A 2018 Resolution: Let’s Get Congress to Drop the Politicking Ban
Nonprofit leaders and scholars hate the idea of allowing charities to get partisan, but where has staying out of politics gotten us at a time of threats to our missions?
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Charities Must Unite in State Budget Battles
During the first week of July, state governments will post their budgets for the 2010 fiscal year. This time last year, 29 states announced that they would post deficits for 2009. All totaled, their projected shortfall was a staggering $47-billion. While the remaining 21 states did not post…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Young People Find a New Way to Help Others
America’s nonprofit organizations have been built almost entirely with extras. The D.C. Central Kitchen, for example, which I founded almost 20 years ago, runs on extra food — as does an extensive national network of kitchens, food banks, and pantries that rely on donated food from restaurants,…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Next on the Board’s Agenda: Fighting State Cuts
Nonprofit boards across the country need to set emergency meetings over the next few days. The item on the agenda to discuss: their responsibility to engage in advocacy in the face of $47-billion in budget cuts. That is the size of the deficits that 29 states will collectively post on July 1 as…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
A New Generation, a New Commitment to Change
Forty years ago, in the first weeks of June during the presidential election year of 1968, three things happened that changed the United States. ALSO SEE:ARTICLE: Nonprofit Primary Pursuits The first was on the morning of June 6, when America awoke to the news that Sen. Robert Kennedy had died from…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Charities Must Challenge Politicians
As America enters the first White House election cycle in decades with no incumbent president or vice ALSO SEE:LIVE DISCUSSION: Read the transcript of a live chat with Mr. Egger about his opinion article, “Charities Must Challenge Politicians.” president in the race, the nonprofit world cannot…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Newspapers Must Be Taught to Cover Charities
Over the next few weeks, newspapers around the country will be full of predictable, seasonal articles about nonprofit organizations. Readers will be offered timely tips on how to support organizations that bring holiday cheer to the most-vulnerable Americans and dozens of tax-savvy ways to support…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Can a Nonprofit Organization Strike?
When appealing to donors for support, nonprofit organizations often paint a cold and bitter picture of what America’s cities might look like if homeless shelters, hospice centers, or humane societies suddenly disappeared. But this begs the question: Would charities actually go on strike —…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Let’s Start a New Nonprofit Movement
The nonprofit world has undergone explosive growth in recent decades. Charitable organizations generate more than $800-billion a year and employ 9.5 percent of the American work force. Yet the general public has only a hazy understanding of what nonprofit organizations do and how they earn their…
By Robert Egger
Contributor
Offer Donors More Than a Plea for Gifts
Over the next month, mailboxes across the United States will be bombarded with direct-mail appeals from charities. The letters will come in all shapes and sizes, but most of them will describe an urgent need for more money. Some will point to outside forces like decreased federal funds, bad…
By Robert Egger
Contributor