Call me a Luddite if you like but there are some things in this New World order I just can’t get my head around. Take for instance the annual Not For Profit conference.
A couple of weeks ago I received a glossy brochure informing me that in May this year there will be four, full day ‘conferences’ in four state capitals. The venues for these events are five star hotels in the middle of town. But that didn’t concern me as much as the banner headline that declared, "Discover the Key Business Drivers in the Not-For-Profit Sector to Lead your Organisation into the Future". As the ad says, " and that’s not all!"
As I read on I discovered this gem. "The role of Accounting, Finance and Management professionals within the NFP Sector is continuing to evolve at a rapid rate". Scattered throughout the document were phrases like, "Analyse how changing demographics can be a bonus in delivering a competitive advantage." "Identifying key players and risk areas." "What exactly are you selling?" and "How NFP’s can maximise a potential volunteer resource windfall."
To summarise, it would seem that the basis for this conference was not about the traditional, philosophical role of not for profit groups but how to insert a discourse of economics into these organisations and therefore change the way their staff conceptualise themselves and their role. No longer as agents of social development but as employees committed to the bottom-line. As I’ve seen in many cases the direct outcome of the adoption of these economic discourses is the loss of community focus and changes in the material practices of the organisations to the detriment of those they were established to serve.
Another interesting development in the not for profit conference junket is the cost of actually getting there. Registrations for the 2005 conferences (which should really be called "The 2005 Certified Practicing Accountants we’re spruiking for your business workshop series") cost anywhere from $550.00 to $825.00 per person per day. Not only that, those that attend can ‘earn’ eight points towards their "Continuing Professional Development". So there is a personal incentive to visit even if the corporate incentive doesn’t do it for you.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am all for not for profit organisations. I’ve spent nearly all my adult life involved in NFP’s in all roles from bottom of the row volunteer to Chairperson. However, what I’m talking about in this little missive is the change in the way large NFP’s see themselves and their role in the community.
Not anywhere in the document did I read how this conference might assist the delegates understand the way their organisations were historically developed. Nor did I read how it is that these organisations now enjoy huge tax breaks and how we, the community, allowed them to obtain these benefits in the first place. I saw nothing in the brochure that demonstrates an understanding of the needs within our community that these organisations are supposed to address and the individuals they are meant to represent. The closest that I could find to a reference about the suffering these organisations are meant to alleviate was the title of session, "The Tsunami Effect: Is Your Bottom Line Now at Risk?"
I don’t know about you but I find this offensive. It is an inditement on the accounting profession that they would allow this true disaster to be used as a peg from which to hang their spruiking for business verbiage. These are some of the key points the keynote speaker wants to make: "How can local organisations compensate for an unexpected loss of income? The risks associated with dipping into reserves. Has the culture of the anonymous altruistic donor been supplanted by a new opportunist culture? and What are the positive effects of the Tsunami?"
What can we make of a meeting that has, as it’s top billing, a presentation that preys on the devastation wrought by nature? Well, what it does is help us understand how the profiteers have moved into and have colonised and to a certain extend, privatised the not for profit movement.
Firstly, one must wonder how it is that not for profit organisations are the target of a series of ‘conferences’ sponsored by the CPA – the new business name of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants. In part this is explained by the new accounting standards that all small businesses must adhere to. I agree entirely with those who argue that NFP’s should see their operational and financial practices as being very similar to small businesses. However, what I always wonder is, why do so many NFP’s spend so much time worrying about their ‘profits’?
Secondly, one of the reasons NFP’s enjoy the tax breaks they do is because we, as a community, agreed many years ago, that because we couldn’t do the work directly, we would support the groups who could through our tax system. Not so long ago managers of these organisations thought in terms of the basic items needed for their organisation to do their work. However, what has developed over the last ten years or so is a management culture in which a car, laptop, mobile phone and superannuation for the individual have all become tax breaks for the organisation and benefits for the managers.
Third, we also find that in an increasingly privatised world, those who could make a buck off the system are not confined to the ‘poverty players’ as portrayed by the government and big business. You know the type. The dole bludger, the welfare cheat, the single mum or the charity charlatan. Those people who we are told rip us off.
Here’s a little insight gleaned from a read of the glossy brochure. We should not fear the few individuals who might rip off the system. We need to be afraid of the organised, blatant rip offs by large organisations who have the front to charge up to $825 for people to attend a ‘conference’ on how to make their not for profit organisation make more money while not at any stage saying how this money can be used to assist those who the organisation was founded to serve.
Fourthly, we must ask why it is that the CPA is spruiking at conferences such as these? Because they know all to well the fact that the huge growth areas of our economy are the poverty relief, health, disability and child care sectors. In the main these have traditionally been not for profit areas and as we’re seeing in the childcare and disability sectors, for instance, the once small, localised organisations are being taken over by huge corporate structures. These huge conglomerates operate with all the benefits of NFP’s but when we delve into their corporate structures we find obscene amounts being paid to the CEO’s, CFO’s and other top-level executives. At the other end of the scale we hear stories of loss of services, lack of proper care or attention, overcrowding and a general denigration of services.
To conclude, the Not For Profit Conference 2005 does not represent the founding principles or indeed the community expectations of those organisations who, in the main, enjoy a much better reputation than the accountants who run them. This conference is about gaining "market share" in the grab for the tax and donor dollar. It is not about how we can create a better future for our communities. What I cant understand and you can call me a Luddite if you want, is why we allow these groups to get their own way while we wring our collective hands and ask, ‘why are things getting worse, not better?’ Perhaps the answer is to be found by looking at how much value we put on the dollar compared to how much value we put on the human tragedy unfolding around us.