Download
1 / 10
90 likes | 199 Views
Culture, Transit Justice and Non-Profits. How do interviews with organizers from OPAL Environmental Justice help us understand the tensions involved with being a non-profit that engages with issues of transit justice in Portland?. Structure of Non-Profits?. As a nonprofit, you can:
E N D
Culture, TransitJustice and Non-Profits How do interviews with organizers from OPAL Environmental Justice help us understand the tensions involved with being a non-profit that engages with issues of transit justice in Portland?
Structure of Non-Profits? As a nonprofit, you can: • Receive public and private donations • Receive state and federal tax exemptions As a nonprofit, you must: • Adopt a corporate structure • Not participate in lobbying
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon “the powers that be are hoping we will fizzle out” “every grant is a struggle” “ “shoe-string grassroots organization” “never enough money” “grants are drying up” “we try to not be too government grant heavy…they require a lot of reporting and record keeping and jumping through hoops” “my co-director works 30 hours and we pay him for 15. that’s part of the deal…it’s unfortunate, but it takes that kind of commitment”
What’s our situation? • We are a transit justice organization, a community based organization • Mission statement: we are “a community based organization working to engage, educate, and empower low-income communities and communities of color through direct action and grassroots organizing.” • We lost one of the grants that we generally get every year, did not go through. • We need money to pay our staff. • We are all really busy, we’ve got other deadlines coming up. • 3 year old organization • We found a grant that we could apply for. It is from the city for obesity education work.
Reflection • Was this a helpful exercise? • Did you learn anything from it?
My Research and Conclusions Inside and outside face of the organization Awareness of the dangers of following the money Negotiating. “It’s unfortunate, but it takes that kind of commitment” Subsidized by peoples passion for the work
Further Questions “community organizing” vs “community engagement” How does funding influence the way the work gets defined? Achieving “balance”. How are non-profits affected by shifts to self-generating income sources? Can we learn from our elders? How have older non-profits weathered financial crisis and shifts in funding availability?
Sources “Charity in a down economy | Marketplace from American Public Media.” Web. 7 Dec. 2011. “Nickel and Dimed | City | Portland Mercury.” Web. 8 Nov. 2011. Ostar, Jonathan. Personal Interview. November 2011. Rosenthal, Donald. “Who ‘Owns’ AIDS Service Organizations? Governance Accountability in Non-Profit Organizations.” Polity 29.1 (1996): 97. Print. Santos-Lyons, Joseph, and Jonathan Ostar. “Bus service should be TriMet’s first priority.” OregonLive. 13 May 2010. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. Cambridge, Mass: South End Press, 2007. Print. Trudeau, Dan. “Junior Partner or Empowered Community? The Role of Non-profit Social Service Providers amidst State Restructuring in the US.” Urban Studies 45.13 (2008): 2805-2805-2827. Print. Warnke, Georgia. "Feminism and Hermeneutics." Hypatia. 8.1 (1993): 81-98. Print.
