by CivicMeter Staff | Mar 19, 2020 | COVID-19, Public Health
Graph databases are excellent at modeling interactions between people. This quality also makes graph databases a particularly effective tool for tracing the physical pathways along which viruses like Covid-19 travel through populations. Alex Woodie filed this report...
by CivicMeter Staff | Mar 11, 2020 | COVID-19, Public Health
Since the SARS outbreak, advances in analytics and technology have supplied us with powerful tools that can help identify and contain viruses like COVID-19. But even the best tech and data have their limitations. Paul Dempsey writes for Engineering & Technology:...
by CivicMeter Staff | Mar 11, 2020 | COVID-19, Public Health
Taiwan took to heart its hard-earned lessons from the SARS outbreak and is now one of the success stories in the struggle against COVID-19. Beth Duff-Brown writes for Stanford Health Policy: Stanford Health Policy’s Jason Wang, MD, PhD, an associate professor of...
by CivicMeter Staff | Mar 5, 2020 | COVID-19, Public Health
The open sharing of data on the internet and the quick collective response of scientists all over the globe have revolutionized the way we now contend with the threat of pandemics. Shelly Fan filed this report for Singularity Hub: A virus’s genetic blueprint is the...
by CivicMeter Staff | Feb 28, 2020 | Nonprofit Management
Big money talks very loudly. That is why states should demand more information from nonprofits about their biggest donors. Marian Conway filed this report for The NonProfit Quarterly: The question of whether a large donor will attempt to influence how the organization...
by CivicMeter Staff | Feb 28, 2020 | Nonprofit Management
A smaller and weaker Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has led to weaker oversight and more attempts at using nonprofits for fraudulent purposes. Karen Hensel and Douglas Moser filed this report for NBC Boston: “It’s definitely a problem that could get worse, and that is...
by CivicMeter Staff | Feb 28, 2020 | Nonprofit Management
The Sacklers (of OxyContin fame), disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, and the financier Jeffrey Epstein were all big donors to nonprofits. How do we deal with the problem of ‘tainted donors’ going forward? Michael Moody and Michael Pratt filed this report for...
by CivicMeter Staff | Feb 28, 2020 | Nonprofit Management
Foreign corporate donors who want to influence US elections are funding efforts to persuade the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to drop donor reporting requirements, specifically the Schedule B form for 501(c) nonprofits. Lee Fang filed this report for The Intercept:...
by CivicMeter Staff | Feb 28, 2020 | Nonprofit Management
Donor-Advised Funds (DAF) are investment accounts for charitable donations to nonprofits. These have boomed since the changes brought about by changes in tax law since 2017. DAFs offer greater tax benefits, less regulation, and greater flexibility compared to setting...
by CivicMeter Staff | Feb 28, 2020 | Nonprofit Management
Because the impact of nonprofit activities is much harder to quantify than for-profit businesses, the advent of improved data harvesting and analyzing technologies can only help nonprofits gain a better sense of how to improve themselves over time. Margaret Lindquist...
