The Budget Plan Brings Big Changes to Tax Incentives for Donors article sounds like a great idea! I think that President Obama is really on the right track with this and it seems completely fair the rich lose their tax cut. It’s not fair that middle and lower class Americans are struggling to pay their bills while the wealthy are skipping out on paying their fair share.
Donors and Nonprofits face a Defining moment was relevant to me because this is my final paper topic. I know from readings and lectures in my resource development class that the nonprofit sector really hasn’t been hit too hard in the US. But this is because here nonprofits primarily receive their funding from individuals. In other places across the globe, this isn’t always so. The guest speaker we had last week (Matt) talked about his work with Peace Players. They receive their funding from corporations and foundations. Nelson Mandela made it so that these large business making over X amount of dollars have to give money back to nonprofits so that the programs in South Africa are relatively lucky. In other places nonprofit funding is the first thing to be cut when budgets get cut. Here is a link to Peace Players. I thought he was a really fantastic speaker and this organization does great things!
The Artist- Endowed Foundations article was a little underwhelming for me. It isn’t that shocking to me that there are artist foundations that are donating to the arts. It makes sense that this would be an area of interest for these people and their cash. I think its good that they have the pull and influence in the community to advocate for lesser-represented populations and can really make a difference that way.
The Impact article was a good reiteration of what potential funders are looking for. The need to be so specific and detailed seems a bit daunting but I understand the need for a solid plan with precise goals. I wonder what the ratio of failed nonprofits to successful ones is. It made me think of the restaurant business where something like every 1 out of 5 restaurants will fail after their first year. Depressing.
Chapters 10 and 11
Chapter 10 talked about funders and the break down of where the money comes from, who donates to what kinds of causes and so on. I found it interesting that corporations and foundations don’t really fund religious nonprofits but I suppose it might be too controversial. It is easier to donate to something that carries less individualized weight. I thought chapter 11 was the more interesting one this week as I have never thought to consider self help groups, drug and alcohol support groups and many other mutually beneficial groups as nonprofits before. But I would say that these are some of the most helpful and needed nonprofits in our communities today. I don’t see any problem with combining the other-benefit and self-befit ratio. I say the more helped the merrier.
** Thanks for being such a fantastic group!
** Thank YOU! :)
ReplyDeleteand thanks for the link to Peace Players. I appreciate being able to read about this group and watch the video since I was out of town. It is smart for the kids to learn something new together. I love the chubby little guys!
As for the tax issue, am I completely crazy or would it be fair to have everyone pay a flat percentage? That way if say you paid 10% of your income it would be less for people who earned less and more for people who earned more. I feel like the government makes this too complicated, like with the metric system vs. standard system. I know I would have done better in math if we used the metric system.
I've heard 1 out of 10 restaurants fail in there first year - double depressing. It would be very interesting to see what the numbers are for how nonprofits fare in their first few years, though as we kind of touched on at the beginning of the term, it might be too difficult to even collect that data since most nonprofits are incredibly small and community-based. Accordingly, the Impact article was probably just as daunting for these small nonprofits as it was for you and me, which is why I didn't really love it either.
ReplyDelete** Thank you too! :)
I also found Chapter 11 interesting and had not really thought about self help groups when it comes to nonprofits but they do serve an important role in every community. Drug or alcohol support groups its seems are especially important in society today but I never categorized them as nonprofit organizations.
ReplyDeleteI liked your correlation between nonprofits and restaurants failing. The nice things about nonprofits is that they can exist on little or no funding. If our group the "dinosaurs" wanted to start a nonprofit, all it would really take is an afternoon of doing the proper paperwork and paying a very small fee to record everything. Our nonprofit could exist for a long time "on the books" even though we put very little effort into it. On the other hand, if we actually wanted to get funding and accomplish a goal, then we would have to actually act like a business. I'll bet the nonprofits that fail are just like the restaurants that fail, their leaders posses a lack of business knowledge.
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