Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
March 13, 2009
Here’s a story about endowments that can’t be touched because they’re “underwater,” that is, now worth less than the contribution(s) that established them, and state law prohibits endowed nonprofits from touching the principal. Though the Nonprofiteer is ordinarily a big fan of regulation, she notes that this statutory scheme harms the very agencies it intends to protect.
But more troubling still is the organization described in the article whose concern for the size of its endowment causes it to fire staff rather than dip into principal to pay their salaries. Why is the perpetual existence of an organization more important than its ability to perform its mission now?
Nonprofits–whether operating charities or foundations–are not for perpetual existence; they’re for accomplishing their mission. When perpetuity gets in the way of mission, it’s perpetuity that ought to give way. And the Nonprofiteer would be willing to risk any unintended consequences of a regulatory scheme embodying that idea.
Tags:Endowment, perpetuity, underwater
Posted in Arts Organizations, Current Affairs, Education, Endowment, Finances, Foundation Hall of Shame/Stupid Foundation Tricks, Higher education, Investment, Mission, Nonprofit management, Nonprofits--General, Personnel Issues | Leave a Comment »
March 2, 2009
The Nonprofiteer hardly knows what to say about the argument that the humanities must justify themselves economically or die out. The humanities (or the liberal arts, or non-vocational education–whatever term is current) teach people to read and evaluate arguments so they can make decisions. Is there some more useful skill than that, in the economic realm or elsewhere?
Which means that Professor Kronman’s blithe concession in the article that study of the humanities may inevitably become a luxury constitutes a rich man’s indifference to everyone else’s needs. Doubtless he simply means to be provocative–this is, after all, the same good professor who infuriated the Nonprofiteer in a long-ago Contracts class by arguing for the enforceability of slavery.
But let’s not be so quick to give up on the idea that everyone should be taught to read and write. If humanities professors can’t manage to make that argument, without stooping to “It adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to your lifetime earning potential,” they should get new jobs.
Tags:citizenship, the humanities
Posted in Coverage of nonprofits, Current Affairs, Education, Higher education, Marketing, Mission, Poverty | 2 Comments »
January 7, 2009
Nicholas Kristof’s column Bleeding Heart Tightwads purports to reveal that political conservatives are more charitable than political liberals, and that Americans are more charitable than Europeans. These are familiar neocon morsels, and Kristof’s willingness to swallow and regurgitate them casts doubt on his claim to be a liberal–not to mention his claim to be a journalist who analyzes and thinks before he writes.
Self-described conservatives donate more money to charity than self-described liberals ONLY if “charity” is taken to include donations to churches. As many more conservatives than liberals are regular churchgoers–and the most regular and charitable of all are the ultra-conservative Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days Saints, whose members tithe 10 per cent of their income–any count of charitable contributions which includes church donations will unfairly portray liberals as cheapskates. The Nonprofiteer doesn’t give a dime to her church because she doesn’t belong to or participate in one, but she’ll measure her actual contributions to charity–social services, education, health care and the arts–against the actual contributions to charity of any registered Republican, any time.
Similarly, Europeans give less money to charity than Americans not because they refuse to put their money where their social-justice mouths are but because they’ve already done so in the fields of health care and education to an extent as yet undreamed of by the United States. Of course Europeans, Canadians and Japanese give fewer charitable dollars to health care: most medical care is paid for out of their taxes. Of course they donate less to institutions of higher learning: tuition to those institutions is paid by the state.
The relationship between politics and charity is a complex one, and there are serious people who believe, for instance, that donations to food banks interfere with achieving long-term food security for all Americans because they keep the hunger problem just below the national radar. (And there are certainly serious people who believe that columnists who try to buy young Asian prostitutes to liberate them are merely increasing the profitability of Asian prostitutes and thus the risk to young Asian girls.) These difficult policy analyses are not made simpler or likelier of resolution by facile comparisons and repititions of nonsense on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times.
Tags:bleeding heart tightwads, Kristof, slavery
Posted in Advocacy, Coverage of nonprofits, Disease charities, Education, Fundraising, Health care, Higher education, International, Nonprofits--General, Poverty, Private Philanthropy, Religion, Social Service Agencies, Women's Issues | 10 Comments »
December 4, 2008
Yesterday’s New York Times notes the finding of a new study that the cost of college education has risen at three times the rate of inflation for the past 20 years, as well as its projection that college will soon be beyond the financial reach of most American families. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education also pointed out that public universities–long the best bargain on the higher-ed shelf–are the first to feel, and pass along, the impact of a shrinking economy: when state tax revenues decline, state college tuition rates go up. This leaves students with two unpalatable options: community college (which, whatever their virtues, don’t generally provide the upward social mobility Americans seeks from higher education) and hugely expensive private institutions.
So that of course explains why places like Harvard are issuing statements crying havoc about the decline of their endowments and threatening program cuts and tuition increases. Because there’s going to be a rainier day later on, and the important thing is to make sure that the current faculty and administration stay dry.
