Charities in Severe Distress Over Credit Collapse
After 30 long years of Reagan-inspired hatred of government services, we're seeing the policies come to their logical conclusion. Because we didn't so much cut the size of government as we outsourced it. Most people are oblivious to the fact that large numbers of government social services were simply contracted out to local non-profits because it meant towns, cities and states didn't have to pay for the additional benefits of a government employee to do that job.
And now, anyone in need of those services is screwed - because those agencies aren't getting paid:
SCO Family of Services, a nonprofit agency based on Long Island, started the year with a $25 million credit line at its bank, which it planned to use to pay its bills while awaiting government reimbursements and donations.
Now, after its bank has cut its credit line twice and withdrawn a promise to support a critical bond offering, the organization is worried about whether it can pay its employees this month.
“I spend a good part of my day every day just trying to manage cash flow,” said Johanna Richman, chief financial officer at SCO, which provides services to children with developmental disabilities.
SCO is one of hundreds of charities caught in the credit crunch as skittish banks reduce their lines of credit or cut them off entirely at a time when the need for their services is climbing sharply, nonprofit leaders say.
“While nonprofits are working feverishly to accommodate increased demand, they are facing severe financial constraints that are threatening their ability to go on, much less expand their services,” said Diana Aviv, president and chief executive of Independent Sector, a nonprofit trade association.
Almost three-quarters of nonprofits in the United States receive some type of government financing, according to new research by the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, and about half of those count on that aid for at least half of their budgets.
As a growing number of states delay payment, nonprofits must rely on lines of credit to help them get by. In Illinois, the state is running as much as 150 days late in making reimbursements, and California has told nonprofits to expect i.o.u.’s in lieu of payment starting next month.
is approaching fast, where the only people you will be able to get to help you are family and friends. If anyone knew my family, then you would see how bad the situation really is. When nations go down, they take the poor down with them first.
Take the poor down first?
Woohoo! I'm already there! The advantage of being at rock bottom before the depression hits.
you don't really expect us to believe you are at rock bottom.
poor people don't have the luxury of a computer or being on
the internet. you are like a lot of us, it's time to
juggle what is important-a luxury like blogging or eating.
Have you ever tried to get a job without the Internet these days? I guess that I could by the local papers at 2 times the price of my 'net bill. Then drive 20mi round-trip to the library to fill out the web-form required for the job. And I'm looking for IT jobs, but I'll take anything now that pays more than unemployment.
Blogging is a luxury?
How much do you pay to "blog"? Anyone?
Try gmail blogger. Its free. And so are a lot of wi fi signals.
i am sorry that you guys have missed the point....
it's not the great benefit the internet and blogging
is in our lives......
it's a luxury to the really POOR.
we all take for granted what we have
and we have much more than we realize.
i point out as an example of a possibility..
the tv show "Jericho". after a major
nuclear attack from an unknown enemy,
many major cities in the usa are destroyed.
in the rural areas of the country, everyone
has lost phones, tv and any computer link.
this is the level of poor i am talking about
in my first post......the poor just don't
have the ability to support even their basic
needs let alone a luxury like computers or
the internet. i hope that was simple enough
for you to understand.
i come from a family history in rural America.
we did not have electrity, tv or even an indoor
plumbing. heat was from a single wood burning
stove for the entire house and we had to search
the surrounding woods for firewood. we had no
money for it either. any and all funds we got
were from what little work was available, friends/neighbors/family. it was a very hard life, but we managed.
those of you who want to spam me, fine. but until
you have lived in abject poverty, you will never
understand what the truly poor in this nation
face everyday.
America has great luxury, but it also has
some of the poorest in the world. just be thankful you
have not known this misery.
Maybe poor people are better off with out the internet. That's like saying people who don't have a TV to watch Jericho are deprived. Not everybody who is poor is unhappy or wants pity.
I know people who think the entire world needs to bust out of their poverty and start living like Americans do. That is not necessarily a good thing nor is it feasible.
thank you for your thoughts.
Obama. Raise taxes on those wealthy people, balance this s*** out. Just another thought too, less money on war. If we have money to kill people we have money to help people.
you have it all right.
priorities
wise frugal spending or
wasting money on bullshit.
Nowhere in the US Constitution does it state that our economic system must be corporate capitalism.
In fact, the goals and practices of democratic socialism more closely match the goals and commitments stated in the US Constitution than do the goals and practices of corporate capitalism.
When we talk about "living out the true meaning" of the vision of our founders, we normally limit that to recognizing the rights of ALL, equally.
Now it is time to revisit the notion of "living out the true meaning" of the vision of our founders, re-evaluating WHAT rights we all share.
In my view, the right to food, shelter, clothing, health care and education ALL fall under the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" - for without food, shelter, clothing, health care and education, how are these "unalienable rights" to be secured?
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Now if we could ever figure out how to get a mass movement of people educated and willing to speak out about these things. We need it. This isn't working and our people could be better off under a system with less greed and corruption. Damn. And good post.
I agree totally!
