Last month I blogged about the Nonprofit Primary Project and its initial momentum in The Nonprofit Primary Project: Sounds Like a Revolution. This is a pretty ambitious initiative with a goal to educate and engage presidential candidates in public conversations with the nonprofit sector. Now the new Nonprofit Congress website has a few updates on its Primary Project page. As of May 2007, these are the candidates who have been invited to join in discussions with nonprofit leaders:
- Joe Biden
- Sam Brownback
- Hillary Clinton
- John Cox
- Chris Dodd
- John Edwards
- Jim Gilmore
- Rudy Giuliani
- Mike Gravel
- Mike Huckabee
- Duncan Hunter
- Dennis Kucinich
- John McCain
- Barack Obama
- Ron Paul
- Bill Richardson
- Mitt Romney
- Tom Tancredo
- Tommy Thompson
According to this press release, nonprofit leaders have already had a chance to speak to Joe Biden and Bill Richardson about the sector. Word is that the Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, and Romney campaigns have also agreed to participate and are now discussing scheduling details. Now this is something I have to see! The nonprofit I work for does some work regionally in DC, Maryland and Virginia to educate and influence policymakers and government officials and boy is it an tough battle. So it must surely be even more difficult at the presidential level. Yet we know this work has to be done. The only way we are going to get widespread change in this country is if nonprofits can work together with the public and private sectors, especially government, where the important dollars are, on making our communities better places to live and flourish.
The best outcome, which is indeed a long-term one, is that more public officials understand the impact, contributions, and expertise of the nonprofit sector in improving communities, causing more public support of nonprofits and more influence in the policy process.
Hi Rosetta,
I wanted to let you know that I enjoy your blog and admire the work you are doing. I was glad that FLiP recognized you as well– congratulations.
I’ve added you as an affiliate to my own blog: “The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy.”
Keep up the good work,
Maya Norton
Hey thanks, Maya! I’m enjoying learning from your blog as well.