Nonprofits

Healthy Group Accountability: Learning How To Learn

August 24, 2021 Michael Strom And Joshua Kahn Russell, Organizing Upgrade. Organize! Accountability, Nonprofits, Organizing

A team of facilitators from our organization, The Wildfire Project, was invited to support a base-building group whose staff was absolutely burnt out. Our first workshop brought their staff together with a volunteer leadership team (from their base) who, until then, had been minimally engaged. Staff shared their overwhelm and laid out their workload. It was clear that unless the whole group took collective ownership and responsibility for the direction of the organization, it would collapse. We ended that first session together on the other side of that breakthrough: feeling grateful, connected, and on-purpose. But the more difficult work began when we came back together to make that vision of shared leadership real.

Creative Associates International: It’s Not Exactly The CIA, But Close Enough

August 17, 2021 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! Creative Associates International, Latin America, Nonprofits, US Regime Change

Chevy Chase, MD - You have likely not heard of them, but Creative Associates International (CAI) is one of the largest and most powerful non-governmental organizations operating anywhere in the world. A pillar of soft U.S. power, the group has been an architect in privatizing the Iraqi education system, designed messenger apps meant to overthrow the government of Cuba, served as a front group for the infamous Blackwater mercenary force (now rebranded as Academi), and liaised with Contra death squads in Nicaragua. As such, it has functioned as “both as an instrument of foreign policy and as a manifestation of a broader imperial project,” in the words of Professor Kenneth Saltman of the University of Illinois, Chicago.

How To Turn Your Non-Profit Into A Worker Co-op

July 8, 2020 By GEO Collective. Create! New Economy, Nonprofits, Wisconsin, Worker Cooperatives

If people who want to start a worker-owned cooperative are currently working for a government agency — like we were working for a nonprofit that was contracting with a government agency — but even if you are working directly with a government agency and they're going to outsource your jobs to another company, you have the best expertise that anyone could have for doing your job. And if you form a worker cooperative and put in your own bid, there's nothing to stop you from doing that. And your bid will probably be the most attractive because you know the best of how much things cost, and what to expect in the way of expenses. And you can also address how the work will be done better than anyone else could. And so your chances for keeping your jobs that way are, I think, really good, as as we were able to do. And so I think what we did could be a model for any government employees where they're going to get laid off, and the job is going to be outsourced. All government agencies have to put bids out for proposals.

Baltimore Nonprofits Fail To Pay Their “Fair Share” Of City Services

December 22, 2019 Mark Reutter, Baltimore Brew. Educate! Baltimore, City Services, Nonprofits, Taxes

Last night the City Council ripped off one of the biggest scabs on Baltimore’s body politic – the fact that large nonprofit institutions pay no property taxes. At an informational hearing, the Council heard from advocacy groups who denounced a 2016 agreement with anchor hospitals and universities in which they agreed to pay a total of $6 million a year for their use of city services. Critics have called the Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, a “backroom deal” passed by the Board of Estimates to allow the nonprofits to grossly underpay their fair share of taxes through June 2026. Negotiated by former Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the deal was approved by Baltimore’s current mayor, Bernard C. “Jack” Young, when he was City Council president.

‘Zero-Tolerance’ Immigration Policy Is Big Money For Contractors, Nonprofits

June 26, 2018 By Geoff West and Alex Baumgart, Opensecrets.org Educate! Immigration, Nonprofits, Policy

President Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy under the direction of Attorney General Jeff Sessions is big business for U.S. companies — from private prison and tech firms to defense and security contractors — as well as nonprofits. Under bipartisan pressure, Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ending the administration’s controversial child-separation policy. But Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy, in which individuals who enter the U.S. illegally are prosecuted, will continue. All this comes as the country grapples with harrowing images of babies stripped from their mothers’ arms and children playing soccer on the grounds of abandoned Walmart stores along the Southwest border. Trump defended his policy in a campaign speech Wednesday in Minnesota. That came a day after the raid of an Ohio meat plant in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 146 employees accused of being in the country illegally. It was the largest workforce raid in recent history, according to the agency.

