Friday, November 8, 2013

"BEING STRATEGIC" A presentation by Jeff Greim at Annual Meeting of CT ASSO. of NONPROFITS

I gave a presentation, called “Being Strategic”,  at the recent annual meeting of the Connecticut Association of Nonprofits.  I guess it was well received.  A number of people came up to me afterwards to ask that I send them an e-copy of the accompanying Powerpoint. 

So I thought I’d share it here with minimal voice over.   It can be found at 

https://tegr.it/y/1brp7

Thoughts? 


Jeff

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Rick Jakious, ED of MNN, takes on US Senator Grassley's Proposal

Even the most cursory review of my blogs indicates how strongly I feel about the damage being done to our sector and our democratic process by those who are using the 501c4 designation to circumvent our nation’s campaign finance laws. 


So I was very pleased to see this posting by Rick Jakious, Chief Executive Director of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, in which he discusses the potential negative consequences of US Senator Grassley’s bill to eliminate the prohibition on all electioneering by 501c3 nonprofits.   


Sunday, September 29, 2013

Broken Link in the Chain of Public Trust

There was a sad article in the NY Times last week about a nonprofit executive who was arrested on charges of stealing $5 million from his charity.  Most of the money went to co-conspirators and state legislators as kickbacks in return for government contracts.  But $1 million went into the executive’s own pocket.


Every time a nonprofit executive brings dishonor to him/herself, it reflects poorly on all of us and weakens the public’s trust in the nonprofit sector.  That’s why it is so important for all nonprofit leaders to be beyond reproach.  If you would be embarrassed to have your activities reported on the front page of your local paper, then you are probably doing something that will eventually hurt yourself, your organization and the entire nonprofit sector.   Don’t do it!    

Friday, September 13, 2013

When and Where Will the Politicization of the Nonprofit Sector End?

    
While I’ve been away over the summer, the nonprofit sector has been further degraded by those who are using its legal and regulatory system to hide their electioneering efforts. 

As reported in today’s 09/13/13 NYTIMES article entitled, TaxFilings Hint at Extent of Koch Brothers’ Reach,” the Koch brothers are now using a network of financially linked 501c-6 and 501c4 nonprofits to launder millions of tax-deductible “membership dues” that are being used for political purposes.  This is making it virtually impossible to identify the source of funding for the political activities of so-called social welfare organizations.   Welcome to the new "Nonprofit Sector" in which layers of interlocking “shell” organizations are created in order to obscure the source and usage of de facto political campaign contributions. 

When will the nonprofit sector stand up and state in the clearest and strongest possible words, “Enough is enough!  We are not going to allow the public’s trust in the nonprofit sector to be eroded by those who want to manipulate its laws and regulations to secretly influence our nation’s free and democratic elections.  If you want to influence the outcome of elections, do so within the rules and structures of our nation’s campaign finance laws.  Stay out of our nonprofit sector! You are not welcome here!”    Thoughts?

 


PS  There is a second article in the 9/13/13 NYTIMES about the influence of “outside” money in the current NYC mayoral race now that a billionaire, spending millions of his own dollars on advertising, is not running.  And no surprise, the Koch brothers are at the center of this “outside” money and activity.   

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

IRS : ....AND NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

What a difference two weeks can make!  Less than two weeks ago, the IRS was getting blasted in the media and in Congress for looking closely at applications for 501c4 status from conservative organizations.  Here is a May 16th OP-ED article from the NYTIMES about the “brouhaha.” 


As the article eloquently and correctly states, the problem is not that the IRS was looking closely at the “Tea Party” applicants for 501c4 status.  The problem is that the IRS was not--and is not--looking closely at ALL applicants and ALL current 501c4 organizations to impartially determine if they ALL legally qualify for the rights and privileges of 501c4 status.   

And sure enough, here is a front page NYTIMES article from two days (May 27th) reporting that many of the new conservative applicants were NOT worthy of the 501c4 status because their primary purpose was to influence the outcome of specific 2012 election contests. 


If we want our governmental institutions to function properly, we have to adequately fund them.  Under capitalized organizations—whether for profit businesses, nonprofits, or government agencies—will frequently underperform.   The nonprofit sector needs to protect the public trust that it enjoys and depends upon by supporting adequate funding of the IRS so it can uniformly enforce its own laws and regulations.  Thoughts?