Nonprofits Need Leadership to Motivate Workers and Advocate for Change
leaving very little for other nonprofits.
The giving patterns of both
foundations and wealthy individual donors will continue to
widen the gap between small
grass-roots groups and big
wealthy organizations. Witness
the closing this winter of the
venerable Hull House in Chicago, which was founded more
than a century ago by Jane
Continued from Page 25
Few White House
staff members
understand
the needs
of nonprofits.
Addams. Not one of the city’s
wealthiest residents came to
the rescue of this vital institution when it faced dire financial
problems.
Nonprofit coalitions like Independent Sector and the National Council of Nonprofits should
devote more energy to putting
pressure on foundations and
other donors to give more to organizations that serve people
hit by hard financial times.
Strengthen White House
support. The Obama admin-
istration has given lip service
to the importance of nonprofits
in a shrinking economy, but it
has done no better than to hold
a few meaningless conferences
and establish a $50-million in-
novation fund that has proved
neither innovative nor produc-
tive.
THE CHRONICLE OF
PHIL A NTHROP Y
EDITOR Stacy Palmer
AR T DIREC TOR Sue LaLumia
ASSIS TAN T MANAGING EDI TORS Heather Joslyn,
Peter Panepento
FEATURES EDI TOR Holly Hall
SENIOR EDITOR, COP Y Marilyn Dickey
SENIOR EDITORS Suzanne Perry
SENIOR WRITER Nicole Wallace
WEB EDITOR Cody Switzer
SENIOR REPORTER Caroline Preston
MANAGER OF SPECIAL PROJEC TS Noelle Barton
S TAFF WRI TERS Lisa Chiu, Maria Di Mento,
Raymund Flandez
SENIOR EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE Caroline Bermudez
SPECIAL PROJEC TS RESEARCHER Marisa López-Rivera
WEB PRODUCER Derek Lieu
WEBINAR CONTENT MANAGER Margie Fleming
Glennon
EDITORIAL RESEARCH ASSISTANT Peter Bolton
EDI TORIAL ASSISTAN T Anais Strickland
Published by The Chronicle of Higher
Education, Inc.
CHAIRMAN Corbin Gwaltney
PRESIDENT AND EDITOR IN CHIEF Philip W. Semas
EDI TOR, SPECIAL PROJEC TS Edward R. Weidlein
PUBLISHER Mireille Grangenois
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER William J. Peyser
EDI TORIAL DIREC TOR Jeffrey J. Selingo
MANAGING DIREC TOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMEN T AND
CIRCULATION Gwen Tomasulo
DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT AND
CIRCULATION Alex Levin
SUBSCRIP TION MANAGER Ericka J. Fredericks
SALES MANAGER, INS TI TU TIONAL AUDIENCES Alvin
Brockway
AUDIENCE MARKE TING ANALYS T Walker Williams
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, ADVER TISING Harvey W.
Hill Jr.
