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Today, I begin a new adventure.

The day that Senator Barack Obama became President Barack Obama, he called on Americans to, “embody a spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.” I was there in Washington, shivering in 15 degree weather with to my brand new fiancee when I heard those words. But thankfully I wasn’t the only one listening. At that same moment, everyone in the nation heard the president’s clarion call to service. Intuitively, every American knew that something had to be done, there needed to be some way to inspire public service to be cool again.

About 2000 miles away, the Dean of the College of Public Programs heard the same call and just so happens to have the sphere of influence necessary to answer the president’s challenge in a meaningful way.

Before the week was out, Dean Friedman gathered the leadership of the College and set out to lay the conceptual groundwork for a scholarship program – called The Spirit of Service – where a small group of students, both undergraduate and graduate, would be competitively selected to participate in an interdisciplinary academic symposium geared toward a career in public service.

Enter Sam.

Providing access to higher education? Check. Developing the next generation of leadership? Check. Empowering people, both young and old, to engage in national and community service? Check.

So here I am, on the day of John F. Kennedy’s birthday, in a role largely made possible by a bill signed into law bearing his brother’s name, starting a journey that will bring life to a scholarship program that raises the celebrity of public service and creates pathways to careers for anyone invested in the work of making our communities better places to live, work, and play. I’m a little bit excited.

Cheers,
Sam
“The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Now, let’s move on. From PhilanthroMedia yesterday:

Last Wednesday, the FTC and 48 states announced a nationwide sweep targeting scam artists who claimed to be raising money for military veterans, firefighters, and police officers. In reality, almost all of the money went to the fundraisers themselves. How can you, as a donor, guard against such scams, and discriminate between an honest, and a bogus charity?

Don’t get me wrong, I love quality transparency and accountability as much as the next guy – but it is these “task forces” and “nationwide sweeps” that scare the average donor away from giving to nonprofits altogether.

Here in Phoenix, a 5-day series ran in our daily paper detailing the conquests of a 22-organization network that embezzled, laundered, and otherwise stole millions of dollars. No mention about the fact that those 22 organizations represent less than one-tenth of one percent of the nonprofit agencies in Arizona alone. Or that the sector is the third largest source for employment in the state. But that didn’t stop the Pulitzer-hungry reporter from painting with the proverbial broad brush:

An Arizona Republic investigation found that charities can use a kind of title transfer of gifts in kind that inflate their finances, making their operations appear larger than they are. That improves the financial profile they present to donors in the federal charity drive and may attract more cash donations. The charities then spend most of the cash on salaries and expenses and pass the cash to other charities operated by relatives, co-workers or associates.

And again:

Donors to charities often have little say in how their cash contributions will be spent — and almost no way to find out. Despite rules that require non-profits to disclose their finances, their operators and their missions, federal tax forms give only a limited picture of a charity’s operation. At the same time, the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t have the staff to investigate more than a fraction of the nation’s 1.2 million charities. An Arizona Republic investigation shows charities can use their donated cash and goods in ways that can be misleading and controversial, and in ways donors may never know.

I feel like creepy music from a horror movie should start playing through your speakers now. Yes, there are going to be bad apples. Always. But there are responsible ways to react, and setting up a website through the Federal Trade Commission entitled, “Avoid Charity Fraud” seems a little dramatic to me.

Maybe I’m alone in this thought. What say you out there, Nonprofit Community? And you, Mr. or Ms. Donor?

Commercials aren’t always about the visuals, with the beauty being sometimes just the sound. The latest Oxfam America ad is just that, with a kynetic type treatment and the wonderful soundtrack of “Með suð í eyrum” by Sigur Rós, the Icelandic band, whose symphonic rock is always inspiring.

Cheers,
Sam
“It’s really simple, Governor. When people are hungry they die. So spare me your politics and tell me what you need and how you’re going to get it to these people.”
Bob Geldof

Today, I take my last final exam for the Spring 2009 semester – which means I only have one full semester (plus a summer) left of classes before I get to own a little piece of paper that certifies me smart.

After that, there are plenty of possibilities – but chief among them are sticking around the Land of Maroon & Gold to pursue a Masters of Public Administration.

Who knows? Maybe in a few years, I’ll get to put some nifty letters after my name: Samuel Richard, MPA.

Cheers,
Sam
“A lot of fellows nowadays have a B. A., M. D., or Ph. D. Unfortunately, they don’t have a J. O. B.”

Sunlight Foundation is at it again.

By ‘it,’ of course, I mean completely rethinking out our government interacts with its citizens. it’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the Sunlight’s work, and this project is no different. Read The Bill is a campaign asking Congress to post bills online at least 72 hours prior to floor debate. Sounds pretty commonsense to me. Whatever political persuasion you subscribe to, it’s a pretty universal belief that lawmakers should read the bill that they are signing into law. And since we’re part of the Digital Age, why can’t us regular folk get a chance to look the legislation over, too?

