The delegation from New York is happy to have representatives from a diverse geographic area – and we’re excited to take our message about nonprofits, our strength, our impact on communities and our desire to see the National Capacity Building Initiative become a reality directly to Capitol Hill.

I know many of you are wondering what is happening for lobbying day on June 4th and I wanted to give you a little information just so you know what we are planning (of course, this is if all goes well, plans are subject to change.)

1.      The NYS Delegation is going to be divided up into teams of 3-4.

2.      Each team will have a team “leader” that has either had lobbying experience (or is willing to learn quickly!) Each team will also have a representative from CCSNYS as well. Each team will be assigned 2-3 meetings.

3.      So far we are awaiting word on appointments from:

·         Senators Schumer and Clinton and;

·         Representative Charles B. Rangel of Congressional District number 15 of New York

·         Representative Kirsten Gillibrand of Congressional District number 20 of New York

·         Representative Nita M. Lowey of Congressional District number 18 of New York

·         Representative John Hall of Congressional District number 19 of New York

·         Representative Michael R. McNulty of Congressional District number 21 of New York

·         Representative James T. Walsh of Congressional District number 25 of New York

·         Representative Brian M. Higgins of Congressional District number 27 of New York

If you have a strong preference either way of who you would like to meet with, please let me know. Otherwise I will assign you to a team that will be visiting a Representatives from your area.

To prepare yourself for lobby day, please read below. These resources will help you with background on the national nonprofit sector and information on the Nonprofit Congress and the National Capacity Building Initiative.  (From NCNA)

Learn more in preparation for Lobby Day: Read about the Members of Congress with whom you will be visiting. Visit their websites (see links above) and learn more about the issues they champion and on which committees they serve.

Brief yourself on the key content:

o    Building and enhancing awareness of the Nonprofit Sector as “one voice”
Fast facts about the Nonprofit Sector
Nonprofit Sector Priorities

o    Nonprofit Capacity Building Initiative (NCBI)
Overview of NCBI
OpEd piece about NCBI
State Association Endorsements

·         Read Nonprofit Advocacy and Lobbying Basics from the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest (CLPI)

• Read NPAction’s Guide to Lobbying

·         Learn what nonprofits are doing to engage voters by visiting the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network

If you would like to brush up on your lobbying skills or any of the issues, please click here for more information on workshops you should attend during the Nonprofit Congress.

I will be contacting you before June 1^st to let you know who your team ‘members’ are, what Senator(s) and/or Representatives you will be visiting, and your appointment time(s).

We will all be meeting from 4pm to 5:30pm  on June 3^rd for the “Lobby Day Launch Session” to go over any final details and/or changes.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (800) 515-5012, ext. 121 or email me at vvenezia@ccsnys.org.

Thank You, and I look forward to seeing you all soon,

Valerie
Valerie Venezia
VP of Membership & Marketing
Council of Community Services of NYS, Inc. (CCSNYS)

On April 9, 10 and 15, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and the Council of Community Services of New York State convened three Town Halls of New York State nonprofits to discuss the Nonprofit Congress held this June in Washington DC, and to solicit thoughts, ideas, and responses to the following questions.

Below are the responses from each of the town halls.

If nonprofits (both in this room & throughout New York State) were fulfilling all of our promise, what would we be doing?

NYC

•         Collaboration to address constituents’ needs effectively

•         Influencing policy while leveraging resources

•         Want good PR for the sector/demonstrate excellence by the vast majority of the sector

•         Our outlook should be positive & be the force of the positive outlook

•         PR image/no more scandals!

•         Communicating our accountability & transparency & value of our work to the general public & our constituents that we serve

•         Maintain our differences from the for-profit sector

•         Bring light to certain issues

•         As we get larger, help more grassroots organizations’ thrive

•         Mission driven organizations

•         Reduction of ignorance, increased tolerance, strengthening communities

•         Build stronger boards and stay mission driven

•         Customer Service as an institutional culture

•         Access to information and public trust

Albany

•         Spend more time fulfilling mission, instead of chasing $$

•         Adequate and predictable resources/funding

•         Act as catalyst of change and greater impact in our community

•         Reconcile differences between subsectors

•         Reducing competiveness

•         Be serving all of our constituencies – no waiting list for services

•         There would be no need that we were not meeting

Virtual

•         Meeting the needs of all our clients

•         Seen as an equal partner – a group that is invested in by the community and that government covers our expenses better

How would you describe your vision of the ideal nonprofit community in New York?

