Chris Farrell with a special report on the nonprofit economy in America make change not funny. What do you do to raise money for a worthy? Cause well in any given weekend people in towns and cities across the country gather at their houses of worship for bake sales raffle and that most venerable of church basement events the rummage sale. Got to move fast. The proceeds from this rummage sale in Minnesota will go to a variety of local charity before the turn of the century. Most of what we now call nonprofits. We're churches and fraternal organizations performing Loosely organized charity work in their own Community the 19th century social flosser Alexis de tocqueville marveled at American Eagle in this the band together and help others Americans of all ages old stations of life and old types of disposition of forever forming associations. There are only commercial and Industrial Association in which all take part but others of a thousand different types of religious moral serious cute. Very gentle and very limited immensely large and very mind. In Democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge. Thanks for the 1913 federal income tax law to TOEFL sassociations are now called nonprofits since they are exempt from paying taxes. And in the past Century, the nonprofit sector has exploded in size at more than 600 billion dollars that accounts for some 8% of the economy and employs about one in every ten workers many nonprofits are multibillion-dollar Enterprises. They have huge payroll in the latest in high-tech office equipment Northwestern University Economist Burton weisbrod says many nonprofits are hard to distinguish from major for-profit corporations. When you talk about the the Red Cross or you talk about private universities. Are you talkin about multibillion-dollar organizations? These are not small Grassroots organizations that are run by by local people. These are big businesses. Now majority of nonprofits are actually small to medium-sized businesses many still have a bit of the flavor of De tocqueville voluntary group. But they have also become sophisticated organizations tackling complex problems in New York City a church in the borough of Queens is both a religious congregation and a multimillion-dollar Enterprise. It's largely the product of one man's Vision Minister and former Congressman Floyd flake who took over the church when they were just two employees himself and a secretary Gary Covino visited the Allen AME Church in Queens and explained what came next This is your church. For more than 20 years. The Reverend Floyd flake has exhorted his congregation to redeem their souls and rebuild their neighborhood on this Sunday from the pulpit of the grand new Allen AME Cathedral. He will pray and preach and spend a lot of time urging the members of his flock who already give $100,000 a week to be even more generous with their contributions. Everybody who's sick of me talking about money just act like you're not And they don't seem to mind perhaps because they know a great deal of the money is used by the church to invest in their community. John Amis congregation is huge more than 10000 members. So while one service is still going on people gather at the doors of the cathedral to wait for the next one. This is the Jamaica St. Albans area Queens not far from JFK airport. It's big and much of it has a Suburban. Look nice houses. Well kept close together even room to park on the streets, but it's patchy in other parts of the community buildings are run down. Lots of storefronts are shuttered. The people are poor in life is hard still church members like Carlita Cassidy are pleased with the way much of the area's been transformed. Yes, it was but it's changed it turned around now call me to Cassidy can take off a whole list of social service programs that have helped her poor neighbors and spurred economic development in this part of queens and she gives the credit to Floyd flake and her fellow church members Cassidy says they just got tired of waiting for the government to act. I think that that's what has to be done when the government doesn't fulfill its responsibilities at that's the the community the church members going to bring about those programs that are very much needed. So what we're doing it as much as we can for ourselves and encouraging others to do. So when Floyd flake came to Allen AME in 1976. It was a more conventional Church concentrated mainly on religious activities, but flake was determined to do more so we started pushing and build it today the Allen Church employees 800 people and post a 24 million-dollar annual budget Lake says, he was convinced from the start that the neighborhood could be turned around communities like this represent a fertile field of opportunity. Although this was a community defined as being in Decline there were enough resources that the community did not have to die that it did have a possibility for Resurrection flight decided that the Allen charge should step in and fill the large gaps left in the community when business stop investing and the government stopped responding. Do use the classic methods of an entrepreneur raising the initial capital from church members to Start programs and build buildings then attracted money from foundations and the government to do even more and Flake says he's pleased to see how many nonprofit organizations are doing similar things in other cities because they are closer to the pulse of the community. I think in a long time we the people becomes a much more realistic statement of America when you are able to put the service is right in the communities where people live but I think nonprofits do that best. The first large projects like initiated with the Allen Community Senior Citizen Center a sprawling complex where