Senator Baucus Introduces the Nonprofit Capacity Building Act of 2009

From th National Council of Nonprofits

On March 17, the National Council's efforts over the last five years to strengthen small and midsize nonprofits cleared another hurdle when Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (MT-D) introduced the Nonprofit Capacity Building Act of 2009 (S 609). The bill would create an innovative $25 million fund in the budget of the Corporation for National and Community Service to make matching grants to intermediary nonprofit training and technical assistance entities. Those intermediaries will then provide organizational development assistance (training and technical assistance for capacity building) to small and midsize nonprofits, especially those in areas where nonprofits face "significant resource hardship challenges." Nonprofit intermediaries would need to secure a non-federal 50% match to be eligible for a grant. Tim Delaney, National Council President & CEO, stated: "Now more than ever, we need to strengthen nonprofits in meeting community needs. We appreciate the leadership provided by Senator Baucus and our Public Policy Chair, Brian Magee, Executive Director of the Montana Nonprofit Association, in taking us this far.

Now is the time for other Senators to co-sponsor this legislation and pass it as soon as possible, perhaps even as part of the Serve America Act, to strengthen nonprofits' ability to handle increased volunteerism. This infrastructure piece is critical to the success of scaled up volunteer efforts." It was just last month that nonprofit leaders finalized the Forward Together Declaration (see below) which set as part of its long term agenda the improvement of government-nonprofit partnerships and the launching of a nonprofit capacity building initiative. Passing NCBA would be a major step forward together.