Clark Foundation-Sponsored Forum Considers How NY Nonprofit Contractors Can Address Late and Under Payment
New York City nonprofits providing services on behalf of local government are fed up with late payments and underpayments, and they aren't going to take it anymore.
That was the message recently at an open forum sponsored by The Clark Foundation, an organization dedicated largely to helping lift people out of poverty. Speakers identified challenges such as payments for services that only cover 87 percent of costs, which force nonprofits to raise funds from philanthropy or otherwise subsidize the government.
Doug Bauer, head of The Clark Foundation, relayed how the City had owed one nonprofit $44 million for more than a year after services had been delivered. Bauer characterizes the financial problems nonprofits with government grants and contracts face as "a quiet crisis that can no longer be quiet." The problems continue to worsen as cuts in government funding are accompanied by rising costs. But these issues are not unique to New York City — it is a quiet crisis across the country.
(Source: the National Council of Nonprofits Newsletter.)