The Arts as an Engine: Study measures the considerable local economic impact of culture

In his book, “The Performing Arts in a New Era,” former Syracuse University Maxwell School Professor Arthur Brooks, now head of the American Enterprise Institute, writes: “The arts provide a variety of instrumental benefits for society ... at the individual, community and national level.” Don Lovoie and Emily Chamlee-Wright of the Cato Institute go a step further, linking the arts to community prosperity. “Economic development is, at its heart, a cultural process,” they write.

Now a study makes explicit that implied connection between the arts and the economy — in Central New York. “We always intuited we are part of the solution, that we enhance the economy as well as the quality of life,” says Stephen Butler of the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County. “Now there’s important, objective data.”

That data is contained in the survey, “Arts and Economic Prosperity,” (PDF) a yearlong undertaking by Professor Ronald Wright of Le Moyne College. The survey, which cost a mere $37,500, benefited from the efforts of more than 3,500 volunteers. With their help, Wright analyzed 45 of the region’s more than 140 cultural groups, including all the “majors” like Syracuse Stage and the Everson Museum of Art. It’s part of a national effort surveying 182 regions across the country. Among the study’s key findings:

• Art and cultural groups in Central New York generated $133.4 million in economic activity, supported 5,117 full-time equivalent jobs and provided $110.4 million in household income.
• Local and state governments received $20.1 million in revenue generated by the arts.
• Some 3.8 million people participated in arts programs and events.

Central New York was well ahead of the national average in jobs generated and audience spending. It trailed in one area, though: Wright calculated that per capita spending by local arts groups was $74.04, compared with $174.25 for other regions with similar populations and $194.29 for larger cities.

Generating public funds in support of the arts is always a struggle. “In an economic downturn, the first on the block to cut is arts funding,” says Jeffrey Woodward, managing director of Syracuse Stage. “The feeling is it’s a frill, not a building block for the community.” Pointing to the study, Woodward added: “Now we have a report refuting that.”

In past years, cultural organizations depended on yearly handouts from Onondaga County. “Government support is not massive, but it could be a killing piece if it was cut,” says Wright.
Under County Executive Joanie Mahoney, arts groups now have a “dedicated” source of funds: 22 percent of the county’s room occupancy tax. Last year that amounted to $1.2 million, which the CRC distributed. “It brings stability,” says the CRC’s Butler.

The study should help cultural advocates make the case for maintaining or even increasing public support for the arts, since the economic dividend could grow along with it. And just in time.
“There’s more fatigue than I’ve ever seen,” said Woodward of Syracuse Stage, who noted the continuing struggle to keep classical music alive in Central New York after last year’s collapse of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. “It’s increasingly difficult to balance the books at the end of the day. ... When groups are healthy is when they do their best work.”

Study of arts and cultural organizations shows $133 million in activity in Onondaga County

A year-long survey of the economic impact of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in Onondaga County finds they spur more than $130 million economic activity per year and provide the equivalent of more than 5,000 jobs.

The study, “Arts & Economic Prosperity IV: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences in Greater Syracuse Area,” is part of a national arts study that zeroed in on local spending by arts groups, resident and nonresident audiences and the economic ripple effect.

The survey’s findings are intended to arm arts groups with hard data to lobby civic, business and government leaders for money and support and to show arts groups are major contributors to a community’s economy beyond their appeal as a quality of life asset.
The study found:

• $133.4 million in total economic activity.
• $33.9 million spent by nonprofit arts and culture groups.
• $99.5 million in event-related spending by audiences.

The spending supports 5,117 full-time equivalent jobs and $110.4 million in household income. Local and state governments received $20.1 million in revenue from this activity, according to the study’s findings.
The study defines economic impact as full-time equivalent jobs, resident household income and local and state revenue derived from taxes on income, property, sales, lodging, etc.

The arts groups also reported an attendance of 3.8 million in arts programs and events during 2010.
“We now have a report that we have not had before in this region that clearly demonstrates we are an economic catalyst in this community. We do provide jobs. We do provide tax revenue. We do help local businesses,” said Jeffrey Woodward, managing director of Syracuse Stage, during a Post-Standard editorial board meeting Wednesday to provide details of the report.

Woodward was joined by Stephen Butler, executive director of the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County, Carol Sweet, president of the Arts and Cultural Leadership Alliance of Central New York, and Le Moyne College Professor Ronald Wright, who directed the study.
Woodward added, “You may not be interested in the arts personally as a politican or believe in the arts, but there’s an economic reason to support the arts.”

