ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Advocates Target Root Problems

Monday, June 28, 2010

Advocates Target Root Problems

By Ona Porter
President and CEO, Prosperity Works
          Once again the free-speech rights of nonprofit organizations are under fire. This time, state Sen. John Sapien, a Democrat from Corrales, attacks nonprofits that do advocacy work in part because he believes they "provide no real services..." ("Nonprofits Hide Funding, True Agendas," May 30).
        As someone who has spent most of her life providing "real" services, I'd like to defend the organizations whose behind-the-scenes work complements direct services.
        Sapien is apparently not aware of the fact that the nonprofits in New Mexico engaging in advocacy and organizing bring billions of desperately-needed dollars into the state. This was documented in a study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. They looked at the benefits of just 14 nonprofits in New Mexico, including the one that I lead.
        In a five-year period, those 14 nonprofits brought more than $16 million of investment into the state. These nonprofits generated $157 of benefit for vulnerable New Mexicans with every dollar invested. That translates into $2.6 billion in benefits for New Mexicans—in one five-year period by 14 nonprofits doing the kind of work the senator dismisses as not "real."
        So-called "direct services" are tangible and, therefore, easier to understand than advocacy work. Most everyone has donated something—canned food, winter coats, money—to a direct-services organization like a food bank or homeless shelter. It's gratifying, in part, because we understand exactly how that food, coat or money will ease the suffering of someone who is in desperate need. What we rarely consider is how that person got to be in a desperate situation and what it will take to get them out of it. That's what nonprofit advocacy groups do.
        Let me put it this way: Think of the food banks, homeless shelters, and other service providers as an emergency room. Now let's say someone comes to that ER because they are having a heart attack. The ER can ease this person's suffering — and even save his life — so there's no doubt the ER serves a critical function. But we know that if we send this person back into the same environment — full of the same risk factors that led to his first heart attack — chances are he'll be back in the ER again. And next time, he might be too late. That's where the advocates come in.
        Advocacy groups look at the root causes of the problem, as well as the factors that allow it to continue, and work toward fair and sustainable policy solutions. Whether they are fighting cancer, or battling child poverty, human trafficking, or the destruction of the environment, they are working toward a better future. In his opinion piece, Sapien claims that such work is a far cry from the "compassion-based relief" that we "expect from other reputable organizations." I would say he has an odd definition of compassion.
        Sapien's main complaint is that these organizations sent fliers during the legislative season last spring. The fliers educated New Mexicans about our state's economic crisis and urged them to ask their legislators to make the rich and out-of-state corporations pay their fair share to avoid more devastating cuts to education, health care and public safety services. It was the rich, after all, who received the most benefit from recent income tax cuts and the out-of-state corporations that enjoy big tax loopholes, but they were not being asked to sacrifice in these hard times. The fliers did not suggest how the constituent should vote in the next election.
        The senator also asserts that these groups have some sort of hidden agenda, but nothing could be further from the truth. Their "agenda" is all there on the mailers: New Mexico needs a tax system that is fair, raises enough money for necessary services like education and public safety and that is accountable to the people who support it. It can't be much clearer than that.
        Finally, Sapien claims that nonprofit advocacy organizations are not subject to any kind of financial transparency. Nonsense. Every nonprofit must file a 990 form with the IRS every year to maintain its tax-exempt status.
        We will always need food banks, shelters, and other relief services because people will always encounter crises, setbacks and devastating losses. But we could avoid much of that suffering by addressing root causes. The vocal nonprofit advocacy groups working toward that goal do so using the free speech rights guaranteed under the Constitution. Speaking out against injustice is not only noble, it's also the very definition of democracy in action.
        Prosperity Works was formerly known as Community Action New Mexico. Ona Porter is also a member of the board of directors of the Center for Civic Policy.

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