10.09.

Economists Try to Calculate the Impact of Tax Changes on Charitable Giving

Virtually everyone agrees that President Obama's proposal to limit the tax breaks wealthy people can get for charitable contributions would dampen giving. The question is, by how much? And would other parts of the president's budget plan act as a counterweight?

Full-text article by Suzanne Perry is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3.9.09. [Subscription required.]

Obama Tax Plan: Democrats Push Back

One of the most controversial provisions in President Obama's proposed budget might have a short shelf life on Capitol Hill.

To pay for half of his $634 billion health reform fund, Obama has proposed limiting deductions for high-income taxpayers starting in 2011.

Full-text article by Jeanne Sahad is available via CNN, 3.5.09.

Charitable-Giving Plan Divides Nonprofit Groups and Worries Donors

As President Obama seeks to reduce the value of the charitable deduction for wealthy Americans, fund raisers and other nonprofit experts are divided over whether his idea would cause any substantial change in charitable giving.

“Every time people want to fool around with the tax code, [charities] say it will be the end of philanthropy,” said Bruce Flessner, a Minneapolis fund-raising consultant. “I don’t think it will kill giving.”

Full-text article by Holly Hall is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3.2.09.

Obama's Tax Plan Could Cause Giving by the Wealthy to Drop by Several Billion Dollars Annually

President Obama’s tax proposals — including a limit on charitable giving deductions that could be taken by America’s wealthiest people — could cause giving by America’s wealthy to drop by several billion dollars a year, according to estimates released today by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.

Full-text article is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 3.2.09.

Economy Shrinks At Staggering Rate

The prospects for an economic recovery by year's end dimmed yesterday, as government data showed that the economy contracted at the end of 2008 by the fastest pace in a quarter-century.

Full-text article by Annys Shin and Neil Irwin is available via The Washington Post, 2.28.09.