Dear Vermont Nonprofits,
It is time to tell congress to include urgent nonprofit policy priorities in COVID-19 legislation.
Congress is expected to pass its last piece of COVID-19 legislation this month. It is urgent that nonprofits tell the House and Senate to include nonprofit policy solutions in the final package.
Now, Common Good Vermont and a broad coalition of the nonprofit community are asking all charitable nonprofit organizations to sign onto a letter that has been updated to reflect recent legislative and administrative actions.
Help ensure that federal lawmakers insert these bipartisan solutions in the legislation by signing your organization’s name onto the new Nonprofit Community Letter to congressional leaders.
(Deadline for signing is Friday, July 10, 2020)
The CARES Act enacted by Congress in March extended economic relief programs to some nonprofits, but the law fell short in many areas. In early April, the broad nonprofit community sent to every House and Senate office a letter highlighting needed policy reforms. That version of the letter, sometimes called the “Logo Letter,” was signed by more than 450 national nonprofit organizations.
A new version of that letter is now open for all charitable nonprofit organizations throughout the country to sign, not just national groups. It has been revised to reflect legislative and administrative actions that have occurred since early April when the Logo Letter was delivered to Congress.
This new, updated letter identifies remaining problems and fresh, bipartisan solutions in four distinct areas:
- Continue Emergency Funding Programs, including improvements to the Paycheck Protection Program, creation of a nonprofit jobs-expansion program, and funding for community support grants programs that enable nonprofits to serve vulnerable populations.
- Provide Low-Cost Loans to Mid-Size and Larger Nonprofits that have been left out of and not able to access government funding.
- Strengthen Charitable Giving Incentives by expanding the incentives to all taxpayers, not just itemizers, via an above-the-line or universal charitable deduction of one-third of the standard deduction.
- Provide Full Unemployment Benefit Reimbursement benefits paid to laid off or furloughed employees of self-insured or reimbursing nonprofit employers.
Please join charitable nonprofits of all missions, sizes, and states across the country by signing onto this urgent letter urging Congress to include these policy priorities in the COVID-19 economic stimulus bill that lawmakers are negotiating now to pass by the end of July. The deadline for signing the letter is close of business, Friday, July 10, 2020.
SIGN ONTO THE LETTER
Sincerely,
Common Good Vermont
P.S. The 2020 Nonprofit Wages and Benefits Survey: Vermont Edition is open! The deadline to complete the survey is 5:00 PM on August 21.