Policy Poll: Government Contracting & Prompt Payment Practices

Take the "Government Contracting and Prompt Payment Poll": Help Enhance the Upcoming National Report with Real Stories from New York's Nonprofits!   Deadline: December 2nd As many of you are well aware, government contracting issues have an immense impact on the ability of nonprofits in New York State to carry out their mission.  Though we are the only state with a "Prompt Contracting" law designed to safeguard nonprofits through the contracting process, there are still many hurdles New York Nonprofits face when attempting to get timely, adequate payment for our services.  NYCON strives to be an active and committed partner both with our Members and representatives of  government on initiatives aimed at improving the state contracting process.   In order to do this, NYCON is now asking all nonprofits with government contracts to please take a few moments to complete this Pulse Poll: Contracts and Grants regarding your recent experiences. Results from this poll will be used to supplement and enhance the findings from the upcoming Urban Institute study. We would greatly appreciate any stories and specific examples you can provide on how your government contracts or grant experiences have affected your organization or those you serve.   All stories will be kept anonymous unless you have given your permission to use your experience as an example in any discussions or documents produced regarding these issues.   NYCON does expect media sources to be contacting our office after the study's release. We hope your answers can be a resource for us to draw upon to give a clear and realistic picture of how state contracting problems impact New York's nonprofits presently.      Click here to take the Pulse Poll: Contracts and Grants, or paste this link into your browser: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PulsePollContractsandGrants  Please complete your survey ASAP, but no later thanDecember 2, 2013. Also, please share this message broadlywith your colleague organizations that may have government contracts or grants.     If you have any questions, please call us at (518) 434-9194 ext 126or email avanderwarker@nycon.org. Sincerely,                  Doug Sauer, CEO New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc. (NYCON) The Urban Institute, along with the National Council of Nonprofits, will be releasing a study on December 5th, 2013 on state contracting and payment practices.

Call to Action: Confronting Severe Challenge to Charitable Deductions, Spending Programs

National Council of Nonprofits 

Call to Action: Confronting Severe Challenge to Charitable Deductions, Spending Programs

Charitable nonprofits are truly at risk of losing the charitable giving incentive in the Lame Duck session of Congress. Now is the time to call on our 25,000+ nonprofit members – and their board members, staff members, volunteers, donors, and others you know with email addresses – to raise their collective voices in telling Congress to protect the charitable deduction and stop the arbitrary spending cuts known as sequestration set to go into effect on January 2, 2013.

Congress and the President are negotiating how to avert the $600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes that take effect at year’s end if they fail to take action. One proposal rapidly gaining support (particularly - but not only - among Republican Senators) is capping itemized deductions, including for charitable donations, at $15,000, $17,000, or $25,000 for individual taxpayers. Such a cap would eliminate any tax incentive for donations to charities. The big fixed-cost deductions, such as for mortgage interest (national average of $10,640 in 2010) and state/local taxes (national average of $11,593 in 2010), that combined total $22,233, would eat away the entire deduction at the levels being discussed, leaving no room for discretionary gifts to the work of charities. Even if they increase the cap to $30,000 or $40,000, that leaves very little incentive for giving. Larger institutional nonprofits with dedicated development staff will then have an advantage to squeeze out smaller charitable nonprofits for the limited dollars then available.

DO SOMETHING TODAY! Click on the link below to learn more and to see what actions you can do. 

Call to Action Link 

Standards for Common Sense: A Practical Guide to Basic Accountability Standards for New York Nonprofits

New York Council of Nonprofits published this updated edition with the support of Council Services Plus and the Dyson Foundation. This booklet, available to download for free here, is a practical guide for the average nonprofit seeking a reasonable understanding of what accountability standards are, who is promoting them, what related state laws say, and how to think about the choices presented. NYCON has selected eight of the most basic issues involving governance structure and practice, i.e. board size, board compensation, conflict of interest policies, board member independence, term limits, frequency of meetings, audit requirements and the creation of audit committees. The booklet outlines each issue, compares and discusses the standards set by laws or regulations and five different standards setting bodies - the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, the Standards for Excellence Institute, the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.

In this 2nd Edition, NYCON has also added a section on Standards of Financial Accountability. This section explores guidelines for percentage of expenditures on program and fundraising activities along with the level of net assets relative to annual spending. Download your copy now.

The State of Nonprofit Transparency

Guidestar has offered a new report, “The State of Nonprofit Transparency, 2008: Voluntary Disclosure Practices.”

Do you know how often nonprofits describe their programs and accomplishments on their Web sites? Do you know how often they post their annual reports? GuideStar’s new report is the first-ever systematic review of the information nonprofits make available to the public on the Internet. The report analyzes the on-line disclosure practices of more than 1,800 nonprofits and gives GuideStar’s recommendations for taking nonprofit transparency to the next level. (Read the Executive Summary.)

Some findings:

• More than nine in 10 nonprofits have a website, and almost half post their annual reports
• Only 13 percent post their audited financial statements and only three percent post their IRS letters of determination, both of which GuideStar recommends making available online.

Nonprofit Policy News

The following nonprofit policy news concerning newly introduced New York State bills is provided by the National Council of Nonprofits:

NY Weakening Property Tax Exemption
AB 742 would provide New York City the ability to levy a property tax on certain nonprofit organizations including arts organizations, animal benefit organizations, science focused organizations, interdenominational organizations and others.

NY Seven Year Limit on Certain Property Tax Exemptions
AB 981 would amend property tax exemption laws for mandatory class nonprofit organizations on property that does not generate revenue and is not in use. Currently, such property is exempt as long as the nonprofit is constructing a building or considering in good faith constructing a building. This bill would set a seven year limit on the exemption from the date of the acquisition of the property.