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Growth According to a report on the August 2001 meeting of the American Bar Association's "Exempt Organizations" section, the Internal Revenue Service is now receiving applications from proposed new nonprofit organizations at the rate of 85,000 per year! That's more than 325 every business day. Delays in processing are occurring, and the IRS has shifted staff away from other functions to try to keep up with the incoming mail. (Thanks to Barnaby Zall, an attorney from Rockville, MD, who circulated his notes from the meeting on the Cyber-Accountability listserve -- see http://cyb-acc.com.) "How do we start a new nonprofit?" is one of the most frequently-asked of the frequently-asked questions on which the Nonprofit FAQ is based. The replies are collected in the "Start Up" section of the FAQ at http://www.nonprofits.org/npofaq.
An Overall Profile of this Growing Field — The Independent Sector has published the New Nonprofit Almanac presenting detailed statistics on many aspects of the scope and character America's population of nonprofit organizations. A 20-page summary of key findings is available as a "portable document" (.pdf) file through their website at http://www.independentsector.org/. It contains summary statistics and numerous charts on the numbers of nonprofit organizations, the efforts of volunteers, and the volume of charitable donations. (Order the complete<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787957267/internetnonprofi"> New Nonprofit Almanac from Amazon.Com. If you use this link, a royalty will be paid that helps support this site.)
Providing Basic Data Online — The National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute (http://nccs.urban.org) and the National Association of State Charities Officials (http://www.nasconet.org) are collaborating on an experiment with electronic preparation of the Form 990 and e-filing with eleven state charities offices. An early step in the process has been the creation of "Desktop 990" software -- downloadable without charge from the project's website. Any organization can use this software to prepare a 990 for printing and filing; the software includes numerous internal checks to reduce errors and automatic context-sensitive links to the IRS instructions for completing the form. Nonprofits who need to file a copy of their 990 with any of the participating states may also do so online by following the process outlined at the project's website: http://216.247.185.37/public/efiling/.
Survey of Civic Engagement — Three dozen community foundations, other funders, and the Saguaro Seminar of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University joined together to ask a battery of questions of nearly 30,000 people in the largest-ever survey on the civic engagement of Americans. The survey looked at how connected people are to family, friends, neighbors and civic institutions on a local and national level. The project is based on the idea that these connections – our Social Capital &ndash are the glue that hold communities together and enable people to build bridges to others. Its long-term goal is to assist residents in each community as they work to build stronger communities and strengthen community bonds. The highlights of the study are discussed and some results can be viewed at http://www.cfsv.org/communitysurvey/. There are also links to detailed discussions of the data. A "Community Results Matrix" compares 40 areas of the country to the across-the-board measures of 11 key qualities, using a relative score to highlight areas that exceed or fall behind the national levels.
Helping Nonprofits Plan for Growth and Change — Changes at http://www.InnoNet.org/ — On May 1st, a new and improved InnoNet website went online. The revised site offers greatly enhanced products on the Workstation. New features include: <ul Nonprofit leaders are increasingly aware that good use of technology is a key contributor to effective, efficient programs. Npower has developed an online tool to help with assessments of current technological resources -- hardware, software and people skills. See http://www.npower.org/techsurveyor. "Tech Surveyor will take you step-by-step through a series of simple forms that collect data about the technology and tech skill-sets at your non-profit," explains the text in the Tech Surveyor FAQs. The Surdna Foundation has published online a new report on technology usage by nonprofits and foundations entitled More than Bit Players: How Information Technology Will Change the Ways Nonprofits and Foundations Work and Thrive in the Information Age. The report was written by former Benton Foundation policy analyst, Andrew Blau. It can be found at http://www.surdna.org/documents/morefinal.pdf. The report tackles the chaos that has been surrounding nonprofits and the Internet for the last several years.
Finally, I take great pleasure in passing along this news which I received as an email earlier this summer; Ritsu Morino wrote: I am pleased to let you know that the Milano Nonprofit Management Knowledge Hub (http://www.newschool.edu/milano/hub) has selected "The Internet Nonprofit Center" as one of the most useful sites for nonprofit leaders and managers. Please see our description of and link to your site at http://www.newschool.edu/milano/hub/leaders.html. The Milano Nonprofit Management Knowledge Hub is a peer-reviewed site designed to help nonprofit leaders, managers and researchers get quality information quickly. Your site was chosen by a committee of practitioners and academics in the professional category, who considered in their reviews: quality of information, reliability of the publisher, navigability, and whether your site requires membership or fees to access information. Reviewers are not allowed to comment or influence decisions on web sites of organizations that they are involved with as members, funders or employees
Putnam Barber, Editor To be added to the mailing list that is used to announce new "Bulletins" when they are published, send email to bulletins@nonprofits.org with your email address and your full name. To see a list of links to all past "Bulletins," see http://www.nonprofits.org/bulletins/ |
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