In an email I received yesterday, Sunlight’s Executive Director explains why this campaign is so important:

Dear Sunlighter,

Here’s something terrifying: Congress passed the $787 billion Stimulus Bill and we’re pretty sure the people who voted on that legislation didn’t actually read it. And for sure you didn’t have a chance to look at it, either. That’s not the first time important legislation has rushed through Congress in a matter of hours. By hurrying to vote on these bills, members of Congress might miss an earmark or tax break that could have a lasting impact on you and your community.

Congress just passed the largest piece of spending legislation in history and no one Read The Bill. Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen again. Demand that they Read The Bill and sign our petition now:

http://www.ReadTheBill.org/petition

Read The Bill is a commonsense solution — we want Congress to post all bills online for 72 hours before they are debated. That gives members of Congress – and you – three days to read legislation and consider how it could potentially affect each of us in our daily lives. A 72-hour rule would also give you a chance to let your representative in Congress know what you like, or don’t like, about a bill before he or she votes.

Here are some examples of bills that were passed when members of Congress only had a few hours to read each one.

-TARP bailout bill (2008): rushed through Congress with few provisions for accountability

-Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008: Congress’ Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout

-PATRIOT Act (2001): rushed through Congress and, consequently, expanded the federal government’s ability to gather intelligence, engage in domestic surveillance and secret searches and detain immigrants with little restraint

Just yesterday, the House of Representatives approved a $410 billion omnibus spending bill. Unlike the Stimulus Bill, it was posted online for two days, which allowed members of Congress – and citizens, alike – to read and discuss the bill for a short period of time before it was considered in Congress. But even that is not enough. Let’s remove the disparity and uncertainty that makes some bills available while others are cloaked in secrecy. Let’s continue to allow everyone to Read The Bill for at least 72 hours before it is considered in Congress.

Help us urge Congress to take some time to Read the Bill– sign our petition today.

Thank you for your time on this important matter.

Sincerely,
Ellen Miller
Executive Director, Sunlight Foundation

P.S. For real time news and updates, you can follow Read The Bill on Twitter.

This issue has a simple solution. The Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader traditionally set the voting schedule, so all Rep. Pelosi and Sen. Reid have to do is delay floor introduction 72 hours after the bill passes committee. Pretty easy, right? Pelosi could even make the call from her private jet (ZING!).

Please join me by signing the petition to post bills online 72 hours in advance of debate.

Cheers,
Sam
“The who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.”
Mark Twain

There was a period of time before India’s independence that only 3,000 Englishmen ruled a country of 350 million. Before Gandhi, India was a country fractured by a lack of unified vision. Before the great Salt March, Indians wandered through history without a coherent identity. Before they were represented at the highest governmental levels, Indians did not have a voice.

My friend, Robert, shared this fact with a group of future nonprofit leaders at a conference last month, and I still have not been able to get the thought of such a splintered society – and how much it relates to the nonprofit sector here in America – out of my head. I thank you for your bold leadership amidst a tough economic and political climate thus far, and ask for two minutes so that I may indulge in my own audacious hope:

On Sunday night, Grammy Foundation president Neil Portnow called on your Administration to create an Cabinet-Level Arts Czar.

And Mr. Portnow wasn’t the first make such a request; Quincy Jones has repeatedly suggested that having a Secretary of Culture is the right next step for America, saying that arts and culture are “just as important as military defense.”

Lest you think otherwise, let me boldly stand in solidarity with these men in saying that arts and culture are pillars of any great society – and that any government worth its weight in rhetoric should work hard to foster the advancement of these endeavors. However, it would be shortsighted not to recognize the deep impact of the National Endowment for the Arts or the myriad other government programs designed to promote arts and culture.

Furthermore, exclusively highlighting a focused sub-group at such a high level completely ignores the holistic significance of the rich tapestry woven together by the golden thread of the Social Sector in its entirety. Said differently: we have many missions, but we wish to speak and be heard as one voice.

We are a group in adolescence, finding our identity. We represent over one million organizations with missions ranging from health-care to earth-care, from animal rights to human rights. Yet we have more that unites us than divides us. Whether our organization is providing shelter for an abused woman and her children or providing future generations with the promise of cleaner energy, the core of our mission is the pursuit of a more dynamic community. As significant employers in every American city, we represent nearly 15 million paid employees and another 80 million volunteers annually. We work diligently, responsibly, and with integrity – returning every invested philanthropic dollar to the community nine times over (and that’s a conservative estimate). In other words, we are the economic stimulus you have been looking for.

We are a group faced with the fierce urgency of now, looking to usher in a bold new era of social innovation. Both you and the First Lady held jobs in nonprofit organizations, so you know firsthand how essential it is to have nimble, grassroots organizations able to respond to a rapidly changing economic environment. Now is the time to move beyond the limited constructs of charity and fully explore the powerful potential of the United States Nonprofit Sector.

The well-intentioned requests of Mr. Portnow and Mr. Jones are noble, yes. But we represent much more than musicians, artists, and writers. Every young woman who has hammered a nail into a home for Habitat for Humanity, every young man who has ladled soup into bowl after bowl at a local shelter, every grieving mother who has written letters of support to men and women in service overseas, and every person who has run a race to support breast cancer research or fight Alzheimer’s disease – is ours.

