And on to the House

The Senate Finance Committee held hearings on the tax-exempt sector on April 5th. Now its the House's turn. The House Ways and Means Committee announced such hearings will take place on April 20th at 10:30 a.m. DC time. The complete announcement is here.

I wonder what stuffed animals the Congressmen will bring out for show? They have to top Senator Grassley's taxidermy springbok exhibit, don'cha think?

Interview with Lucy Bernholz

The editor of Philanthropy News Digest of the Foundation Center interviewed me a few weeks ago - the transcript is available here. The comments I made about the Senate Finance Committee's efforts at "charity reform" were made weeks prior to the April 5th Committee hearings - and were born out by the events of that day and the news coverage thereof, if I may say so myself.

Predicting the future - done.

I know, my mother said that is was rude to say "I Told You So."

But I did.

Back in October of 2004 I made several predictions. See Time to learn new dance steps and Predictions

Both called for major changes in the software industry that serves philanthropy.

Well, that future is now, or rather yesterday. On March 31, MicroEdge (market share gorilla in community foundations ~ 1800 clients overall) announced the firing of its CEO. On March 29, Community Foundations of America announced an alliance with Kintera.

Looking over the landscape of markets, vendors and products, I can tell you what I think will happen next. And it won't involve the customers (read: foundations, nonprofits, donors) getting what they want or need UNLESS they act faster than they've ever acted, in ways they haven't before, and with an eye to the motivations of market forces that are virtually foreign to them.

Yes, there could be an ending to this story that serves philanthropy well - there are very real steps that could be taken to take advantage of this situation. Anyone want to bet?