NONPROFIT LEADERS TO PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS: 1 MILLION CHARITIES ARE READY TO HELP
Unprecedented Declaration calls for renewing America’s compact with its “citizen sector.”
In
an unprecedented appeal to America’s public and private leadership and
to the American people, leaders of organizations representing tens of
thousands of American nonprofit organizations today called for a
reinvigorated and empowered partnership between government and the
nonprofit, or “citizen sector,” to address our country’s social,
economic, and environmental problems and improve the quality of
community life.
The nonprofit leaders issued a
Declaration entitled, “Forward Together: Empowering America’s Citizen
Sector for the Change We Need,” that calls on the nation’s governments
and businesses to join with its citizen sector for a renewed
“partnership in public service.”
Citing major needs,
from housing, to food and clothing, to the strains on the nation’s
cultural institutions and its facilities for youth, the homeless and
the aged, the nonprofit leaders said that now is the time to act to
strengthen the capacity of a citizen sector that “shelters the
homeless, trains the unemployed, educates our youth, builds affordable
housing, counsels families, delivers health care, gives voice to the
powerless, enriches our lives with arts and culture, and serves America
in a myriad other ways by uniquely mobilizing citizen initiative for
the common good.”
The declaration highlights the economic
contributions of America’s citizen sector, including its 11 million
paid workers, more than the construction industry, finance,
transportation and real estate. But the declaration warns that the
citizen sector will need help to play the role of which it is capable
in these tough economic times.
Signers of the
declaration include citizen sector leaders from Hawaii to Maine,
representing a broad array of nonprofit institutions, from small
community development organizations to large networks of faith-based
nursing homes. An advertisement set to appear in the next issue of The
Chronicle of Philanthropy appeals to others to join this call, to
ensure that the citizen sector is no longer overlooked as a crucial
partner in solving the country’s deepening problems.
“The
citizen sector is a powerful engine for change with enormous potentials
to assist in coping with our nation’s problems, but the country is not
taking anywhere close to full advantage of these potentials,” said
Lester M. Salamon, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil
Society Studies and of its Nonprofit Listening Post Project, which
organized the seminar that initially generated the declaration. “The
outpouring of support for this Declaration speaks to the need many
people in this sector feel for a clear reminder of the immense
contributions nonprofit organizations are capable of making at this
critical point in our nation’s history if they are only given the
chance.”
Peter Goldberg, CEO of the Alliance for Children
and Families and a leader in the development of the declaration, said
that “we must change our world view from half-empty to half-full. We
can rightfully see our collapsing economy as leading to persistent
poverty, disappearing jobs, strained families, failing schools, and
many other social problems. Or, we can instead focus on what can be
done and how we can do it together. Those of us who work in the
citizen sector are ready to act, and we can be so much more effective
if we act in true partnership with leaders in business and government.”
In
addition to its call to action, the declaration outlines a set of
concrete ways that nonprofits could help with America’s economic
recovery, such as utilizing the sizable network of nonprofit housing
and community development finance institutions to help re-work problem
mortgages, and incentivizing increased charitable giving. In addition,
the declaration details broader steps the country can take to renew its
compact with the citizen sector, such as reforming government-nonprofit
partnerships, investing in citizen sector capacity, and supporting new
models of nonprofit finance.
To accommodate the
numerous other nonprofit leaders and supporters across the country that
may want to be associated with this declaration, the Johns Hopkins
Listening Post Project has created a Web site at http://www.jhu.edu/listeningpost/forward
where the declaration can be viewed in its entirety and interested
persons can sign on and learn about steps they can take to extend the
reach and impact of this document, such as encouraging colleagues and
board members to sign on, and bringing the document to the attention of
local policymakers and the media. The first page of the declaration and
the full list of initial signers will be published in the Feb. 26,
2009, edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
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