Category Archives: politics

Six events that got us talking about nonprofits in 2010


Posted by ajlovesya

Is it just me or were more people talking a lot about nonprofits this year? Not just from my fellow nonprofiteers; but also from folks who were interested in doing good or who were shocked/interested by some stuff they heard and wanted to learn more.

I decided to compile some events this year that I think made those of us working in the nonprofit sector think more critically about our work as well encouraged others to participate (or at least learn about) our role in this country.

The Earthquake in Haiti

Boy survive earthquake Haiti

From helphaitiearthquakevictims.com/

What happened: On Tuesday January 12th a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti a few miles outside of the capital Port-au-Prince. The earthquake killed 230,000 people, injured 300,000, and left 1,000,000 homeless. The limited infrastructure Haiti had was severely damaged, making recovery efforts difficult.

How did this affect nonprofits? In addition to mobilizing communities to participate in relief efforts in a variety of ways, several organizations stole the spotlight because of their use of technology (good) and their questionable actions in times of crisis (bad).

The Red Cross made text message donations more mainstream and raised the most of any disaster relief organization responding to the earthquake; at the same time they, along with Wyclef Jean’s nonprofit Yele Haiti, faced harsh criticism for their handling of funds. By February, over $500 million raised for Haiti had not been spent leading many to question nonprofits ability to respond to disaster.

BP Oil Spill

BP oil spill water image

From thegrio.com/news/bp-oil-spill-leaves-local-black-businesses-in-the-muck.php

What happened: On April 20th, a deepwater drilling rig operated by British Petroleum exploded releasing 4.9 million barrels of oil into the the Gulf of Mexico over three months. The damage to marine and wildlife habitat and the fishing and tourism industries is still being felt: over 6,800 dead animals, one third of the gulf closed for fishing, and an estimated $23 billion will be lost in tourism revenue over the next three years.

How did this affect nonprofits? While many nonprofits helped with relief and clean up efforts, the news was full of stories analyzing the troubling and often precarious relationship between nonprofits and their corporate sponsors.

The Aquarium of the Pacific in California, who had received large donations from BP, wondered whether or not they should actively disassociate themselves from the corporation. The Gulf of Mexico Foundation, a conservation nonprofit in Texas, claimed the damage on the coast had been overblown. A little investigation revealed that at least half of the 19 members of the group’s board of directors have direct ties to the offshore drilling industry. Indeed this “advocacy-for-hire” trend–where the line between corporate and nonprofit interests are blurred to advance a corporation’s interest–was exposed, demonstrating that the word “nonprofit” is really just a word.

Interestingly enough, in the response to the earthquake and oil spill I also saw lots of individuals taking matters into their own hands as volunteers and fundraisers without working with nonprofits or working with small local organizations over large ones. Again-free agents on the move.

The Giving Pledge

Bill Gates Warren Buffet Giving Pledge

From rationalwalk.com/?p=9090

What happened: Bill Gates and Warren Buffet started a campaign to encourage the wealthiest people in the United States to give most of their money to charity. As of this month 57 billionaires have joined and pledged to give away 50% or more of their wealth.

How did this affect nonprofits? While it didn’t have an immediate impact on nonprofits, it got people talking about giving: why does it matter? how do we determine who to give to? what’s affective? and, oddly enough, is this ethical?

Many people who have signed the pledge are notorious for wanting to have a significant hand in whatever cause they support. Eli Broad, for example, has emerged as a major player in education and the relationships that Michelle Rhee developed with foundations during her time as education chancellor in DC have been criticized. Similar to the concern of “advocacy for hire” is this another way for billionaires to have more power under the mask of a nonprofit? Will the growth in their donations result in an unfair growth in their power in our democracy?

And the need for better philanthropy goes beyond money: who will lead philanthropic efforts to ensure that we achieve social justice instead of intensifying inequality with a sudden source of funds?  The issue isn’t just money-it’s what we do with it.

New tax requirement for nonprofits by the IRS

IRS logo

From ehow.com/videos-on_8224_surviving-irs-tax-audit.html

What happened: In 2006, the IRS wanted to know whether small nonprofits (making less than $25,000) were still in business so they required these nonprofits to file tax returns for 2007, 2008, and 2009 by May 15, 2010.

