{"id":1372,"date":"2009-12-02T08:27:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-02T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2009\/12\/thinning_the_nonprofit_herd\/"},"modified":"2009-12-02T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-02T16:27:00","slug":"thinning_the_nonprofit_herd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/thinning_the_nonprofit_herd.php","title":{"rendered":"More on thinning the nonprofit herd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucy Bernholz at Philanthropy 2173 offers a modest proposal to address a vexing question<\/a>. The question is this: Are there too many nonprofits? Her proposal is this: Let’s let crowdsourcing help us decide. To frame the proposal, she reframes the question this way:<\/p>\n

Do we have the right number of nonprofits to provide and distribute
\nthe social, environmental and public goods we need to those who need
\nthem?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve heard many claiming we definitely have too many, pointing to the rapid and on-going expansion in the number of nonprofits over the past decades, and to evidence that the resources needed to support them are stretching ever thinner. But I’ve also heard the practical side of the argument, saying essentially ”so what?” There’s a market for nonprofits much like the market for commercial enterprise (although it’s a bit more sluggish and duct-taped with a dedicated workforce). Those nonprofits that can’t attract sufficient revenue, volunteers, or contributed income will fall and those that can will rise.<\/p>\n

Bernholz suggests we might avoid the euthanasia question (explored in a previous post<\/a>) by focusing on the pipes that lead into the system. Perhaps we should reconsider the way nonprofit applications are approved in the first place (currently the sole job of the IRS). Says she:<\/p>\n

If we presume, for the sake of argument, that we need nonprofits to
\nproduce and distribute public goods that are not adequately provided by
\nmarkets or government, shouldn’t the public have some say in how we
\nallocate this tax privileged organizational status? Right now, the tax exempt status that 501c3 approval designates is
\ndecided by professionals within the IRS. They rule on regulatory fit,
\nnot community need. There has not been, to-date, a viable way for these
\nprofessionals to consider community need.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hence the proposal: perhaps there should be community input in the application and approval process for nonprofits. And perhaps we could explore the model already under construction at the US Patent Office. Peer to patent<\/a> opens the patent review process to the world, giving patent examiners a thousand eyes to inform their approval process, and giving the public a chance to weigh in on allocation of a public resource (for patents, that public resource is the temporary monopoly on use of the invention; for nonprofits, the public resource is the fiscal priviledge and tax exemption provided to the enterprise).<\/p>\n

Should nonprofit status be a function of impact and need rather than merely regulatory fit? And if it should be, how do we operationalize that decision in practial policy? More difficult yet, could YOUR nonprofit justify its tax exemption and public benefit under such competitive and community review?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lucy Bernholz at Philanthropy 2173 offers a modest proposal to address a vexing question. The question is this: Are there too many nonprofits? Her proposal is this: Let’s let crowdsourcing help us decide. To frame the proposal, she reframes the question this way: Do we have the right number of nonprofits to provide and distribute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}