pic by scatters

Each professional group has its own level of respect and trust.  Within the financial profession the expected cultural acceptance is the balancing of a the need to protect assets, grow assets and educate about risks/expectations.

The SEC and other government agencies were created to ensure a level of standards towards the cultural acceptance.

The private debt watch dogs Fitch Rating and Moody Standard and Poors grade the quality of the debt securities of corporations and government.

All three levels of accountability failed.

Regulations and oversight is only as good as the worthiness of the facts.  To have investments securities that can not be valued today means that they never should have been valued in the past. The financial institutions and oversight agencies have been stating that they should not be blamed for negative returns because no one could have foreseen the problem. The fact of the matter is that the standards were not followed, the nature of the risk was not stated, and you are charged fees even when you lose money.  When fees are generated for all parties by generating transactions, there is major incentive to support the creation of assets to sell.

When selecting an entity to manage financial investments one important measure is whether the entity controls or manages the investments directly.  Most financial institutions choose to invest funds in other funds, so in reality they are not managing the risk.  They have delegated your funds to another entity for the risk.

The financial industry in 2008 provided a clear message to everyone, the only entity that you should Trust is your own.  Seek advice and make sure the level of risk is clear in the decisions you make.

 pic by jovike

The Federal government is embarking on the largest infrastructure change in its history, exceeding even the Great Depression.  This endeavor is a rare opportunity for nonprofits to show how efficient, effective and competitive the industry can be in accomplishing infrastructure changes.  Another added value is the ability of nonprofits to leverage volunteers, in-kind goods and cash  to the negotiating table.

The ability to lower utility and transportation costs 10-40%  is a major savings.

My priority list to gain the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time is:

1. Any public education facility & vehicles
2. Government office buildings & vehicles
3. Housing authority properties & vehicles
4. Nonprofit own housing properties & vehicles

Get the lead out and create your plan.  Know what you want to accomplish and its costs.  Be prepared to participate.

pic by economic data chart

Treasuries pay zero to 3 percent interest for the Federal government to borrow money.  The government financial bailout of the 700 billion sells its use at 8-10 percent.   What an interesting way to reduce the deficit!

However, the high demand for the federal debt is creating a difficult environment for any business including nonprofits to obtain corporate debt.    The lack of Trust in any other financial instruments or institution has caused corporate debt to be priced at historic highs.

Nonprofits should look to Credit Unions and Cooperative banks for better rates on their corporate debt.  Nonprofits should join the credit unions and cooperative banks serving the community they serve.

 pic by woodleywonderworks

Nonprofits worth billions making a major financial impact in communities across the country and growing each day.

Credit unions differ from other banks in several ways:

Credit Unions                                                    

• Not-for-profit cooperatives
• Owned by members
• Operated by mostly volunteer boards

Other Financial Institutions

• Owned by outside stockholders
• Owned by outside stockholders
• Controlled by paid boards

These factors allow credit unions to offer its members lower loan rates, higher savings rates and fewer service fees.

(pics by papaw67 and cayusa)

Great reach, look to a few examples.

United Cerebral Palsy, Easter Seals, Volunteers of America are great examples of organizations that provide a structure to promote both national and local agendas.  The structure provides for an organization to be associated with a national organization but able to be run independently.  There is strength in being able to tap a network of experience, have partnerships across state lines and a structure for quick replication of successful programs.

 pic by capitan giona

Greenpeace is headquarters in Amsterdam and has 40 offices around the world.  It is one of the few environmental groups that truly works globally on environmental problems.

Their work focuses on six major efforts:

1. saving ancient forests
2. stopping global warming
3. exposing toxic pollutants
4. protecting the oceans
5. eliminating the threat of genetic engineering
6. ending the nuclear age.

Greenpeace, Inc. does not solicit contributions from government or corporations, nor does it endorse political candidates. It has 250,000 members in the United States and 2.5 million members worldwide provide.  Funding is basically through individual contributions.

Greenpeace, Inc. promotes the protection and preservation of the environment though lobbying, education, advocacy, and peaceful direct action. This balancing act is a great example of being visible and promoting ones vision and mission.  The effect is a 15 million dollar organization making a difference through individual fund raising.

 pic by clappster

Best Value:  St Jude makes reaching for the future a reality for thousands of children.

Only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.

St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world.

St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance.

No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay.

pic by andyinnyc

When AARP solicitations come in the mail maybe its time to thinking of it as junk mail.  AARP has been collecting royalties and fees from insurers for endorsing their policies.  This fact has caused the policies they endorse to not be the best buy for members.  In 2007 this amounted to almost 500 million dollars, 43% of their budget.  AARP has become an organization promoting an old message, dependent on past brand loyalty and focused on monetary returns.