How did this affect nonprofits? Apparently these small nonprofits didn’t get the memo. More than 300,000 nonprofits risked losing their 501c3 status, even though the IRS ultimately extended the deadline to October. The IRS will reveal who lost their 501c3 status in January, however the chaos revealed many aspects of small nonprofits that often go undiscussed by folks in and out of the nonprofit sector: just how challenging it is to reach small nonprofits; how difficult it is for them to meet such requirements; and how many of them go out of business.

Jumo

Jumo nonprofit

From jumo.com

What happened: Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes launched Jumo, a social network solely for nonprofits and their supporters.

How did this affect nonprofits? Like any social network conversations focused on its utility: another network to worry about? is our audience there? how can this be used to advance my cause? Again, the pressing social media for social good question emerged: will a focus on nonprofits make it easier for followers/fans to translate into donors or volunteers? Stories abound of successful nonprofits managed to leverage social media for more resources and other websites like Facebook make it easier to connect with supporters and already have strong followings. At the same time for those not already connected with nonprofits Jumo may be a great place to start because of its focus and ease. The site just launched in November so its impact remains to be seen.

White House Council for Community Solutions

Obama White House Council Community

From: serve.gov/council_home.asp

What happened: On December 14th, President Obama established the White House Council for Community Solutions will provide advice to the President on the best ways to mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses and government to work more effectively together to solve specific community needs.

How did this affect nonprofits? This is the second large government initiative that works directly with nonprofits. The first, the Social Innovation Fund launched in 2009, which gave its first round of awards this year. The council is unique in that is is a standing group. The council itself is composed of a diverse group of leaders from different sectors including Diane Aviv, CEO of the Independent Sector and Bon Jovi. Given how recent this is, the impact has yet to be seen. However, is this a sign of more government and nonprofit partnerships? Such relationships are not always clear cut and for many this is a sign of government trying to have more control in business and nonprofits.

These events will be on my mind next year as nonprofits will certainly face new challenges and address the ongoing impact of old ones.  What events got you talking about nonprofits?


When it Comes to Executive Pay, Numbers Arent Enough


Posted by ajlovesya

While much of the conversation about nonprofit pay focuses on how we are not paid enough given the work we do, every now and then someone will attract the wrath of the public for having what is considered a salary that is too high.  Honestly, I generally don’t share the indignation because there is never any context given to the numbers.   There are a few questions I think we should answer when deciding whether or not pay is excessive:

  1. What percentage does this take of the organization’s budget? We accept that, as a rule, the larger the organization, the larger the salary but have we come up with a percentage that shows once executive pay reaches this point it can have negative consequences on the organization?
  2. What is the overall financial health of the organization? Connected to the first question, have we established processes to determine whether the pay makes sense given how well the organization is doing and that nothing is being done inappropriately?
  3. What is the treatment of other employees? The argument that high salaries and benefits should only be given to executives doesn’t sit well with me.  Talent is needed at all levels, so in order to recruit and retain the best throughout the organization, everyone should be paid well.
  4. And of course, the biggest and kind of silly question that I like to ask: what’s the organization’s impact on the community it serves?  If they are doing what they set out to do, what’s the concern?

Without context, we can’t develop methods to defining and providing a competitive yet fair salary.  It becomes arbitrary and reveals more about how we expect nonprofiteers to only be in it for the love of social change without accepting that social change requires excellence, competence, and tenacity, not just warm feelings or sweet ideas.

We’ve done a great deal of comparing and measuring when it comes to classifying nonprofit pay as being too little. Why haven’t we done the same when determining whether it is too much (especially when, to be frank, it’s RARE.  High salaries are the exception, not the norm).

The outrage concerns me because it extends beyond the executive in question.  People begin to demand that the entire sector be checked and begin to doubt whether their donations are making a difference.  Feelings of mistrust, however misguided, fester because an explanation of the pay and and more rigorous debate of our expectations of nonprofits do not occur.

