Philanthropy Front and Center - New York

Greater NYC Salary Survey Report

Will New York City nonprofits be hiring in 2013?  How will salaries fare in the upcoming year? How vital is fundraising staff? These are just a few of the questions that are addressed in Professionals for NonProfits' NY Annual Salary Survey Report, which was released last month. The four page document also examines salaries and hiring in 2012 and makes projections for this year. Here are a few highlights:

In 2012:

• 60% of organizations did not increase or decrease number of staff
• 61% gave no salary increases
• 63% reported belt tightening measures due to reduced funding and concerns about the economy
• At nonprofits that increased staff, 39% increased staff in fundraising, reflecting increased competition for support

In 2013:

• 62% of organizations do not plan to hire significant numbers of new staff
• 47% plan to keep salaries flat
• 49% plan action steps to enhance productivity and efficiency
• 42% plan increases in fundraising staff and new strategies to broaden revenue sources

Overall, survey responses indicated a sector moving ahead with greater confidence than the past three years. However, NYC area nonprofits are still recognizing the need for strategic change, and 74% indicated that the action step most needed is to diversity fundraising strategies and develop new income streams.

In addition to the above findings and projections, the report includes salary ranges for key nonprofit positions, and provides position qualifications and requirements that can be used for job postings.

Download report and learn more >

The 2012-13 City Council Budget Reflects Victory for Nonprofit Advocates

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Council agreed upon a $68.5 billion budget covering fiscal year 2012-13, several days ahead of the June 30 deadline. The new budget is noteworthy for its restoration of $150 million for early childhood and Out of School Time (OST) programs, along with restorations for a range of other services within the city.

Previously, Bloomberg had proposed cutting after-school programs for elementary and middle school students by 43 percent, plus additional cuts for childcare vouchers and high school OST programs. Had the cuts been implemented, childcare and after-school programs would have been eliminated for 47,000 children. However, nonprofit service providers and their supporters launched Campaign for Children in reaction to the proposed cuts, advocating for restoration of the funding through a high-profile series of rallies, press conferences, and letter-writing campaigns.

After weeks of protesting by parents, teachers, and service providers, it was announced that funding for these programs would be fully restored for the new fiscal year. In fact, $75 million more will be added to childcare and OST programs than was included in the previous year's budget. It should be noted that out of the restored funding, only $41 million will be base lined, while the remainder of the money will come out of the City Council's discretionary funding. Discretionary funding is only assigned for a one-year period, meaning that the funding could possibly be in jeopardy again for next year's budget. The specifics on how the 2012-13 discretionary funding will be distributed to individual programs is still unknown.

Meanwhile, funding for the city's public libraries has also been a contentious issue for the 2012-13 budget. Library funding had been at risk for a $90 million cut that would have resulted in the closing of 12 branches. As things currently stand, Mayor Bloomberg has stated that the libraries will be receiving approximately the same amount of funding as last year, while Councilman Dominic Recchia Jr., head of the finance committee, has suggested that the amount would be somewhat less.

You can find out more about funding for city services by browsing Schedule C of the new budget, available online. In addition, the New York Nonprofit Press has published a very in-depth article on the restoration of funding for children's services, and even more budget coverage can be found on NBC New York and New York Amsterdam News.

-- Tracy Kaufman
Foundation Center-New York

2012 Nonprofit Excellence Awards: Application Process Begins

Deadline for submission: Friday, May 18, 2012 (10:00 am)

It's time to get serious about celebrating the outstanding work of New York nonprofits. The Nonprofit Excellence Awards are presented by the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York in collaboration with The New York Community Trust and Philanthropy New York; they will be sponsored for the first time this year by New York Magazine.

The Nonprofit Excellence Awards honor high standards in nonprofit management and seek to recognize effective practices that help nonprofit organizations better serve their communities and accomplish their missions. Among past winners are Groundwork, Inc., Itefayo Cultural Arts, and City Harvest.

Now it's time for other New York City nonprofits to be recognized for the great work they do and the way in which they do it. To better understand the selection criteria for the award, use the following:

• Eligibility
• Selection Process
• Seven Areas of Nonprofit Excellence

To prepare the best application possible for your nonprofit, the organizers of the award offer these helpful explanations and workshops:

• Application Process
• How to Apply
• Application Clinics (Note: workshops start April 17 and will be held in different parts of the city)

Download the complete paper application and review the list of required documents. Alternatively, your organization can submit an online application.

Get started early, as the organizers remind us:

The strongest applications are from those organizations where discussion and reflection have been invested by staff, board, volunteers and other stakeholders prior to completing their applications.

