By Jim Simpson, CPA and director, Financial Technologies & Management |
Last year, the Nonprofit Finance Fund in its State of the Nonprofit Sector reported that only seven percent of nonprofits received full project costs from foundations.
Let’s make sure we have the same definition for defining full costs because it is not just expenses. Using the following formula helps to define what denotes full costs: day-to-day operating expenses + reserves + fixed asset additions + debt reduction.
Nonprofits that recover full costs prevent financial crises and interrupted services and enable leaders to stay focused on mission and related outcomes.
Many nonprofit organizations don’t know their full costs and settle for less recovery than full costs.
By Nayantara Mehta, counsel, Alliance for Justice |
When many people think about nonprofits and lobbying, they might think of a relationship like oil and water: they don’t mix. There is a widespread perception that nonprofits cannot lobby, or if they do lobby, they are exploiting some kind of legal loophole. The fact is that nonprofits, even 501(c)(3) organizations, which are the most restricted type of nonprofits, may legally lobby. Getting involved in the legislative process and having a say in policy discussions is not just an appropriate role for nonprofits; it is vital. If nonprofits are not speaking on behalf of their often-vulnerable communities, chances are nobody else is either.
Organizations with a focus on the environment may be the most visible nonprofits engaging in the policy process, but lobbying is no less important for nonprofits working on every issue area, from the arts to wildlife preservation.
By Emily Alpert Reyes, reporter, Los Angeles Times |
Two nonprofits could face fines totaling more than $47,000 from the city Ethics Commission for failing to accurately report how much they had spent on lobbying at City Hall.
Ethics Commission staffers have proposed a fine of $30,000 for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, an influential organization that has successfully pushed to raise wages for hotel and airport workers, and $17,500 for the Hospital Assn. of Southern California, a regional trade group for hospitals.
Given the many crucial issues facing nonprofit organizations and the people they serve, it is more important than ever that charities become involved in the public policy debate. Yet too many people mistakenly assume that it is illegal for nonprofits to lobby.
To the contrary, federal laws actually exist to encourage charities to lobby within certain specified limits. Knowing what constitutes lobbying under the law, and what the limits are, is the key to being able to lobby legally and safely. This article represents a vastly simplified summary of some of the laws and regulations governing charitable lobbying. The complete laws are much more complex, so consult your attorney or accountant for professional advice.
By Christine H. O’Toole, freelance writer, Heinz Endowment |
When Patricia Arquette used her Oscar acceptance speech to demand fair pay for women, it wasn’t just Hollywood stars who gave her a rousing ovation.
Television viewers saw actresses Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez cheering as Ms. Arquette declared, “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.” Some 2,400 miles away, women in Pittsburgh’s nonprofit sector applauded, too.
Recent analyses of the region’s nonprofits have revealed a significant pay gap between men and women executives. The studies include a report that Bob Orser and Rita Haronian of the Nonprofit Compensation Associates prepared for the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University. It shows that although 64 percent of executive directors at nonprofit agencies in the Pittsburgh region are women, their average pay was just 75 percent of the average salary for men — $101,475 compared to men’s $135,170. Overall, women’s nonprofit pay has stalled at 74 cents for every dollar earned by men, even as women comprise 74 percent of all employees in the sector.
By Mark Miller, Reuters reporter, Minneapolis Star Tribune |
Women who work full-time, year-round, made just 79 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts in 2014, U.S. Census Bureau data show.
But the injustice of the gender pay gap also impacts retirement security.
A woman who works full-time over a 40-year period loses $435,480 in lifetime income (today’s dollars) due to the wage gap, according to the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit legal and advocacy group.
The income gap translates directly to lower income from Social Security and pensions — since those benefits are determined by wage history — and it hampers the capacity of women to save for retirement.
And since women typically live longer than men, savings often must be stretched across more years of retirement.
Paying women less than men for the same work has been illegal since 1963. Seven years ago, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for workers to challenge pay inequality. He announced last month that employers with more than 100 workers will be required to start reporting compensation data by gender to the federal government.
