International Nonprofits
The US nonprofit sector mostly focuses on domestic issues, but there is also a large amount of international nonprofits operating in the US. American nonprofit work plays a big role outside of the US, as of 1998 filings there were 2,078 nonprofit international and foreign affairs organizations, with $5.8 billion in revenue, $5.4 billion in expenses, and $6.1 billion in total assets. These organizations focus on international understanding, cultural exchange, student exchange and aid, relief series, agricultural and economic development, peace and security, human rights, migration and refugee issues, and the like (O’Neill, 170). International organizations receive the majority of their revenue from private contributions. Many international organizations focus on complex, long-term issues such as food production, public health, education, economic development, and conflict prevention. The most common international nonprofits that we see are those dealing with International relief and development which help millions of lives in areas afflicted by war, disease, poverty, and natural disaster. Many of these relief agencies are religiously affiliated, for example the Catholic Relief Services (O’Neill, 173).
These religious relief agencies have an enormous effect globally. These agencies base their appeals on biblical mandates and receive much of their support from affiliated religious congregations. The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) mission statement reads as the following:
Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We are motivated by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to cherish, preserve and uphold the sacredness and dignity of all human life, foster charity and justice, and embody Catholic social and moral teaching…
The agency provides assistance to 80 million people in more than 100 countries around the world (.http://crs.org/). The Catholic Church has over 62 million members in the US alone (O’Neill, 57). You can imagine what kind of fund raising effort and support that would help support and agency like CRS. In response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, CRS donated $190 million to fund a five year relief and reconstruction effort for the more than 600,000 victims (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Relief_Services). Though the importance of immediate emergency response can’t be denied the efforts by CRS and other agencies alike to provide long term public policies is where their efforts are truly needed. Only .25 percent of the federal budget goes to foreign aid. This puts more pressure on private philanthropy and organizations like the CRS. The decline in government funds also means more emphasis on immediate needs, like disaster relief, at the expense of long-term development programs that could reduce or eliminate some short-term crises (O’Neill, 175).
Although a relatively small group within the nonprofit sector, international nonprofits continue to open up bridges for the US government and business to expand their international activity. The relief effort and long-term policy efforts made by these groups affect millions of people beyond our borders and help globalize the world we live in.
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Who speaks for the Environment?
Environmental nonprofits could be seen as the forgotten area of the nonprofit sector. In the nonprofit sector environmental organizations are a relatively new idea. They were first seen starting in the 1960s and have grown in the number of organizations, members, and total revenue every year since (Straugen, Pollak 1). Environmental organizations mainly focus on advocacy and conservation of land, water, wildlife. Environment organizations are important because they act on behalf of issues that aren’t necessarily seen or heard on a regular basis. Why we might see homeless people on the corner, or know that families are starving in our community. The majority of us would not be aware of an endured species in Madagascar, or shrinking glaciers in the Rockies. These are the kind of issues that environmental nonprofit bring to the public’s attention. Many issues could go unnoticed if not for some of the work that these environmental nonprofits do.
An example of one of these nonprofits that focus on issue that would otherwise go unnoticed is called the Sea Sheppard Conservation Society (SSCS). It is an international nonprofit, marine conservation society that has become world known after appearing in AE’s documentary series Whale Wars. The show focuses on SSCS’s fleet of ships that operate in the Antarctica intercepting Japanese fishing vessels harvesting whales. In 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) enacted a moratorium on commercial whaling. Since then three countries- Iceland, Norway, and Japan have continue to harvest whales for scientific research and commercial purposes. The IWC does not have the capacity to enforce the moratorium, so the SSCS guided under The United Nations World Charter for Nature enforces the international conservation regulations (http://www.seashepherd.org/). The SSCS has gained worldwide attention with their TV show and controversial tactics in protecting Whales and other marine life. It is an amazing example of a nonprofit organization’s efforts to get their mission heard and taking action into their own hands. The SSCS has by far taken environmental advocacy and awareness to an extreme level but has also brought the kind of awareness to marine wildlife to a global level.
Awareness is vital to environmental nonprofit because unlike most nonprofits who generate funds on a fee based service, environmental nonprofits rely on fund raising for their “cause”. Most depend on contributions from individuals convinced that their programs make a difference (Straugen, Pollak 37). As climate change, pollution, and over population continue to change our planet environmental nonprofits will be so important. Without the kind of awareness and advocacy that these organizations provide for the environment and wildlife community the issues affecting them could go unnoticed.
