Posted on 06/09/2005 4:38:55 PM PDT by madfly
WASHINGTON (AP) - After two years dissecting The Nature Conservancy, the Senate Finance Committee reported Tuesday that large charities may need stricter laws to prevent insider deals, regulate moneymaking ventures and open more activities to public scrutiny. Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said the panel's report, to be examined in a Wednesday hearing, shows The Nature Conservancy engaged in aggressive planning to maximize tax advantages. It acted no differently than many large corporations, and such planning is probably widespread among large charities, Grassley said. "Current law has not kept up with the sophistication and complexity of many of today's charities," the Iowa Republican said. That's raising concerns about some charities and whether they're acting as lawmakers intended to provide the public good that tax benefits were meant to reward, Grassley said.
House and Senate tax writers have started probing the entire nonprofit sector - from tax-exempt hospitals to executives' salaries - to determine whether taxpayers get their money's worth from billions in tax breaks for charitable organizations.
In its more narrow investigation of The Nature Conservancy, tax experts at Grassley's committee discovered complex transactions never contemplated by laws governing nonprofit organizations. The staff recommended revamping the laws and requiring charities to report more to the IRS and the public about their financial transactions.
The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit land conservation organization that has protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of river worldwide, cooperated with the Senate Finance Committee investigation.
It also hired outside auditors last year and said that virtually all of the questions raised in the staff report have been addressed by one or more changes made since the probe began.
"The Conservancy today meets higher standards of ethical, legal and professional conduct and organizational efficiency than we did two years ago," the group said in a statement.
The Finance Committee's study raised questions about whether The Nature Conservancy kept a watchful eye on small conservation easements, under which a landowner agrees to manage the land for environmental or conservation goals and can enable the landowner to claim a tax deduction.
The panel also examined insider land sales and an emissions trading program. The latter caused the staff to question whether The Nature Conservancy had compromised its charitable purpose of ecological conservation.
"The staff questions whether TNC is furthering one exempt purpose, i.e. land conservation, while frustrating another, i.e. the reduction of greenhouse gasses," the panel's report said.
The staff also expressed concern that some of the organization's activities might have triggered laws that require nonprofits to pay taxes on unrelated business activities. The panel recommended that the group get more legal assistance.
Broader questions about tax deductions involving land and conservation easements have raised questions at the Internal Revenue Service, which has discovered some taxpayers taking inappropriately large deductions for donations.
"We are currently looking at the activities of more than a dozen promoters," IRS Commissioner Mark Everson told the committee this spring. "We are examining charities that we believe may have been involved in particular abuses and those charity officials who may have unduly profited from their positions with a charity."
The Joint Committee on Taxation, which advises congressional tax writers, suggested severely curtailing or eliminating the tax benefits to clamp down on abuses. The idea raised alarm among some governors and conservationists.
"If those recommendations were enacted, it would virtually stop private donations of land conservation in America," Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance, said at a news conference.
The Land Trust Alliance, which represents more than 1,500 land trusts across the country, is organizing a training and accreditation program for land conservation organizations that get private donations.
ping
ping
Mmmm... "nonprofit."
You might be referring to a 5 part investigative series on the NC by the Washington Times. I don't have links, but the articles in the series were posted here before the goverment investigation.
I'll look around.
try these:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/906107/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/913485/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/913477/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1059735/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1361467/posts
bump
Excellent. Thanks for the links, Madly.
You bet!
Anything that trims the Nature Conservancy's wings has to be good.
Anything that trims the Nature Conservancy's wings has to be good.
You got that right! I don't have an enviro ping list anymore. Could ya ping some of your friend? thanks
duh, sorry, didn't see all those pingzzzz of yours! Oh well, another bump!
Eliminate public/private partnerships altogether. Thats my suggestion.
| Press Release | Source: Land Trust Alliance |
Land Trust Alliance Briefing on Land Conservation
Monday June 6, 10:00 am ET
WHO: Rand Wentworth, President of the Land Trust Alliance
John Lunt, cattle rancher and conservation easement donor to
Wyoming Stockgrowers Agriculture Land Trust
Bob Payne, conservation easement donor to Eastern Shore Land
Conservancy
Rick Posey, conservation easement donor to Maryland Environmental
Trust
Judy McCann-Slaughter, cattle farmer and conservation easement
donor to Potomac Conservancy
Jim Crews, conservationist and easement donor to Wetlands America
Trust
WHEN: Tuesday, June 7, 2005
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. EDT
Lunch will be served
WHERE: The Zenger Room at The National Press Club
529 14th St, NW, Washington, D.C. 20045
The Land Trust Alliance promotes voluntary private land conservation to benefit communities and natural systems. We are the national convener, strategist and representative of more than 1,500 land trusts across America. Land Trust Alliance wants to dramatically expand the pace of land conservation, build strong land trusts, defend the permanence of conservation easements, and ensure that the work of land trusts is strategically directed.
Not just the NC - anything that trims the wings of a lot of these so-called charities is a VERY good thing in my mind.
I'm sure we could come up with a long list of them, and a lot of them having absolutely nothing to do with environment or conservation.
Boy, I sure hope someone really starts following the money trail on these outfits. Often, it runs right to the public treasury. IMHO
WASHINGTON -- After two years dissecting The Nature Conservancy, the Senate Finance Committee reported Tuesday that large charities may need stricter laws to prevent insider deals, regulate moneymaking ventures and open more activities to public scrutiny.
TNC entered into a number of arrangements with “insiders” or persons who had some sort of affiliation or relationship with TNC. These transactions included arrangements with TNC Board members, affiliates of TNC Board members, trustees or officials of TNC state or local chapters, officers and employees, and in limited cases, persons considered by TNC to be independent contractors.
Agree!
It acted no differently than many large corporations....
No surprise. It is a large corporation.
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