residents and seniors from the neighborhood can get lunch for $0.75 or for free if they can't afford to pay more than 400 elderly people live at the center and it seems like like knows every one of them. Where you going? Dressed up lipstick hair done what you up to? Doctor sleep too much already. A few blocks away the South Jamaica multi service center, which is also supervised by the church provides all kinds of services to the area's poor citizens is a community health clinic a mental health center Family Planning programs teen counseling a battered women shelter a Head Start program and more programs for teenagers. She's worked in government-run service centers like this in other parts of the city, but not discouraged in those places because the people who came in off and didn't get enough help or the right kind of help Grant says it's different here because people from the community are in charge. I think that if they were not here to be fragmented services and that's where the Allen AME Church as the sponsor and the manager of this building come in. See they put us together and get us to work cooperatively together. Across the street from the multi service center is a stretch of land that have been vacant for decades overgrown and dangerous an area that local residents were afraid to walk near but on that same spot today Joyce Bartlett tends to her garden you put a lot of flowers. What does petunias is the SAR 48 beige and tan duplexes with manicured Lawns and winding Drive subsidized set aside for first-time buyers and built 2 years ago each new home cost about $160,000 Joyce Bartlett could have never afford a house like this on the private Market. It would have cost nearly twice as much and at first she wasn't too hopeful of getting in here either. She was skeptical when officials from the Allen Church said the new owners would be chosen in a lottery still Bartlett filled out an application and was surprised when she found out she's made it very surprised because I don't belong to Allen's church people with the church would get it. I really felt that the people who went to the church would have the inside track on it. Only two of the new owners are members of the Allen AME Church the fact that church officials point to with some pride. All of these accomplishments that made the Reverend Floyd flake a very popular figure in this part of New York City and giving him a powerful political base the voters here sent him to Congress for 11 years until he retired a few months ago. There's some talk that I'll run for mayor two years from now, like won't say what he's going to do except continue to expand the Allen churches development efforts. The latest plan is to demolish a row of run-down buildings right across the street from the new cathedral and build a mini mall with a bank branch a real estate office even a Burger King that the church WIll own. Floyd flake believe that's the next logical step for successful nonprofits to start making money. I believe that I believe that nonprofits need to go into private making business is to protect themselves long-term so that they can have an Avenue in vehicle that generates the revenue to help them keep doing the good work that they do in the service area. Some religious leaders have criticized the many churches that have begun to Branch out in the way that Allen AME has they say it will force these churches to water down their religious message and make them lose sight of their true Mission. It's a position that Floyd flake says doesn't fit with his experiences in Queens. When do service the needs of people it becomes the greatest Evangelistic to that the church could have and my argument would be that the more vehicles that are created to allow you to service people's needs the more people will respond to that Ministry because they I see it is not just a building sitting in the community, but they see it as a place where they know people's needs can be met and it minister is nothing else. That's really what it is. This is Gary Covino reporting. You're listening to a special report from American radio works on the power of the nonprofit economy. Make change not money. I'm Chris Farrell later. This hour will hear how nonprofits are training inner city workers in Chicago Reviving a town in rural, Iowa in strengthening Community ties in San Francisco will look at the controversial side of nonprofit. Meanwhile to keep everything in perspective will visit the trading floor the mythical Nipsey the nonprofit Stock Exchange. 1990's is an Arab powerful markets in smaller government perhaps that's why so little attention is paid to the growing economic health of the nonprofit sector, but it is big and it deserves notice the number of nonprofits more than quadrupled to 1.5 million over the past three decades for 1977 to 94 paid employment in nonprofits Rose at nearly twice the rate of National Employment. The nonprofit sector is now marked by many of the trappings of big business advertising just like Nike and Budweiser nonprofits are creating glitzy persuasive ads Michael Jordan for Shriners hospitals a lot of advantages to living in Chicago not the least environmental health risks facing the National Arbor Day Foundation, Nebraska City, Nebraska to running TV spots. Nonprofits are also hiring business school graduates and sending their top talent to Executive grooming seminars executive salaries are rising well. the 6 in even seven figures why is the nonprofit sector growing for one thing Services dominate the American economy and nonprofits are often Leading Edge players for instance half of all hospitals are nonprofit really a third of all nursing homes are to about half of all colleges and universities are nonprofits and so are most libraries and information centers. Another Factor driving