Taxpayer support of the arts in a frequent subject of debate among local elected officials. In the most recent vote on the Onondaga County budget, for example, legislators voted to withhold, at least temporarily, the $404,465 County Executive Joanie Mahoney asked for to support the musical group formed after the collapse of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in 2011.

Several arts groups and Le Moyne College partnered in the organization and collection of the data. The Arts and Cultural Leadership Alliance of Central New York, the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County worked with the Management Division of Le Moyne College on the project.

Ronald Wright, the Michael D. Madden professor of business at education at Le Moyne, lead the study, directing Le Moyne students in collecting financial information from 45 arts groups, ranging from large organizations like Everson Museum of Art to smaller operations such as India Community Religious & Cultural Center.

Students also approached 841 audience members last year to fill out detailed written surveys of their spending associated with attending cultural events.

From those surveys, researchers estimated 73.2 percent of audiences were residents of Onondaga County and 26.8 nonresidents. There is interest in nonresidents who are considered cultural tourists and who spend an average of $37.57 per event, not including admission, on things like meals, lodging and transportation. This is compared with the average of $21.66 per event spent by residents.
All this data was then funneled into an economic research model established by Americans for the Arts, a national arts advocacy group that regularly conducts the Arts & Economic Prosperity survey nationwide. The analysis model is described as tracking “how many times a dollar is ‘re-spent’ within the local economy” and its ripple effect.

Detailed financial information on 40 spending categories for 2010 — labor, payments to local and visiting artists, operations, facilities and capital expenditures — was collected from the 45 nonprofit arts groups. Those organizations also reported receiving in-kind contributions with an aggregate value of $2.7 million during fiscal year 2010. Contributors include corporations, individuals, local and state arts agencies and government.

The cost of the project was $37,500, which included a participation fee to the Americans for Arts, according to Wright.

Syracuse Arts Economic Impact Report 2012

Philanthropists bet big on Auburn theater fest

Jerry Bisgrove could have set up a charitable fund to feed the poor when he decided to share some of his financial fortune in 2007 with his hometown of Auburn.

But he wanted a bigger bang for his buck.

So the Arizona philanthropist’s charitable foundation plowed more than $4 million into the fledgling Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival. Organizers of the multivenue summer festival, which debuts this year, hope to turn Auburn into a musical theater mecca that draws more than 150,000 visitors annually, creates jobs and revives the city’s economy.

Bisgrove said the potential economic payoff to the community from backing the festival is much greater than it would be with a traditional charitable cause, such as feeding the poor.

“This can generate jobs and millions of dollars,” Bisgrove said. “I like my upside better.”

Bisgrove, 66, has helped spark a wave of entrepreneurial philanthropy that’s having a big impact on Auburn. His Stardust Foundation and two other private foundations with Auburn roots — the Fred L. Emerson Foundation and the Schwartz Family Foundation —have put up more than half of the $10 million raised so far in startup funding for the festival.

The philanthropic activity surrounding the festival bears little resemblance to traditional charitable giving.

For one thing the festival is a riskier-than-usual investment for foundations.

Dan Fessenden, executive director of the Emerson Foundation, which has put nearly $1.5 million into the festival, said foundations are taking that risk because of the project’s potential economic impact.

“In a community like Auburn we need some double-digit returns,” he said.

The wave of philanthropy also is different because the foundations are doing much more than writing checks. They are active participants in the project, not passive spectators.

“It’s not just about writing a check and looking across the table at the organization you’re funding,” Fessenden said. “It’s about rolling up your sleeves, sitting on the same side of the table and saying, ‘How do we make this successful?’”

Guy Cosentino, Auburn’s former mayor, serves as Stardust’s executive director. “We connect the dots,” he said. “We’re always looking for strategic partnerships which can develop jobs and deal with pressing issues of the community.”

Private foundations put up the money to bring in experts from the University of North Carolina to evaluate the feasibility of the festival. The study estimated the festival could create more than 400 new jobs and generate an annual economic impact of $30 million.

Stardust snapped up vacant buildings in downtown Auburn along State Street to make way for redevelopment of an area where many of the shows will be staged.

When Auburn razed the vacant city-owned former Kalet’s department store building on State Street in April, Stardust and Emerson paid half the cost.

Construction is expected to begin on that site this spring on a $7.8 million, 384-seat performance center scheduled to open in 2013. The Schwartz Family Foundation of Pittsford, founded by the family of former Auburn Mayor Maurice Schwartz, donated more than $1 million for the center, a key component of the festival.

