CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: 2010 Michael H. Urbach, CPA, Community Builder's Award

Sponsored by the New York Council of Nonprofits (NYCON) and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA)

In recognition of the important role, talents and leadership that a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New York State can provide as a board member for community-based charities, NYCON and NYSSCPA are pleased to announce the 7th Annual Michael H. Urbach, CPA, Community Builder's Award.

The award is named in honor of the late Michael H. Urbach, CPA, former partner of Urbach, Kahn and Werlin, former NYS Commissioner of Tax and Finance and Chair of the State Employees federated Appeal, and board leader of a number of charities.


Award Criteria & Submission
Candidates must:

• Be a CPA in good standing and a member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants;
• Have served as an Officer on at least 3 different charitable 501(c)(3) community-based nonprofits with service as President/Chair at least once;
• Have demonstrated exemplary board leadership resulting in significant and positive organizational impact including, but not limited to, financial turn-around, growth, and/or organizational re-structuring; and
• Preference will be given to nominees whose board leadership accomplishments have been with community-based charities.

Deadline - August 30th, 2010
Nominations addressing the candidate's qualifications must be submitted in writing and received by August 30th, 2010. Nominators are strongly encouraged to include letters of support from the charities who have benefited from the candidate's volunteer leadership.

Send six (6) packets of nomination materials to:
Urbach Community Builder's Award Committee
New York Council of Nonprofits
272 Broadway
Albany NY 12204

Announcement & Presentation
The 2010 award will be formally presented at the Annual Member Meeting of NYCON slated for the afternoon of September 30th at Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York.

The Luncheon will take place during CAMP FINANCE, a two-day retreat that provides the very best in knowledge and skill development sessions for fiscal and management staff, as well as board members. New this year, it has expanded to include the popular "Money for Mission" tracks that will focus on fundraising, marketing, social media, grant making (both government and philanthropic) and more!

In honor of the late Harold Mandel, a certified public accountant who worked for Urbach, Kahn & Werlin in Albany, NY and retired in West Palm Beach, FL, the 2010 Urbach Honoree has the privilege to award three (3) nonprofit executives of their choice Camp Finance scholarships in Hal's name. In 2009, Mr. Mandel's family accepted a posthumous Michael H. Urbach, CPA Community Builder's Award in his tribute.

Nonprofit Advocacy Matters Update from National Council of Nonprofits

Five Worst Government Contracting Abuses
Late payments for contracted services is only one of many ways that governments shortchange nonprofits and exploit the contracting relationship. See the five worst government contracting abuses and let us know if you can add further documentation, if you've seen worse, or if you know of solutions in your state that help prevent these and other abuses.

Hearing to Consider Gulf Coast Need for Charitable Assistance
Viewing the impact of the Gulf oil spill on people in the region, Congress is asking "what needs to be done and how the charitable sector and others can reach out to these communities and help." The Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, July 20, to consider these questions and examine how donations contributed to charities are being used. In announcing the hearing, Chairman John Lewis (D-GA) stated, "This is the moment when government must rely on charitable organizations to fulfill their missions and address these urgent needs."

Rival Estate Tax Revisions Proposed
The estate tax expired at the end of 2009, but will snap back automatically in 2011 to a 55 percent tax rate with a $1 million exemption unless changes are made. Senators are proposing rival plans to weaken or strengthen the federal tax on estates. Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) introduced a measure last week to set the estate tax rate at 35 percent, with a $5 million exemption phased in over 10 years and indexed for inflation. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) recently introduced the Responsible Estate Tax Act, S.3533 to set an exemption of $3.5 million and impose tax rates from between 35 percent and 55 percent based on the size of the estate above the exemption level. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has said that he does not intend to allow any estate tax votes in the coming weeks, but he continues to negotiate with the Republican Leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on the Senate schedule and amendments.

Financial Regulatory Reform Enacted, Cuts Debit Card Fees
Last week the Senate passed and sent to President Obama the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R.4173). The measure imposes new restrictions on risky financial investments, creates a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within the Federal Reserve, and allows the Federal Reserve to regulate the amount of fees that nonprofits and merchants can be charged for debit card transactions. President Obama is expected to sign the bill this week.

Nonprofit Sector Act
Federal Data of "Uncertain Quality"
The case for the Nonprofit Sector and Community Solutions Act, H.R. 5533, was made recently by SubsidyScope, a program of Pew Charitable Trusts. In seeking to analyze the effects of tax subsidies and federal grants, the authors reached the following conclusions:

"It is challenging to assemble and present spending and subsidy data regarding the nonprofit sector because the federal government does not identify nonprofits as a distinct budget category. Further, federal budget data are of uncertain quality; specifically, the data available through USAspending.gov are incomplete because certain program information is missing for a number of records, making it difficult to discern which specific agencies and programs may be awarding funds to nonprofits."