Tags:Harvard, public colleges, recession, tuition
Posted in Current Affairs, Education, Endowment, Higher education, Mission, Nonprofit management, Nonprofits--General | Leave a Comment »
July 21, 2008
Here’s an intriguing development in the ongoing process of trying to connect residents of deep-poverty nations with the resources of the Internet and, thus, the world economy: a computing device and software that enables up to 30 people to use a PC at one time, as if each person had a computer of his/her own. While this may sound like the sort of triumph only a gearhead could appreciate, what it really means is computer access costing less than $70 per person–all the world’s knowledge in a form approaching the affordability level of bednets and clean water.
The Nonprofiteer is rarely enthusiastic about e-this or cyber-that; but making information commonly available to people who have been deprived of it is an unalloyed Good Thing, and even she’s not churlish enough to withhold her thanks and praise from people who’ve figured out how to accomplish it while making a profit at the same time. Excerpts from the company’s press release appear below.
REDWOOD CITY, CALIF., July 15, 2008– NComputing, the leading provider of desktop virtualization software and hardware, today announced it is working with leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide to help reduce the digital divide between developed and developing countries. The company has already deployed successful partnerships with such leading NGOs as U.S.-based Save the Children, France-based Ateliers Sans Frontieres (ASF), Bangladesh-based BRAC, Latin America-based Organization for American States (OAS), UNESCO, and India-based Azim Premji Foundation to name just a few. NComputing further announced special discounts and programs to help NGOs on every continent reach their goals for digital inclusion in emerging markets.
[snip]
The NComputing solution is based on a simple fact: today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of the computer’s capacity. NComputing’s virtualization software and hardware tap this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by multiple users. Each user’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse connect to the shared PC through a small and very durable NComputing access device. The access device itself has no CPU, memory or moving parts so it is rugged, durable, and easy to deploy and maintain – especially critical in developing nations. The NComputing software and hardware costs as little as $70 per seat. With NComputing, people and organizations around the world are maximizing their investments in PCs.
[snip]
No other attempts at bridging the digital divide have been as successful. Low-priced laptop solutions, such as the $188 OLPC XO, carry very high hidden costs—like maintenance and support—that far outweigh their benefits.
[snip]
[S]aid Medhy Davary, director of DSF[,] “The virtual desktops are extremely affordable and durable, require very little maintenance, and use only one watt of electricity. This allows users in even the world’s poorest countries to benefit from computer access and the Internet.”
“Almost one billion users around the world who would benefit from access to computing have been unable to afford it—until now,” said Stephen Dukker, chairman and CEO of NComputing. “It is only by fundamentally changing the economics of computing that our industry can bridge the digital divide. We are going to deploy more than a million virtual desktops in the coming year and are honored to work with such prestigious NGOs to improve the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world.”
“In response to increasing interest from NGOs, NComputing is developing programs to help them better leverage their skills and funds,” said Ms. Lindsay Petrillose, Government Liaison for NComputing. “We offer seed units and special NGO discounts that multiply the impact of an NGO’s limited funds.” Interested NGOs and governmental institutions seeking NGO assistance can contact Ms. Petrillose at lpetrillose@ncomputing.com, (650) 454-4991.
————-
*of computer access
+as in “the digital divide”
Tags:charity, computers, computing, corporate giving, International, Internet access, nonprofit, not for profit, philanthropy, Poverty
Posted in Current Affairs, Education, International, Investment, Marketing, Nonprofits--General, Poverty, Private Philanthropy, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
July 16, 2008
Micro-lending has come to the American student financial aid market. GreenNote.com will syndicate student loans among individuals who wish to provide as little as $100 to college-bound students, in return for which the lenders will get a guaranteed return of nearly 7% (while the syndicator, presumably, gets the difference between the lender’s return and the borrower’s interest rate, unspecified in Green Note’s promotional materials). Even if the borrowers are paying only a few basis points above the lenders’ return, this seems an awfully expensive way to provide college money to students at a time when the discount rate is below 4%. Unless students are totally shut out of the college lending system as mediated by Sallie Mae, it’s not at all clear why they would turn to this electronicized (and commercialized) version of the old mutual-aid-society lending arrangement.
If the American banking system is actually collapsing, this is neither a good time to borrow money for college nor a good time to become an unsecured creditor to debtors without skills or degrees. If the American banking system is not collapsing, there should be sufficient guaranteed student loans available to attendees at most accredited institutions. The Nonprofiteer has no doubt that GreenNote.com will make money connecting small lenders to small borrowers, but she doubts strongly that this connection will make much of a contribution toward paying the average college student’s bills of more than $40,000 annually.
Not everything that comes dressed up as “e-commerce” and “micro-lending” actually makes any sense.
Tags:Higher education, micro-lending, nonprofit, not for profit, student loans
Posted in Education, Higher education, Investment, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
July 15, 2008
This story about having juvenile offenders restore and operate classic American diners is lovely on a bunch of different levels: the metaphorical match between subject and object, both things that have been thrown away which are getting restored and returned to the mainstream; the fact that the young men are being taught skills they can really use that can really pay them (though the Nonprofiteer is driven to ask if there are any young women in the project); the cooperation of government, nonprofits and businesses in bringing it about; even its location in Rhode Island, which has quietly evolved as a foodie center as graduates of its culinary institutes refuse to leave. But the most beautiful aspect is the following quote from the man who runs the program:
You always meet people who want these kids to be locked away, and I respect their ill-informed opinion.
