Recently in Nonprofits Category

Source: By Michele McNeil, EdWeek blog, November 23, 2009

When your government-funded program is on the chopping block, a rather damning Inspector General audit will do little to bolster your case for continued funding.

 ....... We the People and the Cooperative Civic Education and Economic Education Exchange Program. Both seek to foster civic education in K-12 schools. Both programs are also part of a laundry list of cuts the Obama administration has proposed. The savings, according to the Obama folks, would be $33.5 million. The center is a California-based nonprofit corporation that gets about 82 percent of its revenue from the U.S. Department of Education

Auditors from the Education Department's Office of Inspector General reviewed about $7.4 million of $23 million in grants that the Center for Civic Education charged in a one-year period to the federal grant programs, including We the People. Of that $7.4 million, auditors found $1.2 million of the spending was not allowed under federal regulations, and another $4.7 million couldn't be supported by proper documentation. That's a whopping 80 percent of charges that were either unallowable, or unsupported.

Source: Public Administration Review, July/August 2009

• Nonprofits as Local Government Service Contractors (p 668-680) by Richard C. Feiock, Hee Soun Jang
• Contracting Capacity and Perceived Contracting Performance: Nonlinear Effects and the Role of Time (p 681-696) by Kaifeng Yang, Jun Yi Hsieh, Tzung Shiun Li
• Self-Interest, Ideological/Symbolic Politics, and Citizen Characteristics: A Cross-National Analysis of Support for Privatization by R. Paul Battaglio Jr., Jerome S. Legge Jr.
• Stakeholder Red Tape: Comparing Perceptions of Public Managers and Their Private Consultants (p 710-726) by Mary K. Feeney, Barry Bozeman

Source:Associated Press (MN),Jan 26 2009 9:35PM

The Duluth City Council has approved transferring management of the Lake Superior Zoo from the city to a nonprofit group.  By a vote of 6-3, the council voted Monday night to turn over operation of the 85-year-old zoo to the Lake Superior Zoological Society. ..... Councilors who opposed it say it might violate the labor contract between the city and its largest labor union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. The Lake Superior Zoological Society has said it will not retain the city zookeepers and instead will hire other employees at lower wages.

Related article from the News Tribune: Zoo transfer approved

Source: By CRAIG SCHNEIDER, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA), 02/26/08

In a move expected to secure hundreds of millions in private and state funds, the DeKalb County Commission approved a lease agreement Tuesday that would shift operational control of Grady Memorial Hospital to a new nonprofit corporation. The unanimous vote is one of the last hurdles in the management restructuring designed to save the financially crippled hospital.

Source: Ken Rodriguez, Express-News (TX), 02/17/2008 10:39 PM CST

The CEO of the nonprofit agency that runs Head Start didn't like what she heard during a recent meeting with city leaders. Dennis Campa, the city's director of Community Initiatives, said Parent/Child, Inc. failed to staff Head Start classrooms with the required number of teachers. City Councilwoman Diane Cibrian said some PCI administrators earn salaries 60 percent to 110 percent above average market value.

....... A member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, Gonzalez-Shaw said, "Our contract guarantees modest wage increases of between 8 and 15 cents for employees like teachers, teacher's assistants and bus drivers, many of whom earn between $6 and $8 per hour. "To date, PCI has refused to honor these modest pay increases, arguing that Head Start regulations prevent them from paying 'significantly higher than the average wage.' "

Interesting. An agency that refuses to reduce the above-average-market salaries of administrators refuses to grant an 8-cent raise for low-level employees. How's that for a talking point? PCI squeezes pennies from its poor.

Source: Urvaksh Karkaria, Atlanta Business Chronicle (GA), Monday, January 28, 2008 - 8:55 PM EST

The Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority on Monday OK'd a lease agreement that hands over daily operational control of Grady Memorial and opens the door to a public and private sector bailout.

The handover will be to a yet-to-be formed non-profit management corporation. The names of the 16 members on the non-profit board are expected to be released within a week, Grady board vice chairman Christopher Edwards said. In return for handing over operational control, Grady is expected to receive at least $200 million from the private sector for capital improvements. An additional $100 million in private money could also be raised and the state is expected to inject millions of dollars more.

Source: By Tom Hester Jr., Associated Press, January 27, 2008

Highways built by U.S. taxpayers are being leased to foreign-owned companies by cash-starved states, but New Jersey is weighing another approach amid worry such deals mean states lose control of crucial highways and potential profits.

New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine has rejected the traditional highway leases other states and cities are employing to raise billions of dollars to fund transportation projects.

Rather, the Democratic governor who once led Goldman Sachs has proposed creating a non-profit corporation to manage toll roads and issue bonds paid back by increasing tolls on some of the nation's busiest highways.

Source: By Paul E. Peterson and Matthew M. Chingos, Working Paper Number:RWP07-055. Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, Submitted: 11/13/2007

Abstract
Using individual student test-score data from the School District of Philadelphia, we estimated the impact of for-profit and non-profit school management on student achievement by tracking the performance of students in math and reading from 2001 to 2006. After four years, the average student at schools managed by for-profit firms learned roughly two-thirds of a year more in math than would be expected had the schools remained under district management. However, the positive impact of for-profit management on average reading gains was smaller and not statistically significant. For non-profits, we found mainly negative impacts on student performance in both math and reading, but none were statistically significant. Treatment effects were identified using a quasi-experimental research design known as "difference-in-differences" analysis. We used as a control group the 71 schools under regular district management at which students were performing below the district median.

Source: By ROBERT T. GARRETT, The Dallas Morning News (TX), Thursday, August 30, 2007

The state has suspended placements of foster children with most foster parents recruited by Lutheran Social Services of the South Inc. in North Texas and Central Texas, citing "serious incidents" in four homes last spring.

...... State spokesman Darrell Azar said the state this summer has closely scrutinized Lutheran - an Austin-based child-placing agency managing 660 foster homes, more than any other contractor in Texas - because of insights gained from difficulties with another private agency, now-defunct Mesa Family Services of Harker Heights.

Source: BILL DRIES, The Memphis Daily News (TN), August 29, 2007

Shelby County Commissioners Monday approved a contract with Porter-LeathChildren's Center to provide Head Start services to 460 children.

........ The contract, authorized by an earlier County Commission and negotiated by County Mayor A C Wharton Jr., met fierce resistance from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the union that represents county employees who work at the Head Start centers now operated by county government. Those centers care for nearly 3,200 children.

....... Commissioner Mike Carpenter said the compromise "stinks."

"Shelby County Head Start is in good shape. That's not the argument here," he said, pointing out figures from the National Head Start Association that show only 6 percent of the country's Head Start programs are run by local governments. Most are run by non-profits similar to Porter-Leath.