A key component of H.R. 5533 is to overcome the data challenges that SubsidyScope, and many other nonprofit researchers, have identified.

IRS Seeks Comments on New Disclosure Requirement
The health care reform law enacted earlier this year requires nonprofits and businesses, starting in 2012, to report aggregate payments to vendors in excess of $600 for goods and other property. The requirement applies for payments to all vendors, not just those related to health care. Currently, nonprofits and others are required to file Form 1099s for payment of services by independent contractors, but not for goods from vendors. The IRS is seeking public comment on how to most effectively carry out the law change, with the stated goal of minimizing burdens and avoiding duplicate reporting. The deadline for comments is Sept. 29, 2010. Please share this information with your accounting and operations personnel and send the National Council your ideas on how best to limit the impact of this new reporting requirement.

Golden Rule of Board Resignations

Board Cafe • By Jan Masaoka • June 18, 2010
At some point you may resign from a nonprofit board before your term is up. You might be angry, disappointed, or just too busy. Don't botch your resignation: do it right.

Most often as board members we stick out our term limits and leave the board feeling good about what we''ve contributed. But there are also times when you resign before your term is up. Maybe you've missed a lot of meetings or maybe you're moving to another city. Maybe you're uneasy with the direction the organization is taking, or maybe you feel that as a board member you are treated like a "mushroom": kept in the dark and fed manure (!).

Regardless of your reason, you can just walk away quietly, or make a weak excuse, or you can use the moment to give meaning to your resignation, both to you and to the board.

Following are some ways to make significance out of your resignation: Read more here.

NY comes up last in volunteerism

The Albany Business Review reported that New Yorkers are not very beneficent when it comes to giving their time. Not at all.

In fact, the Empire State ranks 51st out of 50 states and Washington D.C. when it comes to volunteering, according to the annual Volunteering in America report.

Nationally, however, about 1.6 million more volunteers served in 2009 than in 2008, making this the largest single-year increase in the number of volunteers since 2003, when data was first collected for the study. The report is produced by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a government-sponsored nonprofit. Higher unemployment rates also increase volunteerism.

Nationwide, a total of 63.4 million volunteers contributed 8.1 billion hours of service in 2009, an estimated dollar value $169 billion. Overall, the volunteering rate increased in 2009 to 26.8 percent, up from 26.4 percent in 2008.

Volunteering data used in the annual report is gathered through the Current Population Survey, conducted monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Volunteers are defined as individuals ages 16 and over who perform unpaid activities for or through an organization.

The study showed that 2.9 million, or 19 percent, of New York residents volunteered in 2007-2009, compared with the national average of 26.8 percent. The Capital Region fared better, but still placed in the lower half of the rankings. It ranked 44th out of the 75 mid-sized cities that were studied for the report, with 27.1 percent, or 200,000, of its residents volunteering.

Compared with other mid-sized cities in New York, the Capital Region placed behind Binghamton, ranked 30th, and Poughkeepsie, ranked 41st, and ahead of 71st-ranked Syracuse. Nationally, Provo, Utah, ranked first among mid-sized cities and El Paso, Texas, was last. Utah was the top state for volunteerism.

Volunteers in New York contributed 405.5 million hours, or $8.5 billion worth in service from 2007-2009.

Read more: New York dead-last in volunteerism - The Business Review (Albany)

United Way now one in Niagara

Buffalo Business First reported that two United Way agencies in Niagara County have completed a consolidation, creating a $1.6 million agency that will serve over 80,000 county residents.

The United Way of Greater Niagara brings together the United Way of Niagara and the Eastern Niagara United Way, which together support 75 different human service programs run by 21 service providers.

Carol Houwaart-Diez, executive director of the new group, says together the agencies will be able to cut costs for business services like insurance rates and rental property, with the savings going back into program allocations to benefit county residents.

As the agency completes the second phase of a needs assessment process, the services funded by the agency may also change, she says.

“Now we’re trying to find out the gaps in the community. Once we find that out, we will determine if there will be significant changes,” she says.

With headquarters in Niagara Falls on Military Road, the agency will shut down its full time Lockview Plaza site this month and open a part-time community service office in Lockport’s Bewley Building. The new organization has seven employees and a 20-member board of directors.

Companies in the region will have one Day of Caring event, one meeting for agency CEOs and one funding process – saving them time and effort.

Initially, the consolidation plan that began four years ago called for bringing together all three United Way agencies in Niagara County, but talks with the United Way of the Tonawandas fell through after members voted it down on two separate occasions.

