Nonprofit agencies need to create an agenda for NYC’s next administration

It’s up to nonprofit agencies and the membership organizations that represent them to tell the next mayor and members of the City Council what they need – and soon.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the presumptive next mayor of New York City.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the presumptive next mayor of New York City. lev radin/Shutterstock

New York City is less than two weeks away from the general election and the official confirmation of who will be the next mayor and who will serve next on the City Council.

Between now and January 1, 2022, when these public service positions are sworn into office, time and energy must be invested by the leaders of the nonprofit agencies and the membership organizations that represent them. They need to sharpen their focus on the rationale for fully investing in their agencies and funding programs that have been proven to deliver quality results for clients and communities. Resorting to the same old campaigns of various messages, policies and dollar amounts will yield what it usually yields: success for some and very little good for everyone else.

There will be varying degrees of knowledge and experience brought on by the new mayor, their deputies and staff, as well as the new council members and their staff. They will also be at the end of the proverbial fire hose from various stakeholders, such as unions, businesses big and small, real estate developers, editorial boards, think tanks, hospitals and higher education, that will shower them with all kinds of data, financial information, policy research and political pressure.

Without a doubt, the water from that fire hose will contribute to a whirlpool of dynamics that will not necessarily translate into what policies, programs and funding are actually needed to serve the greater good of the city’s five boroughs, especially the 2.4 million New Yorkers who found themselves struggling to be self-sufficient before the pandemic. To start to grasp the scale of the need, consider the Overlooked and Undercounted 2021 report produced by the United Way of NYC, Women’s Center for Education and Career Advancement, City Harvest, and other agencies. The report posits that a self-sufficient single parent with one or two children would need to make $81,000 a year to live in Manhattan. 

If we are looking to fight poverty and not just manage it, then it will require the nonprofit agencies that are on the frontlines of providing services to be even more organized and begin to speak up and out about not only meeting the massive need for food, jobs, job training, access to technology, access to healthcare, repairing learning loss, mental health care and subsidized transit, which was made worse by the pandemic, but also where resources really need to be allocated for maximum impact. The city is not lacking for scalable programs in human services, education and workforce development that are effective, compassionate and serve thousands of citizens from ages zero to 100 and have the ability to serve thousands more. 

Unfortunately, there are experts who beg to differ. Case in point: at the recent Center for an Urban Future symposium on how to create an equitable economic recovery for the city, one panelist remarked that what was needed was hundreds of pilot programs to test innovative ideas and that the ones that fail, well, they fail, but the ideas that worked should then be scaled up. However, that would be misguided and would be a waste of time and resources at a moment in time when we can all afford to waste either. 

What is needed is not only programs that work and can be scaled (and which we have), but we need to do some real big math. We need the CEOs of the human services to come together and fully decide what funding is actually needed. For example, the Human Services Council of New York has determined that the eight city agencies that supply the majority of the funding for the city's social safety net have $16 billion of revenue flowing through them. HSC has also found that $6.5 billion of the $16 billion is provided to agencies in the form of service contracts, leaving $9.5 billion in the eight city agencies that certainly provide some services but is mostly dedicated to municipal oversight and compliance. By crunching the numbers ourselves, we can develop a more efficient manner of spending $16 billion so that more people are served by nonprofits that are fully funded to provide great service.

There is limited time on the side of the city’s nonprofits. Let us use what time we have to the greatest extent possible in order to ensure that our city’s next wave of political leadership will receive and accept multifaceted but unified requests to rebuild the social safety net that will be able to serve the millions of New Yorkers who need and deserve help to not only survive but thrive.

NEXT STORY: Making and taking space

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.