Education Week, 5/27
School-based reward programs that offer students such incentives as cash, free MP3 players, or other gifts appear to produce improved reading achievement across grade levels, preliminary findings from an ongoing research project suggest. The analysis, which looked only at charter schools because of the prevalence of incentive programs in the independent public schools, found no impact on students’ performance in mathematics.

New York Times, 5/26
Authorities from the local tax assessor to members of Congress are increasingly challenging the tax-exempt status of nonprofit institutions—ranging from small group homes to wealthy universities—questioning whether they deserve special treatment. One issue is the growing confusion over what constitutes a charity at a time when nonprofit groups look more like businesses, charging fees and selling products and services to raise money, and state and local governments are under financial pressure because of lower tax revenues.

In a ruling last December that sent tremors through the not-for-profit world, the Minnesota Supreme Court said a small nonprofit day care agency here had to pay property taxes because, in essence, it gave nothing away. The agency, the Under the Rainbow Child Care Center, charges the same price per child regardless of whether their parents are able to pay the full amount themselves or they receive government support to cover the cost.

OJJDP Juvenile Justice, 5/20
According to a report issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, past year substance abuse for youth living in households with a single parent was greater than for youth living with two parents.

 The report ” Parent Awareness of Youth Use of Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Marijuana,” which draws on data from the National Survey on Drug Use & Health, also noted that:
• Fathers in two-parent households were more likely than fathers in father-only households to be aware of their child’s substance abuse over the past year.
• Within one-parent households, substance abuse for youth was generally higher in father-only households than in mother-only households.

Education Week, 5/14
In a move that could prompt major changes in the way states measure the achievement of English-language learners, the U.S. Department of Education is planning to tell states they must each use a consistent yardstick in determining when a child is fluent in English and when that child no longer needs special ELL services. A proposed “interpretation” of the No Child Left Behind Act’s Title III—the conduit for most federal funding for ELL programs—says that states must further standardize the criteria they use to report how well such students are learning English.

Foundation Center, 5/9
Access to high-level math classes and knowledgeable, effective teachers is crucial to preparing high school students for college and beyond, a new report from nonprofit education research firm WestEd ( http://www.wested.org/) finds.

Foundation Center, 5/12
A significant number of CEOs at midsize nonprofits are dissatisfied with the performance of their boards, particularly in regard to fundraising and the way boards monitor their own performance, a new report from the Urban Institute finds. The report, “Boards of Midsize Nonprofits: Their Needs and Challenges,” examined the results of a 2005 survey of 1,862 nonprofits with annual expenses between $500,000 and $5 million and found that 62 percent of CEOs indicated that their boards do a fair or poor job of raising revenue, while 60 percent assigned similar marks for their boards’ self-assessment activities. In addition, more than a quarter of CEOs rated their boards as fair or poor when it comes to evaluating CEO performance; planning; monitoring programs and services; community relations; and educating the public about the organization.

Philanthropy Journal, 5/2
While U.S. nonprofits rely heavily on volunteer support, many volunteers are not adequately vetted, two new reports say. One in three nonprofits do not conduct background checks on their volunteers, and more than one in 10 do no screening at all, says a report by the National Center for Victims of Crime.
And one in 20 applicants for volunteer or staff positions with nonprofits have prior criminal convictions, including convictions for sex-related crimes, drug offenses and murder, a report by ChoicePoint says.
Among groups that do screen their volunteers, one in four do not conduct background checks, the report by the Center for Victims of Crime says, and a similar number do not call the references listed by candidates.

Philanthropy Journal, 5/1
Bank of America is launching a new section on its website that will let nonprofits search for grant opportunities among some of the foundations whose charitable assets the bank manages.
The new web feature reflects a stronger focus on philanthropic services at the bank in the wake of its merger with U.S. Trust.

Commonwealth Fund, 5/1
Health care costs caused many people to postpone or go without treatment in the last year, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll. The survey examined the effects of health expenses. Forty-two percent of respondents said that because of costs, they or a member of their household had delayed or skipped medical care or tests, not filled a prescription or reduced dosage, or had difficulty obtaining mental health care. Two-thirds of those people said that their medical condition had worsened as a result. Seventy-five percent of respondents without health insurance reported these problems, compared with 40 percent of those with insurance. Lower-income respondents were more likely than middle class or higher-income respondents to report such consequences.