Someone needs a time out

We love hearing nonprofit success stories - they're often what makes the long-hours-tiny-pay thing worth it - but there's bad stuff out there, too. And I hate to be a downer, but it's important to think about. So we never do it, of course.

One of the perks of being a nonprofit is the tax breaks, but that doesn't mean they're totally off the hook. A government accountability group says nonprofits - 55,000 of them - skipped out on more than $1 billion in employment and other taxes. Even worse: More than a thousand of the groups were recipients of federal grants, totaling $14 billion.

The most common cheating?
"...inflated valuation of non-cash donations, charities that are established primarily to benefit a single donor, abusive donor-advised-fund arrangements, the blurring of the line between tax-exempt and commercial activities, excessive compensation, and improper political activities."