State seeks plan to revitalize nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations have made up one of the faster-growing portions of Long Island's economy, according to Long Island Association economist Pearl Kamer, as well as account for about 18 percent of the workforce in New York State, which may be why state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman last week announced members of a committee aimed at "revitalizing" such groups.

Two news stories last week touched on nonprofits.

One dealt with the St. James-based Coalition Against Breast Cancer. Schneiderman alleged in a complaint the charity collected $9.1 million in the last five years and used it as "a personal cash machine." Coalition officials did not return calls seeking comment.

The other reported that roughly 2,400 nonprofits on Long Island lost their tax-exempt status last month for not having filed returns at least once in three consecutive years. Schneiderman spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua said neither was related to the AG's new Leadership Committee for Nonprofit Revitalization.

But as the nonprofit category grows -- it employed 132,640 people on Long Island last year, a 32.4 percent gain from 2000 -- it requires what Schneiderman calls a need "to reduce the regulatory burdens and costs . . . while strengthening . . . accountability."

The AG named 29 people across the state, including two from Long Island -- Gwen O'Shea, chief executive of the Hempstead-based Health & Welfare Council of Long Island, and Ann Marie Thigpen, director of the Long Island Center for Nonprofit Leadership at Adelphi University -- to the committee on revitalization.

Passalacqua said Schneiderman expects a report by the end of this year. Schneiderman wants the committee to recommend ways to reduce regulatory burdens; develop legislative proposals to modernize nonprofit laws, and propose measures to enhance board governance.

O'Shea said she welcomes changes. "We have a [nonprofit] structure that was put in place decades ago," she said. "The [Long Island] communities have become extremely diversified. We need a system to respond to the changes."

Thigpen said the nonprofits have become indispensable to the Island. "Where would you go for mental health care? For health care? For environmental protection?" she said.