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Arkansas
Public Policy Panel Wins Social Justice
Award!
APPP has been recognized for their work
in social justice, specifically for effectively using
the resources of philanthropy to make society's systems
and markets work more fairly and effectively for all.
Congratulation to the APPP team! Click here for full details.
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The countdown is on - 15 days until the Annual
SELP Conference! This year's event is sure to please
everyone, with a wide range of topics and leading
experts discussing everything from adaptive
strategies for climate change to ways to improve
your grassroots efforts through new social media
and organizing technologies. With this year being
one of the toughest financially in recent memory, we
look forward to providing you with a chance to
unwind, connect with colleagues facing similar issues
across the country, and offer inspirational ideas to
move your organization in the right direction.
Not only can you expect the same quality training
and networking opportunities, but as always you can
expect to have a great time! The annual auction will be
back and better than ever as well as some rockin'
Saturday night entertainment.
Last minute details, including driving directions,
one on one consultant meetings, and more, will be
sent per email closer to the conference.
For those who can't join us this year, we'll
miss you but of course there's always next year!
Keep up the good fight,
Emily Miota
emiota@selp.org
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| From
the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy: Successes and
Challenges
The Southeast region of our country continues to be
one of the most challenging for embracing the full realm
of possibilities that clean energy holds. Yet
incrementally, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and
our partner organizations are making headway against
risky power.
South Carolina recently joined the ranks of
states taking a firm stand against new coal. The board
of the state-owned utility, Santee Cooper, voted
unanimously, after incessant public opposition, to
discontinue development plans for the proposed 1320 MW
Pee Dee coal plant. Cancellation of this facility
was an important and precedent-setting decision for
utilities in our region.
Unfortunately, we continue to battle other
misguided coal plant proposals through public advocacy
and legal challenges. In Georgia, a consortium of
electric municipal cooperatives is pursuing development
of Plant Washington despite the fact that four partners
pulled out in May. Duke Energy is moving forward
with construction of the Cliffside coal plant - an 825
MW plant that has received enormous opposition. In
Florida, advocates are challenging the Seminole coal
plant that was cancelled once by Governor Crist, but was
reignited after procedural claims allowed
reconsideration of its permits.
Back on the bright side, this summer, SACE, in
partnership with Southern Environmental Law Center,
settled a legal challenge with Duke Energy to
dramatically improve their proposed Save-A-Watt energy
efficiency program. By our estimate, Save-a-Watt
could now reduce electricity demand by about 6,800 GWh
in 2020. This result is almost three times more
than the original proposal would have achieved.
SACE works to keep local citizens engaged in
important federal issues, particularly as our country
faces the opportunity to pass historic climate
legislation. In October our Southeast Coastal Climate
Network hosted eleven local officials, business owners,
academics, and faith leaders from coastal North Carolina
and Florida to Capitol Hill to meet with their
Congressional officials. Earlier this year we
brought residents of Kingston, Tennessee to DC after the
catastrophic TVA coal ash disaster obliterated homes and
poisoned nearby waters.
Our other efforts include tackling an attempted
resurgence of the nuclear industry in the region and
shepherding responsible wind energy along our coasts and
mountains of Appalachia. We generate our own biodiesel
from waste grease and work on the opportunities for
bioenergy in the region. Most importantly, we
remain optimistic despite our challenges, that our
leaders will embrace the Southeast as a place of
abundant and available renewable energy and join the
efforts to take responsible climate action.
- Ulla Reeves, Southern Alliance for Clean
Energy |
| Ask a Nonprofit Lawyer: Navigating
the IRS' 990 Changes
Question: I understand that the IRS made
significant changes to Form 990 in order to increase
transparency and accountability. How do we navigate
these changes and what, if any, changes does my
organization need to make in order to comply with
them?
Answer: Between the revised Form 990 and the IRS'
recently released training materials on governance (see
www.IRS.gov), there is a lot of talk these days about
the need for tax-exempt organizations ("EO") to adopt
policies that promote the best practices in governance
and help the EO maintain the highest standards of
transparency and accountability. The new 990 includes a
number of questions that ask specifically whether the EO
has adopted particular policies. If an organization
answers "no" to one of these questions, it does not
necessarily mean it is in violation of its
obligations. However, it does mean that the EO
should provide a written explanation on Schedule O to
explain why the EO is in compliance, even without a
policy. To avoid the possible red flag of answering "no"
to one of these questions, we are advising our
members to have their Boards adopt policies, if they
have not already done so. To aid our
members in their ability to comply with these
requirements, as simply and efficiently as possible, we
have summarized some of the key policies below
and have some sample policies available to you on
our members' only website. Click here for members only access. The
following policies are addressed in Part VI, Section B
of the Form 990: Conflict of Interest -
Form 990, Part VIB, Line 12 asks whether an organization
has a conflict of interest (COI) policy. A COI
policy outlines a process to address conflicts of
interest between the directors/officers and the EO
related to such matters as personal relationships,
financial interests or business
affiliations.
Whistleblower Policy - Form 990, Part VIB, Line
13 asks whether EO has a written whistleblower policy. A
whistleblower policy addresses procedures for reporting
illegal conduct, such as financial impropriety or the
misuse of charitable
assets.
Document
Retention and Destruction Policy - Form 990, Part VIB,
Line 14 asks whether the EO has a written policy that
provides guidelines on retaining documents and disposing
of documents in the regular course of
business.
Review
of Executive Compensation - Form 990, Part VIB,
Line 15 asks whether the compensation of executives and
officers was determined through a process that included
a review and approval by independent persons, the use of
comparability data, and a written record of the
decision-making process.
Policy on Joint Venture Participation - An EO
that engages in a joint venture with a for-profit
partner should ensure that such transaction is approved
through and consistent with a Board-adopted policy on
joint venture investments.
Finally, the new
Form 990 also asks about the EO's process for obtaining
its Board;s review of the Form 990 before it is
filed. See Form 990, Part VI, Section A, Line 10,
which asks whether a copy of the Form 990 was provided
to the EO's Board before it was filed and directs EOs to
explain on Schedule O the process the EO uses to review
the Form 990.
Keep in mind that these questions are part of
the Form 990, not the Form 990-EZ. However,
because these policies reflect best practices for EOs,
you may want to adopt them anyway, even if your
organization is only required to file the 990-EZ
(because your gross receipts will be <$500k in 2009
or <$200k in 2010).
- Melissa Scholz, Scholz Nonprofit Law
LLC |
Making
Social Media Work for You
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