Albany

•         All nonprofits have a voice!

•         Collaboration is a good thing!

•         Perceived as generating progress and key part of society

•         Balance between corporate and mission needs

•         Have a voice with policy makers to develop/report metrics

•         Build the perception as meeting critical needs of our nation which left unmet would be crippling

•         People are committed to the mission, rather than the individual organization within that mission.

Virtual

•         Well-funded and well-respected

If there is one message you could convey to a political candidate (national, state, local) what would it be?

NYC

•         We do your work – work with us as real partners  (funding & strategy)

•         The power of the nonprofit sector (how many voters in your area are affected/use/work for nonprofits)

•         Largest community employer – biggest voting block is the senior citizen bracket – economic stabilization

•         Implement cultural diversity and differences and values into daily agenda

•         Hold yourselves to the highest standard that you expect from us. Do cost benefit analysis for your constituents that we serve.

•         Nonprofits should be a part of the input into the funding cycle

Albany

•         Nonprofits provide a critical service that needs to be addressed; more collaboration between nonprofits and government to meet those needs.

•         Try a day without nonprofits

•         “If you cut us, do our communities (your votes) not bleed?”

•         Use us to benefit and build the communities

•         We are the backbone and the heart of society/of our communities

Virtual

•         Charitable giving is no replacement for government funding

•         Increase the administrative funding from government (there is hypocrisy in that the government’s administrative fees are much higher than what they allow nonprofits to have)

How can the strengths of the New York nonprofit community be used to support the work in the state on any Top Priority

Albany

•         www.nycharities.org

•         Use of grassroots efforts to talk to the media Op/Ed pieces

•         Community Profit instead of “Nonprofit”

•         More media savvy, press releases, letters to editors

•         www.google.com/alerts & Yahoo feeds

•         Number of nonprofits in NYS and throughout the country! CCS has nonprofit statewide report on #’s

•         Access to large, influential nonprofits and highly recognizable celebrity-driven organizations

Virtual

•         We harness the energy from the subsectors into the whole sector which creates a large voice for the sector

•         Use/create more multi-tenet centers to save on rental costs, administrative fees.

What are you doing to support the priorities?

Albany

•         Internal accountability and best practices

•         Creating a communication tool for the nonprofit sector (NY Nonprofit Press)

•         Building awareness through their advocacy to media and elected officials (systems Advocacy Network) [required collaboration!]

•         Good at promoting towards youth

•         Civic engagement that’s more meaningful than “shelving books”

NYC

•         Acct/BP: Review our services, self evaluations;

•         L: Developing leaders thru our daily trials

•         L: Development of interns into F/T employees

•         L: Encouraging youth’s ideas into action

•         OE: Training & Prof Dev. T&TA/ Capacity building/Grants & Scholarships

•         Ad: Legislative breakfasts/ Advocacy Day in Albany/Policy testimonies/Convene coalitions for issues/conversations with electeds

•         Support: Management/TA

•         Strategy building

•         Articulating role within community/collaborating with other organizations

•         Pursuit of excellence in management/leadership

•         Support: Seeking to tell our stories to funders/electeds/community

Virtual

•         Economic impact study for the local county

•         Raising awareness of the nonprofit’s accountability

•         At a few symposiums updatae, they’ve effectively matched nonprofits and government to partner more and interact better

•         Executive Director retreat on succession planning

•         Starting a Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Oswego

Collaboration in Action

NYC

•         Continue the collaboration that has begun here/maintain the motivation

•         Effort to get information out to our constituents that are not here (regular email updates)

•         Nationally – communicating the value of our sector (without the burden)

•         Filling the voids in our society.

Albany

•         Convene thematic groups (subsectors) to encourage talking to each other and possibly collaborate more (done strategically!)

•         Models for sharing costs/tasks – greater efficiencies

•         Press release templates/guides to dealing with media, and how to tie in the local issues with the greater nonprofit sector

•         The new media: how do you make it work for your nonprofit?

•         Web 2.0 tools – nyned.org presentation

Virtual

•         Convene more of these town halls!

