Nonprofit Harvest

Some Glass Half-Full Thoughts

Lucy Bernholz writes an “instant classic” by reframing the moment: It’s not a recession, it’s a restructuring.

What might now seem to be on the edge of philanthropy – or any industry – may very well come to its center. And quickly. Here are some ways restructuring might happen:

• Social enterprise begins to morph the philanthropic giving that exists to its left and the commercial enterprise that exists to its right (on a spectrum from giving to investing)

This is just the first idea, relevant to the Social Enterprise Network.  I suggest you go read the entire piece.

More Positive Thinking

• pubTalk asks, Out of Crisis, Opportunity?

• Nonprofit Leadership 601 is looking for something positive

I’m getting tired of the media focusing on negative stories of nonprofits struggling to survive, so recently I started tagging POSITIVE stories of nonprofits that are saving money, improving their operations and thriving during this current economic downturn.

A Round-up on the Stimulus and the Federal Budget Proposal

• The National Council of Nonprofits is producing Special Reports on Economic Stimulus & Recovery.  I’ll post them here, but you can subscribe to an RSS feed for the most up to date information.
  • Nonprofit Grant Opportunities
  • Stimulus Grant Tips and Thoughts
  • Whether and How States Are Accepting & Distributing Federal Stimulus Funds

• Coverage from the New York Times
  • Obama Plans Major Shifts in Spending
  • Limiting Deductions on Charity Draws Ire

• From the Washington Post
  • In $3.6 Trillion Budget, Obama Signals Broad Shift in Priorities
  • 2010 Budget Blueprint: Agency by Agency

• The Center on Budget Policies and Priorities weighs on the budget proposal

• The Chronicle on Philanthropy assesses the sector’s reaction to a plan to reduce charitable deductions

The Minnesota Angle

• Minnesota Budget Bites has posted their take, First look at Obama’s budget 

• The League of Minnesota Cities has posted information on their website and presented a webinar on how the Federal Stimulus may impact Minnesota’s cities
  • Download the presentation
• Read Budget Bites on the Minnesota budget

• The legislature’s presentation on the state budget that they deliver at town hall meetings

• Obama’s shout-out to Minneapolis was unexpected

Transparency and Accountability

• Examine the federal budget documents

• State Recovery Sites are now included on Recovery.gov to “help explain how they are spending funds allocated by the Recovery Act.”

• The Minnesota Management & Budget website has a section devoted to the Stimulus

Other News

• The National Council’s  February Policy News features a number of items of note
  • It leads with a story on the Preserve Charitable Tax Exemptions Campaign lead by MCN
  • Includes an update on L3C legislation, which has been introduced in Illinois, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming
    • Read Kate’s take on L3c – a Low-profit Limited Liability Corporation
    • Read an overview written by Americans for Community Development

• From the Chronicle of Philanthropy
  • Charities Merge at Almost the Same Rate as Businesses
  • Individuals Make Fewer $1-Million Gifts; Grant Makers Help Offset Decline

• Charities Now Seek Bankruptcy Protection

On the Stimulus

• New York Times:
  • For States, Stimulus Offers Temporary Relief 
  • Economic Stimulus Special Section
• Washington Post:
  • Taking Apart the $819 billion Stimulus Package
  • States Counting on Stimulus Aid to Balance Budgets

Analysis from Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

• Statement by Robert Greenstein, Executive Director, on the Conference Agreement on the Recovery Package
• Economic Recovery Act: Key Provisions (With State-by-State Estimates)

The Nonprofit Angle

• From the Chronicle of Philanthropy:
  • Congressional Compromise on Stimulus Plan Includes Money for Arts, Social Services, and Volunteerism
• The Cohen Report:
  • Reading an Early Draft of the Stimulus Bill Conference Report: Compromise Provisions (Part I)-Spending 
  • Reading an Early Draft of the Stimulus Bill Conference Report: Compromise Provisions (Part II)-Safety Net Tax Relief 
• Washington Post Op-Ed: Where Stimulus Funds Can Make a Difference

Transparency and Accountability

• Recovery.gov
• From ProPublica (Hat Tip: Utne Reader)
  • Will We Be Able to Follow the Money?
  • The Stimulus Plan: A Detailed List of Spending
  • State-by-State Breakdown of the Economic Stimulus Plan?
• ShovelWatch
• ReadTheStimulus.org (Hat tip: A little light reading…readthestimulus.org)
• From the Sunlight Foundation: We Need Online Review of Stimulus Legislation
• Show Me the Spending

