April 1st is Census Day! Nonprofits Count!

Nonprofits have a vital role to play in ensuring that Louisiana gets the most accurate count possible in the 2010 Census. Our sector traditionally serves communities that the Census has found are hard to count. As trusted community members, we have the opportunity to pass along the message the the Census is safe, easy, and vital to bringing much needed resources and representation to our state! Nonprofits Count!

Here are some useful resources you can utilize to help your community get counted:

Track your Community’s Mail Participation Rate

See your participation rate and how it compares with the national average at 2010.census.gov When you find your rate, click “track participation rate” to generate a code for a rate-tracker widget to post on your website.


We can do better!!

The Census' tracker tool can track response rates down to the neighborhood level. Find out how well your neighborhood is doing today! Anything your organization can do to help promote an accurate count in the 2010 Census is well worth the resources and representation your efforts will secure!

Nonprofits Count! Website

• Learn about the Importance of the Census and how to Get involved
• Order a free Census Poster for your Office
• Download a Census Outreach Toolkit
• Get widgets and logos for your website

Questionnaire Assistance Centers (QAC's) and Be Counted Sites

QAC's are sites where anyone who has questions about how to fill out their form can go to get answers. If you or someone you serve hasn't gotten a form or thinks they haven't been counted, you can visit a Be Counted Site to pick up a Census form. Find a QAC or Be Counted Site near you! or call 1-866-872-6868.

The Census has 800 lines for non-English speakers.

Contact a Partnership Specialist in your Region

The U.S. Census Bureau has Census Partnership Specialists throughout the state who work with community organizations to promote an accurate count in the 2010 Census. If you'd like to know about events in your area, or if you would like to promote an event of your own, contact your regional specialist and they'll be happy to assist you!

Stay tuned to LANO's blog for information about upcoming Census events in your area, and please let us know if you'd like us to publicize any census activities you are planning!

Anything your organization can do to help promote an accurate count in the 2010 Census is well worth the resources and representation your efforts will secure!

Thanks to the nonprofits across Louisiana that have been doing great work to make sure the communities they serve are included in the portrait of America!

State Budget Hearings

For those nonprofits that would like to testify on any state budget related items, there will be a hearing in the House Committee on Appropriations tomorrow, March 30th starting at 9:00 am and Wednesday, March 31st starting at 1:30 pm.

This is an opportunity for the public to testify in regards to the state budget or HB 1. Therefore LANO encourages nonprofits to submit testimony in regards to budget decisions that could impact their organization.

To see the March 30 agenda click here.

To see the March 31 agenda click here.

Grant Seminar Offered at Dillard University

Dillard University Office of Research and Sponsored Programs is hosting a grant seminar of potential interest to New Orleans area nonprofits and other organizations seeking information about development strategies.

The seminar will be held Wednesday, March 31, 2010, at Dillard University, 2601 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans, from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm.

A registration fee is required. For more information, contact DeQuindra Rouzan, Sponsored Research Officer, Dillard University (504) 816-4796.

This is not a LANO-sponsored event.

Learn & Serve America Grant Application Released

The Louisiana Serve Commission in the Office of Lieutenant Governor has released the 2010-11 Learn and Serve America grant application. This grant provides funding for service-learning programs to be implemented in K-12 public schools.  Service-learning is a teaching method that connects academic curriculum with service projects that fulfill community needs.

Eligible applicants for this grant are K-12 public school teachers, schools, or school districts.  Nonprofit organizations that have been in existence for over one year, have experience in working with at-risk youth, and can provide projects for the student participants are also eligible. 

This is a cost reimbursement federal grant that requires a dollar-for-dollar match. 

Applicants should submit a Letter of Intent to Apply by March 22, 2010 to Denise Dowell, Learn and Serve program officer, via e-mail (ddowell@crt.state.la.us).  Potential applicants will be required to participate in technical assistance webinars to be held on March 30 and 31.  Webinar details will be forwarded to those submitting a Letter of Intent to Apply.  Visit the 2010-11 Learn and Serve America grant application website or contact Denise Dowell for more information:  

Denise Dowell, Learn and Serve Program Officer
Louisiana Serve Commission
Phone:  (225) 342-3937
E-mail:  ddowell@crt.state.la.us

LANO's New Look

We're pleased to introduce updated versions of the LANO and LBP logos that will appear on our websites, reports and other publications starting this week.

The new logos are part of a package of graphic design products, including new brochures, business cards and letterhead, that you'll be seeing from us this year.

