December 16, 2016 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Officials at key nonprofit membership organizations Council on Foundations and Independent Sector said this week they remain committed to public-policy advocacy, including lobbying to protect the charitable deduction and courting the incoming Trump administration, despite recent layoffs.
“Public policy has been and will continue to be one of the core strategic focuses for Independent Sector,” said Dan Cardinali, the group’s chief executive.
Council on Foundations, which is based just outside Washington and represents about 800 hundred private, corporate, and community foundations, cut 10 of its 49 employees, 20 percent of its staff, in recent weeks, the association confirmed. It declined to say which staff members it had let go. Additionally, Council on Foundations confirmed that Sue Santa, senior vice president for public policy and legal affairs, recently resigned. Attempts to reach Ms. Santa this week were unsuccessful.
The council described the layoffs as part of a reconfiguring of staffing priorities. It created four new positions while also taking steps to fill four vacancies, in part because “we are expanding our government-relations capacity,” said Vikki Spruill, president of Council on Foundations. Five of those eight positions have now been filled. One of the notable hires is Chris Gates as its new executive vice president for external affairs. Mr. Gates previously worked as president of the Sunlight Foundation, executive director of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, and president of the National Civic League.
Independent Sector, which has 500 nonprofit members and a central office in Washington, cut 11 positions this month, 25 percent of its staff. The move was in part financial: It faced a $1.8 million budget shortfall. Among those laid off were Geoffrey Plague, vice president for public policy, and Candy Hill, vice president for communications and marketing.
The organization will make up for the losses by taking a “more integrated approach” to public policy: “Everybody on staff will be involved on some level in policy,” Mr. Cardinali said.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals recently cut two employees but declined to provide further information.
Collaboration on Public Policy
Mr. Cardinali said he wants to coordinate Independent Sector’s public-policy work with that of other infrastructure organizations, including Council on Foundations, National Council of Nonprofits, and Philanthropy Roundtable.
What form this collaboration will take is still a “work in progress,” Mr. Cardinali said. He offered as an example that Independent Sector would support Council on Foundation efforts to prevent mandated payout requirements on foundation endowments.
Ms. Spruill confirmed that the Council on Foundations and Independent Sector have been cooperating on their advocacy efforts.
“It’s a responsibility that all of us have to not duplicate unnecessarily,” she said. “I look forward to exploring continued opportunity to better align our work.”
The immediate policy priorities for Independent Sector are preserving the charitable tax deduction, providing information to members, in part through a new weekly digital series, and continuing “to advocate very hard with the Trump transition team that the sector have a routine engagement with them,” Mr. Cardinali said.
Pushing for endowment payout and revamped tax policies favorable to philanthropy are among the priorities for the Council on Foundations.
“We expect tax reform to move quickly in the new Congress, and we are ready,” Mr. Gates said in an email interview.
Still Valuable
Shake-ups at two of the nonprofit world’s largest infrastructure organizations reflect the need for more efficiency at associations that compete for membership dues, leaders in the field say.
“I can see where foundations and nonprofits feel like there are too many folks asking them for dues money,” said Elizabeth Boris, founding director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute. “I would imagine the reasons the major organizations are not as strong as they used to be is people are not going to pay multiple memberships.”
Decreased financial support for associations may also stem from the fact that many nonprofits don’t “really see themselves as part of a sector,” said Alan Abramson, founding director of George Mason University’s Center for Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, and Policy. “Nonprofits see themselves as arts organizations, health organizations, or social-service organizations of one type or another.”
Mr. Cardinali’s interest in collaboration may stem in part from economic pressures, then, but increasing cooperation among organizations has also been a trend in philanthropy as a whole, said Shena Ashley, director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute.
“Collaboration is so necessary. That’s the signal we’ve been getting from funders over time,” she said. “I support that idea of better coordination.”
But layoffs and restructuring at infrastructure organizations do not signal that they are decreasing in importance, leaders say.
“I think the sector could face tough going during the Trump presidency, and they need Independent Sector and the council out there to defend the sector,” Mr. Abramson said.
Ms. Ashley agreed.
“The value of what they provide and do is even more necessary in these kind of times. Because there’s uncertainty, there’s a need for people to play an interpreting role, to give context to the changing dynamics,” she said. “I hope none of these groups is diminishing.”
