Post 3

From this blog on I will break down into categories for organization purposes. This was an interesting week reading about social service and the importance it holds in our society and the work it does.

From outside the readings and class, I have been thinking about social services and how important they are in our society. This is a recent news article that talks about social service cuts in Oregon.

http://news.opb.org/article/51736-kitzhaber-warns-deep-cuts-social-services/

This is a serious issue especially considering the current state of Oregon's economy

Now to the readings....

Chapter 4 – Social Service

Social Service holds a very big role in our country and local communities; these services serve millions of people in need. I did not fully grasp the magnitude of the social service sector until reading this chapter. We see the importance directly from this quote, “Social service may be the most widely accepted and admired part of the nonprofit sector” (pg 73). Our society would be drastically different if we did not have these services.

The extent of social services is huge, we see this on page 80 discussing the American Red Cross, “the Red Cross provided community services to 43 million people and health and safety services to 15 million.” While these services help millions of people, they also provide many jobs for people across the country.

We see in the last fifty years how the trends of non-profit finances as changed. In the early years of non-profits families and churches provided the finances for the social services, but in the 1960’s the model changed to the government paying for it and non-profits providing the services. The change started with the Office of Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and the 1967 Social Security Act. At this time the ‘federal government infused a large amount of money into nonprofit social service organizations through grants, contracts and purchase-of-service arrangements’ (pg 83). Again by the government pouring the money into these services, there needed to be the right non-profits to hand the funds and do the job right. This is when a real competition started for non-profit jobs and the non-profit sector was finally taken seriously as an important part of the country.

St. Vincent de Paul

We all know what St. Vincent de Paul is; it is a place to buy used and affordable ‘stuff’. Anything your heart desires is available at your fingertip for a small price, it may not be the most quality but it will get the job done. But who would have thought that during the hardest economic times in the last seventy-year this organization would be booming. This is in fact true, when many organizations and companies were struggling to stay alive, St. Vincent’s ‘increased its revenues and grew its work force each year by more than 10 percent.’ This is true feat for the organizations and Lane County.

DC Affordable Housing Toolkit

I think the idea of using these toolkit vouchers is a great way to provide affordable housing. It is a sad, but true fact that as development comes into an area, residents of low-income housing get pushed out and relocated. This is not right, it is good that the government is promoting non-profit development in the low-income housing sector, we see this from the article, ‘Governments also offer tax credits to nonprofit developers of affordable housing.’ This is a tough dilemma, there needs to be development in these poor areas to provide jobs and safety. This needs to happen without kicking out the poor residents of the community. Good article!

Louisiana Housing Assistance

I was not aware that the government provided funds as stated in this article. As the article states, low-income residents in Louisiana have been provided with help for utility bills, namely heat and air-conditioning. The state was recently awarded an additional 10.5 million for these funds. This is a great thing that the government is helping its citizens, but the question is ‘do you provide the fish or the fishing pole.’ Once these funds stop the people will not be able to pay their utility bills. I believe that the tax revenue should go into helping people find jobs where they are able to support themselves and their families in the long term.

Final Two Articles

I read the final two articles and will briefly prove that I did in fact read them. The auburn family article discussed families living in low-income housing and shared how Fort Green Snap, a community advocacy organization, is helping with the situation. The other article was a Q&A with the MAAC CEO. This organization works with the poor in the San Diego community.

Okay, hope this all makes sense, excited to read all your posts…

Post 2

Today I am going to focus primarily on our class discussion we had on Thursday, regarding churches as nonprofits. This was a very interesting lecture and discussion that we had, it dug deep into the roots of what make our country. The US is such an interesting country because it holds high regard for the constitution, yet wants to progress in many ways. The dilemma now is where to draw the line. We see this in many issues of today; gun rights, immigration, and separation of church and state. The latter is what we discussed in class.

I was surprised that even though churches as tax exempt, there is no financial accountability with the government. What I mean by financially accountability is, churches do not legally have account for any of their money. This may be a problem because a person can say that they gave $100,000 to their church and get a write off. Asking for a church to have financial accountability with the government would also go against the founding principal of the US. I believe that the church does need to have accountability, but from that point where is the line drawn? If there is going to be true separation of church and state, i.e. pastors not lobbying for a political figure, then churches should not have account for their finances, as cliché as it sounds. It is such a tough issue because of the broad views and beliefs in the country.

