After weathering several cycles of softer-than-usual fundraising and increased demand for their services thanks to the Great Recession, nonprofits in 2011 made news by standing up for themselves at the Statehouse and in city halls when they felt they were under threat.
That’s what Providence’s major colleges and universities did when Mayor Angel Taveras asked them to pay an extra $7 million to the city in lieu of taxes to help close a $110 budget deficit this year.
The city’s private institutions of higher learning, including Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, Johnson and Wales University and Providence College, made $19 million in PILOT payments in 2010 and rebuffed the mayor’s request to up that total.
The issue likely will return in some form when discussions over the development of the former Interstate 195 land heats up in 2012, with several universities already having expressed interest in property there.
Another group of nonprofits that used some political capital in 2011 were the social service charities that joined with businesses over the summer and fall to support the drive for an overhaul of Rhode Island’s struggling pension system.
Not typically inclined to court political controversy or fight with organized labor, the human services groups decided that the severity of the pension crisis threatened anyone who relies on funding from public sources.
Among the nonprofits that joined Engage Rhode Island, the leading lobbying group in favor of pension reform, were Crossroads Rhode Island, Family Resources Community Action, Family Service of Rhode Island and International Institute Rhode Island.
While many in the state were cutting back or waiting for the economy to turn around, The Rhode Island Foundation did more of what it usually does: make donations and investments in the community.
The largest such organization in the state set a record in 2011 by donating $30 million to various causes.
The group made headlines when it launched the Rhode Island Innovation Fellowship program, which plans to give $300,000 over the next three years to two different Rhode Islanders whose ideas show the most potential to do major good in the state. Paid for by donations from Letitia and John Carter, the fellowships will be open to ideas of just about every stripe and shape.
The contributions of many nonprofits can often go unseen, but the contribution of Independence Trail founder Robert Burke is difficult to avoid. It stands out as it winds through the streets in forest-green paint.
The Independence Trail, which opened in August, combines the old idea of the historic walking tour, like the Freedom Trail in Boston, with modern digital mapping and communications technology.
The 2.5-mile, self-guided walking tour traces the sites of key Colonial and Revolutionary War events that took place in Providence and allows visitors to receive information about them through their mobile phones, which track them as they move along the green line.
The trail serves the dual purposes of promoting Providence’s often less-heralded role in the birth of the United States while familiarizing visitors with the city and drawing them downtown.
Burke, a veteran restaurateur who owns Pot au Feu on Custom House Street, not only developed the trail but serves as the narrator. •
