“An Uncomfortable – But Necessary Conversation”
Through two lengthy pieces published this week in the Nonprofit Quarterly, National Council of Nonprofits President and CEO Tim Delaney begins an uneasy conversation about how state and local governments view nonprofits in the current economy.
Delaney sites three dangerous policy trends and concludes by emphasizing the sector’s need to act both proactively and collectively. The trends Delaney sites are:
- State and local governments shifting their fiscal burdens onto nonprofits and foundations;
- Policymakers still know frighteningly little about nonprofit organizations; and
- A steady marginalization of nonprofits from the public policy process that, in turn, represses the voice of the American people.
In the second part to his piece, Delaney suggests that state and local government aren’t acting out of malice, but merely out of lack of understanding of the work that nonprofits do in the community.
– Lettie
