Blog & Newsroom

 Part 2 of a 2 Part Series - Read Part 1 Here

In the first part of this blog series, we looked at some of the reasons for changes in charitable giving trends. In this part, we’ll look at how non-profits should approach fundraising.

For not-for-profit organizations, fundraising is a way of life. It is vital part of fulfilling their mission and serving their constituency. Over the past few years, fundraising has changed appreciably and non-profits have been forced to find new/better/smarter ways of doing things.

Every year around this time, the IRS issues a warning about scams that attempt to victimize taxpayers and steal from them. More often than not, the victims of these crimes are senior citizens. The scams have varying levels of sophistication. From simple - such as calling on the phone and posing as an IRS agent - to sophisticated phishing scams that attempt to get taxpayers to reveal information that can be used to hack key user accounts.

If you’re on a Board of Directors, serve as an Officer or are on the executive team of a company or board of directors, there is a type of insurance you need to know about – Directors and Officers Insurance (known as D&O Insurance.)

As the responsible party on employer identification number (EIN) applications, effective May 13, 2019, the IRS will only accept EIN applications from individual taxpayers who have either a Social Security number or individual taxpayer identification number.

If you manage a not-for-profit, you know you’re always trying to do more with less. You keep a tight budget and splurging on luxuries is out of the question. When it comes to software, there are a lot of great solutions that are free (or deeply discounted) for nonprofits.

On Friday, March 22, 2019, the Treasury and IRS announced they have lowered the withholding underpayment penalty threshold to 80%. This means that taxpayers who were 80% or less under-withheld on their income tax withholding or quarterly tax payments may qualify for relief.

In honor of Purple Day, the partners and staff of Zinner & Co. donned their purple gear to help raise awareness of epilepsy.

Audits are important. Investors, lenders, government agencies, potential buyers and - in the case of not-for-profit organizations, your donors - rely on audit reports to assess your organization. Audits can be long, arduous, headache-inducing ordeals…but they don’t have to be. Proper preparation can go a long way towards simplifying the audit process.

On April 15th, tens of thousands of not-for-profit organizations will have tax bills come due. "How can that be?" you ask, "I thought most non-profits have tax exempt status." Well, effective with the 2018 tax season, you're wrong.