growth is a lack of faith in government programs call stauber president of the Northwest area foundation has government Retreats from many of society's most pressing problems such as getting people off welfare and into a job not profits become more important when Bill Clinton started his second term the size of the federal civilian Workforce was down to the size when John F Kennedy was president. But if you look at the dollar figures, it hasn't come they haven't contracted as much. So where's the shift occurred? The shift has occurred in transferring activities been partially to the nonprofit sector at the same time government support a nonprofit's is winning so many organizations launch new. And sometimes controversial commercial Ventures to make money. Most cases going to the zoo used to be free but not anymore about 40% of the nonprofit sector is revenue comes from dues fees and charges in zoos have been among the most Innovative money makers. For example, the monkey child has just given house for each morning is paid for in part by money to nonprofit Zoo makes from a for-profit movie theater. Social entrepreneurship is flourishing in the payoff can be huge today programme is supported by Financial contributions from the members of Minnesota Public Radio. When the Minnesota Communications Group the parent company of Minnesota Public Radio sold, its for-profit catalog company NPR's endowments well to some 110 million dollars the largest endowment public broadcasting NPR skiing also start some controversy the seal net at the organization's to top Executives 4 million dollars from the equivalent to stock options. Meanwhile, nonprofit hospitals are opening for-profit health clubs and just about every university has for lucrative alliances with high-tech companies over the past decade the pacesetters were there hospitals are universities or even public radio stations. I have become large complex Enterprises that require people with considerable expertise to staff them and that's partly why you're seeing this professionalisation University of Indiana Professor Leslie Les Kowski. This is commercial revolution in the philanthropic world is exciting, but the trend also raises troubling questions, the danger I think is that organizations can become so dependent on these for their activities that they will lose sight of their charitable missions. In other words, they can become so businesslike that they forget they're not really a business. There are many activities on the Eve. 21st century where the old definitions are crumbling fast. Nonprofits are absorbing many tasks that government did only a few years ago. Nonprofits are competing with private Enterprise businesses are setting up shop in education Healthcare in other Industries traditionally dominated by nonprofit. Sometimes nonprofits compete with government and business. Sometimes they cooperate it's increasingly difficult to tell where one starts in the other end. The nonprofit world has nothing to compare with the New York Stock Exchange. Nonprofits do rely on contributors their investors if you will or capital. In the stupid Market is busking something is being traded. But what is it to find out? Let's go to the floor of the mythical Nipsey the nonprofit Stock Exchange and talk to a broker to hear nonprofit. Stock Exchange. Nipsey is what we call it. How can I help I've got some extra money. I want to put into a non-profit but I'm looking for the best deal. What can I get a tax write-off? We just started talking how well you can write this off on your taxes. Some people find that kind of attractive. I'll take the tax break but I'm looking for something more something more something more than my right about that. I would go for the blue-chip social welfare nonprofits right away your United Way your Red Cross York. Are there established brand names of associate you with a lot of good work. You can write off some taxes. Am I mention the Yeah Yeah Yeahs this one also you can write off a lot of that guilt. You're going to sleep at night. If you do this, trust me, I want to do that. But I want don't tell me your legacy, right you're thinking about your legacy your place in history. Am I right about that? I am in that case of major donation to one of the alma maters would do wonders. How about having your name on a new computer science building? What's your name? Chris Farrell Farrell Farrell Farrell Hall sounds great. That way I don't have that much. Okay, no problem, you know there really ought to be a fountain in front of the hall the feral Fountain half a million dollars near the building with a Footbridge over for the students. How about the Chris Farrell Footbridge 15,000 have I mentioned there's a tax write-off. There is a tax write-off, you know and also you can get rid of some guilt. I really don't have no guilt. Do you have a sense of well-being and Community involvement that comes from a direct connection to a worthy cause I could use some of that. Well, then you're in luck. There are plenty of opportunities for that on the Nipsey but we're going to have to look more closely at your specific interest individual cases vary as they say on It's true here too. So you got to talk to your broker. I guess that's me Martin Gandy a broker at Nipsey where we turn to the imaginary nonprofit Stock Exchange later in the program coming up next have a growing number of Foundations and other philanthropic Enterprises are looking deep into their own backyards make change not money is a production of American radio works the documentary unit of Minnesota Public Radio, which is solely responsible for its content funding for this program was provided by bentz Whaley flessner a consulting firm specializing in fundraising and institutional advancement counseling leading not-for-profit