Stardust and Emerson officials also persuaded the State University of New York to become involved in the downtown performance center project. SUNY has agreed to pick up half of the project’s cost so Cayuga Community College can use the building during the festival’s off-season.

“They are using their boards and their connections to leverage more support for this,” said Meg O'Connell, of the Allyn Foundation in Skaneateles, which chipped in $50,000 toward the cost of the festival feasibility study. “They are very much the leaders and drivers behind this, and they are getting people to collaborate, convening people around the issues and trying to pull partners together.”

The festival also is spurring commercial development. Syracuse-based Pioneer Cos. is building an $11 million Hilton Garden Inn hotel and conference center on the edge of downtown Auburn to help accommodate the anticipated influx of tourists.


Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-Standard The Hilton Garden Inn is being built at the intersection of State Street and Route 5 in Auburn in anticipation of the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival.
The type of philanthropy under way in Auburn is not unprecedented, said Peter Dunn, president and chief executive officer of the Central New York Community Foundation.

Other foundations have served as catalysts for community change. In Syracuse, for example, the Gifford Foundation provided startup funding for the Near West Side Initiative, an effort by Syracuse University and other parties to revitalize the poor neighborhood on the edge of downtown Syracuse.

What makes the Auburn situation different is that several foundations are working together on the same project for maximum impact, he said.

“Auburn is fortunate to have a number of foundations with resources to execute on an opportunity like this,” Dunn said.

Emerson, with assets of $75 million, is one of the largest and oldest private foundations in Central New York. It was founded by Fred Light Emerson, whose family owned the former Dunn & McCarthy shoe factory in Auburn.

Emerson donated the land on the north end of Owasco Lake to Cayuga County in the 1940s to create Emerson Park. The Emerson Foundation is paying $4 million for an expansion and modernization of the park’s historic pavilion.

The Schwartz Family Foundation was created with money the Schwartz family made in the scrap metal business.

Jerry Bisgrove’s Stardust Foundation, the biggest philanthropic force behind the festival, is a relative newcomer to the area.

His late father, John Bisgrove Sr., started the trucking company Red Star Express Lines in Auburn in 1932.

Jerry Bisgrove originally wanted to be a Catholic priest. He enrolled in a seminary, but left after six months.

“One of the reasons I was going to go into the priesthood was to make the world a better place, but there were other plans in store for me,” he said.

He and his older brother, Jack, both ended up working in the family business. Jerry Bisgrove eventually bought out his brother’s share of the Red Star.

The company grew to a fleet of 2,000 trucks before Jerry Bisgrove sold it in the 1980s for more than $100 million to an Australian company. He moved to Arizona in 1991 and started a real estate company, which made money buying up land for housing development on the cheap from failed savings and loan associations. Bisgrove plowed all of the profits from the real estate company into the Stardust Foundation, which has since given away more than $100 million, most of it in Arizona.

“My foundation was founded on the basis that in order to do systemic change, you had to require of the nonprofits and the community you work with accountability to a business plan, measurable results, leverage and sustainability,” Jerry Bisgrove said. “I don’t make grants, I make investments.”

In Arizona, Bisgrove’s foundation has forged a reputation for taking risks and doing things differently.

He was the catalyst behind South Ranch, a 200-home affordable housing community a few miles outside of Phoenix. It is the largest Habitat for Humanity community in the country.

Bisgrove said Habitat officials were initially skeptical about his idea of developing a Habitat project of that size.

“They said, ‘You can’t put all these people in one place,’” he said.

The project turned out to be so successful it has been touted as a national model for affordable housing.

“That sort of changed their mindset,” he said. “If we do something that is crazy and it works, then everybody wants to jump on board.”

In 2007 the Bisgrove brothers started the Stardust Foundation of Central New York, funded with money from Jerry Bisgrove’s Arizona foundation.

Jerry Bisgrove said their motivation in starting the foundation here came from a lesson they learned as children. “To whom much is given, much is expected,” he said.

Stardust has pledged $15 million in the Auburn area. Money has gone to many organizations including Auburn Hospital, Champions for Life sports center and the Central New York Community Foundation.

It also has funded the Stardust Entrepreneurial Institute, a business incubator and training center for entrepreneurs; it’s housed in a remodeled historic building on State Street in downtown Auburn across the street from the proposed 382-performance center. The institute is a partnership between Stardust and Cayuga Community College.

Jack Bisgrove, who lives in Auburn, is president of Stardust Foundation of Central New York. Jerry Bisgrove said he takes a hands-off role. He’s familiar with the foundation’s activities here, but said he only offers his advice when asked.

