Okay, well before I get into any of the readings, I should explain some logistically changes in the blog, house keeping notes if you will. After asking a few questions about the blog in our library computer lab class session on Tuesday, I found that it’s probably best to organize these posts on an article-by-article basis. Our GTFs will hopefully find it easier to make sure if I’ve read all the articles and textbook chapters, and my fellow “Not for Profit, Just for Kicks” team members will hopefully find it easier to follow my posts. Also, this will probably help me organize my own thoughts more efficiently, although I’m slightly worried that my posts will be slightly more fragmented. Oh well, I’ll take the costs along with the benefits. Without further adieu, let’s get to the fun stuff.
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Non-Profit Nation – Chapter 4: Social Service
Social service, a.k.a human services, or social assistance, is insanely important in America and thus the non profit social assistance organizations – nearly 50,000 registered plus however many hundred thousand non-registered organizations – are critically important to the success of our nation as functioning system of communities.
The real question we need to be asking, however, is why is ‘social service’ so important in the first place, and why does the government have to bear the brunt of the task of providing social service to America? The obvious answer is that it’s the government’s job to serve and protect the people. Well, of course it is, but it’s also the responsibility of people to serve and protect themselves.
Think about the following quotation from the textbook. “For the most of four centuries of American history, what are now called social services were provided by family and extended family, churches, charitable associations, and government, usually local government” (O’Neill 81). Around the 1960s the model for social services transitioned to a system where the government pays for it and the non-profits provide it. How did that come to be? Why exactly did it change?
Personally, I see this as a problem of the American sense of community and family slowly disintegrating away. I don’t want to speak on behalf of all Americans, but overall I think our culture does not value family relationships as much as we once did, and this lack of family connection is costly to our standard of living.
St. Vincent de Paul
Terry McDonald, non-profit entrepreneur. Interesting article. I found some of the comments at the end interesting as well, particularly the one that asked, “Is this a business or a non-profit at this point?” St. Vincent de Paul’s is blurring the lines between the private sector and the charitable sector. It sounds likes Terry McDonald is taking the business savvy skills normally found in the private sector and applying them to get ahead in the non-profit sector. He’s just a great businessman working for a moral social service organization, and I don’t see any harm in that. After all, non-profits are businesses trying to stay afloat in the economic market by providing a service to the community. Good work, Terry.
Louisiana Housing Assistance
Here’s a good example of what I was trying to articulate earlier at the end of my response to the text reading. The US Department of Health and Human Services announced that Louisiana will receive an additional $10.5 million to help low-income residents pay their utility bills through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
It’s awesome that the government is using America’s tax money to reinvest into communities that some extra help. Lord knows the Louisiana coastal communities need as much help as they can get after Hurricane Katrina, and now the BP Oil Spill. But I have to wonder whether or not these federal government initiatives are sustainable.
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, like other social service initiatives, was enacted to provide temporary help. The program offers “a helping hand to get back on your feet.” Is throwing money at a problem really a helping hand though? Or is it a temporary crutch to lean on? What happens when the crutch is taken away? Are people able to land on their feet or do they just fall right back down to where they started? Again, I’m not trying to bash these programs because they provided much needed relief to people in need, but we just need to ask if this is the right type of aid or not.
Affordable Housing Toolkit
Again, this article brings up the same questions of sustainability for me. Section 8 vouchers are a great idea with marginal implementation. Too many people need them, which has made the process for qualifying for vouchers a two year long at a minimum. Furthermore, only 7,000 people nationwide receive vouchers, which is nothing!
The ability of federal government to fix problems on a local level is very, very limited, and it’s essentially based on throwing money at a problem. There has to be a better way to solve this problem, and it will likely involve reworking the human services system on a deeper level, much deeper than the financial aspect of it.
Auburn Family Residence Problems
I feel like a broken record, but I just keep thinking that these issues with social services cannot be fixed solely by government. When I hear things like the following quote from the article, I can’t help but think that these people are just looking for someone to blame.
