ACTION ALERT on Charitable Tax Extenders

Urge Congress to Permanently Extend Key Charitable Giving Incentives Congress needs to hear from you today! Leaders in the House and Senate are now considering passing a separate bill to make the charitable provisions permanent. But they need to hear from you today to understand that passing permanent extensions of these tax incentives is very important to nonprofits and the people you serve. Congress shouldn't quit for the year before getting this done.    TAKE ACTION Time is truly of the essence, so contact your Representative and Senators today by phone, email, or social media. By Phone: Call the Capitol switchboard (202-224-3121), ask to be connected to your Senators' and Representative's offices.   By Email: Find your Senators' email addresses and your Representatives email address and send them this message, along with any other information about how the expired giving incentives have helped your nonprofit perform work in their communities: Tell your representatives to:   "Make the three charitable tax incentives (extenders) permanent before adjourning; our communities rely on work funded by these incentives and we are counting on your help. Congress needs to make permanent the three charitable tax incentives - the IRA Rollover, the enhanced deduction for donations of food inventories and donations of conservation easements - so that all nonprofits can plan for the future and secure support for their work. Read more here about why we need these incentives for giving extended.     Tweet to your Representatives Today! Find your Senators and Representatives Twitter handles and tweet one of the following @ them: @_____ Our communities deserve better than a 3-week tax extension; make charitable giving incentives permanent #protectgiving @_____ 3-week tax extension doesn't help the communities #nonprofits serve; make charitable giving incentives permanent #protectgiving @_____ HR5771 = a 3-week extension; communities served by #nonprofits deserve better. Make charitable giving incentives permanent

 

Community Foundation 2014 Listening Learning: Collective Impact

Community Foundation 2014 Listening LearningCollective Impact When Thursday November 13, 2014 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM EST Add to Calendar Where The Space@GreenStar 700 W. Buffalo Street Ithaca, NY 14850 Driving Directionsions Link) Your Community Foundation invites residents, donors, agency staff, governmental leaders and members of the business community to attend the 2014 Listening Learning session. This session will feature participants from a recent collective impact summit to help gather information and respond to questions in order to guide future Foundation grants. Come for an informal conversation and explore with Community Foundation staff and board members what makes for great COLLECTIVE IMPACT.   Come prepared to address questions such as: What role should the Community Foundation have to advance collective impact in Tompkins County?  What resources are necessary for collective impact to have powerful local results?  What groups or sectors or communities need better engagement with collective impact?  Is there one issue or concern in our community that has sufficient urgency to advance collective impact as a new way of solving it?  What concerns do you have that you want to see change but that the current approach has not resulted in the desired outcomes? Your input will be invaluable in assisting the Community Foundation in shaping future grant cycles including the Fall 2015 Grant Cycle. Registration is encouraged and appreciated but not required. You can register yourself as well as associates by clicking the link below. Register Now! I can't make it Thank you.  We look forward to learning from your valuable experience.  If you cannot make this session, we encourage you to provide your comments by email to gferrari@cftompkins.org. Thank you. Sincerely, George Ferrari Community Foundation of Tompkins County gferrari@cftompkins.org 607-272-9333

 

Denim Day is coming up. Get your employees/employers involved!

 Denim Day is coming up! On Wednesday April 24^th we invite everyone to make a social statement with your fashion statement! Employees/employers everywhere are invited to charge your staff $5 each and collect the proceeds for CVAC. For more info check out the links below.

Information on Denim Day

NYSACRA Action Alert

NYSACRA Action Alert

PLEASE consider reaching out to your assemblyman and senator to express your concern over the cuts proposed below. Springbrook provides invaluable support to people with developmental disabilities. The proposed 6% cut equates to $1.2 million for this organization.The proposed 6% cut equates to $1.2 million for this organization. The phone calls take less than a minute each. PLEASE PLEASE call.

As you are well aware, the proposed 2013-14 Executive Budget proposes a 6% across the board cut to all voluntary not-for-profit providers throughout the State of New York, effective April 1, 2013.  If this cut is enacted, the developmental disabilities system of supports and services will be negatively impacted, dramatically.  NYSACRA has received information from members as to how the reductions will be absorbed if a restoration is not successful.  Agencies will be forced to: reduce services and supports, eliminate entire programs, layoff all levels of staff including direct support professionals.  We all know how this will translate if the cuts are to be taken: the great strides we've made as a sector will quickly erode and the quality of life for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) will be negatively impacted.

Both houses of the State Legislature are in the process of negotiating and getting ready to release the respective one-house budget measures.  While we understand the 6% across the board cut to the not-for-profit developmental disabilities sector is gaining great attention in the State Legislature, we need to continue advocacy efforts and therefore we are asking agencies, parents and family members, agency staff and direct support professionals, self advocates to make two telephone calls this week.

