“A new Walden University/Harris Interactive survey shows that 92% of Americans have taken action to engage in positive social change in the past year….
And when it comes to social change issues, Americans say education is the most important issue.” (H/T: Charity Navigator.)
In a recent commentary, Jack Shakely, who headed the California Community Foundation for many years, argues that nonprofit leaders are misguided to oppose reducing the charitable tax deduction [“In a Time of High deficits, the Charitable Deduction May Be Too Costly to Keep,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 23, 2012, subscription required].
Mr. Shakely suggests that wealthy Americans with a passion for their churches, universities, and other institutions and causes in the nonprofit sector will continue to give generously regardless of changes in tax law.
“The fact is the federal charitable tax deduction doesn’t play a part in the faithful churchgoer’s decision to make gifts to a church (which account for more than one-third of charitable gifts), nor does it sway large donor decisions for naming-opportunity gifts to universities and museums.”
He notes that Americans who earn less than $25,000 annually give a higher percentage of their income to charity than the wealthy; furthermore, 70 percent of U.S. taxpayers do not itemize their taxes.
It is only affluent Americans – those who least need government assistance – who benefit from the charitable tax deduction. In the past 3 decades, the top income tax rates have declined in stages from 70 percent to 35 percent, while Americans’ commitment to charity has “remained rock solid.”
“Over the next decade, the charitable tax deduction will cost the American taxpayer $250-billion. It’s a tax break the rich don’t need and the country can ill afford.”
At a time when sharply partisan disputes rage over the federal budget deficit, this issue has critical policy implications. More than once President Obama has proposed – and then withdrawn – reductions in the charitable deduction for high-income Americans to the level that middle class taxpayers receive as a way to reduce the federal budget deficit. Each time, as Mr. Shakely notes, the president has confronted fierce opposition from nonprofit leaders.
Budgeting is all about making choices. Ezra Klein notes that the federal budget can be simply described: “Most of the money comes in through taxes and borrowing. The vast majority of it is then spent on programs for the old, programs for the poor and defense. That’s pretty much it.”
Mitt Romney, the leading contender for the GOP nomination for president, promises to lower taxes, raise defense spending, and protect all programs for everyone at or approaching retirement age. After taking three of the four options for balancing the budget off the table, he pledges to reduce overall federal spending and eliminate the deficit. “So by simple process of elimination,” writes Mr. Klein, “poor-people programs will have to be cut dramatically under a Romney presidency. Around 40 percent of projected spending, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.”
Is this the route we want to take?
It is understandable why nonprofit leaders have repeatedly rallied in opposition to proposals to reduce the charitable tax deduction for the richest Americans: this group, after all, is the source of major and mega-gifts to philanthropy. Yet, as Mr. Shakely observes, there is scant evidence that the tax rate has a significant effect on charitable giving.
When we take a step back to reflect, we may find compelling reasons to embrace a broader conception of the public good. Budgeting choices come at a cost. Preserving tax subsidies for the most privileged Americans ensures, in all likelihood, that the least well-off among us will bear that cost.
“The Los Angeles human services nonprofit sector is stressed and stretched, and given government human services current and future cuts, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better,” concluded a study presented on January 31, 2012.
UCLA’s Center for a Civil Society issues a report each year on the state of the nonprofit sector in Los Angeles. The latest report, “Stressed and Stretched: The Recession, Poverty, and Human Services Nonprofits in Los Angeles 2002-2012,” is divided into two parts.
The annual statistical review of the sector as a whole comprises Part II. The more than 31,600 nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles County collectively employ 256,000 people and report total expenditures of $35.4 billion. The breakdown by subfield reveals a familiar picture. Health and Education nonprofits dominate with expenditures of $14.2 billion and $10.3 billion respectively. Human Services organizations’ expenditures total $6.2 billion, followed by Arts, Culture, and Humanities groups at $1.3 billion. For anyone interested in the shape and size of the nonprofit sector in Los Angeles, this study is a good place to start.
