Giving With Aloha

JUNE 16, 2008
GOVERNOR LINGLE SIGNS A BILL REGULATING CHARITES. Let's see how this pans out. COULD BE MORE OF THE SAME.





,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
SEPT. 19, 2007
By Rob Perez
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii's rules lax on oversight of charities

Hawai'i is one of only 11 states that do not require charities to register, a gap that allows thousands of local nonprofits to raise millions of dollars from the public with virtually no regular oversight from regulators.

a registration requirement, considered the foundation of an effective monitoring system by many national experts, means charities can collect donations from residents without anyone from the state making even cursory checks to see how that money generally is spent
NO REGISTRATION SYSTEM.



Registration of Hawaii charities doomed by political clout


After failing to get a charity registration bill passed in the 2001 legislative session, the state attorney general's office changed strategy.

It stripped the proposal of some of the requirements the industry considered onerous and, the following year, arranged to have a new measure introduced.

This time the attorney general's office proposed the simplest, most minimal form of registration: Charities would simply have to submit a copy of their federal tax returns each year.

The bill didn't even make it past the first committee.

The fate that the registration bills met in 2001 and 2002 underscores the influence that the nonprofit industry has at the Legislature.

The membership rosters of many of Hawai'i's most prominent charities read like a list of who's who in the community.

Corporate heads. Civic leaders. Major lobbyists. Government officials. Union executives.

Even state legislators sit on the volunteer boards.