As the COVID-19 pandemic nears its second anniversary in the United States, charitable nonprofits continue to face financial and operational challenges related to the pandemic and to the nonprofit workforce shortage. These challenges are making it difficult – and unsustainable – for nonprofits to provide needed programs and services in our communities.

Our elected leaders in Washington, D.C. have the power to help address many nonprofit pandemic and workforce shortage challenges. But for that to happen, we need organizations like yours to join a national effort to persuade President Biden and leaders in Congress to prioritize policy solutions to help solve three major problems that are hindering the work of nonprofits:

Join the Center and 120+ other North Carolina nonprofits in adding your nonprofit’s name to the national sign-on letter urging federal policymakers to enact several specific policy solutions that would address these three issues.

We know from experience that policy proposals like these have a much greater chance of adoption when the constituents they’re meant to help show their support by contacting their lawmakers. With your help, we can show every member of North Carolina’s congressional delegation that nonprofits in their districts want these measures. We’re planning to share this letter with our congressional delegation next week, so now is your chance to have your nonprofit’s name included.

Please add your nonprofit’s name to this letter. Read the letter (updated with the names of all nonprofits that have signed on thus far) and review this background information to learn more about the specific policy solutions nonprofits are seeking. Thank you if your organization has already signed on to the letter!

The Nonprofit Finance Fund’s State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey closes on Monday, February 28. This national survey provides essential information about the financial health of nonprofits. In the past, policymakers and the media have found data from the survey on North Carolina nonprofits compelling, particularly information on the nonprofit sector’s finances, demand for services, and capacity to meet community needs. This is the first time the Nonprofit Finance Fund has conducted the survey since the start of the pandemic, so this year’s survey will be particularly important in assessing the current health of North Carolina’s nonprofit sector.

The Center strongly encourages you to complete this survey today. The more North Carolina nonprofits that respond, the clearer picture we will have of the finances, capacity, and needs of nonprofit organizations throughout the state. Your responses to the survey will provide important data to support and inform the Center’s work to advocate with your nonprofit for policy solutions that will strengthen our organizations and communities. Thank you if your nonprofit has already completed the survey!

North Carolina (finally) has (final) congressional and state legislative districts for the 2020 election. On Wednesday, a panel of three state court judges upheld the NC General Assembly’s revised NC Senate and NC House of Representatives maps that will be used in elections between 2022 and 2030. However, the judges found that the legislature’s revised congressional map was still an impermissible partisan gerrymander, so the judges and three independent “special masters” (outside experts who advise the court) decided to use a different map for the 2022 congressional election. 

Candidate filing in the new districts – as well as filing for judicial offices and hundreds of county and municipal offices across the state - opened yesterday and will continue through March 4. The statewide primary election is schedule for May 17, and the general election will take place on November 8. 

The new congressional and state legislative maps create challenges and opportunities for charitable nonprofits’ efforts to influence state and federal public policy over the next few years. Under the new maps, many North Carolina communities are guaranteed to have someone new representing them in Congress, the NC Senate, and/or the NC House of Representatives. This means that nonprofits that have established strong relationships with their current elected officials will need to introduce themselves to fresh faces representing them in Raleigh and Washington next year. At the same time, this spring is a great time for nonprofits to engage with candidates for office. Nonprofit VOTE has a one-page information sheet with tips on five legal and nonpartisan ways that 501(c)(3) nonprofits can engage with candidates.

The Center is developing a statewide candidate questionnaire on nonprofit issues to help nonprofit leaders learn more about the candidates on their ballots in the May 17 primary election and the November 8 general election – and to help candidates have a better awareness of the work of nonprofits. Look for more details soon, including ways that you can help get candidates in your area to participate.

In the past, the Center has expressed concerns that gerrymandering (i.e., overly partisan redistricting plans) diminishes nonprofits’ influence on public policy because it tends to create non-competitive congressional and legislative districts and makes elected officials more responsive to their partisan political donors than to the nonpartisan nonprofits providing services in their districts. Because most state legislative districts will remain non-competitive, there is no guarantee that the newly-drawn maps will do much to help promote nonprofits’ influence on public policy at the General Assembly or among North Carolina’s congressional delegation.

Last year’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expanded and improved the child tax credit in three important ways: 

The expanded and prepaid child tax credit helped lift many North Carolina families with children out of poverty. For many families, this money helped pay for child care, food, home and car repairs, and medical expenses last summer and fall. Most families with children received half of their child tax credit as monthly payments during the second half of 2021 – thanks largely to nonprofits helping these families provide the necessary information to the Internal Revenue Service.

Without a bit more help from nonprofits, many of these families could lose out the second half of their child tax credit payments. Families are due to receive the remainder of their child tax credits as refunds when they file their 2021 federal income taxes. Your nonprofit can do three things to help families in your community access the full child tax credit:

A new state law that took effect on January 1, 2022 requires local government elected officials who serve on nonprofit boards to recuse themselves from decisions to provide government funding to those organizations. The law means that most local officials who serve on nonprofit boards won’t be allowed to vote on local government budgets that include funding for the nonprofits on whose boards they serve. The nonprofit funding provision in the bill only applies to cities, towns, or villages with more than 15,000 residents and to counties that have municipalities with 15,000 or more residents.

The Center has heard from nonprofits that some county and city attorneys are advising county commissioners and city council members to resign from nonprofit boards to ensure compliance with the new law. It is important to note that nothing in the law prohibits local elected officials from serving on nonprofit boards. However, the Center is concerned that the overly strict interpretation of the new law could force some public servants to resign from nonprofit boards. The Center continues to work with lawmakers, state officials, and local government advocates for a solution to this potential issue. To help nonprofits and policymakers better understand the impact of the new law on nonprofit boards, the Center has prepared a one-page information sheet.

Let us know if local elected officials who serve on your nonprofit’s board have expressed concerns about continuing to serve your organization because of this new law.

The Center provides Nonprofit Policy Update each week as a benefit to its nonprofit members. However, to help all North Carolina nonprofits respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we're temporarily providing this newsletter to non-member nonprofits. Don’t miss out – become a member to ensure you continue receiving these updates along with many other valuable benefits.