Nonprofit Nation
I enjoyed reading about the societal impacts that the arts and advocacy have on our society. I found the section of measuring advocacy impact especially interesting. I believe that advocacy and education are very important in not just the nonprofit world but also in human and environmental issues. There is a lot of advocacy for many issues in the world, which is good. The problem I see with advocacy is how it is pushed for many of these issues. Let me share an example to clarify what I mean. Over the last ten years, the Darfur region of Sudan has been hit with terrible violence. There is the Save Darfur campaign and other similar initiatives, which are all good. The problem is when advocacy or social justice becomes a fad or ‘the cool thing to do’. Advocacy is just one step in solving an issue. From there, programs need to be implemented that can reverse a certain problem. As in the Darfur case, if you asked a person in the US what possible solutions to the problem are, they would most likely not be able to tell you, partly because their friends were wearing a save Darfur bracelet. Now don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe in advocacy, I just don’t like to see uneducated advocacy. This may sound very cynical, but I hope it makes sense. All this saying, the book stated that it is very difficult to measure the societal impacts of advocacy.
Senate Bill 40
This short, educational article really helped to explain the issues raised in SB40. I confess that I knew nothing about this bill prior to reading this article. It is very important that nonprofits are transparent with their resources and money. It is sad to see the way that some of these nonprofits spend their money that was donated to them for a specific program or purpose. One of the problems with donating to a nonprofit is you think you are donating to a specific program but the money just goes into a big pot. This is hard for nonprofits because they can make the most money off the most emotional stories and they tell you that your money is going to programs like that, but it may not be. This bill could really help to provide the transparency that organizations need to have. It is cool to read that Oregon nonprofits are pushing for this bill because they know that they are being good stewards of the money that is given to them. That is very encouraging to read.
The Power of Nonprofits
Advocacy may be one of the most important tools in freeing the oppressed and in solving social and environmental problems in our society. What I enjoyed most about this article was the part that expressed how nonprofits had a role in the ‘I have a dream’ speech. Discussing King, the article states, “Surrounding him were countless nonprofits – in the forms of churches, the Congress of Racial Equality, the NAACP, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.” And because of this vast support, Congress passed the Civil Rights act of 1964 that banned discrimination. This was a very proud moment for nonprofits. It is truly amazing to see the impact that many of these organizations have had on our society over the past hundred years.
Other articles
The other articles continued to discuss Senate Bill 40 and the impact that it will have on Oregon nonprofits. This article stated that the Nonprofit Association of Oregon supports the crackdown to keep nonprofits accountable with their finances.
“Nonprofit arts groups, including museums, orchestras, theaters and dance companies, contributed $166.2 billion and 5.7 million jobs to the U.S. economy in 2005”. Wow, this is really an amazing thing that many nonprofits accomplished. This proves to show that the arts need to be continually funded.
The last article was about a poetry slam that gives the chance for many young people to express and advocate for issues that are relevant in their life. For example one girl is creating a poem expressing the lies that many African-American women view about their relationships and how society fuels those lies.
Another interesting week of information.
Cheers.
So I just wanted to point something out. You wrote about advocacy more than arts. Emma wrote about arts more than advocacy. I talked a little bit about both. And Kim did write about either! We’re the perfect group.
ReplyDeleteThat NY Times article you posted is crazy! It’s ridiculous how corrupt police officers and people of power can be. I’m sure that stories of corruption run rampant through the US as well, but nothing to the extent of the story in this article. I think it’s also kind of comical that Facebook is the main social networking tool for human rights in Egypt. I feel like they might be able to come up with a better way of connecting with each other, but whatever I guess.
Another interesting week of information. Good stuff.