Staff Post 
By Katie Chasowy

DIGit: Not-For-Profit Numbers is a weekly roundup of news and blog links related to not-for-profit financial management with a world-wide scope.

Welcome to the first DIGit post!

THIS WEEK:

A CEO charged in Canada, a finance director pleads guilty in the UK, and a director sentenced in the USA. When have you last had a risk assessment? Nonprofit Quarterly put out a great article this week about how to do just that: Risky Business: Why All Nonprofits Should Periodically Assess Their Risk.

 

UPCOMING SEMINARS:

• Pre-Fringe Seminar: Make it to the end of Fringe before your money runs out!
  from Young Associates
  Monday, May 14 – Get to the end of the Fringe, before you get to the end of your money!

GOVERNMENT

• CANADA Charities face up to $20,000 in new garbage fees
  from The Toronto Star by Wendy Gillis via @mikelayton
  More than 1,000 Toronto charities and non-profits are now scrambling to make decisions necessary to balance the books after learning of a city council decision to charge for garbage pick-up..
• CANADA Environmental Charities NOT Biggest Recipients of Foreign Cash
  from Huffington Post by Steve Rennie via Imagine Canada
  The Conservatives have taken some Canadian environmental charities to task for accepting money from wealthy foreign donors to finance their campaigns against oil and gas projects.
• UK Removing the zero VAT rating for listed buildings will be devastating
  from Voluntary Sector Network: Voluntary sector network blog | guardian.co.uk
  The Budget 2012 didn’t hold many big surprises, but still managed to pack in a few nasty shocks. One of these was the announcement that the government would be removing the zero rating for VAT on approved alterations to listed buildings.
• UK Giving Summit: minister regrets impact of tax cap row on giving debate
  from Voluntary Sector Network: Voluntary sector network blog | guardian.co.uk
  Civil society minister Nick Hurd has said he regrets that the public debate about giving has “wandered away towards a debate over whether everyone should pay a fair amount of tax”.
• UK Why charity leaders should be more positive about the small donations bill
  from Voluntary Sector Network: Voluntary sector network blog | guardian.co.uk
  In his 2011 budget George Osborne announced plans to help charitiesget Gift Aid type support on small donations but the plans required legislation. Yesterday’s Queen’s speech included the announcement thatthere will be a small donations bill.
• USA Schneiderman Unveiling “Nonprofit Revitalization Act”
  from Democrat & Chronicle by Joseph Spector via Nonprofit Quarterly
  Schneiderman is introducing legislation that he said would “improve and modernize” New York’s charities law for the first time in 40 years. He said the measure would reduce the governmental burdens that nonprofits face.

GRANTS & FUNDING

• UK ACE awards Derby Theatre £923,000
  from Stage, The (UK) – News Headlines by Matthew Hemley
  Derby Theatre has been awarded £923,000 from Arts Council England, which will help it to appoint an artistic leader and stage three in-house productions a year.
• UK Ashmolean museum receives £5.9m grant from lottery fund for painting
  from The Guardian via Arts Journal
  A grant of £5.9m from the Heritage Lottery Fund has brought the Ashmolean museum a step closer to owning a painting of a wistful young woman in a shimmering white dress by Édouard Manet.
• AUSTRALIA Galleries and museums get funding boost
  from Australian, The – Arts
  Collecting institutions such as the National Gallery of Australia have won the lion’s share of a $64.1m funding boost for the arts.
• USA Nearly $1.8 million announced in Pew grants to Philadelphia-area institutions
  from Philly.com Performing arts
  The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage has announced nearly $1.8 million in grants in recent weeks for exhibitions and local heritage projects. The Pew Exhibitions Initiative, an arm of the center, will be providing more than $1.1 million for exhibitions and planning by seven organizations.
• UK Arts tours scoop Lottery funding
  from BBC News – Entertainment & Arts
  The Tate gallery, a New York bhangra act and a dance troupe who mix hip-hop with morris dancing are to receive National Lottery money to go on tour.

DONORS & DONATIONS

• UK Charities need to ensure mobile donors feel connected
  from Voluntary Sector Network: Voluntary sector network blog | guardian.co.uk
  It is imperative that the charity sector starts to understand what the mobile paradigm shift truly means or the mobile generation will bypass them.
• USA Billionaire David Koch gives $35 million to Natural History Museum
  from LA Times – Arts&Culture by By Jamie Wetherbe
  David H. Koch’s deep philanthropic pockets will benefit dinosaurs.
• CHINA/USA China studies Philanthropy 101
  from The Province via Imagine Canada
  Given the growth of China’s robust economy, the Chinese clearly know how to make money. They aren’t quite as good at giving it away.

FUNDRAISING

• CANADA More on crowd fundraising and why online donors are so special
  from Creative Trust by Sue
  My crowd resourcing post  generated a flurry of comment and interest. And for good reason, according to this fascinating piece from NetWitsThinkTank  It says that while the majority of giving still comes from offline channels, online fundraising is becoming increasingly important for acquiring new donors. In fact, it’s the dominant giving channel for new donors 64 years old and younger, and an increasingly common way for new donors to give their first gift.
• USA Crowdfunding Platforms Raise $1.5 Billion and Successfully Fund One Million Campaigns in 2011, Finds Research Firm massolution™
  from Marketwire via Imagine Canada
  After collecting data from more than 170 crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) and other sources, the results revealed that CFPs raised almost $1.5 billion and successfully funded more than one million campaigns in 2011.
• USA Park Square getting close to its $4.2 million goal
  from Minnesota Star-Tribune – Entertainment
  Once realized, the fundraising campaign will yield a new stage in Park Square’s building, with opening anticipated for fall, 2013.

