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

Voluntary Compliance Program announced by IRS to address worker misclassification

Information for your members: You may have seen that in late September the IRS announced a voluntary compliance program for employers (including nonprofit employers) to enable those who have mistakenly classified workers as independent contractors to make a correction, along with a modest payment, and avoid the usual penalties of noncompliance. This program’s announcement offers an opportunity to remind nonprofits about the risk of misclassification and share information with them about the voluntary compliance program. See the National Council’s website materials on this topic.

Here is the text of the IRS announcement about the voluntary compliance program (from the IRS’s EO Update circulated on October 4):

“The IRS has launched a new program that will enable many employers, including tax-exempt employers, to resolve past worker classification issues and come back into compliance by making a minimal payment covering past payroll tax obligations rather than waiting for an IRS audit. To be eligible for the new Voluntary Classification Settlement Program an applicant must:

Consistently have treated the workers as nonemployees in the past

Filed all required Forms 1099 for the workers for the previous three years

Not currently be under audit by the IRS, Department of Labor or a state agency concerning the classification of these workers.

Full details, including FAQs, will be available on the Employment Tax Pages of IRS.gov and in Announcement 2011-64.”

Nonprofits Have Big Role in State

As Governor-Elect Andrew Cuomo and legislators shape their plans for New York next year, they should pay close attention to the state's vibrant not-for-profit sector, as it is the standard-bearer for innovation and service to the state and its people. The 80,000 not-for-profit organizations in the state play crucial roles: leading efforts to prevent or cure disease, alleviate poverty, advance education, address environmental and social concerns, and ennoble through culture.

New York's robust charitable sector, including such powerhouses as Columbia University, Sloan-Kettering, the Red Cross, the Ford Foundation and Lincoln Center, as well as community-based organizations, such as local drug-prevention programs, small community theaters and religion-based charities, help fuel the state's economy, generating over $150 billion in revenue annually and employing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. Second in size only to the government as an employer in the city, the nonprofit sector provides more jobs than the financial and insurance industries combined.

Working together, state government and nonprofits can help maintain our state's primacy as innovator, incubator and magnet for investment. Here's how.

* Adjust taxes to encourage more giving. For example, reward taxpayers for increases in year-over-year charitable giving and incentivize artists to donate their work to charity auctions in support of good causes.

* Promote regulatory, administrative and legislative reforms that make it easier to start and operate nonprofits, especially in high-tech, medical research and green industries.

* Encourage and facilitate partnering among nonprofits and between them and for-profit businesses. For instance, provide a clearinghouse so that environmental groups can pair up with green-tech businesses or so arts-in-education organizations can collaborate with founders of charter schools.

* Incentivize nonprofits to hire recent college graduates to fill needed roles while they learn important lessons about professional development and social responsibility.

* Rearrange state budgets with existing charitable resources in mind. For example, recalibrate school aid and Medicaid expenditures so that public spending on students, the elderly and the disabled complements and stimulates private nonprofit resources and support.

* Safeguard against encroachments on sales- or property-tax -exemptions, which would hurt already-stretched hospitals, elder-care facilities and YMCAs.

* Promote visibility for worthy nonprofits by providing voluntary check-offs on state tax forms.

* Include nonprofit destinations in the state's promotion of tourism and convention activity.

* Make nonprofits part of New York's federal lobbying strategy.

The public's trust in state government may be at a low ebb, but public support for nonprofits endures. By recommitting himself to the well-being of our valuable nonprofit institutions, Mr. Cuomo can take important steps toward reclaiming the state's role as a national beacon and perpetuate its highest ideals.

by Lesley Freidman Rosenthal, for original article click here.

The Principles Workbook: Steering Your Board Toward Good Governance and Ethical Practice

Independent Sector has released a new tool to help nonprofits, foundations, and corporate philanthropy programs examine and improve their governance, and do so in a cost-effective way.

The Workbook continues Independent Sector's commitment to assisting organizations as they work to uphold the highest standards of accountability. It expands on and elucidates the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector's Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A Guide for Charities and Foundations, 33 recommendations that organizations can use to analyze and improve their practices.

Download a free copy here.

New Bills Introduced in NYS

NY Property Tax Exemption and Appropriation for Nonprofits
AB 2236 would amend the real property tax law to provide a property tax exemption to nonprofits, and allow owners of exempt property to apply for state financial aid in an amount equal to the sum of the property tax that the owner would have paid had the property not been exempt.

NY Required Posting on Charitable Solicitation Containers
AB 2678 would amend existing law regarding charitable contributions to require charities that solicit donations through unattended containers to post the percentage of the funds that will actually be used for the stated charitable purpose.

A Scan of Nonprofit Policy Recommendations for the Obama Administration

The Cohen Report, written by Rick Cohen, the Nonprofit Quarterly’s national correspondent, features an overview here of many of the ideas and agendas being put forward to the Obama administration by various nonprofit groups and associations. As his blog post states:

"The analysis here taps formal recommendations or briefs promulgated by several organizations including Independent Sector, the National Council of Nonprofits, and the Council on Foundations, plus shorter commentaries and op-eds issued by well known nonprofit sector leaders and observers such as Lester Salamon, John Bridgeland, E.J. Dionne, and Melissa Berman."

Mr. Cohen breaks this information out into categories and brings a clear perspective to the many calls for action in the nonprofit sector.