Giving Indy

A blog dedicated to the non-profit sector in Indianapolis and beyond

[givingindy]

Trump Administration Plots Costly Private-Care Expansion for Veterans — ProPublica

The plan sets up a clash with Democrats, who say the administration is thwarting congressional intent and will starve the VA health system to pay for private care.

Original Content-Week 13

The Trump Administration is proposing to gauge the public VA healthcare programs over 10 billion dollars over the next 5 years to invest in private care for veterans. Because the administration is resistant to government spending, they plan to take the funds from public VA healthcare programs and re-invest in private care. Many are speculating that the administration’s goal is to privatize many public programs to limit government spending which could mean that any government or public funding to non-profits would be extremely sparse. This push for private care could end up costing the VA much more in the long-term since doctors employed by the VA are salaried and many private doctors are “paid by volume.” While the VA has always used private care to supplement what they can provide independently, this change could mean more money and less care in the long-term. 

[givingindy]

Ready for Groundbreaking Bipartisan Shifts in Criminal Justice Reform

Even while the system seemed immobile or retrograde, the criminal justice reform movement has been steadily building local programs. Now, as the opportunity for reform opens back up at the federal level, a robust infrastructure is in place to speed implementation.

Original Content-Week 13

This article brought me back to Week 10 when we were talking about nonprofit advocacy and in light of the recent election results, I found the conclusion of this piece to be extremely interesting. Senators Dick Durbin & Chuck Grassley are looking to introduce a bill that would change many of the more controversial aspects of the prison and sentencing systems. If the bills were to pass, we could see an influx of releases and shorter sentences for many that are currently incarcerated. Erin Rubin, the author of the article, suggests that: “If the bill does indeed pass, nonprofits will be called to aid in its implementation, since those “evidence-based recidivism programs,” retroactive accountability, and other aspects of the bill that require planning and have a direct impact on inmates have been priorities of organizations across the country for years, even decades.”  

[cjkester11-blog]

The Super-Rich Are Stockpiling Wealth in Black-Box Charities

DAFs provide tax benefits and a bigger pool of money to donate, but critics worry the funds can create "warehouses of wealth."

Group A - Original Content - Week 10

Donor-advised funds or DAFs as the article mentions have grown by around $55 billion since 2010. Guo and Brown’s article on community foundation performance mentions how these funds have grown recently as significant funding sources in community foundations as well. This article expands more on the recent rapid growth of these funds and provides some critiques on the potential impact of these funds. One might argue that another avenue for nonprofit organizations to receive funding is a positive, but there are interesting questions raised by the article. I wonder if DAFs are creating competition with private foundations as they are not required to pay out 5% of its assets and if this is a good thing ultimately for the work these funds and foundations are trying to do. The article also raises the the issue that DAFs are not necessarily making grants at the same pace as they are gaining assets.

One interesting piece about DAFs as well is that because grants from these funds are made by charitable organizations donors to these funds can remain anonymous, even though they can have an influence on how the dollars in those funds are spend. It brings back up the question that although this is not necessarily political activity, if donors are influencing the ways in which these funds are spent should they be required to be disclosed.

The article presents several other questions for considering including how tax exemption on assets should be handled with DAFs as well as how for-profit financial institutions are profiting off of donor dollars, which is an interesting overlapping of sectors.

[givingindy]

Group B-Week 10 Responses

This article brought to light a lot of the intricacies of donor-advised funds that I’d never really thought about. When I was in undergrad, we had a donor give 7-figure gift with strings attached: a new athletic facility was to be built complete with a retractable roof football dome. Like many of my peers with non-athletic pursuits who felt that campus had more immediate needs not being met with a sizable gift. The money given then sat-unused-for over 2 years as the university tried to garner more financial support so they had the full funds necessary to break ground on the new athletic facility. This article also brought to light another very important point: the donor with the large gift got an immediate tax write-off while the university was unable to use the funds until they had enough to complete the donor-advised project. This article made me think a lot about repercussions of this gift that I hadn’t thought of when I was in school like the fact that non-donor advised funds given after this sizable gift may have been allocated towards the project simply so the university could start using these funds rather than being allocated to projects that may have been on the university’s radar for years. 

[mega-thatgirldeed-blog]

Group A

10/25/18

I can honestly say I hadn’t given much thought to virtual volunteering prior to the past weeks readings. I was curious to know, who that actually wants to make a difference seeks this out. After reading the Huffington Post article, I can see trying this out for myself. The reason being is certainly not too altruistic but the idea of using skills that I might not be using in a current functional area or under a specific job role, it’s intriguing. The ability to help grade papers for a teacher in Maine is not only kinda cool but not anything I would actually look for locally. My mindset personally wants to do active volunteering locally but would be accepting of less engaging group work if it were across state lines. I also like the concept of online or home school high school students meeting their required volunteer service hours online.

[givingindy]

Group B-Week 10 Responses

I found this article really relevant to our discussions about volunteering motivations in class last week. As someone who often works hours that aren’t necessarily amenable to typical volunteering, virtual volunteering is particularly attractive to me. Not only does it provide convenience, but it also allows for those with specialized skills to be useful in more specific areas. A friend of mine is a retired lawyer with extensive grant writing experience who has used virtual volunteering to allow organizations to take advantage of her skill set. The convenience aspect alone encourages people with difficult schedules or transportation obstacles to engage in volunteerism from their own homes. This article also made me think about how local organizations who rely more on in-person volunteer programs might benefit from opening up to virtual volunteering if they need volunteer support in an administrative capacity. 