organizations worldwide, you're listening to an American radio work special make change nut money on PRI Public Radio International. The story of Daniel boorstin call Benjamin Franklin that patron saint of American philanthropy Franklin created a number of pioneering non-profit Enterprises from the first Public Library to a volunteer fire department is European Pierce Franklin didn't care about doing good for its own reward know he wanted to solve Community problems University of Chicago historian. Barry. Carl says that impulse remain strong in America the major idea, which is that there has to be an emotional commitment on the part of local communities to the giving process to what is being done for Citizens by citizens is really in this country such a tradition it is it is just unmistakably essential to the way American society operates in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's not too much to say that philanthropy is part of the social. Fabric hundred fifty years ago minors to send it on California in search of gold a merchant name Levi Strauss showed up around the same time. The blue jeans company. He founded is now the largest garment maker in the world today his descendants control a cluster of family foundations big enough that they could easily spread their charitable money Nationwide instead the family focuses on the Bay Area keeping closer to home to strategy a growing number of nonprofits are embracing at the federal government returns more power to States and localities. But in San Francisco some worried that too much just being an ass of local flat there be in too little of local government William Drummond reports. The tenderloin Child Care Center is located in the heart of downtown San Francisco's poorest neighborhood a place of run-down Hotel porno theaters old apartment buildings and bars. The Sinner occupies the ballroom of a residential YMCA and Graham Dobson is the program director or goal is to to work beyond what goes on with a child that goes to work with the families 2 to enable them to to make the most of what they having to enter move forward and whether that be employment School of looking for him and has any cures for 36 youngsters 1/3 of its enrollment reserved for children from homeless families many children attend free the sinner has a prominent and generous Allied than Miriam and Peter Haas fund one of a half-dozen Haas family charitable Foundation set up by the ears to the Levi Strauss Fortune what's on usual about the Haas Family Support is that the center never asked for the money instead the staff of a hospin sought out the sitter the house family's methods are extraordinary, but it's also striking that one family created so many Foundation. Ain't just one limited geographical area in this case the San Francisco Bay Region unlike the Ford foundation in the Rockefeller Foundation, which are National in their scope. The hospital are perfectly happy to do their work in one place. If there's a trend here is that other foundations are also focusing their efforts in their own backyards. Across the bay at the University of California at Berkeley construction is underway on a new building for the school of public policy Haas family money is paying for that the hospital and Asians have contributed around 50 million dollars to the university just for new buildings Claude Rosenberg author of a book on philanthropy titled wealthy and wise and an acquaintance of many Haas family members says Levi Strauss has always been a model of corporate behavior, and we're just fortunate in the San Francisco Bay Area to have benefited from a company and the owners of that company who did not place. I'm making the top dollar as being the number one responsibility at all times as Levi Strauss have grown in value. So have the assets at the house family funds but California is taxpayers Revolt of the 1970s began re-engineering of Public Finance in the state public monies for Arts education and Social Services came under intense pressure Marshall kilduff editorial writer for the San Francisco Chronicle says the trend of tighter public purse strings and looser philanthropic one poses a policy question that will eventually have to be faced. He argues that some social programs should squarely be the responsibility of government state government the city government and certainly fits are not pouring as much money into what we think of is cultural or social activities that in many cases of house family and others like them or are doing it would be bad policy. Private foundations to try to take up the slack for shrinking public spending according to Ralph Cramer a retired Berkeley professor of social welfare. And one of the pioneering scholars in the study of not-for-profit Corporations. He says since the Reagan years there has been a trend toward privatization of public responsibilities part of the ideological push and support for privatization is the assumption that the government that either never was able to do anything right or it has become inapt and doesn't deserve the kind of support that it wants as long as the stock market is robust politicians can sidestep the unpopular task of asking for new taxes, but when the stars begin to fall Kramer warns the government won't be able to turn the foundations to provide a bail out. These organizations are rarely engage in picking up the pieces after governmental budgets are slashed that's green. Stephen sharer because they are not engage in providing direct assistance. For example today the fun that bears the name of Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Is the biggest of the Levi Strauss foundation with more than four hundred million dollars in assets the director of program Sylvia. Ye says the heist family sees its role as a catalyst for public