WHO TO CALL:

Please make two telephone calls, one to your State Assemblymember and the other to your State Senator in their Albany Offices

WHEN:

This week (the week of March 4^th)

WHAT'S MY MESSAGE:

"I'm a constituent and I am concerned the proposed 6% across the board cut to the not-for-profit developmental disabilities providers will negatively impact supports, services and programs.  I wish to thank my Assemblymember/Senator for his/her support of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and ask him/her to support restoration of the 6% proposed cut in the one-house budget bill."

HOW:

Contact the Assembly Operator at 518-455-4100 and ask to be transferred to your Assemblymember's Office. (if you do not know who your Member of the Assembly is, go towww.assembly.state.ny.us to identify your Member.  You may also obtain his/her direct Albany Office telephone number, rather than going through the Assembly Operator).

Contact the Senate Operator at 518-455-2800 and ask to be transferred to your Senator's Office (if you do not know who your Member of the Senate is, go to www.nysenate.gov to identify your Senator. You may also obtain his/her Albany Office telephone number on the website, rather than going through the Senate Operator).

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ONGOING ADVOCACY AND EFFORTS!

LOOK FOR MORE NYSACRA ACTION ALERTS

THROUGHOUT THIS WEEK AND NEXT WEEK

NPQ's annual survey

NPQ's annual survey

Please tell NPQ what to do!

We are pleased to send you NPQ’s annual survey.

If you fill it out:
 

1. You will know that you have had an impact on NPQ’s editorial agenda for 2013. We choose topics to follow guided by the answers we get from you;
2. You may be invited to join NPQ’s Editorial Advisory Board and attend our annual reader advisory committee meeting, an always-fascinating two-day event on the East Coast. The more complete your answers are the more likely it is that you will be selected (if you cannot pay your way, we will, and your name will appear on our masthead as an advisor);
3. You may receive a free subscription to our print journal (every twentieth respondent completing a survey will receive one);
4. You will receive a summary of our findings from the survey.

 
Most important, you will know that you have helped direct NPQ—an important information source for civil society—just by showing up (taking the survey) and having informed opinions!

Here's the online article and survey link

Statement on Fiscal Cliff Deal

NYCON's Statement on the "Fiscal Cliff" Deal and Implications for New York State's Nonprofits  

The New York Council of Nonprofits, along with colleagues nationwide, expresses mixed views about the passage of the "American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012" (H.R.8, as amended).

NYCON applauds Congress for the strong bipartisan vote in passing a compromise bill to avert certain immediate threats posed by the fiscal cliff. We thank those elected officials and staff members on Capitol Hill and at the White House who worked around the clock to make this compromise possible and for maintaining incentives for charitable giving for most Americans. As negotiations continue on the now-postponed sequestration cuts and on the debt ceiling, we encourage Congress and the President to recognize how essential these incentives are for the work charitable nonprofits perform in every community throughout the country.

However, the New York Council of Nonprofits also would like to express deep concern that Congress and the President have failed to resolve the pending across-the-board cuts of $54.6 billion from domestic spending programs that will touch virtually every person and every community in America.  

Federal policymakers have failed to recognize that the arbitrary sequestration cuts to domestic programs will reduce funding without reducing the underlying human needs, thereby increasing demands on states, local governments, and nonprofits in local communities while also decreasing resources to provide needed services. Too many policymakers apparently are unaware that federal funding actually flows to the states and localities to deliver basic human services. Often these services are delivered through contracts with nonprofits because governments have found charitable nonprofits to be more efficient and effective, in part because they are mission-driven rather than profit-driven. After five years of serving so many more for so much longer with so much less, America's charitable nonprofits are past the breaking point. 

 

Kicking the can down the road means kicking those who are already down and struggling to get back up. We must keep up the pressure on Congress and the President to stop the punitive and arbitrary cuts and get to work on continuing our economic recovery.

To learn and do more, NYCON encourages our members to visit the National Council of Nonprofits website at www.councilofnonprofits.org.

For the full article click here.

Nonprofits and the ‘Fiscal Cliff’: What Lies Ahead?

A Chronicle Live Discussion

Nonprofits are scrambling to persuade Congress to avoid making spending cuts and tax changes that would hurt donors and the people charities serve.

But how can your organization make its voice heard during the debate surrounding the fiscal cliff? 

View this live discussion that explains what might happen over the next few weeks and months and show you step by step how to influence budget debates on Capitol Hill and in state capitols across the country.

Click Here for the Discussion

The Guests:

Tim Delaney, is chief executive of the National Council of Nonprofits.

Patrick Lester is director of federal fiscal policy for OMB Watch. Read Mr. Lester's analysis,Mitigating the Impact of a Temporary Sequester.

