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Whether one thinks of their work as volunteering a little planning in picking the right nonprofit or school or government entity just might increase ones discretionary spending.

If you are going to work for a local nonprofit, state agency or public school that meets the cancellation criteria for student loans make sure you get a deferment so that you do not payout for a loan that is going to be cancelled.

Federal Perkins, Defense and National Direct Student Loan (NDSL) Deferment and Cancellation Option.

Have noted below just one part about the cancellation.  Check out the web link for more specific information. 

What is cancellation?

Cancellation rewards individuals who perform certain types of public service or are employed in certain occupations. For each complete year of service, a percentage of the loan may be canceled. The total percentage of the loan that can be canceled depends on the type of service performed—in some cases 100% of a loan may be canceled. You cannot receive a refund of money you paid toward a loan even if you were eligible, or eventually become eligible, to cancel that portion of the loan.

Do I qualify for cancellation?

Depending on the type of loan you have, and when that loan was borrowed, you may be eligible to cancel part or all of your loan if you have served as a:

1. Volunteer in the Peace Corps or an ACTION program (including VISTA) Teacher
2. Member of the U.S. Armed Forces (serving in an area of hostilities)
3. Nurse or medical technician
4. Law enforcement or corrections officer
5. Head Start worker
6. Child or family services worker
7. Professional provider of early intervention services

If a loan defaults and has been accelerated, an individual loses his or her eligibility for cancellation for services performed on or after the date of acceleration.

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In January the savings rate rose to 5%.  The highest rate in about 14 years.  To the degree possible each of us should have three months worth of expenses saved for emergencies.  The same is true of any business.

The recent credit freeze on businesses only underscored this truth.  Credit lines are available at the discretion of the financial institution.  The use of savings and credit lines together are the best tools for businesses to have.

Nonprofits seem to be doing a better job  in cutting costs and adjusting to the market place than than government.  The government should learn to work more like nonprofits before they owe too much.

pic by PBS Hawaii

When the money comes easy an organization assumes that everything being done is within reason and acceptable to the donor.  When money becomes hard to come by the organizations practices and actions are reviewed.  The reality of which almost always results in finding gaps in communication and flaws in an organization.

An annual review of practices, processes, programs and the strategic plan is a must to keep strong and improve.

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Read the Wall Street Journals article called “Moment Is Ripe for President to Fix Health Care”   Link to Wall Street Journal

With over 17.6% of the GDP being spent on health care and each percent of GDP equaling about $140 billion, the economic health of the US is at risk.   It is time to support Obama’s efforts to make change and decrease the effect that health care has on the economic health of individuals, businesses and government.

Obama is the new Sheriff in town and he is not taking it slow.  He has chained together health care reform and the reduction of the deficit as one task.  He has formed his work gang to resolve said task in a timely manner.  The details of the work to be forthwith in the current congressional session.

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Debit Cards have been one of the single most useful tools to come out of this century.

It has allowed for efficient use of ones time, access to funds and no debt to be incurred.

The merchant has little delay in getting their money and the buyer has the ability to buy where ever and when ever the need arrives.

It is also the most sanitary means to pass money.  Cash is one of the single most germ prone items that is unavoidable unless you use your debit card.

The credit card made it too easy to incur more than what one could afford but that is what the financial institutions wanted in order to create profits.  The highest debt now is held by Generation Y and Generation X.

The young generation of consumers has been using the Debit cards and making choices that stop debt from increasing.  This choice means not attending college on loans unless there is a clear way to assure there is a job to cover the expenses.

Since debit cards are less profitable to financial institutions Congress needs to assure that the consumers will not be charged for the ability to use the cards as such and that businesses will not be charged fees that are far exceed the cost to transfer the money to their accounts.

The cost of a college education, the need to lower health care costs and a budget deficit need to be resolved together.  The nonprofit community can help with the three components.

1. First is the linking of jobs that are eligible for loan cancellation to those attending college.
2. The second is working with government to create a national health insurance system since many nonprofits depend on federal and state funds for portions of their programming or donations.
3. The third component as it relates to budget deficits needs to be dealt with by those organizations whom own large amounts of property exempt from taxation.  Local services are very dependent upon property taxes and certain organizations such as universities, churches and medical facilities are some of the largest landlords. Congress should pass a bill that allows for a user fee to be set per thousand for any community where any net holdings worth above $10,000,000 are controlled by any one organization regardless of federal ID number.

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It takes hard labor for most nonprofits to not be associated with the the pension enhancements which seems to be the norm for some.  Several areas where compensation and retirement enhancements seems to be a concern are:

• Serving as an elected official
• Serving as a CEO of a health care provider
• Serving as a CEO of a donor advisor fund
• Serving as a CEO of a foundation
• Serving as a President of a College/University
• Serving as a CEO of a large nonprofit

The actions exhibited by legislation for elected officials has created voter angry and a lack of support for tax increases.  The actions by nonprofit community boards of allowing lucrative compensation and retirement bonuses hurts the nonprofit industry.

It is a shame that the high profile action of a small number of nonprofits creates a perception that nonprofits do not need the funds for servicing their mission.  These actions have provided to the elected officials the support from the voters to make changes to the nonprofit community.

Transparency, clarity and the norm are what 80% of the donors want to see.  The statement; “Our organization needs to pay the compensation to recruit the best candidate” is often used to justify compensation and retirement packages; however, this is an empty statement since 90% of the workforce works for less.

It is time to stop letting a few nonprofits dig a ditch sidelining the rest of the nonprofit community message.   Here is a simple formula: tie compensation and retirement packages received as the norm by 90% of the work force in accordance to the Department of Labor findings.

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Accountability is what donors, foundations, state and federal governments are looking for when deciding to fund programs.  An organization needs to justify what outcomes their services plan to achieve.  An organization needs to be able to provide clear means for how their outcomes will be measured.  Organizations that have shown to be leaders in obtaining results are increasing their access to funds while others are experiencing a decrease of funds. 

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I would call it shocking that public schools are allowed to continue to fail to educate their students.  There is no excuse for letting such action to occur when other public schools are able to excel in educating their students. 

Failure to educate must result in new management accountable to create results with an autonomy to make decisions.  If autonomy does not exist for a specific school then the school district must be placed in receivership for the failure to meet requirements. 

It is not about money because in the same town or city there are schools meeting the requirements.  The educational success of a student should not be base on the student being lucky to attend a performing school. 

It is horrific to watch the billions being spent and the resulting outcome for our students.

pic by PBS hawaii.org

No reason to be worried about drowning in debt.  Take every advantage to throw a life line to those with college debt and matching them to the nonprofit staffing needs.  Some rules just might make the benefit worth a substantial amount of money at no cost to the organization.

An interesting trend is happening in the field of law.  Law firms are recruiting, hiring and then asking the postgraduate student to defer their start date with the firm.  However, they will pay their candidate a stipend and health insurance to work for a nonprofit or government for the year.

For those candidates who plan will try to make sure the nonprofit or government agency is eligible for a loan cancellation option and the gain for everyone will be even better.  Education and Child Welfare are two areas where such partnerships will be successful for everyone.