How do you determine whether or not pay is excessive?


Are Black People More Accepting of Overweight Women?


Posted by ajlovesya

While tweeting the new reality show More To Love—a plus size version of The Bachelor on FOX—the conversation shifted towards the role of race in fat acceptance.  Throughout my time in college and even now I am surprised by the belief that black people are more accepting of overweight women.

Here’s the thing: it’s not about being big; it’s about being curvy in the right places.  It’s about having an impossibly small waist with large breasts, hips, thighs, and ass.  Adolescence was an incessant chase for the perfect hourglass shape with a warped sense of reality:  white girls want to be bone thin, black girls want the hourglass shape, ignoring how neither approach was healthy.

I grew up hearing my mother proclaim several times that she is FINALLY going to lose weight, my grandmother proudly recounting her days of forgoing food to look svelte in dresses, and my sisters and I agonizing over the width of our hips in relation to their stomachs.  I remember my friends and I mocking white girls for their lack of ass and titties while agonizing over the growth of our own, sometimes wanting to hide for developing too soon other times going through hell to make it seem as if we were growing faster than we really were.

Additionally while there are more overweight black celebrities than white ones I hesitate to see that as an example of fat acceptance.  As Julia over at Fatshionista mentions, those celebrity examples of plus size black celebrities are hand picked for the public.  It doesn’t reflect black people’s acceptance of overweight people; rather it reflects the mainstream media’s hunger for and comfort with large black bodies.  It is, on many levels, an outrageous example of racism and sexism.  Besides, I don’t think Tyler, Martin, and Eddie show their love for larger black women when they don fat suits and act insultingly ignorant.

At the same time, I would be lying if I said that my emotional scars come from the hourglass battlefield.  In all honesty I think that weight is lower on the list of things that black people make fun of each other for.  Skin complexion continues to be our venom of choice.  Weight is not at the center of the most vicious and cruel memories of my childhood; my complexion is and to this day even compliments about my skin color make me uncomfortable.  (So no, calling me chocolate will not get you any points with me).  And don’t even get me started when it comes to hair…

In fact, as I navigated college, internships, work, travel abroad, and relationships various forms of “otherness” mattered differently depending on who was in the conversation.   Class plays as much as role in beauty as race with my middle and upper class black friends weary of indulging in soul food for health reasons while my family back at home is unforgiving of my attempts of keeping my hair natural.

In the end total acceptance on any level is a fantasy but a reality I would love to create.  It requires consciousness—an awareness of all of the attitudes, messages, and behaviors that are detrimental to your self determination—which in and of itself is a terrifying thing.  You find yourself “on” all of the time challenging what was once comforting and normal.  But it’s liberating in the sense that you begin to love yourself, focusing on your potential and life’s possibilities.  It’s exciting to recognize all that you can do and all that you deserve to have. 

How do we shift the conversation from what we arent to a celebration of all that we are?


Sotomayor and the Future of Catholic Schools


Posted by ajlovesya

There are many things about Sotomayor that people are discussing; her background as a Latina from a poor family in the South Bronx is a source of both inspiration and criticism.  However, I have yet to see a focus on her Catholic school education and the implications it has for school choice and Catholic schools.

Catholic schools were created to serve the disadvantaged and continue to do so to this day, yet their history, challenges, and successes are largely unknown.    For example, in NYC, where 11% of students attend Catholic schools, a letter was recently sent to all Catholic schools by the Archdiocese of NY celebrating how Catholic school students outperformed public school students on the New York State English Language Arts Exam (again). We also know that students graduating from Catholic high schools in NYC have a 98% college attendance rate.

Well, I know this.  I know this because I work at a Catholic school and am a product of Catholic education so this information is shared freely among those in the Catholic circle.  But of course the public wouldn’t know this because in the growing discussion about school choice, Catholic schools are absent.  The debate is generally about charter schools and when Catholic schools are mentioned it is to highlight how many of them are closing.

The issue facing Catholic schools is largely a financial one stemming not just from competition from other schools (many of whom have adopted an approach to teaching that Catholic schools have been using for years) but also from lack of public support and awareness of the work we do.  We know that New York City cannot absorb all of the students suddenly without schools yet little is being done to ensure that their families have access to the schools that they wish to attend.

