An interesting article in the New York Time today describes various cities’ efforts to get money out of their nonprofits.

It strikes me that when municipal governments start looking to local nonprofits for help with public sector financial problems the end of civilization cannot be far off. What’s next, the mayor standing in line at the soup kitchen?

This phenomenon reminds me of a story I heard from a client who worked for a tech company. He claimed he could track his company’s fortunes by the prices at the soda vending machine in the lunchroom. When he first started at the company the vending machine was left open and the sodas were free. As the economy tightened a modest charge was imposed at the vending machine, basically to cover the cost of the drinks. “But,” he told me, “when they raised the prices again and I figured out that the vending machine was now being viewed as a profit center, I knew the company was in trouble.”

Viewing nonprofits as a revenue source for local government strikes me as the “vending machine as profit center” way of thinking.  The entire tax system is off, yet we look to nonprofits rather than to tax reform. The U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in the world – yet many large companies pay nothing at all. Let’s look to close those loopholes before we start asking the local community hospital to contribute to the city’s coffers.

I recently had the honor of giving a keynote address, at the annual meeting of the Donors Forum, about our report Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector. It was especially meaningful for me to return to the Donors Forum, because they first invited me to speak to their members over ten years ago,  about our monograph Beyond Collaboration, back when I founded La Piana Consulting in 1998.

As Valerie Lies, President and CEO of the Donors Forum, described in her powerful opening remarks to the 600 guests of last week’s event, Chicago is struggling with many of the same economic and political challenges as the rest of the country.

I described La Piana Consulting’s NonprofitNext research and the five key trends that are converging to reshape the social sector landscape.

Joining the discussion was Mae Hong, Director of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Nicole Robinson, Director of Kraft Foods Global Community Involvement division, and Ricardo Estrada, Chicago’s First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services.

The panel itself represented the future, with young and diverse leaders, whose affiliations spanned a blurring of sectors across government, philanthropic, and corporate social action.

Where will you take nonprofits next? Join the conversation today!