As we discussed in class, when a church becomes a nonprofit it must follow all the regulations of a 501(c)3 organizations, but they are automatically tax exempt. This happens in order that no government regulation interferes with a churches business. This is such an interesting issue in our society. It is important to remember that many churches do provide for the needy; from soup kitchens to well drilling. No matter what religion or not, it is great to see people caring for people.

On another note…I thought the article titled “The Gospel of Wealth” was interesting. It was a very poetic article. It is somewhat difficult to summarize, it is an article about social and individual wealth and how ones decisions or actions affect everyone around them, or lack their of an action. One quote that was good can be found on page 12, it states, “Under its sway we shall have an ideal state, in which the surplus wealth of the few will become, in the best sense, the property of the many.” The article goes on to state that all the wealth in the hands of few has a much more ‘potent force for the evaluation of our race, than if distributed to all the people.’ By this the author is saying the there will more good done with all the money being used for a public service. I was confused with this section, it seems as the author is saying that wealth needs to be distributed evenly, but will do more good used as a whole. Let me know if I have this wrong with your comments.

Lastly, in the comparisons of non-profits and for profits article, I found the eight characteristics of non-profits interesting. The atmosphere of ‘scarcity’ is a characteristic I believe is very true. In non-profits, it seems as though there can also be something more; more money, more resources or more time. It is sad that organizations with a social cause are thought to be lesser organizations that cannot get funding. This is not true; non-profits are making a huge difference in the world,

All in all, this was an interesting week. I learned many things about non-profits and how they function in our society. I did do the readings in the book, I just found the church and nonprofit statuses very interesting. Hope this all makes sense.

Cheers.

Post 1 - Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Aaron and I am new to the blogging realm. I am excited for this new way of communication and the discussions that we will all be a part of. I hope that my thoughts and experiences will some way help you in your learning process and visa versa. 

I am currently a senior in the PPPM program and am minoring in nonprofit management. My background: growing up, my parents worked in international development, a large sector of the nonprofit world. We moved to Rwanda when I was ten years old. The work focused on micro finance loans, small business development, refugee rehabilitation, disaster response and HIV education. It was a great experience living and learning in NGO world. I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel all over the world and be immersed in new cultures. Since then, I have come to the University of Oregon and have always had a desire to work for a relief and development organization and am hoping that PPPM prepares me well. I love to travel, cook and play soccer and rugby. I am excited for this opportunity to learn more about the nonprofit world.

I am passionate about working for a cause, I always have been. Searching through an array of career opportunities, the non-profit sector provides the most appeal for me for working in what you believe in. I am most interested in working in nonprofits in third world countries. I believe that the poorest countries in the world are going to truly develop when the country can fully sustain itself. This means little to no international aid. This is a long way off, but currently nonprofits and NGO's have a huge role in the development of these countries. The first day of class was interesting when we all introduced ourselves. I have never seen introductions in a class that large. It was a great way to see the diversity of the class and hear what people wanted to do with their lives. The nonprofit sector is very broad; it is great when millions of people are working together for the existence of human rights and mankind. In my life I have a desire to work and travel in many different countries, I see the nonprofit sector the best outlet for that. It is so important for people to do what they love, that is when true success and happiness comes. 

The second lecture in class, concerning the history of nonprofits, was very interesting to me. It is cool to see how far back, in the history of the United States, nonprofit organization go. I noticed a trend reading through the power points. Almost every one of the nonprofit organizations starting in the 1700's aim at providing people with services that not everyone could afford. All the foundations, charities, or fundraisers were key in the development of equal rights in the United States. 


In chapter one of the text book, I was struck by the huge growth of nonprofits in the US from the 1950's on. The 50's and 60's were times of huge change in this country. The civil rights movement was in full swing and gender equality was a major issue. From that time on nonprofits started to grow. Change was happening and people wanted to be a part of that, without government or business. As we have learned, nonprofits are not part of the government or the business sector.


Each nonprofit had a different mission, but they all aim to protect, enable or save something in a society or environment. Chapter one really goes into detail about the wide array of nonprofits. Nonprofits give people a purpose. We see now that in times of change nonprofit participation goes up. As the economy has tanked, volunteers are in full swing. It is an interesting phenomenon that is happening right now.

I am excited for this term and learning about nonprofits. hopefully my future will become a bit clearer...