“The Power to Make it Better” AARP slogan
Nonprofit advocacy organizations are some of the smallest and poorly funded organizations in the nonprofit sector. Don’t judge them on that alone; they continue to have a huge impact on society. When we think of nonprofit organizations we think of the services they provide directly to people—schools and colleges, performing arts organizations, hospitals, churches etc. Advocacy organizations are trying to change the policies and practices on government agencies, corporations, and other large organizations. The actions of these three players often affect many citizens, employees and consumers and advocacy organizations play an important role by providing critical feedback on their policies and actions (O’Neill 140).
The nation’s largest membership and advocacy organization is AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), for people fifty years of age and older. Classified as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization AARP in 2000 had 34 million members and revenue of $580 million (O’Neill 136). I was curious what exactly an advocacy group can provide its members. On the AARP website it says one the benefits of becoming a member include advocacy in Washington—getting a seat at the table on issues like healthcare, retirement, and more. For as low as a $1 a month a person 50 or older can become a member of the largest nonprofit advocacy organization in the nation (www.aarp.org). AARP has become one the largest lobbying groups in Washington. In 2006 in spent nearly $23 million dollars on lobbying efforts. As an advocacy group AARP influenced congress’s passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which authorized the creation of Medicare Part D. AARP can expect even more members in the coming years, as the baby boomer generation enters retirement age more will become members of AARP and other retirement advocacy groups. The kind of political power that AARP has now will only grow as more members are eligible to join. Baby boomers control over 80% of personnel finance, which could allow advocacy groups like AARP to gain huge buying/lobbying power in Washington (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer#Size_and_economic_impact).
AARP is an example of a very large advocacy group; this is actually rare compared to most nonprofit advocacy groups. Around 79% had fewer than ten employees, and 76% had expenditures less than $500,000 (O’Neill 136). Advocacy groups don’t carry the kind of overhead that a nonprofit that provides a service like healthcare would so more advocacy nonprofits can function with low overhead. Whether it is civil rights, women’s suffrage, gay and lesbian rights, advocacy groups have and will continue to provide the kind of voice that people in these groups would not normally have. I think they are very important in steering policy and leaders into making decisions that can help the small voices in our country be heard. Though small, nonprofit advocacy groups could be one of the most important and influential aspects of the nonprofit sector.
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The Best Education Money Can Buy…
As I started the first grade at Greenwood Elementary, a public school in the suburbs, I had 40 kids in my class and was in a large room with thin partitions separating me from 2 other first grade classes. When my parents became aware of this within 2 weeks I was enrolled at a Private Elementary School were my new class had just under 20 kids. Was this a better learning environment? Was I receiving a better education? These are arguable and the true benefits of private education can’t totally be measured. What can be measured is that about 10 percent of America’s K-12 students attend private schools. K-12 private schools, colleges and universities, and research organizations are the second largest part of the nonprofit sector behind healthcare and have annual revenues of $175 billion. The impact of these institutions is remarkable on our society; they have produced many of the nation’s business, government, and nonprofit leaders, and set quality of standards in many fields (O’Niel 107,132).
I only attended three years of private school before moving to small town were public school was the only option. If my family had not moved I think that I would have finished my K-12 in a private school. It is questionable whether I would have received a better education, although in preparation for college a much higher percent of students go off to college from private schools then public. Private colleges and Universities enroll a fifth of the nations post secondary education students (O’Niel 114). The statistics on nonprofit education and research including 45,000 institutions, 8 million students and $175 million in annual revenue don’t even come close the measuring the kind of societal impact these institutions have (O’Niel 119). For example students at a university spend thousands of hours engaged in the institution, and recognizing with that institution. It is similar to the way people interact with their churches and religion. College and university alumni gave $5.5 billion to their alma maters (O’Niel 121). This gives us some of the most powerful and influential institutions in our country. One of the most well known Havard for example the 106th Congress (1999-2000) included forty Harvard graduates (O’Niel 121). These are the people making critical economic, political and social decisions and a good portion of them are educated by this private education system. I will leave this up for debate weather this is a good thing or not. This is not unique to America however, in fact private education has a much more societal imbalance in European countries. In France for example there are public and private universities, the majority of French politicians and top executives attend grandes ecoles similar to private schools in America. The schools are allowed to have much stricker standards and qualifications to attend compared to those in the public schools. The idea is not suppose to discriminate against poor or lower class students put the truth is with the price of education almost 4 times as much at grades ecoles only about 10 percent of the students are lower class or poor. Since the French Revolution this system of higher education has literally created a ruling class in France. The richest people in the county attend the best schools and obtain the highest political and business positions.
