pic by Themis Chapsis

Spring presents many examples of renewal, rebirth, growth and change.  The economy to move forward must do the same.  A funny theme keeps coming up.  It is now hip to live frugile.    Using money as if it was a consumable item is not a good use of maximizing its value.  Saving and investing money for goals and objectives in the future is how organizations become more successful.

The fact that individuals spend $ 4.64 billion at Dollar Tree should be considered a good sign for the thousands whom make purchases based on the value of their dollar.

The fact of American Express  cutting lines of credit and discontinuing cards because of where people shopped is just another sign of Corporate America culture of spend, spend, spend and greed.

American Express use of card holder spending data to be used against the card holder should be considered a breach of American Expresses agreement with any business that excepts American Express Cards.  Since American express refuses to state to  card holders or businesses  which business informs risk then it should be considered a further breach to all consumers which Congress should not allow.

Getting the best price, the best deal or the best volume should not result in a negative impact on the financial resources any individual or organization has.

Being frozen out of ones financially planned resources without warning due to your determined efforts to whether a huge economic storm or being more prudent of your spending is just wrong.

My advice is view the American Express actions as unhealthy for the nonprofit community and that there are better options with your community bank.

Oh, a little fact for you to know as well is that American Express charges your merchant more for using the card.  So if your into helping the business community as well, use another card to so they keep more of the funds.  Leaving American Express in the cold is better than having your organization left in the cold.

The determination to make it is part of the American Spirit regardless of what barriers may be put before said Spirit.

cartoon by seigwales

The amount spent on health care overseas in other industrial nations is far lower than the USA and yet life expectancy is the same.  It just might be the time for the USA health care providers to start learning more from other countries on how they deliver health care.  Contact your peers working in these non governmental providers and government health care systems.

See, listen, learn and execute change.

A provision in the economic stimulus package requires a number of technology providers to comply with the stringent Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act by next year. As a part of providing some $20 billion in stimulus money for health information technology, Congress rewrote the rules of HIPAA regulations to require “business associates” — third parties that handle patient data — to comply with standards overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

To continue reading, please follow the link to the Boston Business Journal web page.

Cartoon by Thomastoons

The recession has identified an interesting fact towards developing a long term vibrant economy.  Areas of the lowest unemployment tend to be of an older population 65 and above.  Communities with a heavier weight of an older population have had a tendency to limit and oppose development.

It just might be the effective means to promote reasonable growth. Effective growth meaning smart growth that balances a percent of economic growth through the balancing of servicing various populations.

Effective Growth needs to consider a Risk Index which measures the current dependency of a community on industry types and population groups.  Thus providing direction to smart growth that creates balance.

Retirement communities and nonprofits are some of those elements to an effective  growth balance.

posted on Flickr by King

Most individuals like to complain about where their money goes when it comes to government.  One area of complaining is about the disposal of trash.  It is a cost to government that continues to grow and yet very few want to pay more for government services.

Individuals and companies are the consuming the products and creating the waste.  Just because it is out of sight does not rid anyone of their responsibility for appropriately paying for their waste disposal.

The effective way to best way to clean up the mess and to adequately fund waste disposal is to have regulations that require the creators of the product build into the price the cost of waste disposal.  The harder it is to recycle the product the higher the price.  No product should be exempt.This will provide a market incentive to produce products that can more readily recycled and at cheaper costs.  It will discourage the production of high environmental toxins because their price to compete will be higher.

This will create new jobs in local manufacturing to create more environmental friendly and easy to recycled products for the next century.   This will create incentives for new entrepreneur businesses to form to meet this need.

Like for-profit entrepreneurs it is an opportunity for new nonprofits to evolve to address similar concerns.  For the current nonprofit community it is an opportunity to revolve as well to embrace ways to deliver their products and services.

cartoon by Fuller

Times of economic stress are not the times to cut off communication with the external community.  It is the opposite that you should be doing.

• Forecasting is an important tool to use for bench marking ways to measure the organizations health in an ongoing manner.
• Forecasting is the means by which managers can gauge what variables to measure each month of the year.
• Thus providing managers established targets for analysis.
• Thus providing measures which will trigger adjustments.
• Thus providing the case for implementing the contingency plans which have been drawn up during the planning process in setting the bench marks for forecasting.

