General Powell’s Charity Deserves Government Support

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor:

Pablo Eisenberg’s recent opinion piece about America’s Promise-The Alliance for Youth (“General Powell’s About-Face on Private Aid,” August 24) was ill-informed and laced with inaccuracies, and missed the point.

Mr. Eisenberg criticizes the America’s Promise relationship with Administaff, a professional employer organization that helps us offer better benefits to our employees than we could do on our own as a small non-profit. Mr. Eisenberg insinuates that this relationship affects our public reporting of information. That is just plain false. Administaff’s commercial status has absolutely nothing to do with I.R.S. reporting as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. He has been given the facts; he simply chooses to ignore them.

Through his accusations, Mr. Eisenberg contends that America’s Promise should not be supported by public funds because we benefit from private donations from corporations and foundations.

He doesn’t understand our mission: to mobilize all sectors of American life to build the character and competence of young people. That includes the federal government. More than 14 federal agencies have been part of our alliance from the very beginning, providing their time, talents and, yes, treasure to help youth — just like our other partners do.

In recent surveys conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide, a respected independent research group, nearly 90 percent of America’s Promise partners — states and communities, federal agencies, associations, corporations, non-profits, faith-based groups, and educational institutions — say that America’s Promise has been successful in achieving our mission for youth. Overwhelmingly, these same partners also want us to expand our efforts into hundreds more communities to help even more children. Our alliance is working, so we must keep working to engage all sectors for the future of this nation.

For the past three years, the private sector has funded America’s Promise. With the help of this venture capital, the organization has successfully built an alliance of more than 1,000 communities and national organizations.

The current administration has seen fit to provide additional funding through the Corporation for National Service to expand the highly successful efforts of America’s Promise. Similar funding is provided to other non-profits — like the Girl Scouts of America and the Points of Light Foundation — with a proven track record of building America’s future.

Our nation has never been more prosperous. America’s Promise is making great strides in obtaining the resources necessary for children to be successful in life. Now is the time to scale up our commitment to young people and engage everyone in this quest to tap the potential that every child possesses.

Peter A. Gallagher
President
America’s Promise
Alexandria, Va.