“I’m 3,000 miles away, so I don’t try to control everything,” he said.

The musical theater festival is the brainchild of Ed Sayles, producing director of Merry-Go-Round Playhouse and the festival’s artistic director.

Merry-Go-Round produces a series of large-scale musical theater shows in its 501-seat playhouse in Emerson Park during the summer and early fall. It also operates a touring youth theater program that performs at schools.


Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardEd Sayles, producing director for Merry-Go-Round Playhouse and producing artistic director for the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival.
Sayles’ idea was to expand by staging a variety of musicals simultaneously in four different theaters. He was inspired by the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. That festival produces plays of George Bernard Shaw and other playwrights of Shaw’s era in four theaters.

The Shaw festival of plays attracts about 200,000 people a year to a community smaller than Auburn.

Sayles said there is no other musical theater festival in the nation, so Auburn’s would be the first.

Sayles pitched his idea in late 2006 during a brainstorming session of community leaders representing nonprofits and businesses. The goal of the meeting, convened by state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, was to identify ways to improve Auburn.

Sayles’ idea was well received, said Fessenden, of the Emerson Foundation, who was at the meeting.

“It was quickly understood that it wasn’t simply about art and culture, but something much bigger and stronger ... that could catalyze a whole new level of prosperity for the community,” Fessenden said.

Sayles’ timing was perfect because Stardust had arrived in town and was looking for philanthropic opportunities.

Stardust and the other foundations quickly jumped on board.

In addition to the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, the festival this year will use two other theaters within walking distance of each other downtown — the 199-seat Auburn Public Theater at 108 Genesee St. and the 125-seat Theater Mack at the Cayuga Museum at 203 Genesee St. The nearby 384-seat performing arts center will give the festival a fourth venue in 2013.

Organizers say between shows theatergoers will visit local restaurants, shops and other attractions.

Initially the festival expects to draw theatergoers from this region. The goal over time is to draw people from a much broader geographic area and get them to stay three or four days.

Without the philanthropic backing, Sayles said the festival may not have ever gotten off the ground.

“What I was going to try to do, we probably could not have afforded to do,” he said. “This is divine intervention.”

Central New York lands $103.7 million in state economic development money

The Post-Standard reported that the region’s economic development officials got more than they hoped for from a trip to Albany Thursday, bringing home $103.7 million in state economic development funds.

Rob Simpson, president of CenterState CEO and co-chair of the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council, said he was “thrilled” with the announcement. Members of the council have been meeting since July hammering out a list of projects that they thought could best improve the region that includes Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, Madison and Cortland counties.

The council’s plan included 30 projects and requests for $40 million in state funding. The state delivered $63.7 million more, including $14 million to renovate apartments in Lysander.

The extra millions came as a surprise. Council members had heard there was more money available from other state sources, but didn’t know the other projects were going to be included Thursday, said Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor, co-chair of the CNYREDC.

The announcement came at an Albany ceremony capping a process Gov. Andrew Cuomo laid out earlier this year.

The state was divided into 10 regions with an economic development council for each. The councils reviewed projects and chose which to include in a plan. The separate regional plans were presented last month to a state committee that chose four as “best plan awardees.”

The North Country, Western New York and Long Island were chosen, along with Central New York, as the best.

Cuomo had said each of the winners would get $40 million while the remaining six regions would split $40 million between them.

Financial news host Maria Bartiromo, emcee for Thursday’s event, introduced videos for each region, then announced that each had been awarded millions in grants, far more than the $200 million Cuomo had talked of. In all, awards of $785 million were announced.

The money came from the $200 million in targeted regional money and from an additional $800 million in money for which companies, housing authorities, non-profits and others had filed state consolidated funding applications.

Good as the news was for Central New York, it appeared that not every project chosen by the local council received state funding. Five projects — including those that would have renovated the Abbott House in Aurora and assisted in expansions at Dupli Envelope and Graphics, Ephesus Technologies, Champlain Valley Specialty Food and Healthway Home Products — did not make the final list.

The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council's largest single money request is for more than $5 million to complete work at the CNY Biotechnology Research Center at the former Kennedy Square apartments.
“If the project is not on there, it means it isn’t funded,” said Austin Shafran, spokesman for Empire State Development. Shafran said regional technical factors could keep a project from getting funding, even it was part of a winning plan.

One factor was how quickly the project would yield new jobs. “We’re ready to create jobs in the short term, for the long term,” he said.