By Jeremy York, HR field representative, Synergy |
As an HR professional, managers often ask for advice on how to best manage their millennial staff. Many of them express frustration that the traditional management methods used in the past are no longer effective.
Why? It’s because millennials are unlike any other generation currently in the workforce. They work differently, think differently, and have different expectations from employees we have managed for years.
First of all, who are millennials? Millennials were born from 1981-2000 and are often referred to as “Generation Next.” They are fiercely independent and value achievement, diversity, work/life balance and open communication. Millennials grew up with technology at their fingertips, had a best friend named Google, and received recognition not just for winning, but for participating.
As for the workplace, they have very high expectations of company culture and see no value in negativity or conformity. Millennials do not just want to come to work, do their jobs and go home. They want involvement, a sense of purpose and belonging and personal development. They believe it is important that they mold themselves into socially responsible and compassionate people, working to make a difference in whatever they do. Millennials see the workplace as a venue to achieve their own individual goals. It is this millennial point of view that makes them so vastly different from the generations who precede them.
So how do we manage them if they’re so different? The key to managing millennials is the ability to adapt management approach to motivate and engage this group in order to meet their needs.
This means:
Creating informal, team-oriented workplaces that allow for creativity and collaboration.
Understanding that individual goals come first, followed by work goals.
Creating engaging experiences with a variety of activities, fostering strong team relations.
Providing regular feedback and identifying how work relates to the “big picture.”
Understanding that you have to earn respect no matter what your title —“Respect me to be respected.”
As of 2015, millennials are the largest generation in the workforce according to the Pew Research Center and learning how to manage and engage them is critical to a business’ future success.
While changing how we’ve always done something isn’t easy, a new paradigm is essential to attract and retain the best talent. Millennials have grown up with choices and this is no different for them when determining a place of employment.
To learn more about millennial traits, I recommend the article “10 Millennial Personality Traits That HR Managers Can’t Ignore.” This provides a great overview of what managers must understand about millennials in order to ensure an effective management approach.
Jeremy York, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is a Human Resources Field Representative for Synergy PEO Services. With over 15 years experience, he provides strategic and generalist HR support to local nonprofit organization leaders and their staffs. Jeremy has a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in Organizational Leadership and Supervision and a master’s degree from Indiana Wesleyan University in Management. He is the current director of certification for the Indiana State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and serves on the IndySHRM board of directors as the past president.
By Chip Heberden, president and owner, Netlink, Inc. |
The turmoil of a typical workday creates endless opportunities and constant pressure to do many things concurrently. Our technology lets us conference call during our commute, email during meetings, and channel the great football commentator John Madden by handling a continuous stream of inbound pings as we work through workday requests from co-workers, customers, clients or our social network.
Multitasking is the universally accepted vernacular we use to reassure ourselves that our technology is allowing us to do more, keep up and get better all the time. Whether it’s the constant pull of texting, tending to the requirements emails, which would be better suited to a phone call), your mind has many opportunities to get sidetracked with the fix of the moment.
Growing up with technology, this situation seems natural: why not attend a meeting and catch up on your email at the same time. Or document your lunch with via Instagram for your personal network while out to eat with co-workers. Multitasking means you are getting it “ALL” done at once, doesn’t it?
By Walter Frick, senior associate editor, Harvard Business Review |
In October 2000, Jack Welch announced the biggest deal of his 20-year tenure as head of GE: a $45 billion merger with Honeywell. Shortly thereafter he was forced to retire, due to GE’s mandatory retirement policy for CEOs turning 65.
More than a third of S&P 500 firms have a mandatory retirement policy for their CEO. Their aim is to drive out executives who are past their prime. But are such policies a good idea?
By Adrienne Roberts, reporter, Detroit Business Daily News |
The Detroit Police Athletic League announced it raised $12 million and will be able to break ground in April on its new youth sports complex and headquarters at the site of the old Tiger Stadium in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.
“For many years, the corner of Michigan and Trumbull and Tiger Stadium was where many young athletes began incredible careers enabling them to give back to their communities,” says Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. “It’s meaningful that this site will honor many of those individuals while becoming the newest complex for more Detroit kids to receive the kind of mentoring and support through sports programming that Detroit PAL provides.”
