The Tension Between Government and Nonprofits

by Gary Snyder

As local government budgets become more strained, different types of levies, in the form of fees, are increasingly being proposed and adopted in city council meetings around the country. Now nonprofits of all sizes are increasingly being subjected to charges for services that have traditionally been seen as a basic function of government.

Nonprofit Imperative has kept its readers abreast of the most recent developments as charities are being squeezed by local governments...and in most instances they are just rolling over. The delicate balance between between nonprofits and governments is slowly shredding.

For starters I commend NI readers to an article by Jeannie Fox of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits in The Nonprofit Quarterly for a thought discursive on the subject. The issue is in its infancy but may have profound consequences at many levels in the near future.


Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)...