Steven T. Miller, commissioner of the IRS’s tax-exempt and government-entities division, said the tax agency will be “more aggressive” in monitoring the “efficiency and effectiveness” of charitable organizations, even though such monitoring is not expressly within the agency’s jurisdiction. Mr. Miller added: “The question is no longer whether the IRS has a role to play in this area, but rather what that role will be.”

See: http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/index.php?id=4498 

Wow – those are fighting words. At least they should be to those of us with half a brain in the nonprofit community. Is this really what it’s going to take to get our industry to wake-up and smell the sentiment of society, and within our own government? The last thing we should want is have the government aggressively monitor a nonprofits efficiency and effectiveness!!! Isn’t that an oxymoron?? To have government in the same sentence with efficiency and effectiveness? My gosh – the irony of this is beyond belief.

But such are the times we live in aren’t they? The government is going to step in and save us all. I can only imagine the regulations they will put in place – just like Sarbanes Oxley did for the for-profit sector. Our fundraising ratios are going to get hammered because we will need to allocate more money, hire more people, and spend more time than we ever have before on complex regulatory accounting practices to prove to the government that we are efficient and effective and meet their set of guidelines; which undoubtedly will not be viable for the the vast majority of nonprofits.

Wouldn’t you just love to know the effectiveness and efficiency of the tax-exempt and government-entities division of the IRS that Mr. Miller runs?? One can only imagine. I am sure they are just like the nonprofits he intends to regulate – understaffed, underfunded, overworked, facing incredible competition, fighting for every dollar they make, while at the same time providing a USEFUL AND IN MOST CASES LIFE SAVING and LIFE CHANGING SUPPORT THAT WOULD NOT BE AVAILABLE OTHERWISE!

Pardon the caps and the bold type but I feel like sticking my head out the window and shouting – “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore“…

We have to figure out a way to stop this nonsense before the government figures out a way to get into our pockets. A wise man once told me to “follow the money” – and I think this is one of those times were if you follow the money the whole thing will make sense. Think about that for awhile and see if you come to the same conclusions that I have.

I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist but there are forces at work here that won’t be good for nonprofits out there – especially those that are ethical, moral, accountable, transparent, hardworking, honest, service oriented and passionate about their mission and above all provide a service the government can’t or won’t or is unable to provide.