[givingindy]

The Hidden Money Funding the Midterms — ProPublica

Strategies that let super PACs delay revealing their donors until after the election are gaining popularity among both Democrats and Republicans.

Democrats and Republicans alike are looking for ways to delay donor disclosure for their Super-PAC donors. This relates back to the case we read a few weeks ago about donor disclosure laws relating to campaign activity. Many Super-PACs are looking for ways to skirt around disclosure laws by delaying their fund release till after the latest disclosure date. In my opinion, this behavior is unethical. If the laws are in place to establish transparency, skirting around those policies is another way to avoid keep the curtains closed on campaign funds. 

[givingindy]

Mobilizing the Vote: It IS Your Nonprofit’s Responsibility

Hold a special meeting of your nonprofit board to lay some quick plans about encouraging your stakeholders to make it to the polls and get out there and help. And, to be clear, you are of course allowed by law to do so.

This article specifically talks about groups of faith-based nonprofits who are making it a priority to get their stakeholders to the polls. When I read this article, I thought a lot about the survey we took in class on Tuesday (particularly the portion about whether or not your organization was encouraging people to participate in voting). The article and the leaders of these nonprofits suggest that NPOs can no longer take a sideline to political participation and must encourage their constituents to at least participate in their right to vote. From my own perspective, I have to agree. There is a difference between encouraging people to exercise a constitutional right and pushing the agenda of a particular party, policy, or politician. 

[aphilanthropyblog]

A Variety of Contributions

I found this article very interesting regarding the differing opinions among generations on how to contribute to society. There is disagreement about what might be the most effective method of giving back. Older generations believe that providing financial contributions, such as monetary donations, is the most impactful approach. Younger generations believe that giving of one’s time yields the greatest benefits. Both forms of contributions are impactful, and I believe that this article does a great job of highlighting that contributions of various types are beneficial. 

In the nonprofit sector, although needs may vary among organizations, allowing interested parties to feel connected to the organization’s mission – either by giving time or money – is important. It is also important that nonprofit leaders realize the role that age plays on one’s ability to give of time versus money, and vice versa. Younger individuals might not have the means to give financially, but the time and ability to volunteer, while older individuals might not have the time and ability to provide manual labor, but have the means to financially contribute instead.

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/01/do-you-give-time-or-money-nbc-poll-finds-millennials-and-boomers-may-disagree.html

[givingindy]

This article was a nice break in most of the news I read. While you can't always trust self-reported numbers to an exact degree, I resonated with the value of volunteering over monetary donations. Volunteers are at the bedrock of a nonprofit organizational system. In my own career experience, I see firsthand how valuable volunteers are to serving our mission. Much of what my organization does wouldn’t be possible without our volunteer program and those volunteer hours don’t necessarily equate dollars donated. I think what this article touches on that especially stood out to me was the reason for millennials holding volunteerism to more value than monetary donation. Raymond says that this “may possibly be explained by the fact that people who are just starting careers or who are still in school have fewer discretionary funds than those individuals who are more established.” 

[givingindy]

Why Focusing on Impact Is the Future of Philanthropy

To solve some of the world’s most urgent problems, organizations like the Caterpillar Foundation are shifting their efforts away from mere check-writing to form strategic partnerships that make every dollar count.

The Caterpillar Foundation is turning to a new philanthropical strategy: impact investing. They support advocacy groups and grant them money with strings attached in the hopes that they will reduce poverty in areas around the world. This foundation could be setting a trend for other groups like it in supporting advocacy based non-profits on their missions to fuel initiatives that will support their own mission an further the vision of the foundation that grants the money. I found this article really interesting and the concept very compelling. The foundation “mainly invests in programs with clearly defined performance outcomes.” The programs they invest in not only line up with the foundation’s own initiatives, but make it easier to evaluate the success of the program down the road. This kind of investing could change the way programs are structured across the board. If impact investing spreads to foundations that invest in arts and culture or education, programming in these categories might be structured differently to attract grantors with impact investing on their radar. 

[givingindy]

Standoff at the Museum: Director Fired Days Before Exhibit on Police Violence Launches

An artist has paused her work at the California State University Long Beach’s University Art Museum after the museum director who collaborated with her was fired. Though the school denies it, the artist says the museum deliberately interrupted the work, which examined police violence against people of color.

The situation described in this story made me think about the case from last week and this constant argument as to whether or not non-profits should engage in advocacy. From my perspective, a museum that is exhibiting something from the helm of a seasoned artist whose work has been based on social and cultural topics in nature, is well within their right to display the work without hesitation from the institute with which it’s associated. The issue here is whether or not Kimberli Meyer was fired because of her role and support of this artist’s work and the topics associated with the work or because of what the Cal State Long Beach administration describes as “part of a longer-term process.” Many arts and culture organizations are based on expression within their mission like museums, art institutes, and other organizations and programs. In this sense, these organizations must engage in the world around them whether that be in the realm of the political sphere or not.