Legislation, Resources

The Nonprofit Stakeholders Engaging and Advancing Together (NEAT) Act of 2023 (H. R. 3245)

George Weiner, Founder Whole Whale.comGeorge Weiner, Founder Whole Whale.com8912 Mins Read

The Nonprofit Stakeholders Engaging and Advancing Together (NEAT) Act of 2023 (H. R. 3245), introduced by Representatives Nancy Mace and Betty McCollum, aims to strengthen the partnership between nonprofit organizations and the Federal Government. This bill recognizes the significant contributions of the nonprofit sector to the United States economy and society, and seeks to enhance the sector’s ability to address public challenges and improve the quality of life in communities across the country.

Key provisions of the NEAT Act include:

  1. Establishing a White House Office on Nonprofit Sector Partnership, led by a Nonprofit Advisor, to develop policies that support the nonprofit sector and increase charitable giving, volunteerism, and national service.
  2. Creating an Interagency Council on Nonprofit Sector Partnership to provide recommendations on how the nonprofit sector can leverage and accelerate Federal investments to rebuild American communities.
  3. Forming an Advisory Board on the Nonprofit Sector to advise the President and the Interagency Council on matters affecting the nonprofit sector, volunteerism, service, and related topics.
  4. Analyzing the impact of relevant statutes, regulations, and actions on charitable giving and the nonprofit sector by the Department of the Treasury.
  5. Issuing reports on trends in the non-stipended volunteer force by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and assessing how the Corporation for National and Community Service can support the needs of the volunteer force and national service community.
  6. Improving data collection and reporting on the nonprofit sector by various Federal agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Bureau of Economic Analysis.
  7. Authorizing $50 million annually from fiscal years 2024 through 2028 to carry out the provisions of the Act.

Why it matters to the average nonprofit:

The NEAT Act is significant for nonprofits because it aims to create a more supportive and collaborative environment between the Federal Government and the nonprofit sector. By establishing dedicated offices, councils, and advisory boards focused on the needs and challenges of nonprofits, the bill seeks to ensure that the sector’s voice is heard and considered in policy decisions.

The Act’s emphasis on increasing charitable giving, volunteerism, and national service could lead to more resources and support for nonprofits, enabling them to better serve their communities. Improved data collection and reporting on the nonprofit sector will provide valuable insights and inform decision-making, benefiting both nonprofits and policymakers.

Additionally, the bill’s provisions to clarify the difference between nonpartisan civic engagement and political campaign intervention could help nonprofits navigate advocacy and civic engagement activities more effectively. Overall, the NEAT Act has the potential to create a more conducive environment for nonprofits to thrive and make a greater impact in addressing societal challenges.

By George Weiner, Founder Whole Whale.com

In 2010, George Founded Whole Whale, a digital agency that leverages data and tech to increase the impact of nonprofits and for-benefit companies. He is also the co-founder of Power Poetry, the largest teen poetry platform in the U.S, a safe, creative, free home to over 500k poets and CTOs4Good.com, a group of technical leaders at nonprofits that deliver social impact primarily through technology and digital strategy. Prior to Whole Whale George was the CTO of DoSomething.org. Over the course of 7 years, he managed the platform overhaul of DoSomething.org twice (winning a Webby Award ) and helped to build a community of over 1.5 million young people taking action. Realizing that much of DoSomething’s success was owed to smart, lean use of many democratized tech tools (including SMS, Google Analytics and the Google Ad Grant), George founded Whole Whale with the goal of helping nonprofits both storied and start-up to move their missions forward with the tools at hand. In over a decade of operations, Whole Whale has worked with over 100 nonprofit and social-impact organizations, spent over $6 million in Google Ad Grants dollars, and supported an additional 200,000+ organizations through free online content and training. An evangelist for democratized data and measuring success, George has presented Whole Whale-related case studies at conferences and workshops around nonprofit technology, including NTC, Cause Camp, the Youth + Tech + Health Conference, and IECC Thrive’s Nonprofit Capacity Building Conference (he’s also been seen on the karaoke stage at many other nonprofit conferences and has been known to turn the Nonprofit Tech Conference into the Nonprofit Toto Conference).

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