Charities

Most Americans favor President Bush's plan for directing public money to faith-based charities, but many don't support funding Muslims, Buddhists or the Nation of Islam, according to a poll released Tuesday. Seventy-five percent said they supported federal funding for religious groups, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Meanwhile, the poll found deep divisions of opinion over which groups should be eligible for federal money, and concern over the mingling of church and state.

The familiar words from the Gospel of Matthew hardly have the ring of advertising slogans: "When I was hungry, you gave me food; when thirsty, you gave me drink; when I was a stranger, you took me into your home; when naked, you clothed me; when I was ill, you came to my help; when in prison, you visited me. " But those words have become the basis of the publicity campaign that Oxford University Press is mounting on behalf of the Revised English...

These are troubling times, the stark charity posters declare. These are times when a fund-raiser is about as popular as a loanshark, and the profession of begging for donations is diplomatically described as "challenging. " Times when struggling corporations that once gave generously to charities are "downsizing" - cutting expenses, laying off employees, giving less. Times when the disadvantaged people who depend on charities need more. To cope with the philanthropic doldrums, charities large and small are scrambling this year to raise money from many small-scale donors.

The state Attorney General's Office has begun an investigation into Concerned Parents Inc., the group founded and run by Minnie Bolds Moore, to see whether she has violated the state law that regulates charities. Molly A. McCurdy, the deputy attorney general in charge of the charitable trusts and organizations section, confirmed yesterday that her office had sent a letter to Moore instructing her to produce detailed records of her charity's finances. "All I can say is we are aware of the situation and the matter is under investigation," said McCurdy.

Bucks County residents seem to be holding their wallets closer than usual this holiday season, local charity officials said last week. Officials at several nonprofit organizations said a tightening in the economy and concern about a recession had produced a decrease in the charitable donations they were seeing this year. "We have seen that (trend) in the general, overall donations coming in," said Linda Palermo, development director of Community Foundation for Human Development, which serves mentally retarded individuals.

The audience will get the laughs, but three South Jersey charities will reap the benefits tomorrow night, when a charity comedy bowl takes place at the Ritz Theater in Oaklyn, N.J. Teams representing each of the charities - the South Jersey AIDS Alliance, the AIDS Coalition of Southern New Jersey and a fund for the Cooper Hospital/ University Medical Center's Children's Ward - will fight it out in improvisational competition. The audience reaction will determine the winners. Proceeds will be divided among the charities according to their winning totals.

PAUL "Earthquake" Moore has this thing about using sweat to fuel acts of love. He's not into metaphors. What we're talking about here are those salty secretions we emit when we exert ourselves. Moore has an uncanny knack for getting folks who'd rather stay dry to run up roads, bounce basketballs or otherwise induce perspiration for his good causes. People who normally wouldn't run to the curb to start their car find themselves jogging up Broad street every year for Earthquake's annual "turkey trot.

The letter appealed to Vincent Goffredo's charitable bent. "This letter is notification that you have won a cash prize in the CFA $5,000 Sweepstakes. " CFA stands for the Cancer Fund of America, a registered charity in Pennsylvania now under investigation by the attorney general's office, along with four other apparently associated charities, over allegations of misleading and possibly deceptive mail solicitation. Goffredo, 67, a retiree living in Mayfair, was suspicious of the letter, but also curious about how much he had won. The letter, signed by someone claiming to be a Washington attorney named Robert R. Stone, went on to congratulate Goffredo for winning, then made the pitch: "You are not obligated to make a contribution to CFA in order to claim your cash prize, but since this is a 'charity' sweepstakes, we do hope that as a cash prize winner you will wish to contribute at least $5. " The letter implied that all solicited money goes to fight cancer.

Eleanor Bernstein Thomas McLoughlin, 85, an active supporter of educational charities, died Wednesday at her home in Lower Gwynedd. Mrs. McLoughlin was an active member of the Jeptha Abbott Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Until her death, she served as treasurer of the Smith College Class of 1931. She also served from 1976 to 1981 as the special gift chairman, and was president of the Smith College Club of Philadelphia in the 1950s. Mrs. McLoughlin was also active with the Friends Select Alumni and the Germantown Friends Parents Association.

