What are the implications for our understanding of nonprofit/philanthropy and public policy?
“The nonprofit sector appears, therefore, to be a real and identifiable group of tax-exempt organizations that encourage political engagement and produce services. The sector is in fact a documented economic powerhouse that employs millions of people and accounts for a significant portion of the nation’s gross domestic product” (Frumkin, 2009, p. 2).
The quote above demonstrates how one of the largest reasons to get the most broad viewpoint of the philanthropic sector in an area is to use it to understand what the potential policy implications are. Many times, the “dark matter” of philanthropy can truly help elucidate the shortcomings of policy as it pertains to philanthropy in an area. Clearly the Global Philanthropy Indices are meant to be used to analyze a country policy, rather than county level; however, the categories “ease of operating” and “sociocultural environment” may be useful in examining this. Compared to the number of registered organizations, there are much fewer unregistered organizations and associations. This leads to the surface-level conclusion that Floyd County has fostered an environment and has policies in place that are conducive to practicing philanthropy formally. If we were to assign Floyd County an index based on findings, it would likely be unusually high. On a deeper level, the findings show the importance of education in this county. This suggests that the public would likely be supportive of a public policy platform that centers education.
Methodology
Setting out to answer the question, what is the entire scope of voluntary action as it pertains to education in Floyd County, IN?, the decision was made to conduct primary and secondary research to find the answers to better understand the nonprofit sector in the area. Using GuideStar as the main source of secondary data, the website was checked and cross checked using the filter feature on the website. The websites of those nonprofits were then checked to verify their mission statement fit the education definition criteria. Floyd County Community School District’s website was also used to collect secondary data. Primary data was collected in a variety of ways. Facebook posts were made to reach out to locals in the community of study to find any groups or cohorts that may be unregistered. Facebook was also used to find PTO’s and PTA’s official names and addresses. Individual meetings were held with Dr. Timothy Seiler and the Director of Philanthropy at the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana. Emails were also sent to other leaders in the community, but those were left unanswered. By using these resources, we were able to build official and counter maps that depict the educational nonprofit sector in the area. This research led to conclusions about how not including unregistered nonprofits in nonprofit sector maps may skew the data and not accurately show the impact of voluntary organizations on a community.