Election Blogging Break

Dear Reader:

I’ll be taking an election period break from blogging until Wednesday, November 3rd, when I hope we will all share in a great wave of common sense voting, bringing committed public leadership to serve this great nation and our beloved communities.

Take care.

David H. Lukenbill

Government Funding & Human Service Nonprofits

In Sacramento there are discussions about turning over the government's help for the homeless to nonprofits, and in St. Louis, as reported by St Louis Today, nonprofits helping the homeless are asking for the money owed to them by the government.

Not a pretty picture anyway you look at it, and those who need help the most, the homeless and others—such as the domestic violence victims in the St. Louis article—continue to suffer from a disorganized method of help, all too often made worse by government’s involvement.

A terrific book to read for some foundational knowledge around this issue is, To Empower People: From State to Civil Society, by Peter Berger and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, and here is an excellent review of it.

An excerpt from the St Louis article.

“Nonprofit groups contracted by the government to provide basic shelter for the city's homeless and domestic violence victims are frustrated because they have been stuck holding the bills for months.

“The agencies began providing services for this year's federal emergency shelter grant in January. None of the $870,000 in grant money has been paid.

“The St. Louis Department of Human Services, specifically its homeless services unit, has administered such grants for years. Director William Siedhoff said Tuesday that he is disturbed by the "tremendous lag" in payments this year and assured checks would be cut sometime next month.

“Siedhoff said he became aware of the situation last month.

"There has got to be a better way to do this, and I am going to figure out how to do it," he said. "I know the hardship this creates."

“The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. James Heard, director of HUD's St. Louis office, said the money has been delayed this year because the city had provided incomplete paperwork about how the housing grant was used in previous years.

“He said this year's money was cleared for release last month.He was surprised to find out Tuesday that the nonprofit groups are still in limbo.

"We are concerned," he said. "They need to be paid."

“The delay has caused some nonprofit groups — already strapped by a heightened demand for services — to dip into reserves, lean on lines of credit and cut back on items as inexpensive as bus tickets.

"We have a really small margin of error," said Michelle Schiller-Baker, executive director of St. Martha's Hall, which helps abused women and their children. "We don't have bus money to get to that doctor's appointment, to get to that job interview."

“She said the city owes her agency $35,800 in housing grant money. It's just a sliver of the nonprofit group's $900,000 annual budget, but Schiller-Baker said "every single penny is accounted for."

"Regardless of what amount it is of our budget at the shelter," she said, "you owe me the money, you better give it to me."

“Lydia's House, which provides transitional housing for domestic violence victims, is owed $27,000.”

"We are looking forward to getting that funding," said executive director Ellen Reed. "We haven't had to cut programs, but it has certainly made things tight. We have had to dig into our reserves."

"Catholic Charities Chief Financial Officer Colleen Dusek said its Housing Resource Center for the homeless is owed $80,000. She said the agency experienced similar delays last year. The center has covered its costs with a line of credit from the Archdiocese of St. Louis."

Women Give More

Almost twice as much from those in the middle income range, as this article from USA Today notes.

An excerpt.

“Women are more generous than men when it comes to charitable donations, a study released today suggests.

“In all income groups, women are more likely to give, and in four of five groups, they give more than men do — sometimes twice as much, according to the study by the Women's Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.

"Women have just been socialized as the care-givers in their families to be more empathetic and altruistic," says Debra Mesch, director of the Women's Philanthropy Institute. "I think this is being manifested in giving to charity."

“It's not just character, though, Mesch says.

“She explains, "We know that the primary factors for philanthropic giving are wealth, education and income. We see, especially in the USA, extraordinary gains in those areas for women."

“In the study's middle range of income, $43,500 to $67,532, the average donation was $728 from women, $373 from men.

“The report, Women Give 2010, found never-married and divorced women more likely to give than their male counterparts, and they gave more. Widows were less likely to give than widowers.”

Donor Loyalty

An article from Sumac note some good points in retaining donors.

An excerpt.