Mr. President, we humbly implore you to create the Department of the Nonprofit Sector in order that Social Change and Community Development have a Cabinet-Level voice in your Administration. Thank you for your time, energy, and continued service to the nation that de Tocqueville called great, “because she does good.”

Sincerely,

Samuel I. Richard
Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits
Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, Phoenix

The President shall

If by chance you skimmed over the enthralling Hawthorne-esque prose of our Founding Fathers above, this section of the Constitution charges the President with the task of appointing high-level advisors, officers, and adjudicators to be confirmed (or rejected) by the Senate.

Historically, much ado has been of “Cabinet-Level Positions” because these are the people with the ear of the president. And because of the (purposefully) vague language concerning the specifics, many changes have been made to what departments are Cabinet-Level and which are not. For instance, the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency used to be a Cabinet-Level post. When the Department of Homeland Security was formed in 2003, FEMA became a sub-department – along with the Transportation Security Administration, the US Secret Service, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the US Coast Guard.

The point is: things change. When Washington (and his hot wife) took office, George appointed only four people to his Cabinet: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton; Secretary of War Henry Knox; and Attorney General Edmund Randolph. Over the years, new departments have formed while others stay in existence but no longer enjoy Cabinet status.

Take, for example, what we now call the United States Postal Service. The Post Office was created in 1792 by order of President Washington, but didn’t reach Cabinet Level status until President Andrew Jackson invited Postmaster General William T. Barry to sit as a member of the Cabinet in 1829. The Post Office Department had the ear of the President until 1971, when Richard Nixon outsourced the operation as part of the Postal Reorganization Act, creating the quasi-governmental entity known today as the United States Postal Service.

Ok, enough nerd talk – but just a little more contextual background. There has been much ebb and flow over the previous 43 presidential administrations, but below is a list of current high-level advisors. There are Cabinet Members – all Secretaries with the exception of the Attorney General – and there are Cabinet-Level Officers. Confusing, but there is a distinction – namely, Cabinet Members need to be confirmed by the Senate whereas Cabinet-Level Officers do not necessarily need to be. Fun side fact – the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice are known as the “Big Four” because they commonly have the most interaction with the President. During meetings of the Cabinet, these four people sit in closest proximity to the President and Vice President. Alright, enough preamble (historic document humor):

Cheers,
Sam
“Bureaucracy is not an obstacle to democracy but an inevitable complement to it.“
Joseph A. Schumpeter

Seth Godin, author of Tribes, The Dip, and Purple Cow writes a fantastic blog that everyone should read daily – including the Arizona State Legislature. A couple of days ago, he outlined what he thought school is for. In his mind, the purpose of school is to (my favorites are bolded):

This list was strikingly relevant to my life last week, because Arizona just approved a $275 million cut to its public schools – making much of the above list nearly impossible to achieve. Maybe we can bring Seth in to teach our lawmakers how to be a little more creative in their spending cuts so we don’t completely throw away the future…

Remember when I got all bummed about the state of our state a few months ago? I was thinking about telling you, “I told you so,” or writing an equally dreary follow-up, but Brian was kind enough to beat me to it. Here’s a snippet from his Open Letter Governor Brewer and the Arizona State Legislature:

You believe that any tax is a bad tax and you laud your ability to cut, slash and refuse to pass any taxation. You tell us you are putting money back in our pockets. But the truth is you are simply stripping us of the services we want from our government. You tell us that we can choose private schools, home school or find the best education alternative for us and our children. What you do not tell us is that you are relegating our children to demonstrably inferior educational alternatives unless we are wealthy. We can not afford to live in a state which educates the children of the wealthy and relegates the rest to menial labor.

I’m not a socialist, or a liberal. I’m a businessman. I know what you do not and can not seem to understand. Prosperity is a result of investment. If you will not invest, you will not prosper. If you will not invest I will no longer invest in AZ either.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are things worth paying for. There are things worth sacrifice and, yes, even higher taxation. If our children, and our future are not worth that sacrifice what, I ask you, is?

That pretty much sums up what I would have said. Except for the “not a liberal” part.

Cheers,
Sam
“At the very time our nation is calling its universities to action… Arizona has gone in the opposite direction.”
Dr. Micheal Crow (President, Arizona State University)

[Source: Seth Godin's Blog]
[Source: Brian Roy's Blog]

Well, I’m thinking about setting it up again. If you’re interested, send me a message (samuelisaacrichard [at] gmail [dot] com) or reply in the comments. The 111th Congress technically convened on the 3rd of January. But they’ll be there for awhile…

Cheers,
Sam
“Congress: Bingo with billions.”
Red Skelton

Two fun videos for you today. Won’t hurt, promise.

First, the most recent winner of the Golden Lion at Cannes. The video comes from German company, Epuron:

Second, a video from Greenpeace. Coalfinger is five (5) minutes long, but worth every innuendo-laden moment. This spoof deserves a place in the Ring of Honor in the James Bond museum. Seriously:

See? That wasn’t so bad. Now go think about how we can better utilize the energy our planet provides.

Cheers,
Sam
“If you asked me to name the three scariest threats facing the human race, I would give the same answer most people would: nuclear war, global warming, and Windows.”
Dave Barry