It was a volatile year in nonprofit management. Visitors to The NonProfit Times website during 2022 showed a remarkable interest in leadership, finance, trends and best practices for their organizations. Here’s what readers clicked on the most.
Critics who rail about compensation for nonprofit executives or charities that do not spend enough on programs might want to cover their ears for this one: Employees at the United States Tennis Association Mid-Atlantic Section (USTA-MAS) can avail themselves of a concierge service.
The service isn’t aimed at scoring dinner reservations at the trendiest new restaurants or tickets to a sold-out event. It’s more about getting mundane and tedious tasks off of employees’ plates so they can focus on their jobs.
2022 NPT Power & Influence Top 50
The Year 2022 had it all – rain, sleet, snow, pestilence, gloom of night, revolution and rejoicing. Sometimes it all happened at once and, without a doubt, nonprofit operations were forever changed.
You can’t tack every evolution to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is a good start. You might be able to correctly assess that much of what engulfed the nonprofit sector during the past 12 months got its start between 2020 and 2021. The fact there was some experience with the issues didn’t make the decisions easier.
Mastercard Softens Chargeback Rules For Nonprofits
Mastercard has reversed course and won’t enforce on most charities a rule that would require them to treat recurring donations as subscriptions, requiring a monthly opt-out notification and electronic receipt.
The rule, which went into effect last month but postponed for charities, now only applies to merchants identified in the Acquirer Chargeback Monitoring Program (ACMP). It will only apply to charities with a high number of chargebacks during a four-month period. Numerous associations of nonprofit and payment processors for nonprofits have been lobbying Mastercard to rescind the rules for nonprofits.
Giving USA Data Shows $18.6 Billion Lift
Giving by individuals powered $484.85 billion in giving to charities during 2021, the total growing 4% compared to 2020, but a negative 0.7% when inflation is factored in. Giving dipped as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), from 2.2% to 2.1%.
The economic data is from Giving USA 2022, published annually by the Giving USA Foundation with research from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.
47 People Charged: NPO Is Center of Suspected $250M Fraud
Federal charges have been filed against 47 people in what might be one of the largest frauds involving nonprofit organizations — $250 million in government COVID relief money that was supposed to feed children.
California Passes Bill To Pull Insurrectionists’ Exempt Status
A bill calling for revocation of the tax-exempt status of any California nonprofit whose members engage in or incite acts of government insurrection has passed both houses of the state legislature and is being sent to Gov. Gavin Newson for his signature.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) sponsored the bill as a reaction to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in Washington, D.C., while Congress convened to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Charity’s DEI Not A Priority For Donors
More than half (59%) of donors in the U.S. would continue to support a charity with a lack of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) because the cause is more important to them than DEI, while 28% believe all organizations are bound to have issues with DEI.
Some 41% of donors would rebuff a charity they supported in the past if they discovered the organization’s culture tolerates discrimination against the people it serves. And, 34% of respondents to a survey would not donate to charities that use culturally insensitive images and language in solicitations, with 17% responding they would not donate if they learned the charity’s board of directors is not diverse.
MacKenzie Scott Launches Website
Philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott is lifting the veil that has shrouded her more than $14 billion in gift-giving since her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and her signing of the Giving Pledge that same year.
With 1,604 grantees to date by her account, Scott has launched a website listing each of these beneficiaries for the first time along with the donation amounts that some of them have received. Those without a dollar amount shown are accompanied by a cryptic notation: “Disclosure delayed for benefit of recipient.”
Giving Tuesday Added $3.1 Billion To U.S. Nonprofit Coffers
GivingTuesday 2022 generated $3.1 billion for U.S.-based nonprofits alone, a 15% increase compared to 2021’s $2.7 billion and a 25% jump from 2020’s $2.47 billion, according to the statisticians at GivingTuesday Data Commons.
The now 10-year-old global fundraising and service event held on Tuesday, Nov. 29 saw more than 37 million funders within the United States participate. Globally, people in an estimated 85 countries participated in GivingTuesday.
80% of Nonprofits’ Revenue Is Government, Fee For Service
Approximately 80 cents of every dollar of nonprofit revenue in the United States comes from government grants or contracts and fees for services. Universities and hospitals skew the numbers a bit, accounting for much of the 49% of nonprofit revenue derived specifically from private fees for services. Only about 10% of overall nonprofit comes from individual donations and another 4% from foundations.