A recent article in The New York Times, Charities Give to State Campaigns, Despite Law, described how some nonprofits had purchased tickets to fundraising dinners for elected officials, or had otherwise contributed to their campaigns, in violation of the law. Neither party seemed to care or take responsibility, pushing off oversight to the IRS. The article acknowledged that minor amounts entailed, and yet found it fit to disparage nonprofits on the front page.
I find this quite disturbing for a number of reasons.
First, given the monumental financial malfeasance wrought by the financial sector, the palty sums were elevated to front page status bring a negative light to a sector that comprises 10% of the GDP. This coverage failed to provide any context for the amounts and thus conveys a negative impression of the entire nonprofit community.
Secondly, as admitted in the story, most contributions were in the form of tickets to events, not directly to campaigns, with no pro quid pro expected. These types of donations were not given with malicious intent. While explicitly stating this, the tone of the article harms the reputation of hard-working organizations doing the public good.
If we were to look at this issue clearly, we would see that is unfair to restrict nonprofits’ ability to contribute because of their nonprofit status while businesses that receive tax breaks and other preferential treatment from government have no such restrictions.
In fact, is the nonprofit sector that is effectively doing the government’s job of providing essential social services and a safety net, largely on private funds. If anything, nonprofits should have more of a say in how the government operates, specifically, on budget issues in which it ends up bearing the brunt of the burden as social services are slashed. Instead, businesses are allowed to lobby to receive tax breaks and other incentives while flouting financial, health, environmental and worker safety laws. Clearly, a double standard is in place.
WAKE UP CALL: It is time for fair coverage and representation of the nonprofit sector in the media and halls of government. Nonprofits, now is the time to speak up!
Another sad but true and this area concerns me since I’ve worked with nonprofits for so many years. Nonprofits many times end up the stepchildren of failed government programs; victims of a broken, corrupt system. This is discouraging, but I totally agree that THIS is the time for nonprofits to speak up and be seen as the heroes they are for so many.