“According to Adrian Sargeant, a professor of fundraising at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, a typical nonprofit will lose 50% of its donors between the first and second donation and up to 30% per year thereafter. With these rates, organizations must continually scramble to bring in new donors. But donor acquisition is very costly. According to Penelope Burk, president of Cygnus Applied Research, “new donors are expensive to get and rarely give much the first time.” In the end, “acquisition is more expensive than retention and often runs at a loss.” If non-profits focused instead on boosting donor retention, therefore, the payoff could be huge.

“Boosting Donor Retention

“Likewise, Sargeant argues that even a small improvement in retention can yield a windfall over time. Even boosting the retention rate by as little as 10 percent, he says, can increase the lifetime value of a nonprofit’s donor base by up to 200%.

“So, how do you boost donor retention? You give donors what they want. Thanks to Burk’s national research studies on the key motivators of donor loyalty, we know exactly what that is. In that research, 93% of donors indicated three things that would influence them to stay loyal and give increasingly generous gifts over time:
1. Prompt and personalized gift acknowledgement
2. Confirmation that funds will be used as originally indicated in the solicitation
3. Measurable results on donors’ last gift before they are asked for another one.

“All three of these things, Burk points out, are tied to donor communication and are within the control of charities and fundraisers to change. So, why don’t non-profits focus their attention on changing communications to meet donors needs?”

Hope & Change

Certain times seem to generate optimism, others pessimism, and for many observers of the public arena, this is one of those very optimistic times, as we wait for the results of the elections across the country that will surely usher in a new sense of public policy making.

With all of the hitches in the formerly ascendant narrative putting some halt to its once remorseless advance; the stiller, smaller, voices of the people have been raised in a dynamic chorus of hoping for change, and it does appear that change will occur, at least in public leadership.

Whether the change in public leadership—assuming it does happen—will actually lead to a change in public policy, remains to be seen, as many who enter the halls of power from main street often become so self-enamored by their very ascension, that they forget how and on whose shoulders they arose, but I am optimistic it will happen and they will not forget.

Small Nonprofits

Over the past few years legislation was passed that required all nonprofits, even those with income of $25,000 a year or less, to file a 990 form with the IRS, and though it is a straightforward online process, many small nonprofits still struggle with it.

In response to the new interest in small nonprofits, the Urban Institute produced a brief, "Small Nonprofit Organizations: A Profile of Form 990-N Filers” and it is worth a read.

Nonprofits & the Public Good

As the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports, the discussion around government regulation of nonprofits has many facets.

An excerpt.

“Making the case that philanthropic dollars do good and benefit society isn’t going to be enough to convince lawmakers and the public that foundations deserve the freedom and tax benefits they now enjoy, William Kristol, the conservative commentator, told an audience at the Philanthropy Roundtable’s annual meeting.

“Instead, he called for a “more principled defense” against government regulation of foundations and their work.

“Mr. Kristol said that it’s not always the case that philanthropic dollars help society, a message he joked would make him the “skunk at the party.” The argument that foundations deserve autonomy because of all the good they do was made by his co-panelists during the discussion, and it is a focus of a new public-education campaign by the Philanthropy Roundtable.

“Mr. Kristol suggested that some charitable projects are ill-conceived, others cause real harm, and some are totally at odds with each other. “You can support think tanks that are either propounding Obamacare or opposing Obamacare, and you can’t both be right,” said Mr. Kristol. “They can’t both be good for the country.”

“He said that people who question whether foundations deserve their special tax status are not necessarily unreasonable. Such people see foundations as big pools of money, led by individuals who are relatively unaccountable to the public and who are spending that money however they see fit.

“They don’t have to be idiotic populist yahoos on the left or right” to raise those questions, Mr. Kristol said.

“He urged donors to embrace a broader defense of philanthropic freedom. “I would turn the question on its head,” he said. “People who have a stake in philanthropic freedom have a stake in freedom.”

“A university’s decision not to recognize a student group because of its beliefs, or efforts to force the Boy Scouts of America to accept gay people, he said, ought to give donors pause. Donors and nonprofit organizations should be concerned about the freedom of corporations; nonprofits, like businesses, are operating in the private sector, Mr. Kristol said. He also said that nonprofits should be worried about President Obama’s recent attacks on organizations registered under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code, nonprofit groups that can engage in lobbying.

“I don’t think that philanthropic freedom will survive,” he said, “if we sit back and allow the freedom of other entities to be severely constrained.”