By Karen Eber Davis

Your assistant delivers the mail. In it, you find a substantial check from a local company. You recognize the signature. It’s a business contact you’ve been wooing. How do you evaluate this check? Is it a donation? A business investment? Both? Does it matter that nonprofits’ transactions with businesses confuse us?

Yes.

Confusion dampens action. Confusion consumes resources. Instead of moving decisively, we grapple with what to do next. And, often, do nothing. Over the weekend, we shop to replace an aging home appliance. When the options confuse us, we return home to “think about it.”

Guess what? Nonprofit leaders are not the only ones confused about the reasons behind company checks. In some cases, the person authorizing the check shares your confusion. An insurance broker, for example, whose firm gives over $60,000 yearly, shared that he wrestles with too many requests, uncertain returns, his desire to give back with no returns needed, and the need to support existing staff and customers and grow profits. Corporate checks often represent multiple and occasionally conflicting goals.

Is this a sector-wide problem? Yes. For proof consider that 80 percent of the gross domestic product in the United States stems from businesses. Nonprofits represent just over 5. Yet nonprofits that painstakingly seek every dollar induce companies to offer them only the tiniest sliver of income. (See 7 Nonprofit Income Streams for a full explanation of corporate income and six other income streams.) For nonprofits, corporate income is akin to that tiny slice of holiday pie you ate last Thanksgiving. Why is that? It’s a place where confusion dampens action. By helping companies clarify their giving back goals, you might access a whole pie.  [Read more…]

The spring edition of NCIL’s Legislative & Advocacy Priorities is now available at the NCIL website.

This document contains specific information on the national legislative and policy priorities identified biannually by the NCIL membership, including funding for the Independent Living Program, healthcare and long-term care, housing, transportation, education, and more.

Please share this document with your Center or SILC staff, board, and the Senators and Representatives who serve your districts.

Contact NCIL for further information on the issues discussed in this document.

• NCIL Legislative & Advocacy Priorities (PDF)
• NCIL Legislative & Advocacy Priorities (plain text)

If you are a parent with a disability, the Disabled Parenting Project wants to talk with you about your experiences! Specifically, we are seeking parents willing to share their stories. Video interviews will be posted, in part or whole, on the Disabled Parenting Project’s website for others to learn from. To volunteer, you must:

• Be a parent with a disability
• Have at least one child under the age of 18
• Live in the United States
• Speak English
• Be 18 or older

To thank you for being interviewed, we will pay you a $50 Amazon gift card.  [Read more…]

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is with heavy hearts that we must inform you that a pioneer and active advocate of the Independent Living community, David Burds, passed away on January 30, 2016. Dave was an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities for over 35 years. He worked at the Endependence Center of Northern Virginia (ECNV) in Arlington, Virginia for a total of 15 years, including working as the Executive Director for 6 years. Dave also served on the Board of the National Council on Independent Living from 2009-2011.

Dave believed in the Independent Living philosophy – the idea that people with disabilities are the best experts on their own needs, having crucial and valuable perspective to contribute and deserving of equal opportunity to decide how to live, work, and take part in their communities, particularly in reference to services that powerfully affect their day-to-day lives and access to independence. With this philosophy, Dave pushed for the inclusion of people with disabilities.

We know Dave best as a quiet yet strong leader. He was not afraid to work on a grassroots level, which allowed him to ensure consumer directed options and transition services at ECNV. He stayed true to disability advocacy through his active participation in both NCIL and ADAPT. Dave was a husband, father, grandfather, and a big sports lover. We will miss his amazing dedication and passion.

A memorial service is set for 2:00 p.m. February 21 at Key Bridge Marriott Hotel. The burial will be in Epworth, IA, at a later date. Donations in lieu of flowers can be sent to ECNV: 2300 Clarendon Blvd, #305 / Arlington, VA 22201.

Source: RTC/IL

The University of Kansas Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL) has produced a Spanish language version of its internationally known Guidelines: How to Write and Report About People with Disabilities.

Since the first edition of the Guidelines was published in 1984, some of its recommendations have been adopted by the Associated Press, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association and other organizations. “The sixth edition was the only previous version that we translated into Spanish,” noted Center Director Glen White, “but as language evolves, we saw a need for a new Spanish edition.”

“We know that Spanish has many regional variations, and our focus on colloquial expressions presents real challenges for translation,” said White. “Yet we feel it is important to make this information available to Spanish speakers in the United States and around the world. Our goal is to encourage people to use respectful language and to stimulate conversation about what that means in their own culture.”

Katrina Birge, a 2011 graduate of KU, translated the Guidelines and its companion poster, “Your Words, Our Image,” from English into Central Mexican Spanish. “Sadly, in Central and South America, disability rights and perceptions of disability are extremely far behind,” she said. “My co-workers and cousins in Mexico have never heard some of these respectful terms.”

White’s personal connection with Peru also inspired the new Spanish translation. He has made 16 visits to Peru since 1998 to assist with development there of an independent living movement for people with disabilities, including a trip in January 2016.

The eighth edition of the Guidelines includes updated definitions of terms, plus three new sections: “Rosa’s Law and the Language of Bullying,” “Key Concepts in the Disability Community” and “A Few Exceptions.” The companion poster highlights selected terms from the brochure.

For more information, contact: Val Renault, [email protected], 785-864-0575.