Supreme Court Ruling on College Admissions Could Impact Nonprofits and Philanthropy

Sitting on a $100 billion investment portfolio, the Mormon Church is in the process of building nearly 150 new temples around the world. The buildings, some of which are massive and luxurious, will go up in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the South Pacific, in addition to the United States. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was recently the target of a whistleblower complaint that it enjoys tax-exempt status despite not spending “any of its money for religious, charitable, or educational activities.” This year the church and its investment management firm were fined “$1 million and $4 million, respectively, to settle Securities and Exchange Commission claims that they obscured the church’s investment holdings.” Church officials have called the enormous holdings, which were built from members’ tithes, a rainy-day fund and say the church spent $1 billion on charity last year. An expert on Mormon history said the church’s “financial nest egg” is probably a hedge for the future because most of its growth is in developing countries, where tithes are lower and where many of the new temples will go up. (Wall Street Journal — subscription)

San Francisco is moving to place nonprofits that receive city funds under more scrutiny in the wake of several recent scandals. A measure to require that nonprofits receiving more than $100,000 from the city certify each year that they are in good standing with the state and federal governments looks headed to passage. News reports over the past few years revealed, among other nonprofit-related issues, that the city was paying more than $25 million to dozens of organizations whose nonprofit status had been “revoked, suspended, or tagged as delinquent” by state officials. “As of December 2022, the city had active contracts with nearly 140 nonprofits that had failed to comply with state registration requirements.” (San Francisco Standard)

More News

• Gates Foundation and Wellcome Fund $550 Million Trial of First New TB Vaccine in 100 Years (Financial Times — subscription)
• With Violence Surging This Summer, a Nonprofit’s Fight to Keep D.C.’S Kids Alive (Washington Post)

Big Gifts

• University of Kansas Cancer Center Receives $100 Million Grant for New Facility (KWCH)
• 2 Brothers Lived Modestly and Saved $6 Million. They Gave It All to GBH. (Boston Globe)
• $10 Million Veale Foundation Gift to Cleveland’s University Hospitals Aims to Transform Health Care, Like Reducing Costs and Allowing People to Heal at Home (Cleveland.com)

Health Care

• Nonprofit MDMA-Therapy Developer Looks to Market for Cash Lifeline (Wall Street Journal — subscription)
• Head of Drug-Pricing Watchdog Group to Step Down 17 Years After Founding the Boston Nonprofit (Boston Globe)

Arts and Culture

• Seattle’s Book-It Repertory Theatre to Close After 33 Years (Seattle Times)
• An Interview With Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak: ‘I Wasn’t Prepared for How the Art World Would Treat Hannah’ (Curbed)

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