Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

nonprofits

nonprofits

  • 'A Day Without Human Services': Nonprofits Protest Lack of City Funding

    Serving meals (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The organizations that New York City contracts to deliver everything from essential health and homeless services to youth and senior programing are striking for better compensation in the next city budget.

    Over 100 human services providers will pause many non-life-saving activities on Thursday to demonstrate what they say are the consequences of underfunding the sector as inflation and compounding economic and social crises strain the system. Led by the Human Services Council of New York, the "day without human services”

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  • Help Needed for Those Helping Newcomers to New York City

    Serving asylum-seekers (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Recently, Mayor Eric Adams traveled to El Paso, Texas to shine a bright light on the burgeoning border crisis ramifications facing New York and other cities. He followed up that visit with a plea for help at a meeting of the American Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C.

    When tens of thousands of asylum-seekers, refugees, and other migrants arrived in New York with little more than the clothes on their backs, the immediate focus was on providing

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  • The Mayor Must Finally Improve City Government Before Valued Nonprofit Service Providers are Lost

    Payments to nonprofit providers (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Nonprofits that provide essential city services are in crisis. New York City government’s failure to pay nonprofits on time for the vital work they are doing for the city is jeopardizing the existence of these critical organizations that New Yorkers – especially the poorest and most vulnerable – rely upon. 

    In the past two weeks there has been reporting that two venerable nonprofits —

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  • Strengthen Nonprofits Providing Key Services by Reducing Administrative Burdens, Report Says

    Human services (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The nonprofit providers New York City and State contract to deliver essential human services spend hundreds of thousands of hours and millions of dollars each year filing paperwork and performing repetitive administrative tasks in order to receive government funding.

    That's because of compounded inefficiencies built up across a largely decentralized contracting and reporting system, according to a new report from Center for an Urban Future (CUF), a policy

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  • Human Services Workers Keep New York City Running Even Over the Holidays; We Must Resolve to Compensate Them Fairly

    Getting people fed (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In this season of gratitude and reflection, we are grateful for the unprecedented commitments that New York City and New York State are making to the people who perform the essential services of New York’s safety net.

    Home care workers’ hourly wages increased by $2 in October, and New York City human services nonprofits are receiving $68 million earmarked for workforce investment. Our New York State contracts included a 5.4% wage increase, and the

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  • A New Normal for Our City’s Essential Nonprofits?

    Emergency food (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In the beginning of the pandemic, we longed to return to normal. However, after months of lock down, a racial justice reckoning, and a growing realization that concerns about political incivility needed to be replaced with legitimate fears about the stability of our polarized democracy, we started to think about all the reasons that going back to normal was no longer a viable option. It has become abundantly clear that “normal” never worked for everyone, and that this is by design. Our society’s definition of normal was built

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  • Max Politics Podcast: Comptroller Brad Lander on the City Budget, Nonprofit Contracting & More

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    Comptroller Brad Lander (photo: Susan Watts/Office of New York City Comptroller)


    February 16, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Comptroller Brad Lander on the City Budget & Improving Nonprofit Contracting

    New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat just seven weeks into his first term in the citywide position, joined the show to discuss his initial reactions to Mayor Eric Adams' preliminary budget plan, promised changes to nonprofit contracting, the city's infrastructure spending, his transition into the office and

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  • Why You Should Support Your Local Nonprofits and Help Them Fight for More on International Day of Charity

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    Nonprofit New York at work (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    In an effort to increase and enhance social responsibility worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly marked September 5 as the International Day of Charity. This day serves to encourage community members everywhere to show support for charitable causes including the efforts of local nonprofit organizations.

    From climate change and systemic racism to poverty and homelessness, nonprofits are tasked with some of the most difficult and ingrained challenges of our time. Yet

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  • We All Rely on Nonprofits — New York Must Value Them

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    New York nonprofits do it all (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    You've probably never heard of "National Nonprofit Day." The date, August 17, is pegged to the anniversary of a tariff bill passed in 1894 that outlined foundational requirements for tax-exempt status. A holiday based on the tax code has not exactly caught the public's imagination. There aren't even greeting cards.