Among the projects that were backed by the regional council and did land funding were:

•3 million for work to the Syracuse’s Inner Harbor.
•$3 million to equip space at the Syracuse Center of Excellence.
•$1.95 million to continue work at the Central New York Biotechnology Research Center and the nearby land.
•$150,000 to build a demonstration greenhouse in Madison County.
•$994,000 to help expand a winery in Cazenovia.
•More than $4 million in support for a dairy cooperative’s plan to build a plant in Cayuga County.
•$349,000 for expansion at the Fulton Companies in Oswego Counties.

Projects that had not been announced before included $14 million — the largest single award in Central New York — to renovate 208 apartments at Greenway in Radisson.

Greenway Apartments rents to people who make less than 80 percent of the area’s median income. Many tenants make less than 60 percent, said Arthur Loomis, a consultant for Liberty Affordable Housing, a Rome-based non-profit taking control of the facility.

“It’s shovel ready,” Loomis said. “The complex, while in good shape, is tired and needs updating. It’s going to be like a brand-new project.” Improvements include new siding, windows and sidewalks, as well as renovated kitchens and bathrooms, Loomis said. Much of the infrastructure hasn’t been updated since the complex was built in the mid-1970s, he said. The residents’ income doesn’t make it possible to renovate extensively without public help, he said.

Renovations to Centerville Court Apartments in North Syracuse won $3,349,255 in state support while efforts to buy and renovate James Street Apartments in Syracuse got $9 million.

In Cayuga County, some $400,000 was announced for the Howland Stone Store Museum in the hamlet of Sherwood. That money is to restore “Opendore,” once home to the Howland family.

In Madison County, the state added $75,000 to provide emergency repairs to the homes of low-income, elderly residents.

In Oswego County, Grassman Energy was awarded $716,500 toward its efforts to begin design and manufacturing of wind turbines of the sort that can be seen at Carousel Center and atop the State University College at Oswego.

Before the winners were announced, Cuomo explained that the regional approach was part of a two-part effort to create jobs in New York.

The first part, he said, was improving the state’s image by improving the reality for business. That meant removing obstacles to job creation.

The second was giving the state’s region more say over what sort of development should be encouraged. “There is no single New York economy,” he said. “You know your strengths; you know your niche.”

Cuomo was joined at the ceremony by Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. The three said separately that they were so pleased with how the process worked that they had already agreed to fund a similar effort next year.

“Three minutes — I’ve never had as short a conversation to get anything done,” Cuomo said of the backstage discussion with Skelos and Silver.

GuideStar Offers Report on Economic Impact on Nonprofits

More than 7,000 people responded to our June 2010 economic survey, which measured the impact of these difficult economic times on the nonprofit sector. Among respondents, nearly half were CEOs, executive directors, or presidents—our leaders in the nonprofit industry. The results are compelling:

Some 40 percent of participants reported that contributions to their organizations dropped between January 1 and May 31, 2010, compared to the same period a year earlier.
Eight percent indicated that their organizations were in imminent danger of closing.
Sixty-three percent reported a total increase in demand for their organization's services between January 1, 2010 and May 31, 2010, compared to the same period a year prior.

Read all of the survey's findings here, for free:"The Effect of the Economy on the Nonprofit Sector."

HSLC offers insight on economic impact study

A joint meeting was held by the Oneida and Herkimer Nonprofit Executive Directors Group Steering Committee and the South Central NY Nonprofit Executive Directors Special Projects Committee to discuss the SCNY Group’s recent efforts around an economic impact study. The meeting, hosted by the Central New York Community Foundation, was attended by representatives from the SCNY ED Group, Oneida and Herkimer ED Group, and the Human Services Leadership Council in Syracuse. The main presenter and chair of the SCNY Special Projects committee was Joe Sellepack, Broome County Council of Churches Executive Director. Also, presenting was Katie McDonald, a Binghamton University master’s student working to help implement the study.

The discussion began with an understanding of why nonprofits were focusing on economic impact. In recent years, taxing nonprofits (whether by PILOT, a snow assessment fee, etc) has become an issue. With the downturn, nonprofits will be facing in more scrutiny and possible tax proposals. In response, the SCNY ED Group saw a need to communicate the economic impact of nonprofits on the local community and region. As Joe related, they also saw a need to make it more than about the numbers, and make a comparison to what the real costs would be if their services weren’t provided. The Special Projects Committee was formed, and is examining how the nonprofit sector in the Broome region shapes the community and environment through social and human services, arts and culture, and environmental services.

