
Reflection: Social Innovation Summit 2017
On June 7 and 8 I was given the opportunity to attend Landmark Ventures’ Social Innovation Summit at the JW Marriott in downtown Chicago. I was interested in the summit because social innovation is a concept that repeatedly comes up in the world of philanthropy. As people seek to develop new and unique solutions to both emerging challenges such as cyber-bullying to age-old issues like equity and equality in the education system, social innovation has become trendy. There ar

Non-profit Organizations, Advocacy and Lobbying: What does the IRS Permit?
The extent to which 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit organizations can legally participate in advocacy and lobbying while still retaining tax-exempt status is not well-understood. It's a question which seems to come up a lot these days in the philanthropic/nonprofit world, especially here in Illinois where the lack of a state budget over the past two years has prevented $12.8 billion from being released, with no end in sight (Responsible Budget Coalition). I attended an education