Hello! My Name is Asia Von Sonn and I’m a Pre-Planning, Public Policy, and Management major at the University of Oregon. I’m highly interested in activism especially for environmental and social justice issues. Last Spring I took an Intro to Public Law course where a guest speaker by the name of Lauren Reagan came and spoke to us about her nonprofit organization, The Civil Liberties Defense Center. This nonprofit focuses on utilizing education, and when necessary, the courts, to challenge governmental attacks on our liberties and rights. I am so impressed and intrigued by the work of this organization that I have decided that my long-term career goal is to be a civil rights attorney. Sadly, I do not yet have a whole lot of hands on experience with nonprofit work as I have been working full time at a local restaurant (Dough Co.) to put myself through school. My hope is that in taking this class I will learn more about other nonprofits that interest me as well as how the sector works as a whole.
At first I found Chapter 1 of Nonprofit Nation to be slightly bewildering as it paints a picture of such a complex system that no one even seems to know how many nonprofits truly are in existence. Classifying and categorizing has always seemed like a second step to me and I was amazed at how convoluted the third sector had managed to become, even without a solid number of organizations to work with. I was somewhat relieved and amused when I came to a quote from the U.S. Tax Court stating that “Trying to understand the various exempt organization provisions of the Internal Revenue Code is as difficult as capturing a drop of mercury under your thumb”. That's why it is interesting to me that the book later goes on to state that part of the reason that nonprofit organizations exist is because of their freedom from bureaucratic constraint. Though I don’t have much experience in the government sector to compare with (I did used to work in a public library) my dealings with the nonprofit sector so far, such as in Bob’s grant writing course, lead me to conclude that the sector has gradually become entangled with a bureaucracy of its own.
I found Chapter 2 of Nonprofit Nation to be much more readable and thought provoking, especially since one of my big questions has been why we as a society have pushed healthcare and education into the nonprofit sector. The government failure theory of nonprofit activity states that “nonprofits arise to meet the unsatisfied demand of a minority of citizens for certain public goods”, yet I feel like healthcare and education are two of the few things that the majority should agree upon to be necessary.
I liked how the book presented theories from different academic disciplines with varying explanations and points of view. Though clearly the nonprofit sector is a multifaceted system with no “grand unified theory”, laying out the separate building blocks of the sector was greatly illuminating. Especially since while I found the sociology section of the book to provide many assertions that mirror my own thoughts on the existence of the nonprofit sector, the anthropological and political science theories brought up explanations that I had never considered before.
Asia, I think that your question regarding healthcare and education is a very good one. It seems to me that those are two things that most of the Americans I know at least value very highly. The lack of direct revenue produced by schools and hospitals makes them less lucrative assets than say banks and car manufacturing companies. It is sad that education and healthcare are so low on the federal government's list of financial priorities, however all of the dedicated nonprofit organizations we are learning about have caused me to feel a little more hope for the future. These first two readings caused me to understand how vital the role of nonprofit organizations is in America, particularly to those people whose needs are overlooked by the government.
ReplyDeleteAsia,
ReplyDeleteChapter 1 was a bit overwhelming. It was tough to gain a clear picture of the size and shape of the sector with all of the numbers and tables provided. I am wondering how difficult it must be to regulate the sector in terms of size and taxation. Chapter 2 was more interesting. The text discussed the "government failure theory" which I thought made a lot of sense. It seems that many nonprofits are created as a "back-up" to provide services to citizens in the minority. Seems like a team effort. I like your comments regarding healthcare and education. I believe these are important issues that our government should not only play a more active role in, but also make sure that these services are second to none.
Hey Asia, Erin here, and I would like to say that I was least interested in Chapter 1 as well because it was overwhelming and hard to understand because of the bureaucracy the third sector has created. I enjoyed Chapter 2 much more, and I like that while I focused on the Political Science factor, you focused on the Anthropological and Sociological factors, which is very beneficial because we can both bring different qualities to this group.
ReplyDeleteAsia,
ReplyDeleteI'm going to agree with everyone else around here - Chapter One was unwieldy and seemed to throw a lot of broad facts about a very deep industry at the readers. When I was reading the chapter and listening to the lectures in class I often found myself wondering about the nonprofits that don't have to do any reporting to the IRS because they have a revenue of less than $25,000 a year. I wonder how big of a hassle it is for people to take the money they donate to these nonprofits off their taxes. Perhaps it is because they have so little revenue that people donating only give a few dollars and don't report it or the IRS just doesn't care that you say you gave $5.00.
Overall though I think it is going to be a good thing that nonprofits are going to have to report or else lose their status. It will clear up the picture a bit and maybe people will see that a section of people aren't being helped because the nonprofit that was supposed to be there wasn't. Depending on how time consuming the filing process is, I don't see this being a problem for smaller non-profits.