    But most New Yorkers rely on nonprofits every single day without really thinking about it. So this year, let's use this obscure holiday to appreciate and

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  • Government Keeps Failing Social Service Providers, Now We’re Passing the Buck to Labor

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    Council Member Helen Rosenthal, the author (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    I am proud to support and fight for workers in the human services sector. The city’s 125,000-plus social service workers provide essential services to 2.5 million New Yorkers, especially seniors, children, people with disabilities, and our neighbors experiencing homelessness. Most recently, they have been absolutely central to New York City’s response to the pandemic, ensuring that the most vulnerable do not fall through the cracks.

    Human

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  • In Dire Condition, Nonprofit Human Services Sector Launches Recovery Effort

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    Human services providers struggle due to covid (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Nonprofits that provide human services have played an additionally vital role during the coronavirus pandemic in feeding, sheltering, and caring for New Yorkers. But the sector, which was already facing dire financial straits in recent years, has been devastated as fundraising has ground to a halt, city funding has been cut, and state contract payments have been put on hold. The Human Services Council, an organization that represents more than 170 providers in the state, is convening

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  • The Mayor and Governor Must Save Community Nonprofits to Save Lives and Livelihoods

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    Essential workers need help (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a medical problem—it's a social one. As everyone knows, it is caused by the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. But it is fueled by inequity. Black and Latino New Yorkers have been twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as their white neighbors because of a raft of social factors: People of color are more likely to live in

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  • Human Services Workers are Essential Workers: It’s Time for the City to Treat Us That Way

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    Workers at Project Hospitality move meals (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Like health care workers, first responders, grocery workers, delivery workers, and more, human services workers are essential workers during COVID-19 and beyond. We are always essential.

    We serve the most vulnerable where they are and according to what they need. We help seniors get meals and medications delivered and staff residential facilities, homeless shelters, and food banks.

    We provide home care to at-risk communities, keeping them from overwhelming hospitals. We help

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  • Coronavirus Crisis Again Shows New York Must Ensure Long-Term Support of Grassroots Emergency-Response Groups

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    Community groups can organize other community groups (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Every day, New Yorkers are faced with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented public health and economic crisis ravaging our city. As the federal government continues to recklessly shirk responsibility, state and city governments strain to support hospitals and those impacted by the pandemic with their depleted budgets, leaving low-income and marginalized communities more vulnerable than ever.

    In their wake, mutual aid and nonprofit

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  • It’s More Important Than Ever for the City to Take Care of Those Who Care for the Most Vulnerable New Yorkers

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    Council Member Helen Rosenthal, the author (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    To address the coronavirus crisis and save lives, New York City government and New Yorkers are mobilizing in ways never seen before. The City swiftly sent an unprecedented message to our human services sector -- the 250,000-plus employees who provide housing access, child and elder care, shelters, emergency food relief, mental health counseling, and disaster response. These workers -- traditionally undervalued, underpaid, and unappreciated -- were told that

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  • After Years of Community Organizing, Nonprofits Now Get Much-Needed Relief from Dangerous Tax Lien Sale

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    Nonprofits have a lot less to fear now as a new law takes effect (photo: @596Acres)


    Our interconnectedness has rarely been more pronounced than it is in this moment. The fact that we can take so many of our life-sustaining connections into the digital sphere is an unprecedented miracle. But if you’re missing New York’s places of physical gathering, where many of those connections were first forged, you’re not alone.

    At its core, New York is a city of communities precisely because of its bounty of gathering places. As we reflect on the ones we

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  • New York City Must Act Immediately to Strengthen Our Nonprofit Social Safety Net

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    Amid coronavirus outbreak, the social safety net must hold (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    Daily home-delivered meals for home-bound seniors. Case-management to help make sure people have medicine and essential supplies, and reduce the harm of social isolation. Emergency food for people who are unemployed or homeless. Child care for those who still have to go to work.

    All services we utterly need right now. And all provided by New York City’s remarkable network of not-for-profit human service providers.