•         Lobby Day with both State & Federal government for nonprofits

•         Work to get information about this into the Legislative Gazette in Albany to help raise awareness of these issues and take action

•         Video campaign about the impact of nonprofits

•         Multi-tenet centers

•         Shared training and build the skills of nonprofit staff

What could Happen on the Federal Level to Support the State initiatives?

Virtual

•         New President

•         Cabinet level position for nonprofits, or an advisory board

•         Adequate funding for essential services

•         Need to get some concrete action steps to present to officials

Do any of you use iGoogle as your homepage? It’s a virtual dashboard of your work (or home) life at a glance.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just too excited about these kinds of things but I see nonprofits everyday struggle with problems of efficiency, with project management, scheduling meetings, keeping track of the million things on their ‘to-do’ list without ever starting a ‘stop doing’ list (that’s Jim Collins’ idea, not mine).

Met some people from Google at the Nonprofit Tech Conference in New Orleans…they are GOOD people and want to help you do your job. You should take 10 minutes getting to know Google. See how much time and money it can save your nonprofit organization.  Want to see what my iGoogle looks like?

On another note important to those dedicated NY Nonprofit Congress “devotees” (hi, mom!)….

Google has a wonderful program called “Google Grants.” No, Google’s not giving you a check anytime soon, but they are giving you something extremely valuable – exposure. You know those featured ads on Google search pages that companies pay a heck of a lot of money for? Well, through the Google Grants program, they are free to you and me (nonprofits).

If that wasn’t good enough for you, here’s another piece of good news. If you belong to the Nonprofit Technology Network, Google will expedite your grant application!

(If you don’t know what NTEN is…click here. If you still need more convincing email me or Craig. Lucky members of CCSNYS and NPCC- you get NTEN membership at a discount.)

Does this mean increased competition for funding? Yes.  Does this mean some consolidation? Probably. Does this signify that there are too many nonprofits? Not so clear.

I’ve experienced the debate between there are too many nonprofits, and new nonprofits means increased innovation, and spurs on increased accountability.

What’s your point of view?

Let us know. This may come up in our town halls (New York City, Albany, Online) and at the Congress as well.

NYC - April 9th at the NPCC Office
Albany – April 10tth at the CCSNYS Main Office
Online – April 15th (Yes, tax day. Take your mind off it and do something fun!)

You can register for any of the Town Hall Meetings by clicking here.

Craig Weinrich and I got together for a rare face-to-face meeting yesterday to discuss the next steps in the NYS Nonprofit Congress Town Hall Meetings.  The last time we were ‘face-to-face’ it was caught on camera. You might have seen us on the National Nonprofit Congress Brochure. See how much we love each other? Come to the Town Halls. Share the Love.

If you have any questions about your employees classifications please contact Valerie Venezia (if you are a CCSNYS Member) or Craig Weinrich (if you are a NPCC Member).

NPCC and CCSNYS, of course, are two very good starting points (full disclosure: I work at NPCC), but there is a wealth of resources too that people can go to learn why what Mr. Phillips did was considered wrong.

A short list to start:

www.ncna.org to find your state association of nonprofits.

www.idealist.org to access the Nonprofit FAQs

www.nytimesawards.fcny.org to learn about excellently managed nonprofits in the NYC area

The New York State Charities Bureau of the Attorney General

The New York Nonprofit Press

What other sites or resources do you think can help with nonprofit management?

These meetings will be a great place to get an update on what’s been going on nationally and in our state with the Nonprofit Congress movement.

During this meeting we will:

1. identify what we are currently doing to address the Top Priorities and learn what others across the state are doing;

2. focus on building on our individual successes, growing collaboration, and appreciating where we have collaborated well; and
3. consider how we can grow more collaboration and support for each other going forward.

We want to see and hear from you. Please save the date. Registration will be online soon!

Every candidate was asked three basic – but important questions:

They got interesting responses from many of the candidates.

Take a look at this great video. A wonderful way to get right to the heart of why nonprofits are an important and unified voice in our country.

Are you ready to be the voice of the NYS Nonprofit Sector? We are planning NYS Town Hall Meetings for the month of April. We’ll post the dates here soon or feel free to contact us for more information.

P.S. If you’re interested in hearing Robert Egger speak about poverty and a bit about the Primary Project, check out the NYS Community Action Poverty Symposium in Albany on February 25th & 26th .