Over the past two weeks, 127 North Carolina nonprofits signed on to the national nonprofit letter urging Congress and the Biden Administration to enact several policy solutions to provide urgently needed pandemic and workforce shortage relief for nonprofits. The letter asks President Biden and leaders in Congress to prioritize policy solutions to help solve three major problems that are hindering the work of nonprofits:

Yesterday, the Center sent this letter to Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), and North Carolina’s 13 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Because so many NC nonprofits were a part of the letter, it caught the attention of our congressional delegation. We’ve already heard back from congressional staffers offering to help with several specific policy solutions mentioned in the letter.

Thank you if your nonprofit signed on to the letter! Your voice has already made a difference in getting your representatives in Washington to consider policy solutions that can strengthen your organization and other nonprofits in your community.

Candidate filing for the 2022 election in North Carolina closes at noon today in advance of the May 17 statewide primary election. With election season underway, now 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. We plan to send the questionnaire to every candidate – from every political party – for our U.S. Senate seat, for North Carolina’s 14 congressional districts, for the 50 NC Senate districts, and for the 120 NC House of Representatives districts. Look for more details soon, including ways that you can help get candidates in your area to participate.

The newly-formed Joint Legislative Committee on Medicaid Expansion and Access to Healthcare held its second meeting on Tuesday. During this meeting, several experts – including leaders of two statewide nonprofits – explained the ways that Medicaid expansion could benefit North Carolinians. North Carolina is one of 12 states that has declined Medicaid expansion, which would provide health coverage for the more than 500,000 North Carolinians with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to purchase their own private health insurance or to receive federal support to help pay for health coverage. With ever-rising health care costs, these North Carolinians in the coverage gap are turning more and more to nonprofits to meet many of their basic needs, such as health care, food, housing, and childcare. The Center and many other nonprofits support Medicaid expansion because it would help close this coverage gap, ensuring that hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians – including many employees and clients of nonprofits – have medical coverage.

In this week’s meeting, staff at the NC General Assembly and the NC Department of Health and Human Services explained that Medicaid expansion would save the state about $1.4 billion over the first two years of its implementation (thanks to federal incentives from last year’s American Rescue Plan Act) and would only cost the state between $500 million and $600 million per year to operate after that. Essentially, it would be an extremely cost-effective way to provide significant benefits to individuals, nonprofits, and businesses in every part of the state. Patrick Woodie from the NC Rural Center presented compelling evidence to the committee that Medicaid expansion would provide significant economic growth for businesses and nonprofits throughout North Carolina, particularly in rural areas.

Legislative leaders hope that the committee can make recommendations on legislation to adopt a form of Medicaid expansion and other healthcare policy changes that will improve access to healthcare for individuals, businesses, and nonprofits throughout the state. Legislators could vote on the committee’s recommendations in a special session this fall.

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.

With a bit more help from nonprofits, many families can learn how to claim 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:

Following the recent recommendation from Governor Roy Cooper and the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), most local governments in North Carolina with mask mandates will end these mandates next Monday, March 7. During the pandemic, many nonprofits – particularly those serving vulnerable populations like seniors and immunocompromised individuals – have adopted policies requiring employees, clients, and/or guests to wear masks at their facilities. While the end of local government mask mandates doesn’t directly affect nonprofits’ policies, it may make it more difficult for nonprofits to enforce their own internal mask requirements.

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 is offering a series of virtual nonprofit policy briefings this spring. The first policy briefing, which will be held on March 24, will provide information on trends in the nonprofit sector and key federal and state policy issues affecting nonprofits in 2022. Later this spring, the Center will also offer topical policy briefings on the state budget, access to healthcare, and potential solutions to the nonprofit workforce shortage. Learn more and register.

Nonprofits often rely on salary surveys to determine whether they are compensating their staff fairly. To help nonprofits get the most current salary data, the Center has partnered with Association TRENDS on the 2022 Nonprofit Compensation Survey. It is important for every North Carolina nonprofit to respond to the survey to get the most comprehensive and accurate picture of compensation across the state. The Center has already taken the survey, and we have shared tips from our experience to make it easier and save time for other nonprofits.

Please take the 30 minutes (or less) to complete the survey by April 1. Participating organizations receive a discount on the 2022 report; participating Center members save even more.

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.