“Craig Hughes, an organizer at Fort Greene SNAP, said some of the blame for Auburn’s condition falls on OTDA (Office of Temporary and Disability Assitance), which he said could have done more to push DHS (Deparment of Homelessness Services) to correct the shelter’s deficiencies...Still, he added, ‘The ultimate blame lies on DHS. DHS prioritizes certain things in its budget and doesn’t prioritize others.’”
You can point fingers as long as you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. Stop looking for someone else to fix it, and figure out a way to do it yourself with whatever tools you have.
MAAC Project
The MAAC Project is a great example of the cons of government involvement in non-profit work. Antonio Pizano, CEO of MAAC Project, said that the most challenging part of his company’s work is “giving help to everyone that needs it. There simply is not enough to go around. As big and complex as MAAC is, a major challenge is to keep up with the bureaucratic demands imposed by our funding sources.” The government may have money, but they just don’t move as quickly and nimbly as non-profits or private organizations.
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Well, I guess this new method of organization proves that I read each article, but now I know I don’t need to write as much for each section. I apologize for the length of this post. I’ll try to be more succinct in the future.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Post 2: Religion, Philanthropy, & Charitable Giving
This week’s readings I found slightly difficult to write about because I don’t closely affiliate myself with religion. Technically speaking I am Catholic. I went to a Catholic elementary school from Kindergarten to 5th Grade. I have been baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church. With all that said, I haven’t been to church since I was in high school. I just didn’t find my calling in any religion institution, I guess, but I feel that I need to at least have a general understanding of different religion or spiritual organizations because they play such prevalent roles in American society, American politics and American philanthropy.
I’m normally very hesitant of religious organizations because, for one, I have a limited understanding of them. I’m not the kind of person that enjoys engaging in a debate on a topic about which I can’t provide any truly knowledge value. Second, I’ve always felt that religious institutions have the potential to cause as much discord as they do harmony, yet I realize and admit this thought it likely caused by my lack of knowledge. This week’s text readings opened my eyes to the idea of using religion for the greater good.
“Faith communities in which people worship together are arguably the single most important repository of social capital in America…Churches provide an important incubator for civic skills, civic norms, community interests, and social capital in America…” (O’Neill 63).
My initial reactions to the above quotation were in the form of images of my elementary school - Our Lady of Angels in
Burlingame, CA. Even at a young age I never fully bought into concept of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The stories of the Bible were always very interesting to me, but I never made the connection between living under the guidance of thos stories and their morals. I did, however, always appreciate the concept of community service.
Our Lady of Angels required students to complete a certain amount of community service hours each year, or maybe we were given incentives to complete community services hours – I can’t really remember. I thought this idea of students helping out their community was genius! From my perspective as a student, I was doing fun activities – e.g., helping paint the school fences on the weekend, helping teachers set up school activities, or babysitting for other school families – and spending time with other friends outside of the classroom. From my school’s perspective, they were introducing children to community members or community organizations, providing a societal benefit, potentially exposing students to a new skill set. Most importantly, however, we, as children and students, were being taught the value of community service, volunteerism, and sacrificing our personal time and energy for the good of our greater community at a young age. It’s possible that I can attribute my current studies as a PPPM major to those community service hours…who knows.
These readings also made me think about the idea of creating policies for a national service requirement. No, I’m not referring to “military service,” which I assume is the first thing that pops into most people’s minds. Rather, it would be a national community service requirement in the form of completing a predetermined amount of hours per week, or per month, or per year.
Community service shouldn’t be used as a form of punishment for juvenile delinquents. Community service should be considered acts of virtue. It could be argued that requiring community service at a young age would keep adults and young adults out of jail in the first, but we can save that debate for a later day.
Furthermore, these community service requirements would also necessitate a system of placing volunteers, or allowing volunteers to choose what activities or in what areas of society they would like to like to donate their time. In this sense, I liked Dan Palotta’s post on the Harvard Business Review website.
