Data, data, and more data…

Because nothing says “Happy Monday!” like a new 84-page publication from the IRS, we invite you to take a peak at the 2009 Data Book. Our focus is immediately directed to Tables 24-25, which verify the evolution of tax-exempt organizations and the enormous diversity of the growing sector.  There are more than 1.2 million charities, and 162 organizations are chartered by the government. The IRS received over 70,000 applications for tax-exemptions in 2009, and over 44,000 charities were approved.

Nonprofit Newsmakers

New Research: Religious individuals are more likely than non-religious individuals to respond to an appeal for charity only on days that they visit their place of worship; on other days of the week, religiosity has no effect.

Curious about the conditions of the local nonprofit sector? Two articles on that very subject just happen to appear in Sunday’s Register-Guard…

• Centro LatinoAmericano, a long-time local nonprofit that serves the Hispanic community, is downsizing in response to demographic and economic changes, led by its board president, Juan Carlos Valle, a recent PPPM grad.
• Priscilla Gould, ED of United Way, talks about the nonprofit sector’s support from the local banking and financial industry.

Hot off the heels of Sarai’s presentation on NEDCO, a nonprofit that is certainly entrepreneurial in its work, the nonprofit news world is abuzz with the issue of social enterprise…

• The Chronicle of Philanthropy discusses the possibility of Congress creating a new tax designation for social enterprise firms.  The new category of organization would reside somewhere between a nonprofit charity and a for-profit business.
• Furthermore, the Maryland State Legislature has just created a new legal structure — called a benefit corporation — for companies that blend business with social and environmental good.
• How would this play out across different sectors? There’s been a long standing discussion in the arts arena about the benefits and drawbacks to this hybrid model.

Playful, Provocative, Personal, Critical: Highlights from Students’ Inaugural Posts

Students were given a lot of flexibility in how to approach this whole blogging project, leaving space for both creativity and authenticity.  This is evident down to the details, down to the titles of some of our class blogs, from Lauren Karell’s Nonprofit Love Affair to McKenzie Lay’s Optimists Only.  One blog is particularly “playful” in its nomenclature:  Hannah Bloombaum’s Nonprofit Playground.  But Hannah offers a thoughtful explanation to her blog’s title…

• “Here’s the impression I’m getting so far in class: nonprofits are generally started by people who are inspired by things they love.  This automatically makes me think of children, and how easily they are inspired by the things around them.  A playground contains structures that can turn into ships and hot lava if you have the imagination for it.  Similarly, our nonprofit sector is set up within a structure, but allows for people to use that structure for their own inspired ideas.”

Provocative Questions

These inaugural posts are going beyond simple introductions; students are raising some interesting issues in regards to what they’re looking to learn this term. From local collaboration to international impact, here’s a couple examples of  big questions being asked…

• Christopher Whittaker: “Are there ways for these organizations to better themselves through increased collaboration…increase their buying power?  Better utilize volunteer efforts through a shared database of volunteers?  Increase fundraising initiatives through partnerships?  From the outside it appears many nonprofit organizations are “fighting” for a similar cause and competing for the same resources (donations, volunteers) as stand alone organizations and may be able to better maximize their efforts through increased collaboration.  Is my observation fact or a myth?  I hope to uncover answers to these questions in the following weeks and provide insight to you!”
• Greg Krupa: “How can international non-profits successfully carry out their missions in places that often put up road blocks to their success? How can we better incorporate the often more successful business models of for-profits into failing or bloated non-profits? If the worst poverty and social injustices occur outside of our borders, how can we better use the non-profit sector to address some of these issues?”

Personal Reflections

The key characteristics of the blogging medium is its dual dimensions of  the personal and the public.  Throughout the student blogroll, readers will find thoughtful integration of course concepts and personal experience.  Marisa Valenciano offers this reflection on a concept from the course text stating that  “nonprofits add to the self-definition of the individual”…

• “When a person is a part of a non-profit group, a person can develop his or her identity by surrounding him or herself with people who share a similar interest or cause that will give them the opportunity to identify with others and share information.   In my own community, my family and I are active members of the Kauai Filipino nonprofit organizations. Being a part of the Filipino organization has helped me to develop my own identity as a young Filipino woman in a way that could not have been possible through any other organization.   Since I understand that people will identify themselves differently in terms of race, gender, class, and religion, I think it is important to have a broad range of groups in the community that individuals can get plugged in to.  In getting involved in a group that a person can identify with, a person will be able to better define who they are as individuals.”

Open Minds, Critical Eyes

This blogging project, first and foremost, is meant to provide students a forum to synthesize and react. We’re not looking for 61 “yes men” whose blogs are in unanimous agreement with every word O’Neill has written and every word uttered in lecture.  We’re looking for open minds and critical eyes, and here’s a great example of that kind of critical synthesis and reaction…

• Ted Sweeney: “Some of the lecture so far, and chapter 2 of our textbook (O’Neill 2002) has dealt with the question of why nonprofit associations exist.  There is an assumption implicit in this question, that associations only make sense if they exist for means of profit or centralized government.  In fact, I think these two things, business for profit and formalized/centralized government, are the recent phenomena.  Karl Polanyi, in his 1944 work The Great Transformation,  pointed out that the drive for profit in a market economy is quite new as a motivator of human activity; prior to the Italian renaissance, human economic exchange existed within systems of social hierarchy.  I.e, people in different caste positions would receive pre-ordained shares of the resources of the group, or, as in some hunter gatherer bands, all resources were shared among the community. Here’s my point: working together for a common goal organized around ethical belief and a conviction about the way the world ought to be, rather than for profit, has considerable precedent in human history.  The what’s-going-on-here attitude of O’Neill’s chapter 2 and Prof. Choquette’s lecture is misplaced.  It is the current role of profit-driven, free market exchange in deciding human affairs that is unusual, and would seem bizarre to our ancestors, who were mostly involved in informal, non-business, non-government associations.

