Winter 2020 - Digital Issue

On Life Support: America's Healthcare Crisis

• Welcome
  
  
• The Struggle for Healthcare Justice:It’s Movement Time
  “Nonprofits and philanthropy have a key role to play in administering and delivering healthcare in local communities,” writes Ben Palmquist, program director of Health Care and Economic Democracy at Partners for Dignity & Rights (formerly NESRI). “But it is not enough for the government to simply delegate responsibilities to nonprofits. Delegating responsibilities without clear purpose and accountability risks further entrenching the privatization, inequity, and fragmentation already plaguing the healthcare system.”
  by Ben Palmquist
  
  
• Crisis within a Crisis: Health Workers on the Front Line of COVID-19
  The U.S. health systems employ millions of low-wage workers who risk their lives every day. And as the ravages of COVID-19 have unequivocally demonstrated, this is a case of outright exploitation that endangers healthcare communities, their families, and their patients.
  by Karen Kahn
  
  
• Profit as Primary Driver: The Daily Disaster of U.S. Healthcare
  “Many long-standing faults in this country’s infrastructure have been laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic,” writes Ruth McCambridge. “It is not that what we have found in its wake is new; but, at least in terms of healthcare realities, the problems caused by profit-making in at least some kinds of healthcare systems have been horrifying in their immediate human implications.”
  by Ruth McCambridge
  
  

Features

• Recognizing Racism as a Public Health Threat: A Conversation with Dr. Willarda V. Edwards
  In November this year, the American Medical Association announced that it was committed to reorienting the organization around antiracist principles, and had developed a policy platform to that end. In an interview with the Nonprofit Quarterly, Chair of the AMA Task Force on Health Equity Dr. Willarda V. Edwards describes the history, inspiration, and desired outcomes of this action.
  by the editors
  
  

Departments

• Nonprofits, Transparency, and Staff Support in 2020: Three Case Studies
  The case studies outlined in this article “demonstrate that practicing an organization’s values with transparency and in wholeness vis-à-vis staff is a viable approach for nonprofits—or any institution—to keep evolving amid the existential challenges of our time.”
  by Kori Kanayama
  
  
• 6 Steps for Nonprofits to Be Effective Advocates of Community-Supporting Policy
  “While as a sector we struggle to assign capacity to policy work, year after year we continue to lose progress, and entire swaths of our sector suffer,” write Jennifer Njuguna and Heather Hiscox. “What if, when a nonprofit was created, a strategy for policy work was expected along with the budget and bylaws?” This article provides six steps to guiding your nonprofit in developing its advocacy approach.
  by Jennifer Njuguna and Heather Hiscox
  
  
• Scaling Up: The Power of Catalyst Partnerships
  This article by founder and executive director of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) Tom Kamber delves into what makes a successful catalyst partnership, and offers three core guidelines for nonprofits.
  by Tom Kamber
  
  
• Asking the Right Person for the Right Amount
  In this reprint of Kim Klein’s classic essay on fundraising dos and don’ts, the Grassroots Fundraising Journal’s cofounder offers guidelines for determining who is a prospect and how much to ask for, and provides a useful checklist.
  by Kim Klein