To me it seems that for now, in Europe and the continuing trend in the United States is that money will buy you the best education and give you the best opportunity to succeed. Those who attend the most expensive institutions will become world leaders, politicians and top business leaders and make the decisions that affect all of us.
Viva Las Vegas!
My second post is a little late, I was in Vegas last week for my sisters birthday and was unable to catch up on my blog. The plane ride allowed me to get the readings done though. While in Vegas I tried to see if I could find any nonprofits, as you can imagine on the strip I had no such luck. Although after I got back I looked at www.guidestar.org and found that there were a little over 4200 nonprofits in the Las Vegas area. One of these nonprofits is All People Christian Church of Las Vegas, Inc. I’m guessing that they don’t have a small chapel in the casinos that you can get married in, but who knows.
Religious nonprofits like the All People Christian Church are the largest part of the nonprofit sector, and this is just going by the church organizations that are registered as a nonprofit. Religious organizations are not required to register or file reports with the IRS so government statistics on them is limited. Religious organizations are so significant because nearly 70 percent of Americans consistently say that they belong to a church or synagogue, nearly 200 million (O’Neill 55). Because churches do not report to the IRS, finances and revenues are harder to determine. According to the American Association of Fundraising Counsel (AAFRC) an estimated $74 billion was given to religion in 2000 by living individual, bequest, foundations, and corporations (AAFRC, 2001). Why is this important to the nonprofit sector you might ask? Religion directly touches far more people than any other part of the US nonprofit sector. Not only do religious organizations generate large contributions but more people in general do volunteer work for religious organizations than for any other type of nonprofit. Around 23 percent of American Adults—representing 45 million people—reported volunteering for religious organizations in 1998 (O’Neill 62). With this kind of presence in society it is no wonder that American religion has a major institutional presence in education, health care, economic development, job training, emergency shelters, low-income housing, food programs, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, refugee assistance and international relief. Many secular nonprofits that you can think of like the YMCA and Harvard began as religious institutions. The scope of religious organizations affect in the nonprofit sector can’t fully be understood, but it can go without saying that without their presence the nonprofit sector would not be as large as it is today. It will be interesting to see the role that religion continues to play in this sector of American society.
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A nonprofit world is created
Hello all, My name is Kyle Huddleston. I am a senior at the University of Oregon, my major is Political Science and minoring in Planning, Public Policy and Management. I currently work as a Conflict Management and Prevention coordinator for a federal agency and will likely continue with that after graduation. I do not have much of a background in the nonprofit sector, but after working for the federal government for 4 1/2 years I have had to interact with different nonprofit agencies and want better insight into this sector of the United States that has an annual revenue of $1 trillion dollars (O’Neill xvii). I hope to get a better understanding and appreciation for the nonprofit sector through my PPPM 280 Intro into the Nonprofit Sector.
Before taking this class I could name a few nonprofits, mostly social services, but the nonprofit sector covers a whole array of different functions. There are several million nonprofit organizations, a total number is not known because not all are registered nonprofits, at least 1.8 million are formally recognized by some government agency (O’Neill 1). Nonprofits get there name from the idea that they don’t make a profit. This isn’t entirely true, nonprofit organizations can make a profit, but unlike a business the profits cannot be distributed into the pockets of those who run the organization, it has to be reinvested towards the nonprofits overall mission. For this reason nonprofits are not required to pay federal taxes, they are coded separately in IRC’s mostly under 501(c)s. They still have to report earnings to the IRS they just are exempt from paying federal taxes.
Nonprofits besides not having to pay federal taxes, the makeup of nonprofits is different than the business sector and government sector because of its creation. Philanthropy, and Volunteering is the powerhouse behind the nonprofit sector. The industrial revolution lead to a rapid rise in wealth in America, names that we still recognize today gave birth to the nonprofit sector, Rockefeller, Carnegie and others. The trend still remains today and has reached heights that would have once been thought unreachable with contributions by Bill and Melinda Gates, Ted Turner and numerous others. With Philanthropy as its base, nonprofits draw its energy from volunteering. In 1998 an estimated 109 million Americans volunteered, contributing 20 billion hours through organizations. (O’Neill 30) Nonprofits would probably be nonexistent if wasn’t for the free labor provided by all of these people working for a cause that they believe in.
It is easy to ask why nonprofits even exist, why would someone start a nonprofit, how do nonprofits survive? Many have theorize these questions, nonprofits cover areas such as health care, education, artistic expression, worship that seem fundamental to the human condition. (O’Neill 35) I would say that nonprofits exists were the private and government sectors fail, and by the number of nonprofits in this country one could say that private and government sectors are lacking in providing these fundamental services.