participation and not a substitute. We as private funders can help enhance the effort by helping you some start-up money by helping with the planning and technical assistance to ensure that there is real quality that happens in growing these kinds of neighborhood institutions. I think our trustees would be terribly unhappy if they really thought that we were displacing what the public should be doing with the family of such a wealthy and motivated benefactors public officials in the Bay Area in effect have their own social safety-net, but it's only as reliable as the stock prices on Waltz If retrenchment should ever hit the portfolios of the Haas family fund many Bay Area communities and educational institutions now dependent on Foundation support could face a rude awakening. I'm William Drummond in San Francisco. While the real life Foundation keep a wary eye on Wall Street. Let's return to the apocryphal Nipsey the nonprofit Stock Exchange and broker Martin. Candy-O is absorbing another biggie best intentions Angkor best in here on the market. People are just going nuts nonprofits merge two osher one-stop-shopping cutting overhead all the same reasons that the for-profit use a good thing or try to figure out do good co is into social causes the three H's hunger housing Healthcare. They got a couple of real dick disease. Is it bringing a lot of money every year? It's holier-than-thou syndrome and Lemmings disease fell no kidding Lemmings disease. That's certainly sweet to the market every once in a while. He'll Fest in Bastion does museums historic preservation Arts organizations grocery co-ops private schools in sports club housing market reacting right now for more information. And a statement from the executive director of good co Teresa Nobel selfless, as you know, one comment can make all the difference more and I have to ask you in all this merger Mania. Is anyone interested anymore in the smaller little known or or maybe even a start-up non-profit. Oh sure, you know you can do great things with a small outfit just named your cause there's a non-profit somewhere. That doesn't well. I want to save the world save the world. Huh? Save the world. Let's see here save the world. So the world the whole world Chris all of it. Okay. Well I can tell right now, let me tell you about to Great smaller opportunities, but still interesting. There's the ticker tape Museum, they restore and operate old stock quote Acres registration history and Supply parade and Kenzie & Fields. It's a subsidized retirement community for contrary an economist who consistently picked wrong in the stock market Ron Economist a smart investment for you Chris, but of course, there are no guarantees on the Nipsey as I always say if you can't afford to lose it, you shouldn't give it away as always Martin good advice you'd be surprised how many people don't get that. I hear from 50 of them everyday. Maybe it's a cliche. But America is a nation of immigrants in the past 15 years alone within 13 million newcomers settled in the US economy is Burton weisbrod says diversity is a major force behind the growth of America's nonprofit economy in a Democratic Society the role of government depends very much on the ability of the population and their representatives to come to a consensus in a homogeneous society. Sweden might be an example of people are much more alike each other than is the case in the u.s. And it's much easier for them to come to a consensus on what they want from the public sector but in a diverse place like America a consensus is hard to forge. So in many places Americans have discovered that the easiest way to find common ground is through a nonprofit in Western Iowa. There's one small town that basically sees itself as a nonprofit organization. like many agricultural towns Manning Iowa was badly busted by the farm crisis of the early 1980s newspaper publisher Roncalli, 15 years ago out of said, they would have been anybody here in town and would have been lock every door because of the way things are going it was not good. It was not good as he stands on Main Street calling points out that even though Manning at half the businesses of at a day. The little town is still relatively prosperous plenty of new cars are parked along the red brick Main Street. There is a family-owned Bank a Hospital and Nursing Home in a four-room hotel. How did Manning do it import calling says by forming a couple of nonprofits does Boost at ounce Fortune the organization's allowed townsfolk to set aside the profit motive more or less non-profit created Unity. Just don't we was going to get any more than anybody else and I'll namely nothing and we don't have an empty store on Main Street. Which is 1500 resident Manning so small that if you want to find someone just called on the Deads Corner Cafe. Most everyone stops there at least once a day over breakfast in many cups of coffee Gilbert Phillips another town leaders explain that nonprofit or the Hub supporting the town's profit-making business has this town is very much nonprofit. And that's why we have survived because remember we're in the pin out here if we are going to survive in the 21st century and if we're the Prosper where we will have to do it ourselves, if we to three separate nonprofits a spark Economic Development, the most ambitious plan will wire Manning and several other small Iowa towns to a fiber optic Communications Network that gives them a high-speed Computer Link to the world. It's a way of getting the new digital crops from rural Iowa to the international technology Market Town Banker Howard Rowe believes that with the fiber-optic hookup. The town can draw small high-tech firms from expensive coastal cities to a pleasant little town with educated workers and low wages ghetto for us. It's like