DIREC TOR OF SALES Gerry Kiernan
SENIOR SALES MANAGER Erica A. Bergin
INSIDE SALES MANAGER Glen Webb
DIREC TOR OF PRODUC TION Gwen Gaiser
ASSISTANT PRODUC TION MANAGER Sonya C. Scott
PRODUC TION ASSOCIATE Kevin Barber
DIRECTOR OF SALES OPERATIONS AND PRODUCTION
Jennifer Fisher
DIREC TOR, INSIDE SALES Jennifer Lane Williams
INSIDE SALES EXECU TIVES Christophe Boussard,
Elizabeth Bingham, Bayly Unger
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSI T Y RELATIONS MANAGERS
Richard Lewis, Hubert Telesford
AGENCY RELATIONS MANAGER Donald Washington
SENIOR ADVERTISING SPECIALIST Melissa Coup
ADVER TISING SPECIALIS TS Bradley Cannon, Carrie
Jenkins, Jerin Jones, Melissa Wilson
ADVER TISING ASSOCIATES Carly Cloud, Bryant
Taylor
DIREC TOR OF ACCOUN TING Samuel Eziemefe
ACCOUN TS RECEIVABLE MANAGER Mitchell
Londres
PAYROLL MANAGER Anne St. Vil
ACCOUN TING ASSOCIATES Alice Chang, Bonnie
Gaskins, Shekil T. Gross, Sophia Salam
INTERN Bridget Burke
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Don Sargent
DIREC TORS Matthew Bassow (Digital Platform),
Greg Channel (Product Engineering), Cynthia
J. Kennedy (Information Systems), Steve Smith
(Publishing Platform), Robert Watson (User
Experience), Aastha Verma (Business Solutions)
SENIOR CRM ADMINIS TRATOR Betsy Barefoot
SENIOR SOFT WARE ENGINEERS Kimler Corey,
Kristopher Doyen, Mathew Good
SYS TEMS ANALYS T Gene Stamper
MANAGERS Robert Boggs (Computer Support),
J. Kirsten Clarke (Technical Product), Ralph
Gioseffi (Print Production), Karla Haworth
(Project), Kenneth Moir (Network)
SENIOR QUALI T Y ASSURANCE ANALYS T Murali Thota
SENIOR USABILI T Y ANALYST Erica Gordon Sorohan
WEB DEVELOPER Adrian Padilla
BUSINESS SOLU TIONS ANALYS T Linda Ihenetu
SENIOR SPECIALISTS John Ready (Technology),
Rich Woodrum (Computer Support)
SPECIALISTS Jacques A. Benovil (Computer
Support), Robert McGrath (Production and
Color), Jojo Mendoza (Publishing Platform),
Brenda Stewart (Computer Support)
NE T WORK ADMINISTRATOR Herminio Alcanites
DIREC TOR OF MARKE TING AND PRODUC T
DEVELOPMENT, DISPLAY ADVER TISING Holly C.
Horner
DIREC TOR OF MARKE TING AND PRODUC T
DEVELOPMENT, RECRUI TMENT ADVER TISING Titilayo
Ellis
CONFERENCE AND EVEN T MANAGER Rachel Fine
CONFERENCE AND EVEN T COORDINATOR Kirsten
Vouwie
PROJEC T MARKE TING MANAGER, DISPLAY Lauren
Clemence
MARKE TING MANAGERS Alvaro Rojas, Lesley
Speed
MARKE TING PROJEC T COORDINATOR Sarah Renner
CREATIVE SERVICES MANAGER Cecilia Cortes-Earle
SENIOR GRAPHIC & WEB IN TERAC TIVE DESIGNER Yulia
Graham
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Bernard Bello
WEB MARKE TING COORDINATOR Catherine Tran
INTERNS Cooper Glodoski, Michelle Metz
CHIEF, HUMAN RESOURCES & ADMINISTRATION Lisa
Birchard
OFFICE MANAGER Jeanette Posey
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER Lauren Sweeney
HUMAN RESOURCES ASSOCIATE Wendy Min
ASSIS TAN T OFFICE MANAGER Richard Felder
FACILITIES SPECIALIST Rene Baldonado
ASSISTANTS Lillian Kelley, Joyce Phinisee
the charitable deduction despite
little evidence that more than a
billion dollars might be lost by
the changes President Obama
has proposed.
By contrast, leading nonprofit
groups have done little or nothing to protect vital social and
economic programs that have
been put at great risk as Congress grapples with ways to
rein in the deficit. Many non-profit coalitions seemed more
concerned with their narrow
self-interest and greed than in
the national interest.
Progressive groups must especially take steps to be more
forceful in holding the Obama
administration accountable for
its social and economic policies,
but programs that help low-income people should be a priority for all major social-service,
health, environmental, and so-cial-justice organizations.
Issues of poverty cannot be
separated from cancer or heart
disease, from housing or urban
development, from environmen-
tal problems or questions of ed-
ucation. They are all related.
