A Call for Reason and Courage
Abortion, Guns, and Insurrection
The mood in our nation's capital is grim. The U.S. Supreme Court is surrounded by security fencing in advance of a decision this month that likely will overrule the 49-year-old abortion-rights decision in Roe v. Wade. There is rising hope that meaningful legislation can limit gun violence; yet, that hope is countered by a long history of the gun lobby defeating the will of the people. And on top of those divisive issues, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the Capitol is holding a series of hearings with shocking revelations to inform the public of its conclusion that former President Trump is responsible for the insurrection and ongoing attacks against our democracy, as shown by evidence and testimony from a distinguished retired conservative judge. Any one of these serious subjects – abortion, guns, insurrection – could define the year and alter American history. However these issues are resolved, charitable nonprofits have a vital role to play in calling for reason and the courage to stand up for the truth, while also serving as safe havens from the rancor of the day. Reason and courage.
Take Action: Become a National Voter Registration Day Partner
National Voter Registration Day (September 20) is a great opportunity for nonprofits to ensure – on a nonpartisan basis – that their staff, volunteers, and community members are registered to vote. Sign up to join the nationwide effort to register hundreds of thousands of voters on September 20. As an official partner, your nonprofit will receive a free voter registration kit and access to other opportunities to support your nonpartisan voter registration work.
The Workforce is Changing. It's Time to Consider Making Hybrid Work Permanent
With nonprofits finding it more difficult to fill open positions and seeing current employees lured away by higher-paying competitors, it’s important for nonprofits – those that have missions that can accommodate it – to develop the capacity to engage hybrid and remote employees. Hybrid work and other kinds of flexibility are attractive benefits for prospective employees, satisfiers for current staff, and a way to help our teams nurture work-life balance and reduce stress and burnout. It also opens up a much wider pool of potential candidates for open positions.
We believe that nonprofits can – and should – promote a work culture that prioritizes wellbeing and balance. This month’s article on hybrid work is our latest in a series of articles describing creative approaches to the workforce shortages that can elevate equity, address burnout and stress, and discover, nurture, and develop talent in nontraditional ways. In addition to being the right thing to do, supporting employees’ well-being as part of a nonprofit’s culture can enhance sustainability and improve our ability to respond to inevitable crises over the long term.
New Giving Data and Reports
Recent reports from a variety of sources analyze giving data for 2020 and 2021 from several different datasets and points of view. Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer for Giving Tuesday, noted, “We’re back to a multi-year trend we saw prior to 2020, which is more of the dollars coming from fewer donors. This is not a healthy trend in the nonprofit sector…we essentially lost the gains of 2020” in terms of number of donors. (Emphasis added.) More donors means a “broader base of support,” which “correlates with better resilience for organizations,” according to Rosenbaum. On the bright side, donors newly acquired in 2020 renewed their giving at very high rates in 2021 compared with previous years. Our article covers data from Giving USA 2022, IRS giving data for 2020, the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Nonprofit Finance Fund’s latest survey, and Neon One’s new data hub.
Finding Your Nonprofit's Share of $350 Billion in ARPA Funds
Congress created a $350 billion funding program in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). That program, the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Relief Fund (CSLFRF), designates specific allocations for each state, county, and city government.* Each government will decide how to spend its allocation – how much to spend on itself, and how much to distribute as “assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits [emphasis added], or to aid impacted industries.”
The National Council of Nonprofits has been deeply involved in this program from its inception in Congress through rulemaking by the Treasury Department, and then working with nonprofits, governments, and foundations to help everyone understand and access the funding. We have a web page that lists the various state and local funds available to nonprofits, as well as advocacy efforts underway to design new related funds.
Last month, the federal government began sending the final tranche of ARPA dollars to state and local governments, prompting several to hold public hearings on how to spend their allocations. Each governmental entity has until the end of 2024 to make final decisions on how to spend its allocation; they must spend all dollars by the end of 2026. That means depending on where your nonprofit operates, there may still be opportunities for your nonprofit.
In an article published in today’s NonProfit Times, Tim Delaney, President & CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, takes you on a treasure hunt to discern whether there may be ARPA/CSLFRF funds available to help your nonprofit recover from the pandemic’s impact or to help your nonprofit provide services to others. With levity and using helpful metaphors, Tim guides you through a process to discover what funds might be available through your city, county, state, or other local government, to work with officials and colleague organizations to help determine the best use of funds to help your community recover from the pandemic, to prioritize which actions will be the most fruitful, and more.
Tim concludes, “There are still unmet needs because of the pandemic. Let’s all do our part to promote the equitable use of these once-in-a-generation funds.”
*Congress reserved $20 billion of the $350 billion for Tribal governments; the amounts distributed will be calculated separately.
New Resources
- Avoiding the Glass Cliff: Advice to Boards on Preparing for and Supporting a New Leader of Color, a new webinar from BoardSource and Building Movement Project (BMP), explores BMP’s recent report Trading Glass Ceilings for Glass Cliffs: A Race to Lead Report on Nonprofit Executives of Color. The report identified concerning trends in the way nonprofit executive directors and chief executives of color experience their leadership roles, particularly when following an outgoing white leader. These findings prompted BoardSource and Building Movement Project to work together to offer insight and advice to boards about how to support these new leaders, both leading up to a transition and after a new leader is hired.
- Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) seeks to understand peoples’ perceptions of the language associated with civic engagement and democracy work through its Civic Language Perceptions Project. Based on a nationally representative sample of 5,000 people, the purpose of the project is to identify potential disconnects between how the “professional field” working on these issues talks about its work and how members of the American public perceive the words and phrases used by professionals.
- Funding for Real Change, a collaborative led by 12 influential foundations, advocates for a shift in fundraising norms with the goal of breaking the “nonprofit starvation cycle.” The new norms the initiative promotes include common-sense practices, such as covering indirect costs; providing flexible, multi-year funding; practicing trust; and sharing power.
- Where We Bank Matters: A Community Bank Guide for Nonprofits, from the Leap Ambassadors Community, includes insights from social-sector leaders on what to look for in community banking relationships; specific, actionable steps that organizations can take when considering and building partnerships with banking institutions; and examples of community banks working in communities, particularly in under-invested communities. Whatever your organization’s current banking relationships look like, Where We Bank Matters offers both encouragement and practical advice so your nonprofit can bank its values.
- Also from Leap Ambassadors: How Foundations Can Compensate Stakeholders for Their Time.
Stress reduction moment (click image below)