Paper and online applications must be received (or submitted) by 10:00 am, Friday, May 18, 2012.

Inés Sucre
Reference/Outreach Librarian

 

Maurice Gurin Memorial Scholarship

Scholarship Application Deadline: Friday, May 11
The New York City Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP-GNY) is committed to the education of fundraisers in the tri-state area. In order to enable professionals new to the development field to attend Fundraising Day in New York, it is offering a limited number of Maurice Gurin Scholarships.

AFP-GNY invites applications from those new to fundraising who work for nonprofit organizations with budgets under $3 million and limited development resources, and who exhibit the potential to become leaders in the development field. Also encouraged to apply are individuals with volunteer or professional experience in the nonprofit sector who are seeking to expand their knowledge of fundraising.

Scholarship application guidelines and more information about the Gurin Scholarship program can be found here. If you have questions or need additional assistance, call 516-333-0681 or e-mail frdny@nycafp.org.

The deadline for submitting the application is Friday, May 11, 2012.

Be Smart About Your Nonprofit's Finances

Monday, February 27, 6:00 pm
Arts & Business Council of New York

Are you tackling your financial records in preparation for filing your organization's Form 990? Need a little guidance? You're just in time to attend an evening workshop at the Arts & Business Council of New York! Gary M. Flaum, Certified Public Accountant, will explain how to comply with IRS and New York State guidelines and make your organization's audit or review easier.

He will cover a range of issues, including the following:

• Government guidelines and revenue thresholds for filing financial statements with New York State
• The difference between audited and reviewed financial statements
• Guidelines regarding filing the Form 990 or Form 990-EZ
• Tips for tackling the many types of questions on the Form 990
• Guidance on how to keep your financial records up to par and in compliance with internal control mandates and financial statement requirements

For more helpful tools on nonprofit financial management and accountability, here are some helpful links from GrantSpace:

Knowledge Base articles:
Understanding the new Form 990

Retaining business-related records

Nonprofit audits

Video streaming of Foundation Center programs:
Your Organization's Financial Statements and the Stories They Tell

Best Practices for Auditing Procedures for Nonprofits

Many more tools and videos can be found in the financial management skills area on GrantSpace. Check it out!

There is no fee for this Arts & Business Council of New York event, but attendees are asked to register ahead of time for building security purposes by emailing sdockery@artsandbusiness-ny.org or fsmyth@artsandbusiness-ny.org.

Hope to see you there!

Arts & Business Council of New York
One East 53rd Street
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10022

New York Nonprofits: Deadline Fast Approaching for Free Legal Help

Whether a nonprofit is in its early stages of formation, or navigating day-to-day governance issues, it can be difficult to comply with state regulations without the advice of an attorney. But with limited budgets, how many small charities can actually afford legal help?

Fortunately, the New York State Attorney General's Office and the New York State Bar Association have launched a new project to address this predicament. Charity Corps will match up nonprofits with volunteer attorneys for pro bono legal counsel on such varied issues as board governance, compliance with tax laws, executive compensation, adherence with fundraising regulations, and fiduciary duties.

The program will not cover referrals or litigation. During its upcoming pilot year in 2012, Charity Corps will be overseen by a Leadership Committee comprised of experienced attorneys around the state. In addition to providing free legal advice for eligible nonprofits, Charity Corps will also post listings of legal and board training sessions offered by groups such as the President's Committee on Access to Justice, and the Pro Bono Coordinators Network.

To be eligible for free legal help, you must be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization, and you must be able to demonstrate that you are unable to afford legal counsel. While the program has plans for expansion in future years, Charity Corps can only accept 50 nonprofits to its program for 2012. If your organization is interested in participating, the application form is available on the New York State Bar Association's web site. Note that the deadline is approaching soon: all applications must be submitted no later than December 31, 2011.

Read the New York State Bar Association's press release for more information about this initiative.

Tracy Kaufman
Library Assistant
Foundation Center-New York

2011 Union Square Award Recipients Announced

Congratulations to the New York City-based nonprofit organizations that will receive this year's Union Square Awards!

Established in 1998 by an anonymous donor, the Union Square Awards publicly honor and strengthen organizations that address critical social justice and economic needs, as well as community arts organizations that focus on youth and families. The prestigious awards program has distributed more than $16 million in grants since 1998.

Award recipients receive general operating support, technical assistance, and the chance to apply for re-grants to further strengthen and sustain their community projects.