Oppose Cap on Deductions for Charitable Donations

Help Nonprofits Across the Country Oppose the Proposed Cap on Charitable Deductions Learn More and Add Your Voice Today! As New York's statewide association of charitable nonprofits with over 3,000 members, the New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc. (NYCON) is strongly urging our Representatives and Senators to oppose efforts to include charitable deductions in an overall cap on itemized deductions and to oppose any other efforts to reduce current levels of charitable deductions. Already Doing More With Less... Community nonprofits, including those considered faith-based, are at the front lines of protecting and strengthening individuals, families and their communities and simply do not have the capacity to bear more burdens associated with ill-advised and sometimes arbitrary withdrawal of federal, state and local governments from domestic programs. During this recession, the workload of many of the state's nonprofits has increased as poverty levels have risen. Research has shown that nationally the demands on the nonprofit sector have soared since at least 2008, increasing 73% in 2008; 77 % in 2009; 77% in 2010; and 85% in 2011. Regarding the proposal of including charitable deductions in the pot of an overall cap of itemized deductions, this will not only be harmful to the good work of charities but is unfair. How Will This Affect Nonprofits? Consider that charitable deductions are different from the other itemized deductions in that the public, not the individual taxpayer, benefits from the expenditure (unlike with mortgage interest, gambling losses, etc.) A cap on itemized deductions would be consumed by fixed-cost deductions being the "first-dollar in" such as mortgage interest and state/local taxes, leaving little or no room under the cap for discretionary charitable gifts. Charities in high tax states, such as New York State, are particularly at risk. In these times, we urge Congress to consider policies that encourage charitable giving, not discourage donations. We ask you to urge our elected officials to oppose legislation that threatens the capacity community nonprofits to acquire the charitable resources needed to better the lives of people and the communities they live in. To Add Your Voice to Those Opposing this Cap, Click Here To learn more about the potential impact of the "Fiscal Cliff" on nonprofits, click here.

Economic Impact Study Update: Photos and Quotes Needed!

Dear SCNYED Members,

We are asking for your submissions of Photo's and Quotes from the people who benefit from your organizations mission. to be considered for inclusion in the Economic impact Study final document which is currently being prepared by Riger.  Individuals would need to sign consent form for the images and quotes to be used.  It is critically important to show the personal side of how we impact the lives of those who are touched by our programs.  Please send your submissions to Darrell Newvine at Family Enrichment Network  dnewvine@familyenrichment.cc by August 24th   Thank You.

We hope to have the final draft of the document ready to share with all of you in late September, watch for the meeting date.

Sincerely,
Deb Fitzgerald
Steering Committee Chair SCNYED
 

Deborah Fitzgerald, Exec Director

Cub Care Children's Center
Enriching Young Minds
Recess Resources, Inc.
201 Main Street, Vestal, NY  13850
Ph: 607-786-9006  Fax: 607-786-7705
Visit us at www.cubcare.org
Like us on Face Book  -
 http://www.facebook.com/#!/CUBCARE

Tell Governor Cuomo About Your Nonprofit!

Let's Tell Them About The Good Work Of Nonprofits
Submit Your Testimonial to NYCON & the Governor Today!

On August 3rd the Governor announced the formation of a task force charged with investigating executive compensation at nonprofit agencies (full announcement from Gov. Cuomo below).

NYCON is in agreement with the Governor that activities like those recently exposed in the NY Times that were the impetus to the formation of this task force, can have significant detrimental effects on the relationship between nonprofits and the public.

However, we also know that these types of activities are not solely a "nonprofit issue" and, furthermore, that there are many more positive stories than negative ones occurring in nonprofits.

We want to make sure the Governor realizes this too.

We are asking you to help us remind Governor Cuomo that nonprofits employ hard-working New Yorkers who provide much needed services in communities across our state.

Please send us your stories, comments and reactions to the Governor's announcement!

Let the administration know the services you provide are essential and are delivered in an ethical, honest and efficient manner that rivals any successful for-profit company. Let's remind them, and all taxpayers, that we're delivering services at costs far below our private sector counterparts, and take on contractual obligations from the State that they would never agree to, often times to our own detriment - because we exist for our mission, not profit.

Please submit your stories here.

NYCON is creating a web page dedicated to publishing your testimonials, and we encourage you to submit your stories which will be shared online and with the Governor's press office. You can also submit your comments directly to the press office at: press.office@exec.ny.gov.

Please feel free to contact our membership office if you have any questions or comments.

Thank you again for all you do and for your continued dedication to the nonprofit sector and your community.

Doug Sauer

CEO, New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc.

Program Committee Proposes Program Topics

The Program Committee has developed three topic ideas and would like your input on these areas:
1) Training Executive Directors to work with the board
2) Collaboration a step by step guide
3) Partnerships, mergers and acquisitions

Click here for the survey.

