How do we know what (and how well) participants learn in short, educational programming? The answer, at least in my experience, is too often: “We don’t, but we are sure they do!”
But the question is a very serious one for those of us who work in non-profits and design educational programming, and it is quite reasonable for donors to want to see some evidence of learning from the programs they fund with their resources.… MORE >>

House Committee to investigate nonprofit fundraising by Sebelius. Letters have gone to her and to 12 large corporations, including H&R Block (because Obamacare intersects IRS/taxes).… MORE >>

IRS Inspector General’s report in full is available at http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/700698/i-r-s-inspector-generals-report-on-targeting.pdf… MORE >>

IRS scandals connect to the scandal of HHS Sec’y Sebelius fundraising for pet nonprofits. See the NY Post: http://goo.gl/LgOCI and earlier piece: http://goo.gl/jWp4N… MORE >>

Here’s Richard Vedder today on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s public university salary survey for presidents. There is at least one thing to consider, I think, when thinking about university president salaries that Vedder doesn’t mention.… MORE >>

Did the IRS also unfairly single out pro-Israel groups for additionally scrutiny?  That’s the claim of a lawsuit by Z-Street.… MORE >>

Thomas Jefferson said of philanthropy that it is “the duty of every man to devote a certain portion of his income for charitable purposes; and that it is his further duty to see it so applied and to do the most good for which it is capable.” This week at the University of Virginia, a class of students studying philanthropy gave away $100,000 to fourteen charitable organizations.… MORE >>

Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) says “community” is central to America’s flourishing and conservatism’s political success. The Left speaks to that need. The Right must too.
“Hard as it might be to admit,” Ryan told an audience at the conservative think tank AEI, the Left speaks to “a need for security in a world of growing complexity.… MORE >>

NPQ’s Rick Cohen on the Philanthropy Roundtable’s veterans and philanthropy program earlier this week in Washington, DC.  The program also occasioned the release of a new guidebook for philanthropists from the Roundtable entitled Serving Those Who Served.… MORE >>

Wither compassionate conservatism?  William Schambra on the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.… MORE >>