• Critical Elements in Nonprofit Financial Statements Webinar Now Available On-Demand
• Arts & Social Change Mapping Initiative
• Government Affairs Update

Critical Elements in Nonprofit Financial Statements Webinar Now Available On-Demand

Critical Elements in Nonprofit Financial Statements, the third in a series of webinars, is now available for download.

Dance/USA members can access login and password information here.

Available through the Nonprofit Finance Fund, this free, timely, practical webinar is a back-to-basics approach to reading and interpreting nonprofit financial statements to increase the comfort of nonprofit managers and board members. Learn to balance your organization’s mission with its financial realities.

In this webinar, you will receive a crash course on interpreting your financial statements to reveal the business underpinning your programs; follow a real-life nonprofit case study, with financial information drawn to demonstrate how the choices you make impact your organization’s financial health and viability; and review the use of financials in articulating your resource needs to stakeholders.

AND DON'T MISS:

Critical Elements in Nonprofit Financial Statements Conference Call
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
1:00 P.M. -2:00 P.M. eastern

This conference call will build upon the lessons learned in the Critical Elements in Nonprofit Financial Statements webinar and will provide participants with further opportunities to become more comfortable in reading and interpreting nonprofit financial statements. The call will be highly interactive – please come with questions about your nonprofit financial statements. You may also want to keep your most recent audit nearby as a reference tool during this conversation.

Please join us in cyberspace (log in details are below). Questions can be submitted in advance by December 10 to emily.guthman@nffusa.org. Please enter “MetLife Conference Call” in your email subject. We will try to answer as many questions as possible during the allotted timeframe of this call.

To participate you must register in advance. Log into Go To Webinar using the following information: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/121858720
PC-based attendees: Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista Macintosh®-based attendees: Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Distance learning resources developed in partnership with the Nonprofit Finance Fund are made possible by a generous grant from the MetLife Foundation.

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Arts & Social Change Mapping Initiative

Inviting Your Participation in the Arts for Change Funder Survey

The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Open Society Institute, CrossCurrents Foundation, and Lambent Foundation would like to encourage your participation in the Arts for Change funder survey.

Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, is conducting an online survey as part of its Arts & Social Change Mapping Initiative. The survey seeks to obtain a current portrait of public- and private-sector funding available from arts, social change, and other funders for arts that foster civic engagement and social change. This survey will increase understanding of funding resources, opportunities, and challenges for this arena of work.

Deadline for completing the survey is December 18, 2009. Funders who would like to participate should request the Funder Survey by sending an e-mail with contact information to surveys@artsusa.org.

Animating Democracy invites participation by agencies and individuals who are supporting arts and cultural strategies to make change, whether their emphasis is civic engagement, community building, community development, community organizing, social change, social justice, participatory democracy, or other goals. To gain a full picture, they also urge those thinking about or moving toward supporting this kind of work to complete the survey.

Findings from the survey, funder interviews, and focus groups will be reported in an Arts for Change Funders Report. An online database of funders will be available as a resource to inform funders’ grantmaking and to facilitate peer exchange, referrals, and strategic collaboration among funders. The database will also be a resource for artists, community organizers, and cultural organizations.

For more information, contact Pam Korza, Animating Democracy co-director, pkorza@artsusa.org, 413-256-1260.

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Government Affairs Update
Secretary of Education Speaks Out for Arts Education
As reported by the AP: “At a dinner during last weekend's Kennedy Center Honors, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said improving arts education will be a key element of his proposed changes in former President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law. He said parents, teachers and students all have noticed a "narrowing of the curriculum."

"I'm convinced when students are engaged in the arts, graduation rates go up, dropout rates go down," Duncan said. http://wjz.com/national/Obama.drops.cautious.2.1355346.html

Remarks by the President at Reception for Kennedy Center Honorees
"In times of war and sacrifice, the arts -- and these artists -- remind us to sing and to laugh and to live. In times of plenty, they challenge our conscience and implore us to remember the least among us. In moments of division or doubt, they compel us to see the common values that we share; the ideals to which we aspire, even if we sometimes fall short. In days of hardship, they renew our hope that brighter days are still ahead. So let's never forget that art strengthens America. And that's why we're making sure that America strengthens its arts. It's why we're reenergizing the National Endowment of the Arts. That's why we're helping to sustain jobs in arts communities across the country. It's why we're supporting arts education in our schools, and why Michelle and I have hosted students here at the White House to experience the best of American poetry and music."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-reception-kennedy-center-honorees

Estate Tax Passes House
On December 3, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4154, the Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act. The legislation would permanently extend the estate tax at 2009 levels ($3.5 million, individual exemption). If not passed by the Senate, the Estate Tax will expire at the end of this year.
http://independentsector.org/programs/gr/estatetax.html

Tax Extender Package Introduced, Includes IRA Rollover
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) introduced December 7 the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 (H.R.4213), and the bill is expected to go to the House floor December 9. The package would extend for one year the IRA charitable rollover, which allows individuals age 70½ and older to donate up to $100,000 from their IRAs tax-free.

Coming Up Taller Awards, Nominations Due January 29, 2010
The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) is inviting nominations for the 2010 Coming Up Taller Awards. In partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Coming Up Taller Awards recognize the accomplishments of exceptional arts and humanities after-school and out-of-school programs. Coming Up Taller finalists receive a $10,000 award, an award plaque, and an invitation to attend the Coming Up Taller Leadership Enhancement Conference in Washington, DC. In addition, the Coming Up Taller awards ceremony is traditionally held in the Fall at the White House, with the awards bestowed by the President’s Committee’s Honorary Chairman, First Lady Michelle Obama.
http://www.pcah.gov/news/cut2010Nominations.htm

President Nominates Ann Stock of the Kennedy Center to the State Department
President Obama announced Friday December 4 his intent to nominate Ann Stock as the Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Department of State. If approved by the Senate, this could bode well for the Cultural Programs Division at State. Ann Stock is currently the Vice President of Institutional Affairs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. From 1993-1997, Ms. Stock was Deputy Assistant to former President Clinton and the Social Secretary at The White House. Ms. Stock was also Deputy Press Secretary to Vice President Walter F. Mondale during the 1980 Presidential election campaign.
http://www.alliance-exchange.org/policy-monitor/2009/12/07/ann-stock-nominated-assistant-secretary-state-educational-and-cultural-aff

New Congressional Research Report on Nonprofits
The Congressional Research Service released a report in late November 2009 that provides a detailed overview of the size and scope of the nonprofit sector; the financing of charities and their revenue structures; and the charitable sector's relationship with government, attempting to assess the cost of the nonprofit sector to the federal and state and local governments. The report, which was prepared at the request of Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), also analyzes a number of policy proposals that could address issues raised in the report. Source, Independent Sector

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