When Obama sent his daughters to a private school, discussions about the state of public schools—especially in DC—became more intense.  Now that we have someone heading to Capitol Hill with a catholic education under her belt, will new conversations take place?  Will Catholic schools have a greater presence in the school choice debate?  Will their successes and challenges be discussed with the public at large?  I hope so—many children and their families are depending on it.

Interesting reads:

Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?

To Save NYC’s Catholic Schools

Catholic-School Closing Tragedies


Exploring the Differences between Community and "Elite" Colleges


Posted by ajlovesya

My mother is currently going back to school to get her BA. Recently she and I have been having wonderful conversations about our experiences as students in two very different educational settings at very different periods in our lives: I enrolled at Haverford College right after high school, and she enrolling at New York City Technical College after raising 5 kids, with a newborn in the middle of her career. Of course there are many different kinds of schools and nothing is ever black-white, however in our experiences as students and full time employees we’ve seen some trends. Below are some of the key differences we have noticed:

Columbia University in New York City

Columbia University in New York City

The role and value of real world experience: I remember sitting in a class with a bunch of other 17 and 18 year olds who had left home for the first time. In many classes the professors’ way of getting us experience was to have us do volunteer work or internships. The goal was to combine book learning and hands-on learning in a meaningful way. This is in stark contrast my mom’s classes which not only have “traditional” students but also older students, parents, and professionals mid career. My mother says that the students have too much experience, so much so that it is hard for them to understand anything that doesn’t match with what they’ve been through. Experience in this case is a barrier to classroom learning whereas when I was a student it was built upon as a tool to enhance classroom learning.

A sense of entitlement versus hard work: I’m not exaggerating when I say my alma mater threw money at us to do things. Start a club, travel abroad, volunteer…you name it, there was money for it. Of course, this lent itself to a sense of entitlement among students. Once I started working and dealing with volunteers, many of my supervisors and other coordinators lamented working with students from elite schools because not only did they expect everything to be handed to them but also they thought they knew everything, not paying attention the culture of the organization and the people they served. On the other hand, my mother—as a student and employee—states that since so many students at the community college have limited resources they are more likely to do well seeing any and all opportunities as crucial.

Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, New York City

Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, New York City

Ability to communicate on the job: When my mom comes to me for career advice it is always about how to talk to her supervisors. Her supervisors went to schools like my alma mater and she often feels as though she can’t articulate her thoughts and concerns well enough for them to be taken seriously or understood properly. Of course, in my view, there are two people in that conversation and she should not be the only one making an effort for understanding. However my mother brings up an interesting point: people with similar educational backgrounds tend to talk to each other even if the office itself is diverse and the ways in which they talk are perceived as different.

The presence of diversity: As much as colleges like mine may try, they very rarely reach the diversity of community colleges.  Many of the students at Haverford, including myself, were groomed to be there: prep schools, test prep programs, and family members that attended. We were given many of the tools necessary to thrive and the professors there knew how to teach us.  This is very different from community colleges which draw immigrants, students who are the first to attend college, parents, professionals, younger students, older students, and people of different ethnic backgrounds.   Classroom dynamics are different: I very rarely saw heated debates in the classroom while my mother says they happen all of the time, making students the educators while frustrating teachers who are often ill prepared to handle such differences.

Interestingly none of our discussions focused on the texts or subjects we learned and enjoyed. Instead we were exploring how school is really about the transfer and acquisition of social and cultural capital: the invisible but important manifestations of class and education. Speech, interests, mannerisms, style of dress, and aspirations all are shaped by the kind of institution you attend and shape people’s perceptions of you.

During our discussions we had a variety of questions and would love to get your input:

Is there an inherent inequality in the way these two institutions are set up or are the differences merely a reflection of different educational needs and aspirations?

How much do these manifestations of class and education matter in an economy that is increasingly global and connected where people adopt different ways of doing things all of the time?

What role does the quality of teaching play in how students acquire capital?  Are there other factors ed and not ed related?