The nonprofit sector has been growing steadily, both in size and financial impact, for more than a decade. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of nonprofits has increased 25 percent; from 1,259,764 million to 1,574,674 million today. The growth rate of the nonprofit sector has surpassed the rate of both the business and government sectors.
In 2010, nonprofits contributed products and services that added $779 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product; 5.4 percent of GDP. Nonprofits are also a major employer, accounting for 9 percent of the economy’s wages, and over 10 percent of jobs in 2009. Read more.
Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy
The UI Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy celebrated 15 years with a series of 15th Anniversary events to bring into focus the big issues facing society and the nonprofit sector. More
PerformWell - envisions a one-stop online portal that has basic information on outcome indicators, logic models, evidence-based practices and general guidance on performance management. Additional information is available at the PerformWell web site.
NCCS Community Platform - combines data on nonprofit organizations from National Center for Charitable Statistics with interactive online tools to providing resources and knowledge for building civic capacity for problem solving.
Analyzing the IRS 501(c)(4) Scandal - The scandal raises many questions about the IRS process for granting tax-exempt status for nonprofit organizations. Our experts weigh in.
This paper attempts to better understand rhetoric over the charitable contributions deduction, arguing that debate surrounding the deduction is ultimately a projection of more fundamental debates relating to the theme of government versus charity. The phrase "government versus charity" can mean government as opposed to charity or government in opposition to charity. The first sense contemplates the need to choose which of government versus charity should supply a given good or service. The second sense contemplates the ideal regulatory posture of government in relation to charity. Competing views over the charitable contributions deduction often reduce to competing views over these two issues.
This paper examines the minimum distribution requirements for foundations. The first section presents a historical review of current law. The second section looks at the technical problems in the distributions requirements which lead to inequities across foundations and inefficiencies in their distribution of funds. The third section presents proposals to eliminate these problems, and the fourth section discusses the role of public policy in requiring minimum distributions and the effects of these requirements on the growth of the foundation sector. The fifth section looks at how these requirements impact the broader charitable sector.
The ongoing political standoff over the budget continues to have implications for all sectors of the economy, including the nonprofit sector. Most notably, proposed changes to personal itemized deductions have implications for the charitable deduction and giving to the sector as a whole.
The conference “The Charitable Deduction: A View from the Other Side of the Cliff,” hosted by the Urban Institute on February 28, 2013 examined how the recent debate over tax changes has affected nonprofits and charitable giving. Throughout the conference, a reoccurring theme was the gap between economic analysis and political feasibility.
Since the charitable deduction first appeared in 1917, its fate has been bound up with arguments over the nature and size of government, as well as the relationship between government and the private sector. This paper examines historical debates over the deduction for charitable giving, focusing on three key periods: 1917, when the deduction was first added to the tax system; 1944, when the introduction of the standard deduction seemed to threaten the efficacy of the charity deduction; and 1981-1986, when the extension of the deduction to non-itemizers was quickly followed by a debate over curbing the deduction substantially as part of general tax reform.
The Chicago area benefits from state, county and local governments committed to open data and a wealth of institutions working with neighborhood-level data for civic purposes. To enhance the area’s community information infrastructure and reduce the current fragmentation, we recommend a set of actions based on the experiences of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership. These include additional convening opportunities, increased public communication, and selected new services. A new regional cross-sector network for community data stakeholders could be hosted by an existing organization, manage the recommended activities, and plan for the future as the city's policy and technological environment evolves.
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