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April 3, 2008, 02:43 PM ET
Should the Government Dissuade Charities From Forming?
Jack B. Siegel, a charity consultant and author of the Charity Governance blog, is asking federal and state officials to start a public campaign to dissuade Americans from starting new nonprofit groups.
In response to the news that the Internal Revenue Service received 85,771 applications for new tax-exempt groups during a 12-month period starting October 1, 2006, Mr. Siegel writes, “someone needs to find a way to stop people from creating charities, or at least so many. Do we need more social-service agencies, disaster-relief organizations, or charities that focus on various diseases? We suspect not.”
Jeff Brooks, creative director at Merkle, a fund-raising company, writes that so many charities brings inefficiency and duplication of efforts, but that the new organizations deserve a chance to compete for donor dollars.
Many of them may be serving local community needs that are ignored by other charities or bring new perspectives to entrenched social problems, he writes on his Donor Power blog.
“So I say to those tens of thousands of new nonprofits: Welcome to the profession. I hope you’re worth it!”
What do you think of Mr. Siegel’s idea? Should the government discourage the establishment of new charities? Click on the comment link below this post to share your thoughts.
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