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Conference Notebook
June 03, 2008
Pay Attention to the People in the Trenches
Nonprofit experts often talk about how to develop good leaders. But Doug Sauer, chief executive of the Council of Community Services of New York State, says more attention should also be paid to the people in the trenches.
“We lose the connectedness between who we are as a community—the nonprofit community and the broader community—and what people are actually doing,” he told the closing session of the Nonprofit Congress.
Mr. Sauer said his organization spent two days meeting with employees at a legal aid society who handled cases involving juveniles—and were suffering “vicarious trauma” because the children were treated so brutally. He said the workers were burnt out, felt unappreciated by the legal system and the public, and did not see themselves as successful.
Not one could say what their organization’s mission or values were, he added. “What they knew was what they did on an every-day basis,” he said. “That’s what they were committed to.”
He added, “The reason we’re not effective is we don’t take care of our staffs, we don’t take care of our people.”
Seven Challenges for Charities
What ails the charity world?
Alan Abramson, professor of government and politics at George Mason University, listed seven things at the final session of the Nonprofit Congress:
Loss of public confidence; fiscal stress; increasing workloads due to bad economic times, a growing number of older Americans and immigrants in need of aid; more competition from both for-profit and nonprofit groups; increasing pressure to perform; personnel problems such as burnout and intergenerational tensions; and coping with all those problems in a greater media spotlight.
Mr. Abramson, also a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program, said those pressures have prompted some charities to act more like businesses, seeking fees and other types of revenue; emphasizing efficiency, offering higher salaries; and marketing themselves. But that sometimes creates new problems, such as raising questions about whether they deserve their tax-exempt status, he added.
What are other options?
Perhaps charities should look seriously at new legal forms, such as the low-profit, limited liability company, or LC3, which is designed for companies with charitable missions. “Do we need a sorting out, splitting up at the sector that really reflects the diversity in the sector?” he asked.
He also urged nonprofit groups to become better advocates for themselves. “Unfortunately the sector now speaks with too soft a voice except when under attack,” he said.
Finally, he said they should develop a “firmer, more convincing vision,” perhaps with the help of academic researchers, to demonstrate how they make a difference. He said that could be “the most important challenge for nonprofit leaders in the years ahead.”
Nonprofit Congress
Nonprofit Association Names New Chief
The National Council of Nonprofit Associations got a new head and a new name at this week’s Nonprofit Congress.
The group’s board appointed Tim Delaney — founder and president of the Center for Leadership, Ethics & Public Service, in Phoenix — executive director. He will take charge in early July, replacing Audrey Alvarado, who is stepping down after nine years in the job.
The council’s members also voted to change the group’s name to the National Council of Nonprofits — an effort to signal that the group represents all of the more than 20,000 nonprofit groups that are members of its network of 41 state nonprofit associations.
The name change, which will take place sometime before January 2009, reflects the council’s desire to encourage individual charities to think of themselves as part of a national movement, said Doug Sauer, chairman of the council’s board.
Mr. Delaney is a lawyer who earlier in his career served as Arizona’s solicitor general and chief deputy attorney general. He created the leadership center — which provides training, develops strategic plans, and publishes materials about public policy — in 2001.
At the closing session of the Nonprofit Congress, Mr. Delaney told participants to buy a “high-quality hammer” because the council was going to start “knocking down the silos that divide our sector.”
He also urged them to get every staff member, board member, and volunteer to register to vote in the November elections.
“We need to hear the nonprofit voice at the ballot box,” he said.
And he said organizations should make sure they have filed Form 5768, a tax document that will help them calculate how much money they can spend on lobbying.
Ms. Alvarado, who will stay with the council through July, was a co-founder of the Nonprofit Congress, which met for the first time in 2006 in an effort to unite nonprofit groups nationwide so they could have a stronger political and public voice. She said she does not have set plans but thought it was time to take a break.
Nonprofit Congress
Budgets and Elections Require Action by Nonprofit Leaders
Robert Egger, president of the D.C. Central Kitchen in Washington, an antihunger charity in Washington, warned nonprofit leaders gathered here that they face a tough fight to continue to get money from state governments.
Nearly 30 states are facing budget deficits totaling more than $47-billion when the next fiscal year begins on July 1, he said in a speech to the Nonprofit Congress today.
As a result, charities can expect to see significant cuts in government grants, Mr. Egger predicted.
“They can’t just put it off. They have to balance their budgets. To do that they have three options. They can raise taxes. They can start to lay people off. Or they can cut services,” Mr. Egger said. “The salad days are gone.. What’s coming now, this is real.”
The dire state of finances for many governments — plus increasing scrutiny of nonprofit groups — makes it crucial for nonprofit leaders to become active and aggressive in communicating with elected officials and candidates for office, he said.
“You represent leadership to our country,” Mr. Egger said. “If not you, who else? Who else is going to go home and organize in your state, in your town?”
Mr. Egger said he is trying to coordinate nonprofit groups to communicate directly with candidates for every political office in the country. He said nonprofit leaders need to be pushing their agenda to mayoral candidates, those campaigning for statewide office, and those competing for the White House.
In many cases, they face an uphill fight.
Nonprofit advocates, for example, spent seven weeks attending events run by Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama when they campaigned this spring in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. They received no response from the candidates when they asked them what they thought about nonprofit issues.