Our sincere thanks go to the Lafayette public relations firm Sides & Associates for this generous offer of pro bono design services and consultation.

We hope you will agree the fresh look brings our familiar logos into the new decade and reflects LANO’s renewed focus, reorganization and positive outlook for the future.

Thank you,

The LANO Team

LBP Reviews 2011 Executive Budget

BATON ROUGE—The Louisiana Budget Project (LBP) released a review of Governor Jindal’s 2011 Executive Budget this week. The report (Louisiana's Fiscal Crisis) finds that the Administration’s proposed spending cuts are an inadequate response to a growing need for state services.

While LBP agrees that reduced spending is necessary for responsible budgeting in a tight economy, analysts at the nonpartisan research group highlight missed opportunities to balance budget cuts with new or recovered tax revenues that would better address the state’s fiscal crisis.

According to LBP, a stated Administration budgetary goal to “realign the size and cost of government to more sustainable, pre-Katrina levels” does not reflect the expansion of post-Katrina demand for government services as documented by increased use of food stamps (up 20%), Medicaid (up 13%) and higher education (up 3% and 37% in four-year and community college enrolment, respectively).

The report cites Louisiana’s unemployment rate, a gross indicator of numerous potential service needs, as rising nearly two percentage points since before Hurricane Katrina.

The Executive Budget proposes many potentially controversial cuts. The LBP report cites its elimination of state funding for stipends teachers receive by obtaining National Board Certification. The $5,000 stipends, designed to improve teacher quality, are required by state law. Cutting them from the budget, says LBP, would make them “an unfunded state mandate that districts must cover out of their budgets which, in many cases, are already stretched.”

The Executive Budget’s use of one-time tax-amnesty and FY09 surplus funds to partially offset billions of dollars in projected revenue reductions over the next year provides only a limited solution, say LBP analysts: “[This approach] does not solve the long-term shortfall in recurring revenues and simply pushes the problem into the next fiscal year.”

More sustainable alternatives they suggest include closing certain tax loopholes, improved tax collection and allowing use of “rainy day” and restricted funds under circumstances LBP sees as warranted by the ongoing fiscal crisis.

The Baton Rouge-based LBP provides independent research and analysis of Louisiana fiscal issues and their impact on low and moderate income residents. For a copy of the full report and more information on LBP, visit www.labudget.org.

U.S. Census Bureau Redefines Poverty Measure

The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that it plans to develop a supplemental poverty measure and then open it up to public scrutiny.

The supplement is aimed to address the current flawed measure adopted in the 1960s. In computing family income, that measure ignores billions of dollars in federal and state benefits such as food stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the child tax credit and housing assistance.

It also ignores significant expenses — including day care, out-of-pocket medical expenses and housing costs — that have grown a great deal since the ’60s.

Currently no government programs are calculated in the current measure, which leaves family income dramatically undercounted. This would finally make it possible to know whether government programs actually help to reduce poverty. On the flip side, it will more accurately reflect the amount of money that families need to cover basic costs such as housing, food, transportation, child care and health care.

This new data should provide more accuracy for guiding national and state policy decisions that affect vulnerable families and children, and improve our system for calculating poverty.

The supplemental measure announced by the Census Bureau will not replace the official measure in determining how much funding goes to states, or who is eligible to receive benefits.

The new supplemental measure will be unveiled in the Census Bureau’s annual poverty report in the fall of 2011, alongside the current official measure.

Census Forms are on their way!! Track Return Rates online!

The 2010 Census is in full swing! If you live in Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, or parts of Jefferson Parish, you will likely find a bag on your door knob in the near future that looks like the one on the left.

Open it up and fill out the form for everyone that lives in your household, mail it back to the Census and tell your friends, clients, and everyone to do the same!!

If you live anywhere else in Louisiana, you will get a census form in the mail that, when opened, looks like the image on the right. Take the ten minutes it takes to answer 10 questions that mean 10 years of funding and representation for your community!

Want to know if your neighborhood is doing its part in returning their Census forms? Well, Census Director Robert Groves wants you to know too! Check him out on YouTube explaining how people can view 2010 Census mail participation rates of their communities and compare them with the rates of other areas around the country.

Find out if your neighbors need a little more encouragement to send in the form and help get an accurate count in the 2010 Census and your community's fair share of federal funding and representation!

If you have any questions about how your nonprofit can get more involved in 2010 Census outreach, contact Ashley Herad at ashley@lano.org or call (225) 929-5266 ext. 222.