...food, shelter, clothing, health care and education should all be a basic right and we all should be able to write off rent/food (all that shit) ...on our income tax forms!!!
working to support "ones basic needs" is not taxable! (cuz it aint a privelege or something)...it's a basic right.
p.s. unless you are someone who has "income" from stocks and bonds from big corportions or other wall st. "type" monies. ...and/or those with govt jobs...
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Why doesn't anyone get this? The US is insolvent. The Democrats asked where it would come from for the war? The Republicans didn't want to touch it with a 10 foot pole, cough ahem. Now we're on a new spending spree er... I mean investing spree and no one wants to ask: Where the money is going to come from?
These programs are toast
If you want to understand read on...
The World Won't Buy Unlimited U.S. Debt
Peter Schiff
Excerpt from Peter Schiff's Wall Street Journal article of January 23, 2009
Barack Obama has spoken often of sacrifice. And as recently as a week ago, he said that to stave off the deepening recession Americans should be prepared to face "trillion dollar deficits for years to come."
But apart from a stirring call for volunteerism in his inaugural address, the only specific sacrifices the president has outlined thus far include lower taxes, millions of federally funded jobs, expanded corporate bailouts, and direct stimulus checks to consumers. Could this be described as sacrificial?
What he might have said was that the nations funding the majority of America's public debt -- most notably the Chinese, Japanese and the Saudis -- need to be prepared to sacrifice. They have to fund America's annual trillion-dollar deficits for the foreseeable future. These creditor nations, who already own trillions of dollars of U.S. government debt, are the only entities capable of underwriting the spending that Mr. Obama envisions and that U.S. citizens demand...
Read the entire article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1232669889143...
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
sacrificing their future and present standards of living to keep the American economic bubble going.
Makes one all warm and tearful, enough to rush out and spend some plastic.
is a smart guy and he has made some astute observations.
But he is 100% on the side of the Capitalists, he is one.
He has been a Ron Paul adviser and that is where his politics lay.
I listen to what he says but I am never on his political bus.
--
Seriously down size the MIC (he says that too).
Stop bailing out the Wall Street Crooks (he says that too without the crooks part)
And tax the Fat Cats (now he is my enemy).
Stop the Federal Government from being gouged via outsourcing.
As far as this post I would not want the impression to remain that all or even most of the Federal Government outsourcing contracts go to non profits.
I don't believe that is the case, I will do research and get back to you.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Anybody receiving money from Madoff since 2002 is liable to pay it back, this would also include any charitable donations as well as 'investors' and the FOF people.
1 - The post begins with Reagan's anti-government policies, but neglects to mention that government actually grew under Reagan and under every president since. This growth is over and above military expenditures, and it exponentially exceeds the ability of taxpayers to fund it. Bush 43 totally failed to reform government social services (and Social Security), and presided over the biggest expansion in entitlements since LBJ, arguably since FDR. The biggest area of growth is the scariest, the unfunded future liabilities of Medicare, Social Security, the Bush Drug Plan, the VA and various government pension plans, which exceed $50 Trillion. That $50 Trillion isn't some theoretical number - it starts to become a current budgetary liability in 2011, when the Baby Boomers start hitting 65, take retirement and become eligible for Medicare and subsidized prescription drugs.
2 - The program cited is a state program, and illustrates that the US gov't debt problem is a crisis at every level: federal, state and municipal. Most states, and many cities, have huge pension liabilities that will hit them hard, starting in just a few years - in the midst of a deep recession, no less, with property and income tax revenue in deep decline. Forget the problems of outsourced state-funded social programs - that's babyshit compared to the costs they will soon face. And the states, unlike the federal gov't, can't print money to offset their costs.
Trouble is certain meds are special prices under this scheme,
Albutamol costs $9 instead of $4, special in MN for some reason, plus its a 60 dose inhaler and not the normal 200. whichever same mg or ug, didn't check.
the bailout money will be here soon.
Obama could maybe give each of the 50 states 10 billion dollars. (Executive order) and that would only be 500 billion, which is just a "small slice" of whats been given to private banks so far. (states could write a lot of checks...and pay everyone...Ahnuld Shwarzengroper could get "extra" since he "asked first" (a month ago or so ago...)
...its really just a matter of printing it, thats all right?
Executive order #5 maybe? ...Obama?
order the "FED" to give "some dat" money to the states!
...just make sure they (states) can't spend it on jails!
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
i feel for the many people the charities in
America support, but i have no interest in
helping them until the fat ass members of
their boards REDUCE their greedy salaries.
too much of the money that goes to a charity
ends up in the hands/pockets of self-important
directors who lavish themselves with luxury at
the expense of the needy.
which does lavish meals and galas for fatcats they want to squeeze and who they want to in turn shakedown their employees (You wouldn't believe how upward mobility in some companies is stopped if you don't openly tithe via payroll deduction to these assholes) but really, small food banks, homeless shelters and the like -- not everyone running a charity is a greedy asshole, as I've just alleged the United Way to be.
BTW, United Way quit supporting Planned Parenthood in Seattle-King County when PP refused to quit abortion as a choice counseling at the behest of the RCC.
