Nonprofit Platform submitted to Obama and Romney

Posted by on October 29, 2012

UWW, others submit nonprofit platform to presidential candidates

With the presidential election just weeks away and the two major candidates in the midst of their debate cycle, 22 of the leading executives of the nonprofit sector have delivered a video “nonprofit platform” to both President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney.

The executives, including United Way Worldwide CEO Brian Gallagher, let the two major party candidates know what the sector expects from the next administration when it comes to funding and cooperation. The key messages included dialogue with the sector and allowing charitable organizations to do the work they are better equipped to achieve than the government.

The executives said that they realize money is tight, but attacking the charitable deduction and other tools needed by the sector will only damage further the nation’s social safety network.

The group noted that in some states, such as New York, an estimated 20 percent of the jobs are in the tax-exempt sector. Those workers pay taxes, as do the tax-exempts when it comes to payroll and other taxes. In fact, while the national economy was creating few new jobs, the charitable sector was adding positions, according to the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

During an era of tax cuts and business incentives, from May 1999 through May 2009, jobs in the private sector increased just 1.1 percent, according to Bloomberg/Business Week. The majority of those jobs were in health and education, areas dominated by the nonprofit sector.

The video was produced by the Nonprofit Times and includes comments by, in addition to Gallagher, representatives of Independent Sector, Generations United, Hispanics in Philanthropy, the National Council of Nonprofits, the National Council of Aging, and the American Red Cross.

The video can be viewed here.

http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/video/view/dM6xIxTz