White House Conference Call on Service and Social Innovation Agendas

You are invited to join a White House telephone briefing tomorrow, Wednesday March 10, at 3pm EST to learn about and discuss with Administration officials the President’s proposed FY2011 Budget’s service and social innovation agendas.

WHO: Patrick Corvington – CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service
Sonal Shah – Director, White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation
Robert Gordon – Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

WHEN: Wednesday, March 10th at 3 pm Eastern

HOW: Participant: (800) 260-0719; Participant Access Code: 150009

In the past, these briefing calls typically have lasted about an hour, with the first half devoted to presentations by Administration officials and the second half reserved for questions.

Please feel free to call in to learn more about the President’s budget proposal that the Administration has sent to Congress.

Good News: Gulf Coast Housing Issues Move Forward in Senate Bill

Last week LANO wrote a blog about critical affordable housing issues that would impact the future of completing thousands of housing units along the Gulf Coast.

There is good news to report on these matters!

Two amendments that would address the Gulf Opportunity (GO) Zone tax credits and extending the Placed-in-Service Deadline until 2012 have been included in the second Senate Jobs Bill.

Congress gave the Gulf Coast millions of dollars to build much needed affordable housing in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Although thousands of units have been built, more than 65 other developments that also have been awarded GO Zone tax credits are stalled and at risk of not being built. These developments have a congressionally mandated deadline of December 2010 for completing construction. This deadline combined with the economic downturn has made it difficult for developers to attract investors and close on project financing so that construction can begin.

As a result, two challenges face completing affordable housing efforts in the Gulf Coast: 1.) allowing GO Zone tax credits to qualify for the exchange grant program included in the 2009 federal economic stimulus package; and 2.) extending the Placed-in-Service Deadline until December 31, 2012.

The Senate is expected to vote on the second Jobs Bill tomorrow night, Tuesday, March 9th.

This is positive news for these two important affordable housing issues as the bill is expected to pass the Senate. Afterward there are remaining steps until the bill gets signed by President Obama, but advocates are hopeful that these provisions will be moved forward and included in the final bill.

Louisiana Decentralized Arts Funding Grant Applications - Now Online!!

Louisiana Decentralized Arts Funding (DAF) makes the arts available in all areas of the state by giving artists, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and local government agencies in each parish the opportunity to develop arts programs that meet their local needs. Access the DAF grant application and guidelines online! Click here!



Deadline to apply: Wednesday, March 31st, 2010, 4:00 p.m.
Contact person: Vickie Marshall, SRAC Community Development Director
Telephone: (318) 673-6500
E-mail: vickie@shrevearts.org.

If you missed the SHOW ME THE ARTS Workshop you can see the presentation online also!

Support Gulf Coast Affordable Housing

LANO has launched an advocacy campaign to encourage Congress to support Gulf Coast affordable housing.

Background

Congress gave the Gulf Coast millions of dollars to build much needed affordable housing in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Although thousands of units have been built, more than 65 other developments that also have been awarded GO Zone tax credits – representing more than 6,000 affordable homes and $1 billion in construction activity – are stalled and at risk of not being built.

These developments have a congressionally mandated deadline of December 2010 for completing construction. This deadline combined with the economic downturn has made it difficult for developers to attract investors and close on project financing so that construction can begin.

As a result, two challenges face completing affordable housing efforts in the Gulf Coast: 1.) allowing GO Zone tax credits to qualify for the exchange grant program included in the 2009 federal economic stimulus package; and 2.) extending the Placed-in-Service Deadline until December 31, 2012.

Legislative Strategy

The best hope of getting the GO Zone tax credit and Placed-in-Service Deadline moved forward is including them in the second jobs bill just introduced in the Senate entitled the "American Workers, State and Business Relief Act".

Senator Landrieu, together with Senators Vitter, Wicker, and Cochran have filed an amendment (S.A. #3335) on this bill to include the Placed-in-Service extension. It's vitally important that this provision stays in the bill, but also that the Senate includes the Go Zone tax credit exchange grant program as well.

Take action!

Through LANO's advocacy campaign, Gulf Coast advocates can email a letter to Senators Vitter and Landrieu to ask them to encourage the Senate Finance Committee to make sure that the Placed-in-Service Extension stays in the American Workers, State and Business Relief Act, and the Go Zone exchange program gets included in the same bill.

This bill is coming up in the Senate fast so please take action quickly. Thank you!