Nonprofits should be showing and involving its community of supporters and teaching them the range of variables that they should be measured by.  Half the battle is identifying for the organization what those variables are?  Until you do, do not expect confidence from your community of supporters.

Cartoon by Plutosthebubbleman

I am a little confused by the recent action of Veterans being opposed to private treatment through their insurance which would save up to $540 million dollars.  I understand their fear that they feel it is a way for government to abrogate its responsibility.  However, that is $540 million dollars that could be used for unmet needs in the VA budget.  Policies can be written to ensure Veterans rights to access of appropriate care.

I challenge anyone to show me why the government should pay when there is another insurer that should pay.  Government should be the payer of last resort.

It just goes to show you that a nationwide universal plan would serve the best interests of any population including Veterans.

The effectiveness of spending each dollar to maximize its purchasing power must be key to federal spending.   There are many examples of such in the Stimulus Bill where the spending on an initiative will result in accomplishing two other goals as well.

I call that effective cash management!!!

Posted on Flickr by Irish Spacemonk

Recent articles have been pushing the idea that just maybe our Nation should stop pushing the idea of owning a home as the ideal to the American Dream.

I would like to highlight how short sighted such a notion is.

• A market driven approach means that the investor/landlord controls price.
• A market driven approach means that at the discretion of the investor/landlord the price can change.
• A market driven approach means the investor/landlord can take advantage of the short term shifts in the market to their advantage.
• A market driven approach means the individuals less able to adapt to the marketplace will be harmed the most.

1. Home ownership provides cost containment on future increases.  Control of the housing expenses stays with the homeowner.
2. Income grows and cost stay relatively the same.  Thereby less of an individual’s income goes towards housing.
3. Even the costs of repairs when done in a planned manner, with many being done by the owner can be within ones means.  Labor is usually 50% of the costs, so if done by the home owner real savings can be realized.  For those repairs needing specialized individuals building a reserve is the best way to afford these repairs.

The same can be said of nonprofits owning their property and utilizing their volunteer network to maintain their property.  This is especially true of those whom are in expensive markets.  Your organization is not in the business of providing a return on an investment to an individual or individuals. Therefore, why spend your money doing so. Your money should be spent on securing the future of the organization and its mission.  Giving money to a property owning provides no long term return for the organization unless there is a mutual parallel mission.  A good set of examples are the many faith base organizations whom have nonprofits working out of their space for below market rent.  That is the right partnership in accomplishing ones joint mission for the communities they serve.

cartoon by TFT

Wall Street found a way to make money three times.  They lent money to financial institutions to make loans that looked great and were affordable when taken out.  Told individuals how to ensure they make changes before interest rates go up but knew most would not.  Took out insurance to ensure that when the loan went sour they still get their return.   The covenants of the loans to the financial institutions caused these companies to have to come up with cash and created a default of a number of financial institutions which are now owed by these entities loaning money.  The government now pays to have these bond holders take over the companies with little risk.

So to some degree it makes it necessary to ask the question. Did certain bond holders set up the system to collapse and then profit from it?  Wall Street built housing on an unsound foundation.  If a contractor would go to jail for fraud, a few of them just might as well.

The across the board blaming of home owners as the cause of the collapse is misdirected. The real cause is the fact that the financial system was allowed to invest several times over on the same property. There are more securities leveraging the same property.

AIG is the best example of how billions on the tax payers money has made leveraging worth while.  Too big to fail should not be the practice.  The opposite action is what the Feds should have ordered. The investments were paper and the defaults on housing is still not a huge number, it is only a perception because the default was so much lower than investing in a new business.

Nonprofits can make the greed a benefit for affordable housing.  The use of government funds for purchasing affordable housing is the best return on reducing future government payments for section 8 vouchers.

cartoon by erichews

Nonprofits have been doing lots of worrying and hunkering down.  However there are those that are taking the opportunity to invest in their future by taking advantage of the Stimulus money. So instead of getting depressed, think out side of the box and strengthen the organization with this one time money over the next two years.