The Committee has been spending a great deal of time and effort looking at past studies, not only locally but nationally. Hospitals have been a good source, and two state studies, in Michigan and New Hampshire, have been good models.

The idea for the study will incorporate two streams. The first is the financial information taken from nonprofits’ 990s, while the second will be the “social capital” they contribute. The study will show how nonprofits shape and contribute to the community narrative. The study will incorporate personal interviews to help demonstrate this piece. The study will hopefully subvert the forces that want to tax nonprofits, and show their clout, but also the rest of the story. The message will be much clearer and powerful as a group.

Joe Sellepack related that the Committee under the guidance of Binghamton University and two interns has spent much time developing their study protocol. They have decided to focus on range of nonprofits, which would include only organizations that file 990s and exclude very large nonprofits (hospitals, universities, etc) that would skew the study (and already do their own studies). In a sense, the study will give a voice to the small to medium-sized organizations.

The study is slated to take about 2 years. Much of the work is being driven by Binghamton University’s interns in the Public Administration Master’s Program.

A question was asked by Darlene Ford, ED for the Mid-York Library System, concerning the target audience and overall purpose for this effort. A number of reasons were offered by Joe and other participants: showing return on investment, advocacy, use for collaboration, joint funding projects, etc. The qualitative analysis will help show gaps and overlaps in funding and can figure in ways to help address and form partnerships.

In looking at why the Oneida and Herkimer ED Group should undertake such an effort, the Steering Committee members related a number of reasons. One was the conflicting messages in the Oneida and Herkimer communities coming from nonprofits. There needs to be a clear message and story around how nonprofits help and impact the community. Also, a study would show what would happen if nonprofits disappeared.

A part of the discussion was spent on recent efforts of the Human Services Leadership Council (HSLC) on an economic impact study. Susan Horn, the ED from Hiscock Legal Aid Society, offered some of the lessons they learned in a group study. A discussion continued about the different data involved with nonprofits, including how things are reported (outcome vs outputs). Joe offered that using personal stories will help illuminate some of the challenges of data that won’t mesh. Katie McDonald added that being clear about the data collection and analysis is key. She has been developing the study’s introduction and methodology. She also is gathering social and cultural impact pieces (social network and social capital). She related that the study will include the history of nonprofits in the Broome County region (for example, what happened when IBM left), and how they’ve developed.

Overall, there was agreement that the study could be a template for other nonprofits, and the Oneida and Herkimer ED Group plans to follow up with Joe in the fall about the protocol and info they develop.

Non-profits left waiting for state contracts

Syracuse's WSYR-TV reported that state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is issuing new regulations to ensure not-for-profits are paid interest owed to them. He found that 63 percent of the time, state contracts with the organizations were approved late.

In central New York, 254 agencies were affected, amounting to $62 million in Onondaga County alone.

We're talking about almost every local not-for-profit you can think of -- the Food Bank, Arise, Home Health Aides of central New York, the National Kidney Foundation.

They may help different people, but they have a common link: They all have promised contracts with the state, but almost always have to wait for the money.

The Alzheimer's Association, for instance, had to wait to receive about $80,000, which is used for programs and services like its adult day program. They're approaching a one-year wait for some of the contracts.

According to the paperwork sent out by DiNapoli, some of the agencies who had to wait the longest include:

• The Syracuse Children's Theater, which waited 671 days to get $60,000;
• The CNY Jazz Arts Foundation waited 697 days for $75,000;
• Family Ties Network waited 432 days for $344,080 for its pregnancy prevention network;
• Liberty Resources had to wait 389 days to receive $21,847. It puts them in a pinch, and they have to find the money somewhere else.

“For us, it means having to tap into reserves,” says Catherine James of the Alzheimer’s Association of CNY.

Under the new regulations, state agencies must prioritize contracts and ensure enough resources to get them approved in time. They will also change the April 1 start date for grants, so the timeliness of the state budget doesn't affect them.

There is a 45-day comment period before the regulations may be finalized. The state was late paying out a total of $2.7 billion. See the video and read more here.

Human Services Leadership Council Meeting Set for May 8th

Human Services Leadership Council meets this Friday, May 8 at 8 – 9:30 in the usual meeting place (United Way building; 518 James Street; Rosamond Gifford basement conference room).

Agenda: Presentation of “Impact of 23 Onondaga County Not For Profits: 2007-2008”. This is the study commissioned by HSLC, with major support by Food Bank of Central New York. Jeff Grimshaw of SUNY Oswego will share the first draft of the report.