If Obama was to ask me how his Administration can Improve/ Assist the Non Profit Sector

Name: Katrina Stewart
Profession: Student in NonProfit Management

Location: College Station, Texas

Thank you for engaging in this project to visit with everyday Americans and with NonProfit leaders in order to ascertain where our country should be going.

As a student in NonProfit studies, I would like to speak from my little bit of knowledge therein. It seems to me that bailouts for our nations economy are a double edged sword. On the one hand, by helping businesses such as the auto industry or the banking system, your administration is helping all of our society by strengthening those industries whose failures will ripple and displace many workers in their wake. We have already begun to see it with the auto industry and how short business there has caused dealership closings, which in turn affect not only the jobs of those working in such industries, but also impact advertising, and other industries that have to lay off more and more people because of one instance. Yet, on the other hand, "throwing money" at a problem rarely solves the root problems.

A number of us in the Philanthropical sector are concerned about our ability to accomplish our missions and complete the work we need to do because of these same issues. However, this is also not the time to throw money to philanthropy without looking to ways in which mission and purpose in this sector can serve directly the communities these organizations exist in by listening to their neighbors. Of need right now in this sector is capacity building. Lessons and activities that strengthen the ability of organizations to do their job by addressing communal needs with a professional, focused approach.

To this end, taking government control of helping people out does no good if it does not involve tight partnership with third sector entities. We need you to encourage public administrators to work with us, to depend on our expertise, while addressing concerns related to the government contract process that create managerial overhead for our organizations that make long term sustainability of these programs impossible. This includes a simplified and solidified grant process that does not leave nonprofits wondering when the next check will come in, while helping us build capacity to enact the measurement standards and benchmarks that are the mark of good "people helping people" business.

I caution you against the idea of the Volunteer corps that other nonprofit leaders would encourage. From what little I have seen of discussions, I have real concerns over how such an initiative would be built by government entities that do not have first hand nonprofit knowledge of what it would take to make such an institution work. I have concerns that such a corps would take on the dimension of military readiness that may be effective, but is not trained to deal with the "squishy" people-oriented issues on the ground that work best for nonprofits. What I refer to here is the one on one relationships built in the local YMCA, the local community center, the local PTA. I also refer to the values that some institutions instill that go beyond doing a good job on behalf of an organization and touch that side of ourselves that is passionate about really helping people through their issues, beyond addressing their immediate hurts. I ask you to look at the history of Americorps in 2003 and how multiple stressors almost caused the organization to go under at a time when President Bush was advocating that people should volunteer for this opportunity. The circumstances surrounding the almost collapse of this project went to how budgets were frozen, rerouted, or constrained in Congress and includes how President Bush's words causes such a rush of volunteers on the organization that it overhwelmed the organization's capacity while demands said "Do it anyway".

Long term change takes time, it takes hard conversations, and it takes training in how to talk and how to listen. The nonprofit sector is going to be hurt during the next decade. A number of our organizations will die, and many people will go without the help they need. That cannot be remedied. always we need to be looking at the long term picture. How can we teach strategic thinking to accomplish mission in both the short and long term? How can we create an infrastructure of helping that looks at root causes of problems and begins the hard work of education, changing hearts and minds, and speaking up about topics that make us all uncomfortable but have to be said?

As an example, how do we get better health care for certain members of our society whose entry into the system that should take care of them is a barrier in and of itself? How do we convince people to go to a doctor when their experience with such doctors borders on bigotry? How do we do that without addressing the bigotry itself? How do we make a fair health care system without educating health care workers to be compassionate and professional to all people, no matter how "different" they may be. That does not take just a few short lessons or extended education classes for health care professionals and workers, it requires a curriculum going back to their training for those positions that embraces all of diversity and teaches an ethic that enables such workers to empathize rather than judge. It requires an educational system that celebrates diversity and emphasizes the will of the majority and the needs and stories of the minority.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with you.