when the railroad came through our or super highway and it gives us opportunities that we didn't happy for Manning is no Silicon Valley far from it. But in a high-tech World business can be done anywhere people want the lip including Rural America. Thank you, support telephone number. Please last year a company called EC. I opened a small office in Manning the Des Moines bass company runs telephone helplines for computer users Can employees 10 local workers and pays them 8 to $11 an hour decent though not spectacular wages for this part of the country the company plans to expand in Manning in large measure because the town's nonprofits have made them move in Ashley attractive for the high-tech firm. You see the size of the combines you put a couple of those in the tractor shop when we were out a room. So we developed this additional building across town at the John Deere farm implement dealership has no newcomer demanding his grandfather's pocket active in Manning's nonprofit scheme. He hopes high tech jobs and better amenities will stand the migration of educated people from the area. This is home. This is where I want to live. I like encourage my children to stay here and provide an opportunity for them. If I'm going to have a community here that's going to be interesting to them. It's going to have to be something more than just a John Deere implement dealership. I mean the community is part of where they live in that means having resources and services available. It's just part of that bigger picture. Farms keep getting bigger to stay competitive in the global economy family Farmers either have to buy more acreage or Moonlight at non-farm jobs to keep their family solvent in the sense. Manning's modern-day. Nonprofits are a hybrid of the farm cooperatives that sprouted during the 19th century neighbors banded together to buy seed or sell their crops the cops worked on the same nonprofit principal to solve a pressing problem competitor set aside their immediate interest for the common good implement dealer Warren pucks is today Manning Carolina politicians or the free market to ensure the town's future. Nonprofits are a kind of neutral solution. I think one of the problems with our political process is The we get so polarized and some of what we're trying to do being liberal or conservative or republican or democrat here here. It was a non-profit those same people can come together keep that stuff out of the way and let's just focusing on doing what we want to do. In this case. It's promote an area or accomplish a certain objective maybe nonprofits is the new and we won't call political party, but it's a new means of accomplishing some of the things need to be done. The modern-day nonprofit has a huge advantage over the Old Farm cooperatives though money and nonprofit corporation can apply for government and Foundation grants individuals can contribute to and get a tax break at the same time man is local hospital for example owned by the town's church has recently raised $1000000 from 1500 residents. What's remarkable is how much the nonprofits have accomplished in Manning indeed? Nonprofits do much more than make people feel good. If they become the ties That Bind a community together and nonprofits are a critical ingredient that makes a capitalist economy work. America's huge nonprofit economy is poised to grow even larger the reasons two decades of a soaring stock market in a generation of Aging Baby Boomers with Hefty personal Estates to leave the chair America has never had so many billionaires and multi-millionaires at the other end of the income Spectrum from the billionaires Club of today are millions of unskilled workers struggling to find jobs for decades the government and its contractors than most of the job training for unemployed American but a fourteen-year-old nonprofit called stripe attention for its hardness approach to job training stride uses method strikingly different from those of most government programs. It also claimed so much higher success rate because it is a non-profit John biewen reports from Chicago. Scribes distinctive approaches clear in the first minutes of a day-long job training session. It's a Thursday morning about 35 people assemble in The Strife classroom on the southside of Chicago when a woman named Valerie walks in a few minutes after 9, the trainer stops are at the door and get your signature on a piece of paper marked late trainer Carson Smith doesn't chastise Valerie. He doesn't need to do you know if she's in trouble if the fourth day of a month-long workshop and by now Smith has made the rules clear number one issue is that you have to be on tonight. We start class at 9 here via 900 in one second late you considered late and there's no way of getting around that three times. Its relation considered automatically a drop. 21 excused absences you considered a drop many strive clients. Don't last the four weeks. In fact Smith says almost half of the 83 people who started his course on Monday are already gone for days later. Let's drive says Those Who stick out its Workshop are truly ready to work 80% get jobs and of those 80% are still working two years later in government employment programs about half who graduates get jobs and the programs typically follow their graduates were only a few months strives clients are among the least employable people in the nation's poor big city neighborhood. They often have a little on their resumes besides suffering bad choices or both. Daedric artist I've been on my own since I was 17 the trainees or clients as Drive calls them give short speeches to one another about their lives. The idea is to practice public speaking and to get acquainted dropped out of high school cuz I got pregnant of course. go back after I had the baby I just party