Defense of the social safety net,
if it is to be successful, can only
be achieved by broad coalitions
working on national issues be-
yond the narrow missions of
their member groups.
Defense of the safety
net can be achieved
only by broad coalitions working on
national issues.
dation, the foundation world
has no visible leaders who can
speak to the values and needs of
its institutions. The same void
in leadership can also be found
at big nonprofits. Few heads of
nonprofits seem to have a vision
and commitment beyond the
self-interests of their own organizations.
The shaky state of the econ-
omy and lack of funds have un-
settled nonprofit workers. A re-
cent survey by The Chronicle
found that a large majority of
nonprofit employees were un-
happy with their jobs, eager to
leave them to seek new employ-
ment opportunities. As Paul
Light, a scholar at New York
University put it, “there is an
anxiety in the sector that is
palpable. This is a beleaguered
work force. They are wondering
what the future is going to look
like, and they’re right to won-
der.”
To meet the challenges ahead,
the nonprofit world must devel-
op the leadership that can calm
and energize its work force,
forcefully lead its advocacy and
coalition activities, clean up the
scandals, and hold government
and politicians accountable.
Pablo Eisenberg, a regular
Chronicle contributor, is a senior
fellow at the Georgetown Public
Policy Institute. His e-mail address is pseisenberg@verizon.
net.
Social-Service Groups Must Negotiate Better Deals
With Government or Risk Financial Ruin
they have any, or their employees can survive with even lower salaries and benefits. When
the next round of government
cuts comes through, nonprofits
will find they can ask no more
of their hard-pressed employees, and their bank accounts
will offer little help. Lower government payments will simply
mean fewer services.
What will the taxpayers say
when services disappear? It
would be ironic if they blame
the nonprofits for service cuts.
But nonprofits have only three
options, all of which point to
eventual reduction in services.
They can:
Continue doing what they
have been doing. If salaries
or benefits go much lower, many
of their employees will have to
seek work elsewhere. Losing
employees, or alternatively laying them off, means reduced
services. If nonprofits don’t cut
workers or services, they will
operate until they can’t make
payroll or pay their bills. When
nonprofits announce these
changes, taxpayers will probably blame them for inefficiency or poor management rather
than blaming the government’s
inadequate payments.
Play hardball. They can
refuse to sign contracts that
don’t cover the full cost of providing services for government
agencies. This is a no-win situation. They can survive by not
taking government contracts
and shift their clients to another “more caring” nonprofit,
Continued from Page 25
or take the contract and join
the race to the bottom. If a non-profit quits providing services,
the public will criticize it for
not caring, and governments
will probably blame reductions
in service on the refusal of nonprofits to “help” the government
provide services. If a nonprofit
takes the contract without getting a fair payment, it will fail
and nonprofit inefficiency will
be blamed when needy people
lose services.
Join together and demand
better contract terms. Nonprofits can go to government
with one voice and mount a
clear public-relations campaign
that lays out the financial reality of nonprofit survival in
terms that business executives
understand. The message could
be something like: “Paying less
than the cost is a sure formula
for bankruptcy—and nonprofits
aren’t loading a profit margin on
top.” Nonprofits have never done
this, and they have little practice in showing a unified front.
Some may refuse to collaborate,
charging their colleagues with
trying to better themselves at
the expense of larger government deficits and leaving their
clients in the lurch.
None of these are good options, and all have the potential for nonprofits to take all
the blame. Nevertheless, moving cautiously ahead with all of
these approaches may provide
the best way for Americans to
get realistic.
Nonprofits must make sure
they know what services are
key to this mission and which
ones might be provided by oth-
er nonprofits. They must ensure
that the key mission services
are the ones they continue to
provide even under money-los-
ing contracts. They can concen-
trate their layoffs or wage re-
ductions on the other programs
they offer.
Allen Proctor is a consultant
to nonprofits. He previously
served as a chief financial officer at Harvard University and
deputy budget director for New
York City.
