Arizona Nonprofits Need To Continue Operating to Contribute to Nation’s Recovery
Phoenix AZ (January 31, 2021) – The Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits has joined nearly 30 Arizona nonprofits and more than 70 national nonprofits to urge President Biden and members of Congress to ensure that much-needed relief for nonprofit organizations is included in expected COVID stimulus and relief legislation. The Alliance represents more than 1,000 nonprofit members across Arizona.
In a letter to President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, signers sought support to ensure that “charitable organizations (can) contribute to our nation’s relief, recovery and rebuilding.”
“As the letter clearly points out, charitable nonprofits have risen to the crisis our nation is enduring,” said Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits CEO Kristen Merrifield. “Nonprofits in Arizona and across the nation are stretched beyond all reasonable measures but continue to operate despite unfathomable challenges. We will do all we can to support the effort to ensure the long-term survival of so many important nonprofit organizations and we look forward to working with Arizona Senator Mark Kelly on this effort.”
Arizona Senator Kelly is among a bipartisan group of 8 Democratic and 8 Republic senators discussing COVID compromises with the Biden Administration as well as Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-MD).
In recognizing the “unique role of charitable nonprofits in providing pandemic relief and economic recovery,” the letter urges “enacting a package of relief solutions tailored to the actual needs and realities of these organizations that, like you, are devoted to serving the public good.”
The advocates are asking that the next COVID relief law include:
- Providing nonprofit-specific grants, forgivable loans and refundable tax creditsfor all nonprofits by establishing grant and funding programs to provide forgivable loans to nonprofits of all sizes and without regard to gross receipts as well as programs to help nonprofits retain employees, scale service delivery to meet growing needs and create new jobs.
- Strengthening charitable giving incentivesby significantly increasing caps on above-the-line deductions included in the CARES Act and extending the cap at least through 2022 and preserving the itemized charitable deduction.
- Providing full unemployment benefit reimbursement to nonprofits that self-insure these benefits by increasing federal unemployment reimbursement to 100% of costs retroactively to 2020 and extending the relief through the first three quarters of 2021.
- Providing aid to states and local governmentsthrough emergency assistance for the wellbeing of communities nationwide.
According to the letter, “we anticipate that 2021 will be even more devastating to the work of nonprofits. The pre-pandemic workforce of 12.3 million dedicated employees has lost nearly 930,000 nonprofits jobs, including 51,000 in December 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those lost jobs mean there are nearly a million fewer people providing services on which their fellow Americans depend.”
The letter concludes by asking the president and Congress to “come together in supporting this package of relief proposals in the next stimulus and relief legislation so that our organizations can be the force for good that you want and need us to be at this time of great national struggle. We stand ready to assist in advocating for additional relief and in strengthening our country together.”
To add your name to the list of those supporting this effort, click here. To find contact information for your Congressional senators go here and for representatives, go here. For more information about the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, visit www.arizonanonprofits.org.