whatever you Person, you'll fly this street gang. They was calling Chief 15/16 yours I got 30 40 year old under me. How many every Davis and jumping on me right? I want to lose you fly with my fresh. You got kicked out her day and went to Austin got kicked out of there. Went to Westinghouse get kicked out of their clients tell their stories matter-of-factly with no discernible self-pity. Self-pity is forbidden that's drive. So are combative NE sullenness eye-rolling or any other sign of a bad attitude. Some of strides methods are similar to those of conventional employment programs clients practice filling out applications and doing mock interviews, but at every turn trainers demand that clients stand up take responsibility and do their best Be cool. I'm going to go to school and imma go to school. Go to school. The philosophy is basically one that tries to remove a sense of victimization from the individuals. We serve Rob Carmona help start the first strive program in East Harlem New York Drive began there in the 1980s as a quiet experiment, but welfare reform in the 1990s created a clamor for Innovative job Readiness programs strive his opened offices or been replicated in eight other cities and a half dozen more are in the works. The federal government took notice to Carmona says the labor department gave drive a $600,000 demonstration Grant to explore whether the government could adopt some of strives method sticking out of the box of doing things new doing things entrepreneurially, all of those things. It's part of the current government rhetoric is exactly what's thrive does in the case of this nonprofit though doing things new means doing them like a for-profit business Drive leaders State clearly that their uncompromising standards reflect the Working World. And that only a fraction of their clients are ready to meet such demands the rest must simply go elsewhere back to the streets or traditional Employment Program or says Steve Redfield of the Chicago office. They can start over with strive. Now since welfare reform were seeing a lot of people who don't complete come back the next month and that didn't used to be true. If you didn't make it you didn't make it but now with the pressure on that you're going to lose your benefits. If you don't make it this month people come back the next month, but critics wish strive would behave last like business and more like a government program some say strive Stone and strict rules are too hard on its down-and-out client. That's a twenty-year-old Kenisha Gaston sees it. She's taking the course in Chicago. She showed up late this morning for the second time in four days. She says her babysitter fell through at the last minute. I don't really think they'd be unreasonable with that because Late for my lunch break I would have been out the door. I think they should be a little more Link Drive is not for everybody. But then it doesn't have to be Leslie lentowski an expert on nonprofits at the Indiana University Center on philanthropy says that's the trade-off that comes with an Innovative nonprofit. The more narrowly tailored approach of a group likes Drive is a strength. He says in that it will push some unemployed people further towards success on the other hand. It's a minus because some of the most difficult people to deal with L. Need the most help. In other words may be the sort who are going to get kicked out but lentoski says nonprofits are a powerful source of new ideas and social services and their flexibility should be encouraged not hindered he cautions that clients and funders must hold nonprofits accountable the program should either demonstrate success or go away and they must not be abusive or unfair where you draw the line. How far is a pretty gray area and sometimes not for profit organizations can be a little more forceful a little more zealous while still avoiding anything that we would regard as abusive then government can and that might be more effective. It might be my house key says it's too early to say for sure whether nonprofits like strive can do better than government over the Long Haul but he says such experiments are worth trying. This is John biewen. You're listening to an American radio work special make change not money on PRI Public Radio International. And of course, you're listening to mid-day here on Minnesota Public Radio. If you're tuning in late to Chris's special program make change not money will be rebroadcast in his program at 9 tonight here on Minnesota Public Radio. So a second chance to go to program 9 tonight. Also while we have a moment of invitation to join us out at the state fair tomorrow all of the dfl candidates for Attorney General of the on our stage the Minnesota Public Radio stage at the state fair tomorrow over the noon hour first hour of the program tomorrow. We'll be talking with the co-presidents of the new merge teachers union as the kids go back to school will take a look at some of the education issues are in the state of Minnesota all of that tomorrow on midday. Clearly nonprofits do a lot of good we expect that perhaps we expect too much like other sectors of the economy of uses and controversy happened, but the shock somehow seems bigger when it involves a nonprofit in 1995 William aramony, the former chief executive of the United Way Rock the non-profit world when he was convicted of various Misty's during his tenure more recently the American Medical Association cause a stir when it agreed to put its seal of approval on a line of Home Health product made by Sunbeam in return for a share of sales eventually several am a lost their jobs the nonprofit backed out of the deal and the am a lost nearly ten million dollars settling a lawsuit. People are wondering what is the difference between a for-profit in a non-profit