According to Palotta we need to create one consolidated, massive national apparatus for assessment. It should consists of teams of objective observers – a kind of Peace Corps for evaluation – that will collect substantive and objective data, annually, on every operating charity in America and put it online in a beautiful iTunes-like user interface.” Again, genius! People want to know where there money is going and volunteers want to know that they aren’t going to be wasting their time. It’s so simple.
Finally, I want to make one comment about the “Charity Deduction Under Scrutiny” article. If the federal government is suggesting making considerable limiting or ending tax cuts on charitable donations, then they better make sure that “deduction” factor is not the main reason that people donate to nonprofits. If people are donating their money to charities and nonprofits because they know it’s cheaper than paying taxes on that money, then the charitable sector will be absolutely crushed by this tax reduction. If people actually donate their money on the basis of altruism, then the tax reduction is completely fine. Once again discovering the true motives behind charitable donation comes into play.
I’m normally very hesitant of religious organizations because, for one, I have a limited understanding of them. I’m not the kind of person that enjoys engaging in a debate on a topic about which I can’t provide any truly knowledge value. Second, I’ve always felt that religious institutions have the potential to cause as much discord as they do harmony, yet I realize and admit this thought it likely caused by my lack of knowledge. This week’s text readings opened my eyes to the idea of using religion for the greater good.
“Faith communities in which people worship together are arguably the single most important repository of social capital in America…Churches provide an important incubator for civic skills, civic norms, community interests, and social capital in America…” (O’Neill 63).
My initial reactions to the above quotation were in the form of images of my elementary school - Our Lady of Angels in
Burlingame, CA. Even at a young age I never fully bought into concept of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The stories of the Bible were always very interesting to me, but I never made the connection between living under the guidance of thos stories and their morals. I did, however, always appreciate the concept of community service.
Our Lady of Angels required students to complete a certain amount of community service hours each year, or maybe we were given incentives to complete community services hours – I can’t really remember. I thought this idea of students helping out their community was genius! From my perspective as a student, I was doing fun activities – e.g., helping paint the school fences on the weekend, helping teachers set up school activities, or babysitting for other school families – and spending time with other friends outside of the classroom. From my school’s perspective, they were introducing children to community members or community organizations, providing a societal benefit, potentially exposing students to a new skill set. Most importantly, however, we, as children and students, were being taught the value of community service, volunteerism, and sacrificing our personal time and energy for the good of our greater community at a young age. It’s possible that I can attribute my current studies as a PPPM major to those community service hours…who knows.
These readings also made me think about the idea of creating policies for a national service requirement. No, I’m not referring to “military service,” which I assume is the first thing that pops into most people’s minds. Rather, it would be a national community service requirement in the form of completing a predetermined amount of hours per week, or per month, or per year.
Community service shouldn’t be used as a form of punishment for juvenile delinquents. Community service should be considered acts of virtue. It could be argued that requiring community service at a young age would keep adults and young adults out of jail in the first, but we can save that debate for a later day.
Furthermore, these community service requirements would also necessitate a system of placing volunteers, or allowing volunteers to choose what activities or in what areas of society they would like to like to donate their time. In this sense, I liked Dan Palotta’s post on the Harvard Business Review website.
According to Palotta we need to create one consolidated, massive national apparatus for assessment. It should consists of teams of objective observers – a kind of Peace Corps for evaluation – that will collect substantive and objective data, annually, on every operating charity in America and put it online in a beautiful iTunes-like user interface.” Again, genius! People want to know where there money is going and volunteers want to know that they aren’t going to be wasting their time. It’s so simple.
