The many New York nonprofit boards that have chosen to pursue mission and rely in part on contracts with the City may have an easier time in the future managing the consequences of these contracts.
As it stands now, these nonprofits have faced significant delays in getting their payments for service rendered and have also been knee-deep in paperwork in addition to bearing additional costs for borrowing bridge funds. Now the city is proposing to centralize contracts as an approach to at minimum, reduce the demands of the paperwork.
But are the nonprofit boards and staff prepared for new rules that may include a higher and more outcome-focused or results-based level of accountability? Many other institutional donors already set these standards for accountability. I believe it's certainly about time that municipalities set similar standards as funders. But more importantly, maybe this will be an opportunity for these nonprofit boards to become results focused as well. Being results focused is good for all: nonprofits, donors, and most important, those who are the nonprofit's beneficiaries.
See the New York Times for more details.