Non-Profits Sue Monsanto Over Misleading Labeling Of Popular Herbicide Roundup

April 14, 2017 Katherine Paul, www.organicconsumers.org Resist! Labeling, Lawsuit, Monsanto, Nonprofits

By Katherine Paul for Organic Consumers Association - Washington, DC- Two nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit against Monsanto for misleading the public by labeling its popular weedkiller Roundup as “target[ing] an enzyme found in plants but not in people or pets.” This lawsuit claims this statement is false, deceptive, and misleading, because the enzyme targeted by glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is, in fact, found in people and pets. Beyond Pesticides and Organic Consumers Association (OCA), through their attorneys, Richman Law Group, filed jointly on behalf of the general public in Washington D.C. under the District of Columbia’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act. “The unequivocal nature of Monsanto’s label claim on Roundup belies the complexity of human biology and the impact this highly toxic chemical has on the functioning of the human gut bacteria, essential to our health,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides. “With this claim, Monsanto is falsely telling the public that its product cannot hurt them,” he said. “Corporations must be held to a high standard when it comes to the information they include on product labels, especially when it comes to the issue of safety,” said Ronnie Cummins...

More Equitable Economy Exists Right Next Door

April 1, 2017 Jay Walljasper, www.alternet.org Create! Cooperatives, Finance and the Economy, Nonprofits

By Jay Walljasper for AlterNet - Business owners gather at an elegant Montreal event center to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a large-scale economic partnership. The former chief of Quebec’s largest bank is the guest of honor. Sidewalks bustle with people walking in and out of homes, offices, bank, pharmacy, workout studio and coffee shop at Montreal’s Technopole Angus, a development that already sports 56 business with 2500 employees and will eventually encompass a million-square-feet of real estate. Morning-shift workers unload barrels of paper onto conveyor belts emptying into giant shredding machines on the shop floor of Recyclage Vanier, a Quebec City firm specializing in secure disposal of confidential documents.

Congress’s Move To Delay IRS Muzzle Rule Another Year Is Not All Good News

June 23, 2016 Adam DeAngeli, www.taxrevolution.us Educate! Free Speech, IRS, Nonprofits

By Adam DeAngeli for Tax Revolution Center - The draft of the House of Representatives’ financial-services appropriations bill contains language very similar to what was passed last year to defund the IRS from implementing the nonprofit muzzle rule. If enforced, the rule would harm the nonprofit community by curtailing their First Amendment right to speech and creating legal exposure for accidentally violating these new draconian limits. It’s well and good that the IRS will be prohibited another year from carrying out this rule, but unfortunately this bill leaves the door open for the IRS to move forward with their mandate the following year.

Cleveland’s Greater University Circle Initiative

June 18, 2016 Walter Wright, Kathryn W. Hexter and Nick Downer, www.democracycollaborative.org Create! Cleveland, Development, Nonprofits

By Walter Wright, Kathryn W. Hexter and Nick Downer for Democracy Collaborative - Cities are increasingly turning to their “anchor” institutions as drivers of economic development, harnessing the power of these major economic players to benefit the neighborhoods where they are rooted. This is especially true for cities that are struggling with widespread poverty and disinvestment. Urban anchors— typically hospitals and universities—have sometimes isolated themselves from the poor and struggling neighborhoods that surround them.

Nonprofits: Beware The Hand That Feeds

January 26, 2016 Auset Marian Lewis, www.telesurtv.net Educate! Funding, Money, Nonprofits

By Auset Marian Lewis for Tele Sur - Injustice is not happenstance. It’s systemic. Police shoot more unarmed black men than white because the slave system put a target on their backs centuries ago that has never been erased. Racism is in America’s DNA. It is a systemic problem built into the American culture ever since black people were counted as chattel and fed from a pig’s trough. Every American institution from prisons to politics, from Yale to Mizzou is laced with the inextricable venom of the slave system. The American system is so infected with racial injustice that even programs funded to mitigate systemic social and economic problems become fruit of the poisonous tree.