Conflict and misleading Ads by AARP.  When AARP says it will review its marketing and suspend sales of such policies it is important to weigh what actions AARP in reality takes.  I do not see AARP taking action to give up 500 million dollars from insurers.

The  only promise that AARP makes is that they will provide you access to Health related Benefits.  It says that they share your information with companies they have selected.

Therefore, every member should depend on checking the Medicare web page to ensure that AARP is not pocketing money that should stay in their pocket.

Their promise of demanding from our leaders lasting solutions in  health care and financial security is empty when it means they makes so many millions on their endorsements of the products sold to you and said pricing includes paying off AARP for the endorsement.

If you want to make the biggest impact:

• Save by not buying their products and getting the same coverage at a lesser price.
• If you give the money you save to the elected officials in your district.
• You will have the attention of elected officials even more.
• Now thats a promise you can expect since you did it your self.

pic by vision63

 Should health care costs be a balancing act for individuals?

The health care industry has been building a large problem for itself.  The practice of billing people even when they are insured.  The two most likely areas where the practice will occur are emergencies and getting services from out of network providers.  However, no one gets informed when there is a change to those participating in the network.  The insurer says they have the right to limit payments to out of network providers and the health care professionals do not inform patients that their co-pay will be more than the typical co-pay.  There is no incentive by the health care provider because upon signing to obtain services, patient has accepted to pay.  Without legislative intervention the practice will grow and become another means of bankrupting people regardless of whether there is mandated insurance.

While states are beginning to crack down on the practice, the problem really needs federal intervention to protect a mobile society.   A person’s health insurance protection should not be at risk or their health because of differences between insurers and health care providers.

Federal Regulations need to be passed to mandate that insurers and health care providers resolve their differences via government regulators.  It should not be the responsibility of individuals to negotiate a compromise between these parties one bill at a time.

Organizations should weigh their carriers for how they treat policy holders when balance billing issues occur.

Raw Data does not have to be viewed as just lots of unnecessary noise.  It needs loving care to stroke out and nurture meaningful messages.  Regardless of how complex the information being conveyed, the convergence to a language understandable to users is the best way to bring benefits to all involved. 

I have been asked monthly about why government entities request information and never seem to use it. 

There are those that collect data and use it.  There are those that collect data but do not use it.  There are those that collect data and share it.  There are those who collect data and will not share it. With all these entities collecting data you would think that government would be much more knowledgeable in many areas to make policy decisions.

It must be expected that government entities will collect data is a given but is it useful?  The simple weights to whether data should be collected is that it must be used to measure whether the current distribution of resources is generating the desired results, where to prioritize the redistribute of resources,  and identifying trends. 

Law Enforcement is the one area where the sharing of information and geo coding of data has shown to be very successful at being a useful tool to solving and proactively reducing crimes. 

Some Police Departments are using data tracking software to track crime and the results have been the ability to pinpoint trends and target resources.  The outcome has been a decrease in crimes when resources are targeted in these identified geographic areas of crime . 

Data collection and sharing of data among law enforcement goes further towards identifying those individuals whom are more prone to violent crimes.  This area has been especially helpful in dealing with Street Gangs by describing their associations, criminal history, and tattoos signs. Studies have consistently shown that most individuals are law abiding and just a few among a population commit the majority of the crimes.  Therefore, profiling is the best way to target resources towards those individuals. 

The one area where data collection is high but the sharing of information is low is in any Health and Human Service system.  Eligibility for government benefits is mostly driven by income and a majority of these individuals get services from more than one agency.  However, each agency spends money separately determining the income eligibility and doing intake.   The nature of a case can create numerous layers of duplication of efforts. 

For example,  a family whom has an open case with a care and protection agency, an open case for early intervention service, an open case for welfare benefits and an open case receiving health benefits.   None of these agencies are working together as team working with the family or having one case record.  This is where I would advocate one case record and one case manager whom has access to the whole record and manages the case.  

Yes, I would agree it is not easy to create one data base when you look at all of the components that families and individuals need. 

However, failure has occurred only when it is all or nothing.  Therefore, start merger the systems step by step.  The Internet has created the ability to link different legacy systems together.  The web base systems are the entry points but not the data crunching systems.  The web system draws from the systems it is directed to.  The systematic convergence of two systems is the best way to make changes and ensure usability to all parties.  Upon a level of satisfaction being achieve the work-group for convergence can then move onto merging another group into the system.  Each convergence will have its own issues but it allows functionality of the system on a workable level and narrows the focus of the problems that may arise.   

Let’s start somewhere and do better service management.

 (pics by makelessnoise and P373)