Nonprofit Spark – Nonprofits Talking Taxes and the Common Good – 11/11/13

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This week, I have two guests who discuss taxes and I promise you, this is an interesting conversation that you will want to share with neighbors and nonprofits in your community. My guests this week describe a workshop and toolkit they’ve created called “Nonprofits Talking Taxes,” which is being rolled out this week.

Kim Klein, is a principal of the fundraising firm Klein & Roth Consulting, and author of Fundraising for Social Change and Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times. I had her on the show a few weeks ago talking about year-end fundraising.

Kim is joined by Anne Ryan, a project coordinator at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, which provides leadership, management, finance and strategy support for nonprofits to help them achieve social equity.

We start the show be defining what we mean by the “common good” and then the discussion builds on this premise that “we all do better when we all do better.”

What if all types of nonprofits came together to educate ourselves about tax policy and discuss our values, and then relate them to how we think communities ought to work? And then what might happen if, armed with our newfound knowledge, we were able to speak persuasively and intelligently about why taxes are a good thing for the common good?

Kim and Anne make a strong case for taking time to understand tax policy and they assure us that the tax structure really isn’t hard to understand, especially when you organize a Nonprofits Talking Taxes workshop and use the toolkit in your own community.

Set aside politics. Set aside competitiveness. Imagine what it would be like if there was enough money to go around. Imagine the powerful force nonprofits can be for the Common Good.

I hope you enjoy the show.