Congratulations to the 2011 Social Justice Award recipients:

• Brooklyn Food Coalition
• Community Connections for Youth
• Da Urban Butterflies
• SEVA Immigrant Community Advocacy Project
• The New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City
• Trinity Place Shelter
• Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition

Congratulations to the 2011 Arts Award recipients:

• Artistic Noise
• ARTs East New York
• Ayazamana
• BombaYo
• UpBeat NYC
• Young Urban Christians and Artists (YUCA)

On top of a monetary award, recipients of the Union Square Awards also receive all-important technical assistance, which includes individual consultations and group classes on fundraising, fiscal management, and technology. Many of these opportunities are offered in collaboration with other funders in New York, which will help these grassroots nonprofits establish working relationships with what could be future funders.

Candidates for the Union Square Awards are identified through a public nomination process. Nominations are now open for the 2012 award cycle. Learn more»

Inés Sucre
Reference/Outreach Librarian
Foundation Center-New York

NYC Government Funding in the Arts: The Basics

This year, we've been holding a series of seminars here at the Foundation Center focused on the complex world of government funding. If you'd like to read about the earlier installments of our series, we have summaries available for the February 16 event on discretionary funding, the March 16 program on best practices for contract management, and the April 13 event on government audits.

Recently, as part of our Funding for Arts Month programming, we offered a special seminar on October 13, New York City Funding Opportunities for the Arts. The panelists included Kathleen Hughes, assistant commissioner for the Department of Cultural Affairs; Paul L. King, executive director of the Department of Education's Office of Arts & Special Projects; David Ross, executive director of Contracts and Purchasing at the Department of Education; and Jenny Way, assistant director at the Mayor's Office of Contract Services. For anyone who is inexperienced in the ways of accessing arts funding from New York City, here are some highlights:

Where can I find New York City funding for my arts organization or project?
For local funding, there are a number of places you can look:

• Department of Cultural Affairs. This agency specializes in securing public funding for New York City's cultural organizations in all five boroughs. Depending on your needs, there are a few funding areas within DCA for you to explore (the following is borrowed from the agency's web site):

1. Program Services Unit: Administers funds supporting 881 groups that provide cultural experiences for the City's residents and visitors.
2. Cultural Institutions Unit: Provides operational support (in the form of unrestricted operating grants and the payment of all energy bills - heat, light and power) for major cultural institutions occupying City-owned buildings or land.
3. Capital Projects Unit: Provides capital design, construction and equipment funds for those institutions and other cultural groups in City-owned and non City-owned facilities.

In addition to these three areas, DCA can secure federal grants for organizations' small capital projects in low-to-moderate income areas, and can also help arts groups acquire supplies and equipment through its Materials for the Arts Program, which distributes reusable supplies to New York City arts organizations free of charge.

• Local Arts Councils. Each borough has its own arts council, and while these are all technically nonprofit organizations rather than government agencies, the arts councils are tasked with distributing city and state funding to art projects within their boroughs, and can provide a broad variety of additional services to artists and arts organizations as well. The arts councils for New York City are as follows:

  1. Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
  2. Brooklyn Arts Council
  3. Bronx Council on the Arts
  4. Queens Council on the Arts
  5. Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island

• New York State Council on the Arts. This one is not specific to New York City, but if your attempts to get City-related funding do not bear sufficient fruit, you can broaden your search to seek funding from New York State in general. This agency makes about 2,500 grants per year, both to arts organizations and to individual artists with fiscal sponsors.
• Office of Arts & Special Projects, New York City Department of Education. If your work centers on arts education, you can expand your search beyond the Department of Cultural Affairs by seeing what opportunities may be available for funding arts program in NYC public schools. The Office of Arts & Special Projects lists arts education grants whenever available.

  You can also find arts education opportunities through the department's Multiple Task Award Contract (MTAC) system, which allows city schools to e-mail proposal requests to a variety of vendors (such as your organization) whenever they require a specific service. You can read about the MTAC process here and see some of their current opportunities here.

  For even more information on arts education, you can also have a look at some of the helpful resource guides created by the Department of Education, which offer links to a wide variety of groups that help support specific fields like music, dance, theater, and visual arts.

Is NYC Funding Available for Individual Artists?
In general, funding from agencies like the Department of Cultural Affairs typically goes to arts organizations rather than individual artists. However, if you are fiscally sponsored, you may be eligible to apply for their grants.

Meanwhile, you also have the alternate option of using your local arts council. Arts councils tend to feature re-grant programs, in which the council receives government funds and then distributes them to local organizations or individual artists. Not every grant may be available for individuals, though, so check carefully within the application guidelines.

