Three Ideas for Enlisting Charities to Bolster the Economy - Article Summary and Reflection

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Three Ideas for Enlisting Charities to Bolster the Economy - By Don Kramer and David Ross

Chronicle of Philanthropy.  21.6 (Jan 19, 2009)

http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/6844/opinion-three-ideas-for-enlisting-charities-to-bolster-the-economy

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc.

Summary –
The three ideas they expand upon involving non-profits and helping the economy are:

·      Allow people to claim a double deduction for any increase in the amount they give to charity this year and next.

·      Expand the number of people eligible to give charities money from their individual retirement accounts without paying taxes.

·      Make grants of $3,000 to charities for each new job they create.

These authors have some fabulous statistics:

·      “Although usually overlooked in discussions of the economy, the nation’s one million charitable organizations are a major component of the economy. They have combined assets of more than $3-trillion, and they employ more than 11 million people. They also use the services of at least 60 million volunteers.”

·      “The nonprofit portion of our economy is larger than the entire economic output of Canada, India, or Russia.” 

Reflection – I think that I’m becoming a sucker for any article that pushes the arts as being seen as an economic force.  But it’s so true!  And we are so under estimated.  

What I like about this article is that instead of suggesting ways that our government can bail us out, two of their focus points are promoting ways to make giving more beneficial to individuals.  It’s fabulous to think that our government can help everything but in reality that’s just not going to happen.  But the first two points of this argument could highly impact how people give and the level they will be willing to donate to help non-profits.  In other words, we will all be able to help each other more with better benefits to ourselves for doing so.  That’s a statement that could be very marketable to donors.

I have mixed reactions to their third point.  While it sounds good in practice I don’t think it will be nearly as effective to large groups of non-profits as the first two points.

Your thoughts?