In order for you to qualify for a deduction, the charity that gets your donation must be an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. Your church, synagogue, mosque or temple likely qualifies. (Check first just to make sure.) You also can visit the Internal Revenue Service’s Web site and search for Publication 78 to find other qualifying non-profit organizations. (Just type “78” into the search field on the IRS home page and you’ll be directed to the right publication.)
High-performing agencies are transforming themselves from compliance-driven data collectors to performance driven intelligence generators. The best of them acknowledge that they are introducing scientific method to the art of service delivery. This structure creates a context for the pursuit of what works that reveals incite as much as outcomes. This is the American Way. This is the new currency of the sector. This is as innovative as diet & exercise. It is the fabric of our inheritance and the light on the path toward greatness. Grant-making agencies from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation to the State of Massachusetts Office of Finance have recognized this and begun to guide direct service providers in this direction. As , despite a professed federal commitment to changing the way service delivery informs funding (read John Bridgeland’s account of the Feds’ commitment to performance management in The Atlantic), it is actually state and local efforts to identify and replicate evidence-based program initiatives that are leading the sector in performance-based funding.