The 2008 campaign, however, represents just the first step in a much larger push.“The real race for us is 2012,” Mr. Egger said. “Each party needs to have a plank dedicated to the nonprofit sector.”
June 02, 2008
Nonprofit Congress
Pushing for Federal Guidance for Nonprofit Groups
Expect to see an increased push for a Small Business Administration-style government agency to help nonprofit groups improve their capacity.
About 130 participants at the Nonprofit Congress annual meeting in Washington are expected to meet with a similar-sized group of lawmakers on Wednesday to advocate for passage of the Nonprofit Capacity Building Initiative.
The agency created under the proposal would provide at least $25-million annually for three years to help nonprofit groups with budgets of less than $5-million annually to get training on how to improve their management, planning, and organizational structures.
Ann Beltran, a policy analyst at the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, said aides to Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, are behind the concept. Those lawmakers are the senior members of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees nonprofit groups.
The next step is getting a larger group of lawmakers to support possible legislation.
“For all of the money the government takes from business, it gives something back through the Small Business Administration,” Ms. Beltran said in a session here Monday. “There is nothing similar for the nonprofit sector.”
Nonprofit Congress
Advocate's Goal: Stopping Federal Earmarks for Charity
Kathryn A. Lynch, a legislative advocate from Sacramento, Calif., came to the Nonprofit Congress meeting this week with a major goal: to push for the end of Congressional earmarks to nonprofit groups.
Ms. Lynch said now is the time to begin discussions on how to stop lawmakers from doling out pork to charities and instead allow nonprofit groups themselves decide the most appropriate way to use federal money to tackle problems.
She said she believes nonprofit leaders have an opportunity to make earmarks an issue in the forthcoming Presidential election.
Nonprofit Congress
Making Volunteering a Rite of Passage
The Aspen Institute in Washington today unveiled a new document that highlights 10 possible public- policy efforts that it says would help strengthen communities and charities.
Many of the proposals are designed to generate more capital for nonprofit groups.
But one of the concepts that is getting significant attention at this week’s Nonprofit Congress meeting is a plan to encourage public service among students who are making the transition from middle school to high school.
The idea is to make volunteering a rite of passage for youngsters by offering them a $500 college scholarship if they give 100 hours or more to help their communities during a summer break.
The proposed “Summer of Service” would require $100-million in federal money annually — money that would encourage as many as 100,000 youths to volunteer. Of that money, half would go to nonprofit groups that provide volunteer opportunities for the youngsters — the other half would finance the $500 scholarships.
Shirley Sagawa, a former White House aide in the Clinton administration who now works as a consultant in Washington, says the plan would help encourage a new generation of people to volunteer — and to attend college.
Ms. Sagawa said all three remaining Presidential candidates are advocating for an expanded national-service program and she believes nonprofit leaders should encourage the candidates to consider the “Summer of Service” idea as part of those national-service plans.
Nonprofit Congress
How Charities Are Making a Difference
The organizers of the Nonprofit Congress’ gathering in Washington have dedicated much of the early stages of the conference to showing how charities are making a difference.
During the morning plenary session, meeting participants heard the stories of people who have had their lives transformed through interactions with charities.
One of the speakers, Jennifer McDaniel, told a tear-filled story about how she has rebounded from her life as a heroin addict, prostitute, and thief. She credited the work of Friends of Guest House, an Alexandria, Va., charity that helps women who are leaving prison.
The luncheon presentation, which pulls together speakers from a range of generations, is offering speakers such as Florence Green of the California Association of Nonprofits and Sheri Brady of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation the chance to talk about what has inspired them to become involved with advocacy work.
Most of the speakers focused their presentations on attempting to inspire the audience.
“We’re about helping people to reach their full potential. I’m thinking about how each one of us is holding that thread,” said Michael Weekes, president of the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, at the luncheon session. “I’m just one piece of that thread and I hope I’ve held it well.”
Nonprofit Congress
Why Charities Should Be Planning for New Form 990
Nonprofit groups do not need to begin filing the Internal Revenue Service’s new Form 990 until next year.
But groups should already be making decisions about their operations in preparation for the new informational tax document, tax experts said today at the Nonprofit Congress’ meeting in Washington.
The new document includes a laundry list of questions about governance issues such as whether organizations have a whistleblower policy, whether they are keeping written records of their board meetings, and what policies they use for setting compensation of key employees.
To answer these questions properly, charities should make sure they are setting the appropriate policies now.
If an organization wants to be able to say that it is documenting its meetings, for example, it needs to begin documenting its meetings this year to be able to answer “yes” on the form, says Julie Floch, an accountant who handles nonprofit clients.
“When your year is over, you can’t go backward and contemporaneously document your meetings,” Ms. Floch says.
In the same session, Ron Schultz, an official in the IRS’ tax-exempt division, said the tax agency is reviewing comments on a proposed set of instructions for the form and expects to have a final version of the instructions by November.
Nonprofit Congress
Join The Chronicle at the Nonprofit Congress
The second gathering of the Nonprofit Congress begins this morning in Washington.
The meeting is hosted by the National Council of Nonprofit Associations.
The Chronicle will be providing regular online coverage of the event throughout the next two days. We’ll be covering many of the key sessions and interviewing some of the figures who are gathered here for the event.
If you are attending the event, please chime in with your observations about the meeting. And if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by e-mail.
Copyright © 2008 The Chronicle of Philanthropy