Finally, I want to make one comment about the “Charity Deduction Under Scrutiny” article. If the federal government is suggesting making considerable limiting or ending tax cuts on charitable donations, then they better make sure that “deduction” factor is not the main reason that people donate to nonprofits. If people are donating their money to charities and nonprofits because they know it’s cheaper than paying taxes on that money, then the charitable sector will be absolutely crushed by this tax reduction. If people actually donate their money on the basis of altruism, then the tax reduction is completely fine. Once again discovering the true motives behind charitable donation comes into play.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Post 1: Introduction
Hello all, and welcome to Trafton’s Non-Profit Blog. No, this isn’t a blog about a non-profit that I started. I’m not so vain that I would start an organization and name it after myself, and I’d like to think that I’d think of a more creative and purpose-appropriate name if I were ever to start a non-profit. Instead, this online weblog is meant to document my reactions and ideas about America’s third sector as I learn about it in Professor Bob Choquette’s course – PPPM 280: Intro to the Non-Profit Sector.
To my knowledge I’ve only worked for one non-profit organization, and the reason I say ‘to my knowledge’ is because it’s very likely I’ve worked, or at least been associated, with organizations that I just didn’t realize were non-profits.
For the past two summers I’ve taught at Aim High, a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides education experiences to underprivileged middle school students during the summer. The five week long summer program starts in the middle of June, tuition is completely free for students accepted to the program, and it’s goal is to boost student’s academic performance during a time when students would otherwise lack any formal educational experiences. I personally taught science in Redwood City, California, however Aim High has over a dozen campuses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
In my experience I both loved and loathed working in the non-profit sector. I have a great deal of respect for my co-workers at Aim High because they’re dedication to teaching and improving the quality of life for their students is something I’ve never experienced. Also, their compassion and enthusiasm made every day a new and exciting experience for me. I genuinely looked forward to each and every day at Aim High.
On the other hand, I found that working for a non-profit also had its down falls. The most common issue I encountered was that I occasionally lacked the necessary support to do my job properly. I realize that I can’t hold Aim High completely accountable for my own personal success and failure, especially considering that this was literally my first time ever teaching in a classroom, but there were certainly times where I thought to myself, “this situation might be different if I were working for an organization with a little more money.” It was usually a resources issue.
I would say to my supervisor, “I want each student in my class to have a notebook for notes, homework assignments, and daily journal entries,” and she would respond, “Well, we can’t afford that. Figure out another way.” My supervisor would need to troubleshoot another teacher’s problem, and I’d be left to brainstorm a new solution with my co-teacher who has less experience with teaching than I do. Like I said, each day was a new experience, but some were more exciting than others.
Anyways, I should start transitioning into my reactions to this week’s reading requirements. My subsequent posts, as the course requirements, will be responses and reflections on our class’s assigned reading, although I expect that my personal experiences with Aim High and other miscellaneous volunteer activities will regularly pop up throughout the term.
The first thing that popped out at me was the first line of Chapter 1. “The United States is a nation of 281 million individuals” (1). WRONG! Bob told us that this books is a little dated, and know I realize that it’s precisely nine years and thirty million individual out of date. It probably doesn’t matter too much, but I really hope that I’m not reading completely worthless information.
Semantics aside, however, I was stunned to discover how large the non-profit sector is. According to the text, the entire sector accounts for 5-10% of the nation’s economy, and I’ll assume the currently number is at the higher end of that range. According to Bob, non-profits employ 10% of the American population, and those numbers likely only account for the organizations that are nationally recognized as non-profits. There are still myriad volunteer organizations and charity organizations that provide services to the community that don’t have 501 (c)(3) under their title.
Finances are a topic that I’d like to focus on this quarter for two reasons. The first is because I have little to no experience with finances regardless of what sector we’re talking about. I particularly would like to know how funds are raised for non-profits organizations. Second, I imagine finances in the non-profit sector are fairly simple so it’s a good time to start learning here. So far they're exactly what I would expect. The vast majority of spending goes towards program services and the remaining percentages are put towards management expenses or reinvested into fundraising.
The last topic I’ll bring up is the growth of the non-profit sector. The IRS claims that total assets within non-profits tripled between 1975 and 1995. Now it’s $1.25 trillion sector. These are the numbers that make me still believe in the morals and ethics of modern America. I’m always a little skeptical of statistics, but I interpret these numbers to mean that not everyone has been blinded by wealth and greed.
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