Nonprofit news from around the web: Feb. 4 – 8, 2019

In case you missed them, here are some recent interesting nonprofit news items from around the web.

Accounting under regulatory scrutiny
State charity regulators have been increasing scrutiny of nonprofits’ financial statements, the IRS Form 990s and solicitation materials in a number of key ways. These areas of growing scrutiny include nonprofits’ allocation of joint costs and valuation of non-cash donations (a.k.a. gifts in kind or GIK).

Foundation Center, GuideStar merge, creating mega data portal
The Foundation Center and GuideStar, the two largest data and information nonprofit organizations in the United States, are merging in a deal that was at least a decade in the making.

The benefits of volunteering get renewed attention
In a recent, report researchers found that despite experiencing historic highs in the amount of charitable donations and the number of volunteer hours contributed to nonprofits, the country is simultaneously experiencing a two-decade low in the percentage of Americans that volunteer or donate to charity.

Amazon refunds local sales taxes to nonprofits
Online retailing heavyweight Amazon forgot to exempt nonprofits when it started collecting local sales taxes for online purchases. Some non-profits have started receiving refunds as Amazon works out the kinks in its new system.

Tech Corner - Common smarthome myths that just aren’t true
Smarthome technology has come a long way. It still isn’t for everyone, but some of the common myths people use to avoid smarthome tech aren’t true. Smarthomes don’t have to be expensive, and they aren’t always listening to you, for example.