Whether you’re rejoicing over this week’s presidential election or are disappointed, to borrow the president’s election slogan, we are moving forward.
Perhaps because our presidential candidates had such clear differences in ideas and despite the typically awful campaign ads, there were many moments of true dialogue and even wonkiness between these two highly intelligent candidates.
I think it has helped set the stage for a more productive approach to our political parties’ public discussions around our current crisis, how to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Conversations about our dysfunctional Congress have taken on a much more urgent tone. We all understand our leaders must resolve their gridlock enough to avoid the automatic changes outlined in the Budget Control Act of 2011. This act was passed with exactly that motivation, to protect us against gridlock and force dialogue. Now we’re at the crossroads.
There’s little doubt that, with their backs against the wall, Congress will find a compromise. The alternative will be so unpopular to everyone, so potentially damaging to our economy and the resulting election bloodbath so severe, it’s in their best interest to do so.
I’m hoping the analysis — and even some soul searching — required now on this issue will keep a path open that moves away from intransigence and toward more productive dialogue next year. There’s certainly been more meaningful conversation this week, even as both parties are positioning themselves to the public around the decisions that will be required to avoid the fiscal cliff.
If such dialogue and compromise does not continue next year, it’s up to us to hold Congress’s feet to the fire. With a 19 percent congressional approval rate, we’re clearly fed up with a system in which re-election strategies and positioning have taken precedence over moving the country forward.
Nonprofits are among those individuals and groups that have the opportunity to insist on meaningful and productive negotiation and change. Our access to outside funding continues to shrink, despite the fact that we provide important services our local, state and federal governments could never hope to adequately address and pay for.
And we bring billions of revenue dollars into our states. Only we can remind Congress and our local communities of the value we bring and the critical needs we address.
The phrase “increased revenue streams” has popped up frequently this week in discussions about avoiding the fiscal cliff. That should be an alert to nonprofits for extra vigilance. Though efforts to repeal nonprofit tax exemptions last year proved unsuccessful, it is certain to be examined again in efforts to find these new revenue streams.
Nonprofits can advocate for change. Nonprofits achieved some of the most significant policy changes in the 20th century, contributing to policy and law revisions on women’s right to vote, Social Security, environmental protections, drunk driving law enforcement and much more.
To ensure your nonprofit participates in the critical national dialogues and decisions we face now and in 2013, please take a few moments to connect with the many available resources on what is permitted and not permitted in nonprofit advocacy and lobbying.
Many tools on how to effectively engage can be found through a quick Internet search. Most of them are free, from associations and consultants vitally concerned with protecting nonprofits’ ability to do their important work.
Sarah Todd is the founder of Change Pioneers and the executive director of Girls on the Run of Coastal Georgia. She can be reached at toddsar@gmail.com or 912-224-2120.