Wall Street Taking Over Nonprofit Sector

January 5, 2016 Dan Wright, www.shadowproof.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Nonprofits, Wall Street

By Dan Wright for Shadow Proof - While there has traditionally been a close relationship between Wall Street donors and nonprofit organizations like charities and universities, a new study from the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) reveals a growing Wall Street takeover of nonprofit boards of directors. Using data from what are referred to in the study as major private research universities, elite small liberal arts colleges, and prominent New York City cultural and health institutions, SSIR calculates that “[T]he percentage of people from finance on the boards virtually doubled at all three types of nonprofits between 1989 and 2014.”

Why NonProfits Can’t Lead The 99%

December 24, 2015 Warren Marr, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Nonprofits

By Warren Marr for Black Agenda Report - A seasoned movement elder examines what happens left organizations are led exclusively by college-educated professionals answerable to self-perpetuating boards and philanthropic funders, what happens when union leaderships free themselves from their memberships, and when community organizations become government contractors. Only membership supported and membership-driven organizations, he suggests, can actually lead the 99%. Warren Mar has written a provocative piece on the role of Community Based Organizations and Worker Centers in the working class movement.

Don’t Look To US Government To Solve Climate Crisis

September 5, 2014 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.occupy.com Educate! Climate Change, Climate Justice, Energy, Nonprofits

In our previous article, we described how the U.S. has undermined the United Nations Conference of Party (COP) meetings to force a pro-industry agenda, even going so far as spying on countries and negotiating in secret. The same activities are occurring at home to stop attempts to end the current extraction-based energy economy and move into a low-carbon, renewables-based one. Now, the climate crisis is here and we must take serious action to mitigate it and build systems that allow us to adapt to its effects on our life systems. Solutions exist to accomplish this, but they won’t be coming from above. Rather, they will come from a mobilized grassroots demanding transformation to a carbon-free, nuclear-free energy economy. This month, when the United Nations holds climate meetings in New York, people in the U.S. have an opportunity to gather, raise awareness about the roots of the crisis, and build a broader "movement of movements" that cooperates through a unified strategy.

Corporations Spy On Nonprofits With Impunity

August 25, 2014 Ralph Nader, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Corporatism, Nonprofits, Surveillance

Here's a dirty little secret you won't see in the daily papers: Corporations conduct espionage against U.S. nonprofit organizations without fear of being brought to justice. Yes, that means using a great array of spycraft and snoopery, including planned electronic surveillance, wiretapping, information warfare, infiltration, dumpster diving and so much more. The evidence abounds. For example, six years ago, based on extensive documentary evidence, James Ridgeway reported in Mother Jones on a major corporate espionage scheme by Dow Chemical focused on Greenpeace and other environmental and food activists. Greenpeace was running a potent campaign against Dow's use of chlorine to manufacture paper and plastics. Dow grew worried and eventually desperate. Ridgeway's article and subsequent revelations produced jaw-dropping information about how Dow's private investigators, from the firm Beckett Brown International (BBI), hired: • An off-duty DC police officer who gained access to Greenpeace trash dumpsters at least 55 times;

Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex

June 4, 2014 Indigenous Action Media, www.indigenousaction.org Strategize! Ally, Capitalism, Indigenous Rights, Nonprofits

The ally industrial complex has been established by activists whose careers depend on the “issues” they work to address. These nonprofit capitalists advance their careers off the struggles they ostensibly support. They often work in the guise of “grassroots” or “community-based” and are not necessarily tied to any organization. They build organizational or individual capacity and power, establishing themselves comfortably among the top ranks in their hierarchy of oppression as they strive to become the ally “champions” of the most oppressed. While the exploitation of solidarity and support is nothing new, the commodification and exploitation of allyship is a growing trend in the activism industry. Anyone who concerns themselves with anti-oppression struggles and collective liberation has at some point either participated in workshops, read ‘zines, or been parts of deep discussions on how to be a “good” ally. You can now pay hundreds of dollars to go to esoteric institutes for an allyship certificate in anti-oppression. You can go through workshops and receive an allyship badge. In order to commodify struggle it must first be objectified. This is exhibited in how “issues” are “framed” & “branded.” Where struggle is commodity, allyship is currency. Ally has also become an identity, disembodied from any real mutual understanding of support. The term ally has been rendered ineffective and meaningless.

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