Comptroller Questions, Nonprofits Respond

Last week NYCON was asked to provide feedback to the Comptroller's Office on how late New York State contracts and payments were affecting real nonprofits in the community. NYCON has already collected almost 250 responses - and more nonprofits are responding every day.
• 66% of nonprofits responding said they currently have a line of credit
• 66% of nonprofits responding said that they had borrowed money because of delayed government contracts and/or payments in the last two years.

Well over 100 comments were also submitted to the Comptroller´s Office. Click here for a sampling of these comments (a full list will be posted soon on the NYCON website.) Still want to add your feedback? Click here for the survey.

Want to know what else you can do? The Comptroller's Office will be holding nonprofit forums around New York State soon. NYCON will inform our members when those forums are scheduled.

Membership Benefits Corner: Special Package Offers on Bylaws, Personnel Policy Reviews and more...
Bylaw & Personnel Policy Reviews
Whether you are a newly created organization or a long standing one, risk management is the keystone for good governance of your organization. Two important tools for protection of your organization from mission killing liability and litigation is the creation and annual review of corporate bylaws and personnel policies. Our attorneys and legal staff will dissect your corporate documents and review same for legal pitfalls, returning same to you with revision comments and "best practice" advice within 30 days.
A Bylaw Review is $500.
A Personnel Policy Review is $700.
A Package price for both is only $1,000.
Interested? Click here and let us know and we´ll have one of our legal staff get back to you to start the process!

Corporate Document Review
Another important element of risk management is the maintenance of the proper form of corporate existence. Our attorneys and legal staff will analyze your Certificate of Incorporation, and any Amendments for consistency between them and your internal corporate documents and Bylaws, returning the same to you with revision comments and "best practice" advice within 15 days.
A Corporate Document Review is $300.00.
Interested? Click here and let us know and we´ll have one of our legal staff get back to you to start the process!

A Time to Give: Nonprofits Share Needs

The Press & Sun-Bulletin offered a partial listing of nonprofits who have needs, and how people can help. Click here for the list.

United Way of Broome County
Mission: To improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities.
Address: 101 S. Jensen Road, Vestal, N.Y. 13850
Contact: Alan Hertel, Executive Director
Related
Keep in mind how blessed we are during the holiday season
Phone: 729-2592
Web: www.unitedwaybroome.org
Three needs:
* The number of families in our community relying on the services provided by our partner agencies to cope with their daily living has increased dramatically. Please help them by donating whatever you can afford to maintain these much-needed services.
* Holiday gifts for teenagers to be distributed to this often-forgotten age group.
* Kid-friendly food, such as microwaveable macaroni and cheese, to distribute to children for weekends and holidays when they cannot take advantage of school lunch programs.

Tioga United Way, Inc.
Mission: Provide hope and opportunity for our community
Address: 24 State Route 96, Owego, N.Y. 13827
Contact: Fred Trzcinski, Executive Director
Telephone: 687-4028
Web: www.tiogaunitedway.com
Three needs:
* Monetary donations to help reach our 2010 campaign goal of $365,000.00, which will be distributed among our 33 member agencies providing human services to Tioga County residents
* Food items to be distributed to member agencies with food distribution activities in Tioga County
* New toys and books to be distributed to member agencies, who will distribute toys and books to needy children in Tioga County.

Catholic Charities of Broome County
Mission: To serve the poor and disadvantaged of our community through service, advocacy, empowerment, and convening.
Address: 232 Main St., Binghamton, N.Y.
Contact: Kathy Pfaffenbach,
Email: kpfaffenbach@ccbc.net
Web: www.catholiccharitiesbc.org
See the list here.

Call for Nominations for BCAC's 2009 Heart of the Arts and Lifetime Achievement Awards

YOU are invited to download submission instructions and official forms NOW and submit your nominations by 12:00 Noon, Friday, July 10th!

The annual Heart of the Arts Awards and Lifetime Achievement Awards honor those who have made significant contributions to the arts in Broome County. Nominated by YOU, the community, and chosen by the ballot votes of BCAC members, recipients truly represent the 'heart of the arts' in Broome County. 2009 recipients will be announced in late August and awards bestowed at this year's Heart of the Arts Awards Celebration on Friday, October 2nd at the Forum Theatre Recital Hall in downtown Binghamton. Save the Date and Voice YOUR choice! Heart of the ARTS to YOU!

Strategic Management in Tough Times Follow Up

Have follow up questions? Here are some questions that have been asked so far:

• The workshop last week generated some interesting discussion on board responsibility. Did I hear this correctly? Can board members be held personally liable if an organization is dissolved with outstanding debts?

Yes, this is true. Boards of directors can be held financially responsible for outstanding debts of a nonprofit organization ceasing to operate and dissolving. Have questions, let us know.

• Can you provide specifc info regarding nonprofits not be allowed to vote by e-mail in New York State?

Interested in this answer, e-mail us for information provided by our Legal Accountability & Compliance Services staff. Add your questions here.