Nonprofit finance, accounting, and tax news. Other tidbits of interest to the charity community.
Update on my post about how Taco Bell is using social media as an integrated part of their response to a lawsuit which raised severe allegations against them.
On April 19 the plaintiff dropped her lawsuit. The law firm claimed that the restaurant chain revised the marketing and product disclosure.
Taco Bell has a quick response saying they changed nothing in their recipe, paid nothing to the plaintiff, and did not make a settlement.
Their use of social media is what’s of most interest to me.
Might be time for all of us to pay more attention to privacy issues on the technology we use. This has not been a good week in terms of privacy developments.
Using an iPhone or phone in the Android family? Did you know your location is being tracked regularly and reported back to Apple and Google?
Previous posts here, here, and here have discussed a report from La Piana Consulting called Convergence- How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector.
One personal observation. (more…)
Various news reports suggest that inflation is returning to the economy. See this article from the AP for one example: That’s pricey: 13 items that cost more, or will.
Officials of the Federal Reserve indicate the recent price increases won’t be sustained.
I decided to do some checking on my own.
I pulled down the CPI data for a look-see. See this post for links to get the data yourself.
Inflation statistics are available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a part of the US Department of Labor.
Previously mentioned the expanded 1099 reporting that would have gone into effect in 2012. This would have required all businesses and ministries to report on 1099s the payments to any vendor over $600. The major change in the rules is the exception for incorporated businesses would have gone away.
On 3-14-11 the President signed legislation that repeals the expanded reporting requirement.
Previous posts here and here mentioned four emerging trends identified by La Piana Consulting in their report called Convergence- How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector. Will now discuss the last trend they have noticed.
As mentioned previously, I will be quoting from their report a lot.
“Sector boundaries are blurring” – (more…)
ECFA has announced the membership of the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations. This is the task force ECFA has assembled to provide feedback requested by U.S. Sen. Grassley.
Click here for my previous comments on the commission, which provides general background.
I have four posts up at Attestation Update discussing how SSARS 19 says the accountant should deal with possible fraud and illegal acts encountered while performing compilations and reviews.
Click on any of the following links that look like a good place to start:
Previous post mentioned the first two emerging trends identified by La Piana Consulting in their report called Convergence- How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector. Will discuss two more trends in this post.
As mentioned before, I will be quoting from their report. Notice lots of quotation marks.
“Networks enable work to be organized in new ways” – (more…)
(duplicate of post at Attestation Update)
Uh, oh. In part four of the Journal of Accountancy’s interview with FASB chair Leslie Seidman, she made it clear that the comments at the FASB’s website about their meeting in February do not mean they are changing the direction they’re going on leases.
They still intend to bring most material leases on to the balance sheet.
A few more observations on the data presented in an ECFA webinar with Brian Kluth, of Maximum Generosity, as the speaker. Previous post here discussed three-year trends.
Change in general giving (without designated funds or building projects). The executive summary uses seven categories to describe the level of change. I have combined the data into three categories. Summarized changes in general giving:
Listened to a great ECFA webinar with Brian Kluth, of Maximum Generosity, as the speaker. Survey of 1,507 churches show slight improvement in giving during 2010.
“State of the Plate” survey was conducted in February 2011. It showed about the same proportion of churches experiencing a decline in giving along with an increase in the proportion seeing an increase.
Of interest to me is the 3 year trend data:
(cross-post from Attestation Update)
A graph of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia shows the devastating losses suffered during the advance on Moscow and retreat. It is the best illustration I’ve seen of creatively presenting a complex body of information. Dare I say it is a beautiful graph? Why is this of interest to us? It shows a powerful way to communicate statistical data.
You can see the graph here at Cartographia. Click on the map to enlarge.
One sentence of explanation allows you to interpret the entire view – (more…)
Previous post introduced an article by La Piana Consulting, which discusses their report called Convergence- How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector.
In their report, La Piana identifies five emerging trends. I will mention the five with a brief comment or two on each. As I mentioned earlier, I will clearly identify the direct quotes from their article.
“Demographic shifts redefine participation ” – (more…)