    These

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  • City Council Considers New Office to Aid Non-Profits

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    Council Member Farah Louis (photo: New York City Council)


    The New York City Council is considering legislation that would create a new office to assist non-profit organizations in navigating regulations and applying for city contracts and funding.

    Council Member Farah Louis, a recently elected Brooklyn Democrat, has proposed legislation that would mandate that the mayor institute an Office of Not-For-Profit Services. The bill is set to be examined by the Council’s Committee on Governmental Operations at a ...

  • Report Shows Nation-Leading Extent of New York's Nonprofit Sector

    council member eric ulrich food

    (photo: William Alatriste/New York City Council)


    New York has the largest nonprofit sector in the country, according to a new report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

    In 2017, New York nonprofits boasted over 1.4 million jobs and $78 billion in employee wages, both top marks across the United States, according to DiNapoli’s report released Tuesday. Between 2007 and 2017, the state added 175,000 jobs in the nonprofit

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  • Lobby Laws Should Empower the Grassroots, Not Big Money

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    (photo: Governor's Office)


    Imagine two New Yorkers heading to Albany for a day of advocacy.

    One is a lobbyist with multiple clients, traveling to the Capitol in Amtrak business class for the third time that week. She’s spent a career working behind the scenes with elected officials trying to influence legislation and get favorable treatment for her clients. The other is an entry-level employee at a homeless shelter, sitting in a coach bus filled with clients and nonprofit service providers. It will be his first-ever meeting with an elected

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  • Claiming Attempt to Silence Them, Advocacy Groups Oppose Cuomo Lobbying Proposal

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    Gov. Cuomo (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2019 agenda includes a host of voting, campaign finance, and ethics reforms. Of three provisions related to government lobbying, one is spurring backlash from nonprofits, smaller advocacy organizations, and grassroots activists who feel threatened. Cuomo would like to require any individual or organization spending over $500 in a year on lobbying to be required to register as a lobbyist, lowering the threshold from $5,000.

    The proposal is sparking

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  • Immigrant-Service Organizations, Struggling with Immense Demand, Need Our Support

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    (photo: John McCarten/New York City Council)


    The news that immigrants who legally access public benefits, such as food, housing, and medical assistance, could be denied green cards will make it increasingly difficult for many immigrants across our city and nation to meet their basic needs, placing a sizeable burden on the nonprofit sector.

    Already, the sector is faced with an unyielding demand for support by families and communities as immigrants turn to nonprofits for support in steeper

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  • State Leaders Must Blunt Impact of Federal Tax Reform on New York Nonprofits and the People Who Rely on Us

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    (photo via The Governor's Office)


    The recently passed federal tax law will deepen inequality and jeopardize the health and wellbeing of families and individuals across our state. This legislation penalizes New Yorkers by capping the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and will create deficits that are likely to result in catastrophic cuts to the programs they depend on. These tax “cuts” will drive up the national deficit, which will then be cynically used as a rationale for slashing investments in critical programs such as food assistance,

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  • City Must Remove Nonprofits from Tax Lien Sale

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    (photo: Sofie Hecht/Gotham Gazette)


    In New York City, tiny, vulnerable, nonprofit organizations too often lose the real estate they own to for-profit developers. These unjustifiable losses are a complete mix-up of city and state tax policy, through the mechanism called the tax lien sale. New York City needs to fix this problem by removing nonprofits from the tax lien sale.

    Nonprofits of various sizes -- religious institutions, universities, and community gardens alike -- frequently own property. These organizations, due to their nonprofit status,

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  • Cuomo’s Minimum Wage Nonprofit Through the Lens of His New Regulatory Scheme

    mario cuomo campaign for economic justice bus capitol

    photos via The Governor's Office on Flickr


    Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo successfully advocated for the passage of a $15 minimum wage plan with the help of major labor unions and a nonprofit they created called The Mario Cuomo Campaign for Economic Justice. Teaming with 1199-SEIU, the health care workers union, and 32BJ-SEIU, the buildings workers union, Cuomo made campaign stops in an RV paid for by the nonprofit, which was funded largely by unions.

    In a complicated confluence of relationships,

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