today? Sometimes Economist can't find much of a clear distinction in the data. It's easy to see why the Salvation Army is a non-profit, but why is the Nash? Football League Stacy Palmer editor of the chronicle of philanthropy does these issues raised a fundamental public policy dilemma, I think people are going to start saying what is it that makes a charity special and what is it that makes it deserves special tax Privileges. And so I think that it's some point especially if the economy sours and people start looking for tax revenue, they might start looking to the Charities and trying to cut off some of those organizations that seem too much like businesses and say, you know go off and be a business if that's what you want to be. So I think what we might have at one point a sort of a shake out so that there will be fewer things considered a charity with this kind of scrutiny. It's no surprise that accountability is now a mandate for many nonprofits Peter Drucker the management philosopher captured the idea. Well when he said that in the social sector has in business and government performance is the ultimate test of an organization Foundation president call stauber if the nonprofit Community is to maintain and expand and its credibility it must be accountable. It must be able to demonstrate results for the dollars invested. Now many of the problems that the nonprofit Community Dawn are very very difficult. To use kind of the the standards of a for-profit world. You don't have a quarterly return on investment. If you're talking about working with gangs and inner cities, you know, the old cliche those problems didn't emerge overnight and they won't be solved overnight like for-profit corporations and like government nonprofits are now subject to closer examination after all had more than 600 billion dollars. The sector is no longer a tributary of American society, but a vital current in the economic mainstream. Speaking of scrutiny. Let's check out the action of a non-profit Stock Exchange in broker Martin Gandy. What's happening there Martin? Well with intentions merger Teresa Nobel selfless. The CEO of do good co is expected to have an announcement shortly here. Not just a word from management can have a big effect on a non-profit Market 200. Yes, Christian of a good Public Image is extremely important for a non-profit. I can't emphasize that too much investors will forgive a for-profit company for being callous cruel and manipulative if they produce the dividends, but here on the Nipsey. It's a different world a Martin the announcement you're waiting for. It's just crossed the news wires. Do you want to hear it? I absolutely Let's see. Let's see dude, Can we know to do good co announces merger with best in like a flood but we knew all that social causes and healthier joining forces with museums and arts organizations and Teo selfless says and here's the quote combining with beston Will Allow do good code to do more and profit last from it than any entity in the history of the planet Market. That sounds pretty good. Profit last that'll work a Martin. She said okay, we're going to be so incredibly big and powerful you won't be able to field a Peewee hockey team in this country without my personal. Okay. She said that she had forgot about that good deeds part of the mission there didn't she Chris? I'll say that's Martin Gandy dumping everything. He owns on the totally bogus nonprofit Stock Exchange. Are Americans disengage from society is the Tok feels genius for Association a thing of the past in recent years growing numbers of liberal and conservative thinkers a like him argue that the nation's Civic ties are dangerously a rotating but the flourishing nonprofit sector suggest the opposite the nonprofit economy has never been bigger employ more people or been so flush with cash you might see the nonprofit sector is one of America's most promising growth industries The Dilemma seems like elsewhere nonprofits are being asked to step in to address. Some of America's most pressing social ills is government steps back that stuff to do nonprofits are supposed to be as efficient as business. You'd also nurturing caregivers. Nonprofit management should combine the qualities of a Fortune 500 CEO in the late Mother Teresa all with an eagerness to work for a slim paycheck the historically clear distinctions between nonprofits government in business will continue to blur the nonprofit. Sector is a very big business indeed. But is it still a distinctly American expression of community? Make change not money is a production of American radio work the national documentary unit of Minnesota Public Radio. You can find out more by visiting our website at NPR. Org we get help from reporters John biewen Gary Covino and William Drummond assistant producers Stephanie Curtis Sin Cara figures you thanks Adele Connolly for inventing the nonprofit Stock Exchange that producers are there and talk to you and Steven Smith and the executive producer Bill Buspar. Empress Farah funding for this program was provided by bentz Whaley flessner a consulting firm specializing in fundraising and institutional advancement counseling leading not-for-profit organizations worldwide. PRI Public Radio International well that does it for a midday program again a reminder that will be rebroadcasting Christopher has a special program at 9 tonight to the public radio programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by the Pillsbury company Foundation caring for the community by giving kids a loving lift Gary I can hear thanks for tuning in today. Join us out at the fair tomorrow. It's Lynne Rossetto Kasper this week on The Splendid Table. It's an international approach to grilling over fire with Steve raichlen author of the barbecue Bible. Join us Saturday.