Read more: United Way now one in Niagara - Business First of Buffalo

NYS has authority to review and approve health insurance rates

The Central NY Business Journal reported that the New York State Insurance Department again has the authority to review and approve health-insurance premium increases before they take effect.

Gov. David Paterson signed the bill allowing the reinstatement of the power today.
Since 2000, New York had regulated health-insurance premiums under a "file and use" law that "significantly" limited the state's ability to disapprove premium increases and allowed the insurance industry to regulate itself, the governor's office said in a news release.

The new law requires health insurers and health-maintenance organizations (HMOs) to make an application to the Insurance Department to implement premium increases.
The department would review the rate-increase applications, as well as the underlying calculations, to ensure that the rates are justified and not excessive, the governor's office said.

The law would apply to all rate increases taking effect on or after Oct. 1, 2010.
In addition, the legislation will immediately require health insurers and HMOs to spend more of every premium dollar they collect on medical claims.

In particular, the law raises the "medical-loss ratio," or the percentage of premium spent to provide medical care, from 75 percent to 82 percent for small businesses and from 80 percent to 82 percent for individuals.

In a statement released Tuesday night, the New York State Conference of BlueCross BlueShield Plans expressed "complete disappointment" over what it calls "government-imposed price controls." Read more here.

Forum Features Discussion with NYS Comptroller and Strategic Alliances and Partnerships

The blog, Done by People, by Joe Brown, Principal and Founder of Slope Resources, LLC, offered the following recap of the "A Conversation with NYS Comptroller Thomas P. Di Napoli and Panel Discussion on Strategic Alliances & Partnerships."

On Monday, I had the opportunity to attend a highly informative and engaging forum which brought together government and nonprofit representatives to discuss the topic of strategic alliances and partnerships among nonprofit organizations. While the discussion focused on New York State’s nonprofit sector, the challenges, considerations, and ideas discussed are applicable to organizations nationwide. In the absence of a video or audio recording of the session, I wanted to share this detailed recap and my impressions of the session.

The event was sponsored by the Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region and the New York Council of Nonprofits (NYCON) and held at the headquarters of New York State United Teachers (very nice digs, by the way) in Latham, New York, a few miles northeast of Albany.

Karen Bilowith, President and CEO of the Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region, presided over the session. The approximately 75 attendees included representatives of various nonprofits, including arts, cultural, health, and human services organizations, as well as a number of funders and consultants (including yours truly). Following Ms. Bilowith’s welcoming comments, New York Secretary of State Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez provided brief opening remarks. Ms. Cortés-Vázquez assured the attendees that “most in government” recognize the importance of the nonprofit sector and rules and regulations pertaining to the sector should not be so onerous as to provide disincentives for staff, board members, and volunteers to participate.

I’m from the government, and…
Ms. Cortés-Vázquez then introduced the session’s keynote speaker, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The Office of the State Comptroller has responsibility for the review, approval, and payment of the state’s contracts with nonprofit organizations. Mr. DiNapoli noted the importance of the nonprofit sector to the state and its economy, citing 2006 statistics that the state’s approximately 24,000 nonprofits reported revenue of $133 billion and employed nearly 1.2 million people, or 17% of the state’s workforce. He quantified the state’s contractual bonds with the sector as consisting of nearly 31,000 active contracts totaling $14.6 billion, as of June 2009. Read more here.

The balance of the session was devoted to presentations and discussion by a panel consisting of:
■Doug Sauer, who has served as Chief Executive Officer of New York Council of Nonprofits (NYCON) since 1980. NYCON’s membership represents approximately 1,600 charitable nonprofit organizations across New York State.
■Cristine Cioffi, who is a partner in the law firm of Cioffi • Slezak • Wildgrube P.C., but spoke primarily in her role as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Ellis Medicine, an organization which resulted from the recent merger of three nonprofit hospitals in Schenectady County.
■David W. Palmquist, who as Manager of the New York State Museum’s Chartering Program, oversees the chartering of museums, historical societies, and similar cultural organizations with educational purposes across the state.
The panelists responded to questions posed by Ms. Bilowith, as well as several questions from audience members.

Doug Sauer
While all three of the panelists presented interesting perspectives on the potential of various collaborative models for nonprofit organizations, I was particularly impressed by Mr. Sauer’s insight and candor on a number of fronts. Early in his presentation, he discussed the recent proliferation of nonprofits, describing the creation of thousands of new organizations each year, many of which are not active, and the resultant saturated environment. (I was reminded of a recent article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which noted that the number of nonprofit organizations nationwide has increased by 90% to 1.2 million since 1996). Read more here.