An Overview of Fraud in Nonprofit Organizations and the Appropriate Approach to Prevent It

Fraud within nonprofit organizations has been on the rise. The majority of nonprofits that suffered losses through fraud recently were public charities. However, it doesn’t matter whether the organization is small or large, fraud may occur anywhere from little leagues to health care organizations. Nonprofits diligently carry out their mission through relatively small sized staff and tight budgets. Not only are nonprofits as well as their donors surprised to navigate through these challenges, but also an unfortunate danger, fraud committed by employees, volunteers, organizations and executives. This article demonstrates that anti-fraud measures does not stop fraudulent activity as well as examining the fraud that occurs within nonprofit organizations. We begin by reviewing the description of what fraudulent activity is and how it ensues. We then review examples of certain cases of fraud in nonprofit. Lastly, we discuss how fraudulent activity should be prevented in nonprofit

Types of HVAC Systems

HVAC systems are milestones of building mechanical systems that provide thermal comfort for occupants accompanied with indoor air quality. HVAC systems can be classified into central and local systems according to multiple zones, location, and distribution. Primary HVAC equipment includes heating equipment, ventilation equipment, and cooling or air-conditioning equipment. Central HVAC systems locate away from buildings in a central equipment room and deliver the conditioned air by a delivery ductwork system. Central HVAC systems contain all-air, air-water, all-water systems. Two systems should be considered as central such as heating and cooling panels and water-source heat pumps. Local HVAC systems can be located inside a conditioned zone or adjacent to it and no requirement for ductwork. Local systems include local heating, local air-conditioning, local ventilation, and split systems

Energy and Exergy Analysis of Refrigeration Systems

Refrigeration systems have the priority in design for residential and industrial applications. The chapter includes five major refrigeration systems: vapor-compression refrigeration; ammonia-water absorption refrigeration; gas refrigeration where standard air is the most popular refrigerant; multi-pressure refrigeration including multistage, cascade, and multipurpose refrigeration system; and heat pump systems. Energy and exergy analysis has been presented for most of the systems. The energetic and the exergetic COP for each system are presented. Renewable energy sources are also discussed including geothermal, solar, and wind energy, a with combination with refrigeration systems in different industrial and residential applications. The overall efficiency of the renewable systems is achieved to be more than 50% providing promising solutions for energy use and having a low environmental impact

The new requirements relating to going concern evaluation and disclosure provide a critical improvement to the financial statements taken as a whole

The going concern principle assumes that an entity will continue to exist into the future. This assumption implies that the entity will not be compelled to end their operations, liquidate their assets, or go into bankruptcy. It is an integral assumption in financial statements since it allows for the deferral of recognition of certain expenses until a period of time into the future, when the company is still assumed to exist. Members of management, as well as financial statement auditors, are required to identify signs that could indicate that an entity will not be able to continue their operations into the near future. Some of these signs include a trend of operating losses, loan defaults, legal proceedings against the entity and so forth. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) updated the going concern guidelines so that issuers of financial statements are uniform in frequency and substance of going concern determination. Prior to the Accounting Standards Update, U.S. GAAP lacked sufficient guidance about management’s responsibility to evaluate whether there is substantial doubt of the entity’s ability to continue as going concern. In order to clarify the uncertainty, FASB issued a new financial reporting standard. This new reporting will be in effect for the annual period ending after December 15, 2016. The updated standard will require management to perform annual and interim assessments of an entity’s ability to continue as a going concern for one year from the date of financial statements issuance

Not For Profit Board of Directors and Governance

Anon-profit (NFP entity’s Board of Directors) bears ultimate responsibility for its governance. It ensures the non-profit functions in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, and the entity’s internal guidelines and mission statement. We examine these Boards’ role in overseeing the functioning of non-profit entities and their management. We begin by reviewing the purpose of a Board of Directors and a commonly adopted structure for them including who may serve on such Boards; and how these Boards differ from those in the for-profit world. We then review the formal responsibilities that NFP Boards have for the entities they govern as well as some unspoken requirements for Board members. We examine specific activities in which these Boards typically engage and some activities which violate good governance practices. We provide examples of both well-functioning boards and some which serve as cautionary tales for entities. We discuss how a Board can deal with Board members who violate an entity’s rules and/or laws and how such members might be removed from their respective office as well as other regulatory and legal issues related to the conduct of Board members. We discuss the government entities both state and federal which regulate the function of non-profit Boards