The Minnesota Angle (aka Budget Update)

• Minnesota’s stimulus take: About $9.1 billion
• MPR has a special section devoted to news on the Bailout (it complements their coverage of Minnesota’s budget shortfall)
• From Minnesota Budget Bites:
  • Minnesota quick to prepare for infusion of federal funds
  • Revenue-raising options, with their price tags and impact on tax fairness
  • Legislature asks for your opinion about budget solutions at forums around the state
• pubTalk: MN Legislature: Please Fix the Governor’s Budget
• Political Animal (from Pioneer Press): Pawlenty must redo his budget
• Politics in Minnesota does a great daily roundup of stories on the budget and other related news.

Nonprofits and Credit

• Billions in Nonprofit Projects on Hold Due to Credit Crisis, Report Finds
• Charities Set $166-Billion Worth of Construction Plans on Hold
• Credit Crisis Is Leaving Charities Low on Cash

Other News

• NY Times Op-Ed: Soup-Kitchen Accounting
• From pubTalk: New opportunity for “economies of skill”? 
• Half a Million Nonprofits Could Lose Their Federal Tax Exemptions
• POLICY MEMORANDUM: A Scan of Nonprofit Policy Recommendations for the Obama Administration

 On the Bailout

The Center for Budget Policies and Priorities

The Center for Budget Policies and Priorities has a Special Series Economy Recovery Watch where they post regular updates and analysis on the stimulus package, the state budget crisis, and other economic news.

• Recovery bill’s “Fiscal Stabilization Fund” is important to protecting education and averting state and local budget cuts that would further weaken the economy

The Stabilization Fund would provide funds to partially close state and local budget shortfalls and allow states to avoid some of the most harmful actions they otherwise would have to take to meet their balanced budget requirements.  In particular, it would help avert damaging cuts in state aid to education at a time when school districts are reeling from declines in property taxes caused by sinking property values.

Additional Useful Resources

• What Nonprofits are Saying About the Bailout: A Fast Roundup from Blue Avocado

• From the Cohen Report:
  • What Can Nonprofits Look Forward to in the Economic Stimulus Bill
  • Ensuring a Timely Economic Stimulus: The Benchmark of CDBG Expenditures

• The Artful Manager asks Stimulus or pork byproduct? on the NEA’s possible inclusion in the stimulus package

• Economic Stimulus Package’s “Infrastructure Financing Tools” – a Boost to Charities

The Minnesota Angle

• Impact of federal economic recovery bill on Minnesota

• Update: The stimulus challenge from MPR

Updates

• Sources: Tentative deal reached for $780 billion stimulus package

• Democratic officials say tentative stimulus deal reached

Harvesting the Web

• From Philanthropy Potluck:
  • Nonprofit Survival: Four Steps to Take Now
  • Filling the Gaps: Expectations vs. Reality

• Blue Avocado: The Nonprofit Layoff Issue

• From Scott Russell at MinnPost: One more way nonprofits can save a little money

• Q&A with Nell Edgington – Accelerating Social Innovation

• Global Social Investment Exchange on Philanthropy 2173
  

• Avoiding the Sirens Song of Social Media Fundraising – The Great Social Media Debate?

Minnesota Budget Update

• From Smart Politics a Humphrey Institute blog: Minnesota’s 2010 Budget Deficit Among Top 10 Largest In Nation

• Pawlenty budget makes things worse a Star Tribune editorial written by Dane Smith of Growth and Justice and Nan Madden of the Minnesota Budget Project

• Finance and Commerce
  • Even the small state agencies are taking a hit
  • Pawlenty’s HCAF proposal could cost Minnesota federal stimulus dollars
• Politics in Minnesota:
  • How much would it cost to leverage the additional $2 billion in health care money in federal stimulus package? No one knows
  • The T Word: Which taxes to raise? Five ideas that are circulating at the Capitol

• State think tank leaders find little common ground on economic issues

• From the Star Tribune: Editorial: Tobacco bonds aren’t a lasting fix
  

The Nonprofit Angle

• Nonprofits lobby for fair tax hikes to avoid drastic cuts from MinnPost
  

The Local Government Angle

• The City of Minneapolis: Cuts to the City’s 2009 budget