And this from the project’s community liaison! Apparently the Nonprofiteer isn’t the only person whose idea of educating people is to smack them in the face.
Tags:charity, detention, diners, employment training, juvenile justice, nonprofit, not for profit, restoration, social services
Posted in Education, Mission, Nonprofits--General, Poverty, Public private partnerships, Social Service Agencies, Uncategorized, Women's Issues | 2 Comments »
May 28, 2008
If this is the best argument that can be made for holding one’s fire on the subject of huge unspent university endowments–that it might make people think all colleges have too much money–then the institutions sitting on those endowments might as well start writing big checks to the IRS right now, because they’ve already lost the debate. It’s never a good idea to claim that people might get the wrong idea from the truth–even when it’s the case. Yes, it’s unfortunate that scandals at the Red Cross and United Way contribute to a mistaken impression that all charities are corrupt; but surely no one would argue that therefore those scandals shouldn’t be reported.
And in the current context, is it really too much to expect that before shutting their wallets the relevant consumers–by definition, people with college educations!–will ask if in fact the place still needs money? Most loyal (that is, donating) alumni actually pony up first and ask questions later, like the Nonprofiteer’s cash-strapped friend who nonetheless just pledged hundreds of dollars to an alma mater with literally a billion in the bank. If current coverage of over-endowed institutions brings that pattern to an end, so much the better: more charitable money left for causes that actually need it.
And if the concern is Worcester State College (as our colleague at the 501c Files suggests), once again the ear to bend is that of legislators too cowardly to do what’s necessary to fund the public educational system they inherited from their more forward-thinking predecessors.
(The Nonprofiteer doesn’t, by the way, think much of the Harvard alum’s suggestion that the university use its endowment to fund education in Africa; that’s not its mission. It’s fine for alums to divert their “class gift” to that purpose–every new fundraising drive gets to identify its own purpose and goal–but at the same time Harvard needs to figure out how to spend its endowment on the work for which it was raised, namely, providing Harvard students with an education.)
Tags:alumni, charity, Endowment, Fundraising, nonprofit, not for profit, philanthropy, university
Posted in Coverage of nonprofits, Education, Endowment, Fundraising, Higher education, Private Philanthropy, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
May 19, 2008
Lately the Nonprofiteer has been bending the ear of everybody she meets with praise for a community arts nonprofit (The Old Town School of Folk Music by name) based on her experience as one of its students. She was waxing rhapsodic about the School’s amazing energy, a heady combination of welcome and clarity about mission–the guy who runs the coffee shop improvised a song, “Decaf Woman,” while brewing an entire pot just for her–when one of her auditors observed, “Well, that kind of thing comes from the top, doesn’t it?”
Intriguing question: does it come from the top, from leadership that never loses sight of mission and knows how to make sure that no one else does either? Or does it come from the bottom, from a comprehensive culture for which which everyone at the agency feels responsible and to which everyone proudly conforms?
Whichever way the ethos flowed originally, you’ll know an agency has a pervasive culture when a junior person tells the Executive Director, “That’s not the way we do it around here.” At which point you’ll realize: be careful what you wish for.
Tags:arts groups, charity, corporate culture, nonprofit, not for profit, philanthropy
Posted in Arts Organizations, Education, Executive Directors, Mission, Nonprofit management, Personnel Issues | 1 Comment »
April 23, 2008
In the latest issue of her newsletter, nonprofit lawyer Kathryn Vanden Berk reviews the intersection of the age discrimination statutes with nonprofits’ need or desire to move older workers into retirement. (Copy available on request.)
Vanden Berk is too polite to say so, but hidden inside the recent attention to nonprofits’ difficulties recruiting young workers is the simple fact that [we] Baby Boomers won’t get out of the way. And hidden inside that in turn is the slightly more complicated fact that bringing in younger workers is not the cost-cutting measure among charities that it is at for-profit enterprises. Indeed, older workers actually pull down median salaries at nonprofits, because so many of them came into charitable employment at a time when getting paid adequately was a sign of insufficient commitment. (And, lest we forget, because so many of them are women and thus routinely underpaid.)
So the real question is not whether nonprofits CAN remove older workers when it’s time for a change of direction, but whether they WILL. Or will they cling to low-paid veterans not because their experience is invaluable but because donors want to continue providing society’s most important features–social services, education, the arts–on the cheap?
Tags:charity, compensation, labor relations, nonprofit, not for profit, older workers, personnel, retirement, succession plan
Posted in Advocacy groups, Arts Organizations, Education, Environmental, Health care, Housing, Nonprofit management, Personnel Issues, Relations with funders, Social Service Agencies, Women's Issues | 1 Comment »