Money is tight; jobs scarce; disposable income more limited than usual. These are hard times, but they'll get harder yet. The outlook for nonprofit organizations is bleak. Because in hard times, people contribute less. That, of course, is when more and more people need the help of social welfare agencies. Meanwhile, the new Masters of the Universe in Washington are slicing funds or passing on to the states responsibilities that used to be federal - responsibilities most states are unable or unwilling to shoulder.

When it comes to poverty, myths abound. Americans believe that legions of folks are on welfare, for example, when only 10 percent of the poor receive cash assistance. Some politicians claim that a large percentage of food-stamp recipients cheat to reap benefits, though fraud levels are quite low. And for years, it's been asserted that charity can replace the dollars spent by the federal government on hunger programs - despite numbers that show it's not true. At the same time that poverty and hunger are rising, the U.S. House of Representatives in March passed a proposed budget that would, if ratified, cut food-stamp benefits by around 18 percent ($135 billion over 10 years)

Panic-stricken during tax time, many Americans dig out receipts for last year's charitable donations before filing by April 15 - only to discover the charity they gave serious money to either was a scam or wasn't eligible for a tax-deductible gift. If you're like me - meaning you routinely file your tax returns at the last minute - you can save yourself from being duped by a charitable donation gone awry. The American Red Cross and Goodwill are just two examples of well-known tax-exempt charities approved by the Internal Revenue Service.

DEAR HARRY: My mother lives in a nice retirement community where all her needs are provided for. Fortunately, she gets a good pension and has substantial resources from both her and my father's savings and investments, so she can well-afford to live there for the rest of life. Her community is operated by a religious organization, but it has a nondiscriminating admissions policy. Each year, there is a campaign to contribute to a fund to help those who have fallen on hard times and are having trouble keeping up with monthly obligations.

In the days after Hurricane Sandy battered the region, New Jersey officials worked to contain a gathering new storm - of price gouging and fraudulent activities in affected areas. Authorities quickly targeted scores of offenders - gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants, hotels, and stores selling emergency supplies. The state Division of Consumer Affairs received 2,100 complaints related to Sandy in just the two months after the storm last year. The next highest number of complaints from all of 2012 concerned home improvement, which generated 1,500.

Leaders of the cancer charity founded by Lance Armstrong struck a determined, sometimes defiant tone Thursday as they declared the organization will persevere in the wake of the cyclist's admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs. "I am on safe ground to say that the past year did not go as planned," Livestrong's executive vice president, Andy Miller , said at the Livestrong Foundation's annual meeting in Chicago. "This is our message to the world: The Livestrong Foundation is not going anywhere," Miller said.

If you're a charity-minded runner, look to New Jersey for your races this year. For 2013, nine races in the Garden State have linked together through the Road Runners Club of America New Jersey to form the N.J. Grand Prix Series, a nine-race event with the goal of raising $100,000 for the Jersey Shore Chapter of the American Red Cross to help with Sandy relief. The first race, the Super Sunday Four Miler in Morristown, was held Feb. 3, but it's not too late to join. Runners need to complete six or more of the nine races to be considered Grand Prix finishers, and to earn an oversize "I Ran to Restore the Jersey Shore" medal.

Archbishop Charles Chaput has set a $10 million fund-raising goal for the 2013 Catholic Charities Appeal, he announced Friday. The fund-raising effort provides money for Catholic Social Services programs in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, including homeless shelters, hospices, soup kitchens, educational and after-school activities for at-risk youth, senior centers, and residential support for people with disabilities. The Catholic Charities Appeal funds more than 80 programs that serve nearly 3,500 people a day in Philadelphia and its four suburban counties.

NEW YORK - They frolic in empty boxes and stick their heads under faucet streams of water. They dance on tippy-toes and fly through the air with Pop-Tarts. They play piano wearing little frocks and get tickled to distraction to the delight of millions on YouTube. I speak, of course, of the cat stars of the Internet, a place filled with felines and their wacky uploading humans since the dawn of bandwidth. Now, after years of viral viewing, they're coming into their own in lucrative and altruistic ways.

After four straight years of tax hikes, and with a new property tax system coming online this year, two Philadelphia City Council members raised the prospect Thursday that the city could get new revenue from its nonprofits and charities. Councilman Bill Green introduced a bill to give the city direction on collecting business taxes from nonprofits engaged in commercial activity outside their nonprofit missions. And Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown called for hearings on the property tax exemption enjoyed by charities, which she said own property worth nearly 11 percent of the city's total value.