NEW MODELS OF WORKING

• CANADA Toronto incubates new brand of business-charity hybrids
  from the Toronto Star by Carol Goar via Imagine Canada
  This is time of great ferment in the non-profit sector. Every week or so a new organization pops up that stretches the boundaries of charity, blends altruism with entrepreneurship or shows that community work can be self-financing.
• CANADA Trend Watch for Nonprofits
  from Imagine Canada – Nonprofit Newswire by library
  Trends that are becoming mainstream, affecting most associations and charities, need to be high on the list of issues for strategic discussion and action by nonprofit leaders. These trends are pronounced and are becoming more significant. The question becomes how influential they will be in shaping organizational agendas through 2015.
• USA Pride & Prejudice: (What) Can Nonprofits Learn From the For-Profit World?
  from Huffington Post by Richard Dare via ArtsJournal
  In addition to providing vital art, theater and music experiences, as Senator Bradley once noted, nonprofits have done everything from create the polio vaccine to build the Sesame Workshop to invent the nationwide 911 system we all benefit from.

CUTS & CLOSING

• CANADA Who killed the Playhouse?
  from Vancouver Sun – Entertainment / Arts
  More than anything, crippling funding process sealed the Vancouver theatre institution’s fate
• CANADA Time for theatre to get past the first stage of grief: denial
  from Globe and Mail – Arts by J. Kelly Nestruck
  In the wake of the demise of the Vancouver Playhouse and Dancap productions, we should be asking some serious questions
• AUSTRALIA Museum to cut staff to fill funds gap
  from Australian, The – Arts
  Museum Victoria will cut its workforce by 47, hold fewer touring exhibitions and run other shows for longer to reduce cost
• USA Minnesota Orchestra trims its staff
  from Minnesota Star-Tribune – Entertainment
  Deficit cited for layoff of nine full-time employees and seven part-timers. No musicians were cut.
• Exclusive: Arts council plans to cut 150 jobs
  via The Stage / News Headlines by Natalie Woolman
  Plans to axe 150 posts – a quarter of its current workforce – are being considered by Arts Council England as the quango tries to halve its running costs, The Stage can reveal.
• Producer goes bust owing £500k
  via The Stage / News Headlines by Natalie Woolman
  A theatre production company that has staged shows across the UK and internationally has gone into liquidation owing almost £500,000.

LEGAL ISSUES

• CANADA Former Art Gallery of Calgary CEO charged with fraud
  from CBC – Arts News
  Police have charged a former Art Gallery of Calgary CEO with multiple counts of fraud after nearly $500,000 was taken from the organization.
• CANADA Kelowna arts centre withdraws offer to former CEO of Art Gallery of Calgary
  from Globe and Mail – Arts by MARSHA LEDERMAN
  With a civil suit filed alleging misappropriation of funds at the Art Gallery of Calgary, its former president and CEO is out of her next job too: Valerie Cooper will not be taking over as general manager at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna, B.C. next month as previously announced.
• CANADA Former Art Gallery of Calgary director loses new job amid fraud allegations
  from Calgary Herald – Entertainment
  Valerie Cooper, the former CEO and president of the Art Gallery of Calgary who left that organization in a scandalous flurry — including a criminal investigation and civil lawsuit against her to the tune of nearly $500,000 — has lost her next opportunity.
• CANADA CRA says “Toronto tax preparer guilty of over million dollar tax fraud scheme” with false receipts
  from Canadian Charity Law (Michael Blumberg) by Mark Blumberg
• USA Former Arts Center Director Pleads Guilty To Theft
  from WHNT News (Alabama) by Ty Watwood via ArtsJournal
  The former director of the Carnegie Visual Arts Center in Decatur pleads guilty to stealing more than $130,000.
• UK Former Royal Academy of Music employee pleads guilty to fraud
  from Stage, The (UK) – News Headlines by Michael Quinn
  A former finance director and head of IT at the Royal Academy of Music have been charged with stealing more than £630,00 between them in unrelated deceptions.
• The Sheldon Inwentash and Lynn Factor Charitable Foundation Case – public vs. private foundation
  from Canadian Charity Law (Michael Blumberg) by Mark Blumberg

BOARD RELATIONS

• Ethics Q & A
  from Charity Village by Jane Garthson
   The dilemma: Given how much time board members give to their charity, is it ethical to also expect them to donate?

ADMINISTRATION

• Risky Business: Why All Nonprofits Should Periodically Assess Their Risk
  from The Nonprofit Quarterly by [email protected] (Joshua J. Mintz)
  The notion of performing a comprehensive risk assessment may seem daunting to some nonprofits, but it is an integral responsibility of the stewards of any organization.

POLICY

• AUSTRALIA National cultural policy ‘on track’ says Crean
  from Australian, The – Arts
  ARTS Minister Simon Crean has moved to assure members of his 22-member reference group the national cultural policy is “on track”.
• Cultural sector let down
  from Australian, The – Arts
  The arts initiatives will be a disappointment to those who have been awaiting the National Cultural Policy.

REPORTS & STUDIES

• CANADA Value and Benefits of Presenting Highlighted in Interim Report of Findings
  from CAPACOA
  Surveys of 1376 respondents and consultations with more than 500 presenters and stakeholders have been consolidated into a single report.
• USA Demand for More Arts Organizations is Internally – not Externally – Driven
  from Barry’s Blog by Barry
  In the latest issue of the GIA Reader, Adrian Ellis provides an excellent summary of the Supply and Demand issue for the arts. 

OTHER

• CANADA New Standards Program for Canada’s Charitable and Nonprofit Sector
  from Imagine Canada
  Designed to strengthen public confidence in the charitable and nonprofit sector, the program is one of the first-of-its-kind globally at a national level.

Tags: DIGit, Katie Chasowy