April 30, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The news that the Internal Revenue Service is stepping up efforts to ensure that charities are effective has elicited angry responses from the nonprofit world.
According to a Chronicle of Philanthropy article, Steven T. Miller, commissioner of the IRS’s tax-exempt division, said last week the agency will be “more aggressive” in monitoring the “efficiency and effectiveness” of nonprofit organizations.
Mr. Miller said that “every charity should make responsible and appropriate use of its resources to achieve its charitable purposes.”
But Abby Levine, foundation advocacy counsel for the Alliance for Justice, asks: “who determines what is responsible and appropriate? I, for one, do not think the IRS used its resources — taxpayer dollars — in a responsible and appropriate manner when it mailed letters alerting taxpayers that they may receive a tax refund of an undetermined amount and at an undetermined time.”
Writing on the alliance’s Nonprofit & Foundation Advocacy blog, Ms. Levine derides Mr. Miller’s desire for indicators to measure nonprofit effectiveness and efficiency. “It’s doubtful such indicators exist — or, even more importantly, should exist. Rather than focus on shortcuts and cursory evaluations of organizations, let’s focus instead on whether we are actually making a difference for the people we serve,” she writes.
Alan Strand, director of financial services for the California Association of Nonprofits, agrees. “The myopic thinking that all nonprofits are the same just because they are nonprofits still baffles me. Especially in people who task themselves to regulate us,” he writes on the association’s Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camp blog.
Perhaps the strongest reaction came from the anonymous author of Nonprofit Challenges, a blog operated by Oculus Direct, a nonprofit consultant company.
The writer called Mr. Miller’s remarks “fighting words. At least they should be to those of us with half a brain in the nonprofit community.”
“The last thing we should want is to have the government aggressively monitor a nonprofit’s efficiency and effectiveness!!! Isn’t that an oxymoron?? To have government in the same sentence with efficiency and effectiveness? My gosh – the irony of this is beyond belief,” the writer says.
What do you think of Mr. Miller’s plans? Click on the “comment” link below to join the discussion.
