Nonprofit Sector

Originally featured in the Los Angeles Sentinel on November 16, 2008.

With the enormous bailouts that the federal government provided over the past several months to myriad sectors of our economy, here's a new twist: How about some relief for the nation's not for profit and social service sector? Now, perhaps the idea sounds spurious or even facetious at first, that is until we realize that as our economy has increasingly failed the middle and lower class over the past two decades it is the nation's social sector that has essentially served as the "safety net" for our country's most disenfranchised people and communities. This sector has been servicing millions of our country's neediest people for decades. Yet today, as a result of our nation's economy, more and more of our nation's most prominent social, civil and community organizations are in serious financial trouble. And as the economy continues to contract more rapidly, far too many of our most valuable and venerable not for profits--organizations that tirelessly service America's most disenfranchised--will likely fold under the pressure.