The New York Nonprofit Revitalization Act of 2013: Enhancing the Governance and Accountability of the Not-for-Profit Organization around the World

New York Non-Profit revitalization Act of 2013 has brought sweeping and critical changes that were lagging for New York’s vital non-profit sector as there has not been any changes in four long decades. The bill was simply seeking to correspond to the prior stagnation and to bring about new rules and regulations that would enhance governance controls and accountability, regain public trust that had been heavily undermined due to the multiple fraud scandals that have occurred in the past. The most significant changes were made in reporting requirements that reduced the regulatory burdens and raised the thresholds for financial reporting and eliminated barriers to incorporation; the Act also reduced procedural hurdles for non-profit transactions and modernized the board procedures and voting requirements. The Revitalization Act of 2013 significantly improved many requirements related to the governance and accountability of the non-profit organizations. In particular the audit functions of the audit committee, as well as internal control conflict of interest and whistleblower policies

New Class of Trivariate Copula: A Case Study for Water Quality Measurements

In this paper, we provide a new method to construct trivariate copula which generalizes a class of bivariate copula. Based on the new method, two trivariate copulas are introduced using Product, Ali-Mikhail-Haq and Farlie- Gumbel-Morgenstern bivariate copulas. The selection of a bivariate copulas is adapted to make that the new trivariate copula satisfy the mathematical properties of the copula. Some properties concerning dependence concepts of the two new classes of trivariate copulas are discussed. Finally, an application for water quality measurements is presented to show applicability of the proposed copulas. We compare the new trivariate copula to the trivariate nested hierarchical copula using goodness-of-fit criteria to ensure that the proposed trivariate copula are the best fitted

Marshall–Olkin Bivariate Omega Model for Modeling Failure of Paired Organs

Bivariate Marshall Olkin distribution methods are very useful for modelling failure of paired organs, such as the eyes, kidneys, and lungs. Although there are inevitable relations between the components of such organs, these organs may possibly fail one after the other or at the same time. In this paper, a new model using Bivariate Marshall- Olkin distribution methods, namely Bivariate Omega Model (BOM) is introduced and applied for modeling time of two eyes blindness in diabetic retinopathy patients. Some probabilistic properties of the bivariate Omega distribution are derived and studied. The dependence properties for bivariate Omega distribution are proposed using the Marshall-Olkin copula. Parameters estimators are investigated using the maximum likelihood method. Two data sets are illustrated to show the usefulness of the new model for fitting such data

The Promising Role Of Hybrid Learning In Community Colleges: Looking Towards The Future

In 2014, community colleges are overcrowded, underfunded, and serve a diverse population.  Community colleges are looking for innovative ways to meet the growing demands of their nontraditional student body on a shrinking budget.  Increasing their online offerings appeared to be a perfect solution.  Unfortunately, research has shown that community college students do not fare well in online classes.  However, the same research shows that community college students do as well in hybrid classes as they do in face-to-face classes. Hybrid classes are a mix of online and face-to-face instruction.  Although hybrid classes are not as flexible as online courses and do utilize some campus facilities, they offer a promising alternative to traditional face-to-face classes.  The following is a discussion of hybrid learning in the community college setting

New Bivariate MS Copula via Ru ̈schendorf method

Copula study is growing field which used for constructing families of bivariate and multivariate distributions also a measure of dependence structure. There are several methods for constructing copulas, one of these methods is a Ru ̈schendorf method. A new bivariate copula called MS copula is introduced based on Ru ̈schendorf method. Several properties concerning dependence concepts and concordance ordering are studied and also fitting a copula using maximum likelihood. Finally, an application is presented to show applicability of the proposed MS copula