‘Our hearts won’t let us walk away’: Nonprofits still seek parity

Lerman recently joined a panel [2] with California Association of Nonprofits (Calnonprofits) CEO Jan Masaoka, another nonprofit veteran, to address these historic implications. 

“Contracting should be fair,” Masaoka told Mission Local prior to the panel. “Smart governments know nonprofits will do the work and do it well” regardless of whether they give them enough money, she said, articulating a sentiment other nonprofit leaders had expressed. “Our hearts won’t let us walk away.” 

Now the question Lerman, Masaoka, and others are asking is whether there will be a reckoning with the inequities of that system. So far, the city’s response has been piecemeal.