Irv - Where was YOUR organization in the fight (or complete lack of fight) to save Hull House? I think Chicago and America’s nonprofit and social service agencies are wimps, cowards and operating from a fear and deficiency mentality. America bailed out the financial services sector for TRILLIONS of public dollars while the greedy owners lavished BILLIONS of dollars of bonuses on themselves. In Illinois our crooked politicians threw hundreds of millions of dollars of tax breaks to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (recent annual revenues of almost $3 billion) and also the money-hemorrhaging Sears Holdings (owned by another sharp operator who is banking on the land UNDERNEATH the stores). In Chicago corrupt politicians have spent hundreds of millions of public dollars on private developers and private companies such as Wills Insurance (they bought the Sears Tower), United Airlines, Quaker Oats, Coca-Cola, Grossinger Auto and Marianno’s Grocery. No outcry. No oversight. No public debate on what is worth bailing out and what is worth letting go. Personally, I think the Jane Addams heritage is worth to the people and spirit of Chicago than these private businesses. We need Jane’s fighting spirit now, more than ever. I blame the past leaders and board of Hull House for throwing away this precious resource - but they can’t take the rap alone - they tried to meet overwhelming demands for service and the late paying state of Illinois helped erode their situation.
It’s too late to save Hull House - but PLEASE don’t give this sort of anemic and pitiful post game analysis that asks our nonprofits to be more strategic, more efficient or better marketers. We need to gather and deploy POWER on behalf of our constituents just as Jane did over 100 years ago.
When the Tea Party movement puts more people into government and they all cal for the elimination of social service funding as wistful and evidence of “big government” all the while passing legislation that despoils or strip0mines the commons and doing deals with private companies to privatize our water supply, our prisons, our schools, our libraries and our military - well, it will too late for America’s nonprofits to be better marketers because they’ll be long gone or their work done by Wal-Mart
The author sounds generous when proffering: “Who knows if the board and staff leadership of Hull House could have made better decisions? ” An organization runs up a $1M+ plus deficit for more than two years in a row? It optimistically counts govt contract or grants that aren’t that secure - in an obvious time of public spending cutbacks? It ultimately fails to protect and preserve the assets of the corporation and it simply, hugely, overspends when it needed, albeit painfully, to trim costs and services. Slim down to rise up another day. Someone was not watching the meter well. Where was the Treasurer, the E.D., the Finance Manager and the auditor?
The fact that HH could spin off some funded services to other groups upon shutting down demonstrates that there were reliable income streams to cover some programs. Hull House should have exercised more responsible management and lived within those means. I’m sorry they closed, but I don’t see how it was tight times that killed this group.
If Tom Tresser lessened the ranting some then his core message would come across better. . But he does offer a valuable suggestion: did the State of Il. (or the City or County) in its economic troubles or political paralysis delay the deserved check cutting or reimbursemt of Hull House to such a degree that it scuttled HH cash flow and thus delivered the final big blow? So maybe (very) tough economic times (esp. in IL) or political impasse is partly the executioner here. If so, is then the IL legislature somewhat to blame?
But if that is true, why didn’t many other IL nonprofit agencies fold too? Or are they about to? Or did they trim spending to save themselves? What say, Chicago?
Lou- As the former group volunteer coordinator and in-kind manager at Hull House, I can’t speak to the exact issues with Hull House (I simply don’t know the details), but the state of Illinois is routinely late in paying everyone. http://philanthropy.com/blogs/state-watch/late-payments-to-nonprofits-in-ill-become-routine/1434 This was certainly an issue with Hull House as we never knew when we were going to get paid by the state. We knew the money would eventually come, but cash flow was an issue throughout the last several years I worked at Hull House. Many other IL nonprofits are in danger of folding. Several have. My guess is most are hoping the economy recovers quickly and are amassing large debts in the process. I have no doubt that Hull House won’t be the last institution to fold due to this crisis.
As to the article as a whole. There is enough blame to go around. There is no doubt mistakes were made by our leadership. The programs that were spun off to other agencies (and one that is being run by former employees who created their own 501(c)3) have funding attached to them. There certainly could have been more programs that survived with other agencies if we were given adequate notice in terms of our closure (instead of the 2 months that the board had announced when we found we were closing, it was 1 week). Several more programs had proper funding, but with such little notice of our closure finding adequate nonprofits to take on the services wasn’t possible.