What's It Like to Apply for City Funding?
Government funding is not for the faint of heart: it involves much paperwork and will require you to learn and understand terms like discretionary funding, VENDEX, OQA, and MOCS. To learn everything about the application process for New York City funding, you'll probably want to read our blog post from earlier this year, Discretionary Funding for Nonprofits: How Does It Work? Also, for assistance along the way, you may want to keep in touch with the Capacity Building & Oversight Unit, which offers training sessions and other types of guidance.

As stated earlier, this October 13 program was part of a series we've been holding throughout 2011 on government funding opportunities within New York City. If you'd like to learn more on this topic, our next free seminar is NYC Government Funding Opportunities for Nonprofits, scheduled for Wednesday, November 16. We hope to see you there!

Tracy Kaufman
Library Assistant
Foundation Center-New York

New York Foundations Support Library/School Partnership

Since its pilot phase in 2007, the Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn Connections program has partnered with public middle and high schools to provide students access to original historical documents in the library's collection. After supporting the program in its initial stages, the New York Life Foundation has just awarded it a two-year, $200,000 grant. With additional support from the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, the Tiger Baron Foundation, and Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, Brooklyn Connections will expand its partnership with Brooklyn public schools.

Brooklyn Connections brings 6th-12th grade classes to the Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn Collection to work on local history research projects while providing access to original materials and the expertise of trained educators.

Schools, teachers, and parents interested in the opportunity this program offers should know that the Brooklyn Connections curriculum complements New York State standards and core learning standards for Social Studies and English Language Arts.

In order to create appropriate research projects for their students, partner classroom teachers receive unlimited planning support from Brooklyn Connections staff, a tailor-made history project outline, and lesson plans and classroom materials especially designed for each classroom.

Program staff also provide classroom instruction on research skills, and students and teachers receive a tour of the Brooklyn Collection and access to digital resources from its web site. Student work will be displayed each summer in an exhibit at the Central Library, Grand Army Plaza.

With the new grant and additional support from other New York City-based foundations, Brooklyn Connections will increase staff to serve more schools; work with its first high school partner classrooms; provide partner school libraries with history books and materials to further support the research activities of students; provide teacher professional development in research skills; and provide an easily accessible web site to partner classrooms and other students and teachers in New York City and beyond.

Interested? The 2011-12 Brooklyn Connections application is available online. All Brooklyn public middle and high schools are eligible for this free program. While most partnerships begin in the fall, applications are accepted throughout the year. To learn more about this promising program and find additional contact information, read the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Brooklyn Connections web site.

Inés Sucre
Reference/Outreach Librarian
Foundation Center-New York

Arts Grants for Central New York

The Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County (CRC), which serves nine counties in Central New York State, has announced the launch of its 2012 funding cycle targeting nonprofit organizations and individual artists. Each program has a distinct purpose; application deadlines and geographic eligibility also vary by program.

• Community Arts Grants: Directed towards nonprofit organizations for community-based arts activities, this program aims to enhance the cultural life of Central New York communities through the support of performances, art instruction, public art, and festivals.
  Application deadline: November 1, 2011
  Application information»
• Individual Artist Grants: The target of this program is artists in the visual, performing, literary, and media arts for the creation of public art, performances (including new music, theater works, and choreography), and film. Funds are provided by the State and Local Partnership Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).
  Application deadline: October 20, 2011
  Application information»
• New York Foundation on the Arts (NYFA) Strategic Opportunity Stipends: These $200 to $1500 grants target artists in all disciplines for specific opportunities that will significantly benefit their careers. CRC helps to administer this NYFA program for the benefit of Central New York residents.
  Application Deadline (EXTENDED): September 26, 2011
  Application information»
• Arts Education Grants: The art$TART program supports partnerships between schools and arts organizations (or individual artists) for projects that help enhance and deliver school curriculum in the arts and other disciplines. This program targets public and private schools and is supported by funds from the Arts Education Program at NYSCA.
  Application deadline: November 15, 2011
  Application information»

The Grant Opportunities area of CRC's web site provides additional information about previous grant recipients, grant report forms, and dates for information meetings CRC is holding to explain the particulars of each program.

Want to learn more about funding for the arts? Save the dates, then, for the Foundation Center's annual Funding for Arts Month in October! We will offer both online and onsite presentations and have many other resources and tools for arts organizations and artists. See the New York library's October calendar to register for our programs.

Inés Sucre
Reference/Outreach Librarian
Foundation Center-New York