This is a talk I gave to the ‘Back to the Future? What Next for Voluntary Action and the Welfare State’ Conference in July 2019. Thanks very much to the Discourses of Voluntary Action team – Georgina Brewis, Angela Ellis-Paine, Rose Lindsay, Irene Hardill and Rob Macmillan – for inviting me. My work is trying … Continue reading Narratives of independence: the national and the local
I wanted to pull together some thoughts about my first Social History Society conference here. Obviously this only reflects my experience – there were lots of fantastic sessions I sadly didn’t get a chance to attend. I’m also, naturally, going to focus on the stuff that’s of interest to me; there was lots of other … Continue reading Social History Society 2019 – reflections
Over the course of two months in America I was privileged enough to visit and chat with about 27 nonprofits across three states, all doing great work in the human services field, all with strengths and challenges, and all with a view on what it means to be a nonprofit in America today. I want … Continue reading American Fields: reflections on Nonprofit America (part 2)
Over the course of two months in America I was privileged enough to visit and chat with about 27 nonprofits across three states, all doing great work in the human services field, all with strengths and challenges, and all with a view on what it means to be a nonprofit in America today. I want … Continue reading American Fields: reflections on Nonprofit America (part 1)
As regular readers will know, I’m a trustee of the Family Planning Association (FPA), a key advocate in the fight to decriminalize abortion in the UK, including in Northern Ireland. The fight for reproductive rights is a global one, so I had a particular interest in meeting with groups campaigning for the same thing in … Continue reading American Fields: Fighting for reproductive rights – “there’s camaraderie in the hell.”
Neighborhood House Seattle was founded as a Settlement House in 1906 by the National Council of Jewish Women, following in the tradition of the Settlement movement, pioneered by Canon Samuel Barnett’s Toynbee Hall in London and Jane Addams’ Hall House in Chicago (among many others – Settlement bingo is a fun [caveat] game to play). … Continue reading American Fields: the neighborhood approach
This is the second in my U.S. nonprofit infrastructure tour – you can find my interview with Jim White from the Nonprofit Association of Oregon a few posts back. I met with David Streeter, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for Washington Nonprofits back in October, who gave me a great introduction to the work … Continue reading Structuring, supporting and shaping the field: nonprofit infrastructure (part 2)
Ok, I promised you a blog on American tax law and nonprofit registration types, so here goes. (It’s really a blog on charity campaigning though, don’t worry.) To start with, here’s a table with the 29 different ways to be a nonprofit – or more explicitly to have tax-exempt status: (From Charity Navigator – thanks!) … Continue reading American Fields: how a tax code can silence a sector
The Nonprofit Association of Oregon is a membership body like a council for voluntary service back home. The kind of services it delivers will be familiar to anyone who knows their local CVS; support to build and run your organisation, space to connect with a network of other organisations, some practical back-office support (insurance, conference … Continue reading Structuring, supporting and shaping the field: nonprofit infrastructure (part 1)
Portland Tenants United (PTU) describes itself as a ‘democratic self-organized tenants’ union’, working to ‘establish tenants’ rights, including ending no-cause evictions and establishing rent control’. It is at the grassroots end of the organisations I’ve met so far; it is entirely volunteer-run, it engages in direct action, is explicitly anti-capitalist and is dogmatically committed to … Continue reading American Fields: Housing Radicals
Voluntary Action and Other Animals 