Rob Reich at Stanford Univeristy puts forth five Tetonic Shifts in the nonprofit sector. I would argue about the impacts of #3 and #4, but #1 needs to be on the agenda of every staff and Board meeting. How will you deliver services that many people rely upon?
- Deep budget deficits at local, state and federal levels. These deficits beg the question: how will public institutions deliver services that many people rely upon?
- Fundamental tax reform at the federal level will reconfigure the manner in which the federal government collects tax revenue for what it does. This threatens the manner in which the incentive structure works for how charity in philanthropy operates.
- A deeply dysfunctional political system at the federal level where polarized politics routinely wins out over the elected representatives doing something for the common good.
- The idea that the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling has dramatically changed campaign finance in the U.S. and introduced a new way that the deployment of private resources can enter into the direct political arena.
- Boundary blurring going on across all sectors: nonprofit, for-profit and government.