Part I of this year’s report surveys the human services sector in Los Angeles; with support from the James A. Irvine Foundation, this survey provided a comparative look back to a 2002 study of human service nonprofits. The quotation at the top of this post suggests the wear and tear the social safety net has undergone in recent years.
The report features a sidebar on homeless shelter organizations, which notes that, among the organizations surveyed in 2002 that provided shelter for individuals who were homeless or at risk of homelessness, more 25% had disbanded by 2011; this represents a failure rate twice as great as organizations providing childcare, mental health/substance abuse assistance, and aid to people seeking employment. Revisions in public policy by government and changes in funding priorities by foundations have had a role in this outcome.
“Although age and a fledgling fundraising capacity appear to play important role in shelter organizations’ survival, a shifting emphasis from funders and government agencies towards permanent housing has also significantly altered the shelter landscape over the last decade.”
Since the Great Recession, beginning in 2007, these annual reports have documented the continuing effects of a sluggish economy on the sector; this year the authors (led by Zeke Hasenfeld, professor of social welfare) found in surveying the human service sector that, with increasing demands for services and a challenging scramble for resources, the safety net has become frayed.
The authors make six recommendations to nonprofit leaders:
So she stepped in to take on additional roles (such as digitally refining photographs and designing websites), gaining experience as – in effect – a “nonprofit marketing department of one.”She mastered this feat through trial and error: fearless experimentation and investing – hit or miss – in software, handbooks, and training classes. She has written her book to make that journey – learning to excel as a nonprofit marketing department of one – simpler, and less hit or miss, for communications and marketing professionals at small nonprofits.
The Nonprofit Marketing Guide is a pleasure to read. The writing is lively and inviting. The presentation is clear and accessible throughout. The book is wonderfully well organized – with a well grounded focus on the practical, while the index and detailed headings in the table of contents combine to make it a ready reference manual for the harried professional.
Every chapter in this step by step guidebook is replete with insights drawn from real world experience. Ms. Miller provides counsel on strategic planning, nuts and bolts advice on tactics, and clear context to give a big picture view that makes the topics comprehensible.
She explains why marketing (a word that Ms. Miller acknowledges many readers will not find appealing) is more than communicating, more than listening. It is an integral element in creating and delivering programs and services. “When you do marketing right, it helps you achieve your core mission in more powerful, effective, and efficient ways.”
Among the many topics discussed in this comprehensive guide: Defining your target audience; communicating with distinct groups within that audience; crafting a message with a simple, specific call to action; and becoming an accomplished storyteller. Ms. Miller explains what you can do on your own; what – and how – you might delegate to a board member or other volunteer; and what you simply can’t do in-house. She shows you how to wade into social media without getting overwhelmed by it. She helps you answer this critical question, “Should you eliminate your print newsletter?” And she explains why effective electronic communication is not just distributing your print newsletter via email.
I have worked in the nonprofit sector in development – mostly in annual giving and major gifts – for more than 18 years. While I have had a hand in crafting and refining appeals, proposals, case statements, and other communications, my professional experience is in fund raising, not communications or marketing. I read Kivi Leroux Miller’s Nonprofit Marketing Guide to broaden my horizons. I gained a more thorough understanding of strategies and tactics of marketing circa 2010 – and a stronger sense of the demands confronting small nonprofits from a critical vantage point.
As the book notes, everyone on staff at a small nonprofit – if only because they talk about their work and the activities of their organization – is a marketer. Nonprofit newcomers and veterans in marketing, communications, and other areas will learn much from this book. I would certainly recommend The Nonprofit Marketing Guide to fund raisers who work elbow to elbow with communications or marketing directors at small nonprofits.
The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause (The Jossey-Bass Nonprofit Guide Series) by Kivi Leroux Miller; forward by Katya Andresen. Ms. Miller has a popular blog.
[This book review originally appeared in Civic Intersection, August 18, 2010.]
For more than two years, beginning in Spring 2009, LA Philanthropy Watch provided news, notes, and commentary on the diverse nonprofit sector of Los Angeles, including issues related to volunteering and civic activism. Later this month, if all goes well, LA Philanthropy Watch will reappear. Stay tuned.