So what do you think? Is Ted onto something here? If his post struck a chord with you, go on over and write a comment on his blog.  Check out more of the playful, provocative, personal, and critical posts from the class blogroll, and share your thoughts with one another.  This first round of blogging is only the beginning of the conversation; it’s only the beginning of our collective exploration of the nonprofit sector.

Guest Speaker Spotlight: NEDCO’s Sarai Johnson

Sarai Johnson, NEDCO Program Manager

This Wednesday our class will have the pleasure of meeting with Sarai Johnson, Program Manager at NEDCO.  Founded in 1979 by a group of neighbors from the Whiteaker Community, NEDCO was the first community development corporation in the state of Oregon.  Since that time, NEDCO has grown its programs to support neighborhoods and families build assets through homeownership, neighborhood revitalization, and business development.

Sarai is a native of Springfield, Oregon, and her work with NEDCO has given her the opportunity to give back to her hometown.  In addition to managing NEDCO’s Homeownership program, she has taken the lead in launching and managing the Springfield Farmers’ Market, a critical piece of the city’s downtown revitalization efforts.

We invite to you to take a few minutes to explore the NEDCO and Springfield Farmers’ Market websites.  Saria will be sharing her experience working in community development, and she is looking forward to answering students’ questions.   To learn more about the wider field of community development corporations, click here.

Search & Discover

We’ll be spending the evening in the library exploring some databases that students will be using throughout the rest of the term.   While the Nonprofit Resources page of this blog contains descriptions of most of these sites, here’s the basic list of what we’ll be looking at…

Basic Searches

• Oregon Department of Justice (nonprofit database)
• Internal Revenue Service

Better Searches

• Guidestar
• Foundation Center

Nonprofit Statistics

• The Oregon Community Foundation (2006 Giving in Oregon Report)
• National Center for Charitable Statistics
• Charity Navigator
• American Institute of Philanthropy

Some food for thought (and blog): What is the primary purpose of each of these databases?  How does their collection and presentation of data reflect that purpose?  Take a close look at the “watchdog” groups, Charity Navigator and American Institute of Philanthropy.  How do they define and measure a “good” charity?  Could you form an argument for or against the data they use to determine what makes an effective nonprofit organization?

Nonprofit Newsmakers

While this week we’ll be discussing the sociological and economic theories behind the operation of the independent sector, here’s a couple of recent news stories that relate to philanthropy and nonprofit organizations.  Keep your eyes open for more headlines, post stories to your own blog, and bring them to class to share.

• Curious about how the recent health-care legislation affects the nonprofit sector? The Chronicle of Philanthropy discusses a new tax credit available for smaller nonprofits that can be applied against payroll taxes in exchange for shared coverage of employee insurance premiums.
• Sean Hannity’s nonprofit, Freedom Alliance, is in some hot water with allegations of consumer fraud and abuse of tax-exempt status.  Charity watchdog groups are taking notice.
• Please turn your cell phones on! Harvard Business Review asserts that text messaging is changing the game for philanthropy.

Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth

Wednesday’s lecture focused primarily on the historical roots of the nonprofit sector: from Harvard’s first fundraising drive to DeToqueville’s observations of American voluntary associations; from the founding of St. George’s Society in New York City to the establishment of federal income tax and exemptions for charitable donations.

Andrew Carnegie

We briefly discussed Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth,” an essay widely regarded as the cornerstone of American philanthropy. Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) worked his way from penniless immigrant to become one of the wealthiest men of his time and a founder of what became known as scientific philanthropy.  “The problem of our age,” he writes, “is the proper administration of wealth,” arguing that the mutual resentment between rich and poor can only be eased if those who accumulate wealth also themselves distribute it for society’s benefit.

This writing is not a wholesale endorsement of charity.  Rather, Carnegie argues for a philanthropic enterprise which contributes to the betterment of man: “In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves; to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so; to give those who desire to rise the aids by which they may rise; to assist, but rarely or never to do all.” His vision for philanthropy draws from his beliefs in Christianity and Social Darwinism, and it bears the stamp of someone who has risen from extreme poverty to the highest stratum of material wealth. His vision for philanthropy is reflected in his charitable legacy: libraries, universities, and the arts.

Yet Carnegie’s generosity was not always met with unanimous gratitude.  Carnegie’s  involvement in union-breaking violence at one of his steel plants in 1892 forever tarnished his reputation as a benevolent employer and a champion of the common man.  At the opening of one of his first library projects, protesters asserted that the building was built not by Carnegie but by the “blood and the sweat of the steel workers.”

“Gospel of Wealth” is as much a celebration of free market capitalism as it is a commentary on philanthropy. Returning to the essay over one century later is an opportunity to consider the contemporary relationship (and tension) between the accumulation of private wealth and the charitable work of the nonprofit sector.