Skip the juggernauts; support your local small charities. That way the money stays in your area, will create a small economic stimulus there.
me-oww!
at least the ones I am part of.
However, I am assuming it must be great to find a loophole excuse to justify some people's lack of involvement in helping their fellow human being.
Oh man, sounds like the money that was being used to pay off the church people to blindly follow has just been revoked. They are gonna think Obama did it. Am I confused? Faith based just went bankrupt, only after 3 days of Obama, oh my.
after 28 years if you've seen one "Reagan Revolution" hopefully you've seen them all!
I do think we are totally f*%!*d but at least under Obama's plan "we the people" will get improved roads, bridges, schools etc. etc. before it all goes to hell.
What did we get from all the taxcuts under Bush....diddleysquat. Give to the rich and they keep it. Anyone who thinks the rich will give to the poor or create jobs (for anybody but their relatives) is an idiot. And those idiots have been drinking that coolaid for decades now, and it always turns out the same.
Same thing with the cuts to interest rates; we are at zero now and it didn't help did it. Maybe if the interest rates would have been much higher the housing market would not have been over inflated. Maybe people would have put money aside for a rainy day, which I think has arrived.
A Domestic mindset in an Global economy. I must be crazy?
How does the Majority of the Worlds population, earn a living?
Dump a gazillion dollars on this Continent and create as many jobs as you can dream up, then remember, of all those dreamt before.
Where have all the previous jobs gone? Our technology has enabled a Global commerce, though the rules of the game are different in other lands. Those who know how to play the game, will win every time. Until the playing field is equal, life will continue too be unfair...
On a positive note > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZ9zWSwJg8
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
[Albert Einstein]
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Chomsky on two divergent views of globalization here.
Michael Parenti on Capitalism here.
Labor versus Capital Worldwide here.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Thank you for bringing that information too my attention and your time as well. The brief explanation of Mr. Chomsky's opinion, I find plausible and probable.
The second link regarding [Michael Parenti] would not link up for me.
And in ending, the third was consistent with my concerns as well. Link three was very informative and I admired the premise, in as much as I observed. Thanks again
Amended: I got the infamous "The requested URL /capitalism apocalypse.html. was not found on this server." :-P
I'll find it though...
Study the symptoms not the virus...
on Capitalism here (it works).
Parenti on the overthrow of communism, here.
Parenti on the poor. How and why the uber rich need them, here.
Chomsky and Israel's right to defend themselves, but not with force, here.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Do you have any estimates on how many know the concerns vs. follow blindly?
I don't think its 52.87%/45.62% or 365/173 [Electoral]? Votes :-)
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Nationalise the banking industry. The odds of that happening in a country where a sizable percentage would set themselves on fire just to be able to have Ayn Rand's maid's grand daughter go "Eeeeew!" when looking at their charred remains, and where a huge percentage of people willingly believe in fairytales, approach nil.
They would rather believe their nonsense than face up to the reality of the class struggle, because they think that what benefits the rich, benefits them. But nationalising the banking system would be the simplest and smartest thing the govt could do.
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
-George Carlin
That's something President Obama is going to have to address. There are some things that should never be outsourced. Ever. Mr. Obama said that if things weren't working, it was time to do it another way. I would submit that nothing that was once a government function that has been "outsourced" or "privatized" is working. It's time to put it all back in the hands of OUR government where they belong. Aside from the fact that outsourcing is always more expensive to the taxpayer, the outsourced services never meet the quality that was had when the government ran them, be it military cooks, mental health, community services, control over monetary policy ("Federal" Reserve) or whatever.
The outsourcing and privatizing were never anything more than scams to plunder thenation's treasure.
... smells a lot like pee.
The GOP rewrote the tax code in Stupor Mundi's 1st term.
Those rewrites did away with the write-offs. Charitable donations shrunk considerably because charitable giving was dis-incentivized.
(And if my mom hung out at this site, she'd have a lot to say on this thread. She worked in fundraising for charities for over 20 years. The next time you buy one of those Shamrocks for Dystrophy- MDA's 2nd largest fundraising annual fundraising effort, after the Labor Day telethon- at the bar or party store, think of my mom, their originator.)
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Meanwhile as costs of living go up, along with fear of job stability, charitable donations from the average citizen go down, even as more and more of the average citizens have to ask for help from food pantries, who are facing shortages because of the increased need, and large grocery store chains are selling unused inventory around the world instead of donating them.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I just don't know what to say anymore.
For 8 years, we awoke each morning to a new atrocity, a new calamity, a new fuck-up.
He's gone, and yet the same shit keeps appearing every day...
It will end soon. His damage will be everlasting, but at least new revelations should start to die out in a few weeks... ok, months?... years?... decades?... Ok, it can't be centuries, we'll stop at decades...
It will only get worse. We haven't even seen the worst with the foreclusures. Wait until we get to the credit bubble.
This is only the beginning.
Though I agree with your prediction, I disagree it was predictable. Evidenced, by all those surprised and dumbfounded.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
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