COMMENTS
BY Tom Tresser
ON February 17, 2012 04:48 PM
Irv - Where was YOUR organization in the fight (or complete lack of fight) to save Hull House? I think Chicago and America’s nonprofit and social service agencies are wimps, cowards and operating from a fear and deficiency mentality. America bailed out the financial services sector for TRILLIONS of public dollars while the greedy owners lavished BILLIONS of dollars of bonuses on themselves. In Illinois our crooked politicians threw hundreds of millions of dollars of tax breaks to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (recent annual revenues of almost $3 billion) and also the money-hemorrhaging Sears Holdings (owned by another sharp operator who is banking on the land UNDERNEATH the stores). In Chicago corrupt politicians have spent hundreds of millions of public dollars on private developers and private companies such as Wills Insurance (they bought the Sears Tower), United Airlines, Quaker Oats, Coca-Cola, Grossinger Auto and Marianno’s Grocery. No outcry. No oversight. No public debate on what is worth bailing out and what is worth letting go. Personally, I think the Jane Addams heritage is worth to the people and spirit of Chicago than these private businesses. We need Jane’s fighting spirit now, more than ever. I blame the past leaders and board of Hull House for throwing away this precious resource - but they can’t take the rap alone - they tried to meet overwhelming demands for service and the late paying state of Illinois helped erode their situation.
It’s too late to save Hull House - but PLEASE don’t give this sort of anemic and pitiful post game analysis that asks our nonprofits to be more strategic, more efficient or better marketers. We need to gather and deploy POWER on behalf of our constituents just as Jane did over 100 years ago.
When the Tea Party movement puts more people into government and they all cal for the elimination of social service funding as wistful and evidence of “big government” all the while passing legislation that despoils or strip0mines the commons and doing deals with private companies to privatize our water supply, our prisons, our schools, our libraries and our military - well, it will too late for America’s nonprofits to be better marketers because they’ll be long gone or their work done by Wal-Mart
BY Mike Moran
ON February 28, 2012 10:45 AM
The author sounds generous when proffering: “Who knows if the board and staff leadership of Hull House could have made better decisions? ” An organization runs up a $1M+ plus deficit for more than two years in a row? It optimistically counts govt contract or grants that aren’t that secure - in an obvious time of public spending cutbacks? It ultimately fails to protect and preserve the assets of the corporation and it simply, hugely, overspends when it needed, albeit painfully, to trim costs and services. Slim down to rise up another day. Someone was not watching the meter well. Where was the Treasurer, the E.D., the Finance Manager and the auditor?
The fact that HH could spin off some funded services to other groups upon shutting down demonstrates that there were reliable income streams to cover some programs. Hull House should have exercised more responsible management and lived within those means. I’m sorry they closed, but I don’t see how it was tight times that killed this group.
BY Lou Perry
ON February 28, 2012 10:58 AM
If Tom Tresser lessened the ranting some then his core message would come across better. . But he does offer a valuable suggestion: did the State of Il. (or the City or County) in its economic troubles or political paralysis delay the deserved check cutting or reimbursemt of Hull House to such a degree that it scuttled HH cash flow and thus delivered the final big blow? So maybe (very) tough economic times (esp. in IL) or political impasse is partly the executioner here. If so, is then the IL legislature somewhat to blame?
But if that is true, why didn’t many other IL nonprofit agencies fold too? Or are they about to? Or did they trim spending to save themselves? What say, Chicago?
BY Mark Tisdahl
ON February 28, 2012 11:36 PM
Lou- As the former group volunteer coordinator and in-kind manager at Hull House, I can’t speak to the exact issues with Hull House (I simply don’t know the details), but the state of Illinois is routinely late in paying everyone. http://philanthropy.com/blogs/state-watch/late-payments-to-nonprofits-in-ill-become-routine/1434 This was certainly an issue with Hull House as we never knew when we were going to get paid by the state. We knew the money would eventually come, but cash flow was an issue throughout the last several years I worked at Hull House. Many other IL nonprofits are in danger of folding. Several have. My guess is most are hoping the economy recovers quickly and are amassing large debts in the process. I have no doubt that Hull House won’t be the last institution to fold due to this crisis.
As to the article as a whole. There is enough blame to go around. There is no doubt mistakes were made by our leadership. The programs that were spun off to other agencies (and one that is being run by former employees who created their own 501(c)3) have funding attached to them. There certainly could have been more programs that survived with other agencies if we were given adequate notice in terms of our closure (instead of the 2 months that the board had announced when we found we were closing, it was 1 week). Several more programs had proper funding, but with such little notice of our closure finding adequate nonprofits to take on the services wasn’t possible.