Newspapers / Philanthropy Journal of North … / May 1, 1995, edition 1 / Page 11
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May 1995 Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina • 11 Johnson Continued from page 10 eral and state levels of government, have played in exacerbating poverty and inequality in America. First, there is strong evidence that the federal government’s efforts to create a deregulated business environment, in order to facilitate the competitiveness of U.S. firms in the global marketplace, has drasti cally altered the structure of eco nomic opportunity in American soci ety. This shift toward a deregulated business environment is partially responsible for the wholesale exodus of manufacturing employment from central city communities on the one hand, and the emergence of new industrial spaces in the suburbs, exurbs, and non-metropoUtan areas, as well as the movement of manufac turing activities to Third World coun tries, on the other. Research indi cates that the new industrial spaces emerging in the U.S. are usually in places where there are tew minori ties in the local labor market and few minorities within reasonable com muting distance. Second, the federal government’s dismantling of the social safety net in poor urban communities through massive cuts in federal aid to cities has also exacerbated the problems of poverty and the underclass. Third, the poor have been dispro portionately affected by the imple mentation of conservative anti-crime policies at both the federal and state levels. Fourth, poor youth have been adversely affected by educational ini tiatives that were enacted at the state level during the late 1970s and the early 1980s to address the so- called “crisis in American educa tion.” Undergirding most of the current ly debated policy prescriptions is the notion that we can bring the poor into the mainstream of American society if we enhance their accep tance of personal responsibility and improve their personal values. Poor people, individually and through their community, civic and reUgious institutions, have a respon sibility to promote positive values and lifestyles in their communities and to socialize their youth into the mainstream. But they cannot do it alone. They cannot be held accountable for massive plant closings, disinvest ments, and exportation of jobs from our urban centers to Third World countries. 'There must he an equality of status in responsibility and authority across race and class lines if we are to resolve the poverty prob lem. Government, in a bipartisan fash ion, must direct its resources to those programs determined to be successful with poor people, the poor must be permitted to participate in the design of programs for their ben efit, and society at all levels must embrace personal responsibility and a commitment to gender and race equality. To effectively deal with the poverty problem, it is imperative, in our view, that we adopt the following strategies. First, and foremost, we - all of us - must embrace the view that poverty and inequality are bad for business. Second, in our efforts to address the issues of concentrated and per sistent poverty, we must not place all of our economic development e^ in the microenterprise basket, which seems to be the “in-vogue” economic development strategy of the moment. Microenterprise, alone, will neither revitalize our concentrated and per sistently poor communities nor nar row the economic gap between the “haves” and “have nets.” 'The prima ry emphasis in economic develop ment, we beUeve, must be macroen terprise - pursuing major job genera tors. Without such anchors, or sets of anchors, the retail and service estab lishments that seemingly dominate the economic landscape of persis tently poor communities are likely to remain marginal enterprise. With a stable supply of well-paying jobs, such establishments are more likely to thrive since workers will have dis cretionary income to purchase both basic and non-basic goods and ser vices. Third, and equally as important as the need the major job generators in communities plagued by concen trated and persistent poverty, the recruitment and training of workers must be linked directly to specific job opportunities. Research shows that generic education and training pro grams - those not connected to a spe cific job - have not worked in the past for poor people of color, and they are unlikely to work in the future. Customized training programs, on the other hand, have proven to be highly effective economic develop ment tools, especially when they are offered at no cost to prospective employers as part of an incentive package. Fourth, if we are to successfully deal with the nation’s poverty pro grams, the foregoing economic devel opment strategies must not be pur sued in isolation. Rather, they must be undertaken in conjunction with efforts to mend the social fabric of economically distressed communi ties. Midnight Basketball Leagues are one example of a new generation of social resource programs designed to enhance the social fabric of inner city communities. Finally, all of the nation’s assets, including the resources of govern ment, community-based organiza tions, the business sector, the philan thropic community, and especially our colleges and universities, must be mobilized if we are to deal effec tively with the poverty problem in the U.S. What is the most effective and efficient way to go about doing this? It will take cooperation, collabora tion, coordination and capital. The philanthropic and corporate commu nities are most strategically posi tioned to mobilize the requisite financial resources. And our system of colleges and universities - one of the nation’s most under-utilized resources - is best suited to establish the necessary institutional linkages. ’There are outstanding scholars in our system of hi^er education who, with the proper incentives and direc tion from the philanthropic and cor porate communities, are capable of designing a cooperative, collabora tive, and coordinated strategy that draws upon and fully utilizes the complete range of the nation’s assets to deal with the seemingly intractable problems that currently plague economically distressed com munities. What is needed at this point is a bipartisan group of legislators who, like Michael Jordan in the final sec onds when the game is on the hne, is willing to take the final shot to score a victory for our nation. Our future competitiveness in the global mar ketplace hinges on such bipartisan ship across the broad ideological spectrum. The Philanthropy Journal welcomes letters. Letters must be 250 words or less and signed. Please include a daytime phone number. Letters are subject to editing. Please send your opinions to Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina, P.O. Box 191, RaleighN-C. 27602 Fleishman Continued from page 10 lesser quality than those in the for- profit sector. 'The not-for-profit sec tor doesn’t have the profit measure of effectiveness and efficiency of the for-profit sector, which makes it all the more important that it pay even closer attention to performance mea sures. Most not-for-profit organiza tions have a dismal record of multi year strategic program development, multi-year forward-financial plan ning, and intensive board involve ment. There are steps that others should take as well. The Internal Revenue Service should revise the 990 forms to require more detailed information from the filing organizations. In that revision, the IRS and state attorneys general should cooperate to create a single form that can be filed every where, with uniform filing dates. The current system of different forms, different information, and dif ferent filing dates itself contributes to discourage accountability. ’The 990 forms should be fileable electronically. Either the IRS or a not-for-profit sector organization should put the 990s on-line, and encourage journalists and the pnblic to use them. 'The not-for-profit sector, through the umbrella organizations such as Independent Sector, should mount a public information campaign—some thing like “Support Your Honest Charities: Call 800-CHARlTY to report any solicitations you suspect as fraudulent or to obtain informa tion on any charitable organization.” Nonprofit coordinating commit tees in states and localities should move beyond their present roles to take on the task of inviting citizen complaints or suspicions about the activities of not-for-profit organiza tions, and establishing 800 numbers that citizens can call in order to report suspicious solicitations or suspected malfeasance. What is needed in addition is more energetic outreach by those organizations that, after reviewing the affairs of a charity, give a “good housekeeping” seal of approval on which the public can be justified in relying, similar to the Underwriters Laboratory for electrical products. If the not-for-profit sector would get behind such a seal and publicize it widely, 1 heUeve that we could add 20 percent or more to the amount Americans give to charity, and simul taneously divert from fraudulent organizations to legitimate charity a comparable amount. No amount of government super vision will succeed in preventing fraud entirely. We need other inves tigatory and triggering mechanisms to invoke the attention and power of the IRS and state governments. We need a national, even interna tional, center with a database of information including assessment of the performance of not-for-profits and evaluations of comparable foun dation grants, and an 800 number as well. Organizations that already do accountability monitoring today should put their reports on-line and publicize their availability to the press and public. Perhaps the not- for-profit sector needs a new organi zation with a “Consumer Reports” research staff that investigates sus picious charities or complaints of malfeasance, and that performs assessments of not-for-profit sector organizations. The foundation community itself should invest a tiny fraction of its giving to establish such an Underwriters’ Laboratory and Consumers Union for the charitable sector, complete with assessments and monitoring capacity, electronic databases, and pubUc and press out reach. I heUeve that, if there were more effective management of not-for-prof it organizations, more detailed and meaningful reporting of expendi tures, and more widespread avail- ahihty of that information to the pub Uc both on-line and in written form, the market of giving itself - the press, the pubUc agencies thaj grant funds to not-for-profit organizations, the foundations, and individual donors - will work to produce reallocations of funds more consonant with the prop er objectives of not-for-profit organi zations. AU these initiatives are designed to put the not-for-profit sector itself out in front of the campaign to increase the level of accountabiUty in the puhUc consciousness. Nothing is more timely and nothing is more essential for the continued thriving of one of America’s greatest cre ations. The voluntary sector is the heart of what America is all about at its best. Change Continued from page 10 of how unpleasant the unvarnished truth may sound. Nonprofits shoulder the tough jobs in our communities and receive precious little recognition for it. Given the hard reaUty that they are being asked to do more with less - and must do so in a cUmate of deep skepticism about their integrity - nonprofits must make every effort to fuUy inform the people they depend on for support. 'The abiUty of nonprofits to fulfill the central role they play in our com munities depends on the trust of the individuals who contribute time and money to keeping the nonprofit sec tor alive and well. Full and forthright disclosure of the tacts about what they do - the good news and the bad - will help strengthen the public sup port that nonprofits enjoy in our state. Todd Cohen ^0 PhilanthrcDy Jou'ToI of North Carolina now is ovoil- abte on the World Wide Web, direct your access to http://www, nondo.net and look for ‘’Philanthropy Journal." , UteNews and Observer Foundation Board of Directors Fsamc Danieis Jr. PAtmaA Woronqff MEI FiNOSifc,: Phikmtlunpy Jonnral of North Cmolina Board of Advisers Joyce Adger ISzabetfi Fentress Kelly Alexander Jr. —Fitzpatrick ■ Baibas ^ten Samara 'njedman Coniine Allen James Goodmon ^^^MyanJr. Marilyn Hartman George Autry Nat Irvin John Belt Jane Kendal! David Benevides Thomas Lambeth rtitlp Blumenthal Elizabeth Locke William Sondurant Marsicano Kfefietb Brown Todd Miller Robert Bush Mary Mountcastle Henry Carter John Niblock Julius Chambers Jane Patterson Ray Cope Michael Rose Julia Danids Shannon St. John Gayle Dorman Charles Sanders Jkrfin Dornan Donald Sanders Ronald Drago Maty D.8.T. Semans Wentworth Ourgin Patricia Smith Martin Eakes Sherwood Smith iucher Ehringhaus HI i: j: ;Wtiam Spencer i Emmett SiwIesYork
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.)
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May 1, 1995, edition 1
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