Independent Sector

Community building:at the heart of Independent Sector's work to create a healthy and racially equitable nation where all people can thrive is our belief in the transformational power of building and sustaining community. Through intentional and targeted strategies, Independent Sector builds a sense of community among leaders, provides opportunities to build capacity, and strengthens bridges and trusted relationships to ensure charitable Sector leaders, organizations, and communities are aligned toward a healthy and equitable future.in 2023, we maintained and deepened our connections with changemakers across the country, engaging them in upswell events, a national listening tour and our fellowship programs.we conducted 7 listening tour events during 2023, engaging nonprofit and philanthropy leaders in major cities across the country in intentional conversations to give us a clearer sense of the challenges leaders are facing in their work and communities so that our community building and other program can be responsive to these challenges. We held our first in-person upswell summit since 2019 in dallas/ft. Worth in november 2023, bringing together over 800 leaders from across the Sector to share insights and challenges, gain inspiration and learnings from national and local leaders in the charitable Sector and increase the strength of networks. We also held two virtual upswell pop-ups during the year focused on key conversations that are imperative to creating a racially just nation. Each emphasized the wellbeing and self-care of changemakers and communities; bridging differences toward justice and belonging; and transforming and changing systems through advocacy and narrative change. We included upswell exchanges as part of our upswell pop-ups to give changemakers the opportunity to unpack immediately what they heard during pop-up presentations, share their thoughts, and connect through deeper relationships with one another.independent Sector continued two fellows programs with a primary focus on enabling participating fellows to expand their networks, gain new knowledge, contribute their perspectives, and instill a renewed commitment to serving their communities. We concluded our two-year bridging fellows program at the end of 2023, which brought together 40 fellows from pittsburgh, dallas and chicago to socialize and embed bridging as a core competency in their organizations and communities. The program focuses on specific areas of societal division, including ideological, racial, socioeconomic, and geographical.we continue to support the full charitable community through various communications efforts to keep leaders informed of and connected to important news, trends and events, including ways that they can engage.

Accelerating Sector health:working in collaboration with members and other partners, Independent Sector creates, curates, and disseminates knowledge designed to help organizations respond to challenges and opportunities, increase their effectiveness, and fulfill their missions. Covid-19 presented new opportunities for us to curate and distribute resources rapidly and have evolved from responding to the crisis and to helping organizations manage their "new normal": Independent Sector, in partnership with edelman data & intelligence, released our second annual "trust in civil society" report, in may 2021, of survey findings that explore the nuances of trust in american nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. Building on Independent Sector's four decades of bringing together the charitable community for the common good and edelman's experience studying trust in both the global and u.s. Context, we conducted two national surveys, totaling 8,000 american adults, to assess general population trust in philanthropy and nonprofits and uncover the factors that drive trust in the Sector. An important learning from the research over three years shows nonprofits demonstrating impact is key to building trust, but it may not be sufficient by itself if broader economic barriers exist. Independent Sector, with the do good institute at the university of Maryland, announced on april 18, 2022 that the latest value of a volunteer hour is estimated to be $29.95, which is a 4.9% increase from 2020 to 2021. Estimated from data collected in 2020, the figure shows the valuable contributions volunteers make to support our communities and country. This data is the most visited part of the Independent Sector website because it helps nonprofits quantify the impact of volunteer engagement for funders, partners, and the public. Independent Sector released health of the u.s. Nonprofit Sector quarterly reviews in march, june, and september, and december. These reports complement the 2021 health of the u.s. Nonprofit Sector annual report and provide Independent Sector recommendations and analysis of recently released data on the Sector's economic contribution, charitable giving trends, and characteristics of Sector employment.

Public policy leadership:independent Sector's public policy leadership activities are focused on research, policy development, analysis, and advocacy efforts to ensure a healthy, trusted and equitable nonprofit Sector. In 2023, we continued to address concerns about declining charitable giving through passage of legislation that would create a universal charitable deduction. We continued to educate and mobilize Sector leaders and advocates on this policy initiative and held a convening for the white house to deepen their understanding of this need and legislative remedy. We also continued to advance our bi-partisan seat at the table legislation in the us house of representatives that would ensure the voice and expertise of the nonprofit charitable Sector had permanent representation within the executive branch of the federal government. We also began exploration of a legislative initiative to make certain that nonprofit employers are eligible for the same tax incentives as their for-profit peers for investment in their workforce thru the creation of retirement plans and facility-based childcare. In 2023 we also released the research report, the retreat of influence, that shared extensive survey data and analysis, commissioned by Independent Sector, on advocacy practices in the nonprofit Sector. These and additional research findings to be completed in 2023 will allow us to shape more effective tools and training to ensure nonprofits are informed and active advocates. Finally, Independent Sector's public policy priorities and advocacy efforts are advanced by the nonprofit infrastructure coalition, a group of approximately 50 organizations from across the Sector, that are aligned with the core policy aims of is. The coalition is co-led with kaboom! The 2023 research activities of Independent Sector focused on two anchoring research programs. The first is the health of the us nonprofit Sector annual report, which was released in 2023/q4. This annual report gathers the best possible, and most timely, data on the health of the nonprofit Sector, specifically looking at g=four core aspects of health: (1) finances; (2) human capital; (3) trust and governance; (4) policy advocacy. Data findings and analysis in the report are then used to inform the policy and practice interventions needed to build health in any of those given areas. While much of the research/data included in the health report is gathered from other sources, is does commission original survey research each year on public trust in nonprofits and philanthropy, conducted in partnership with edelman data and intelligence. Trust survey findings in 2023 indicated several concerning areas of decline in public trust that continue to shape our efforts reverse those trends. Our second most significant body of research, also commissioned by Independent Sector, examines advocacy activities by nonprofits. The quantitative study, released in 2023, indicated concerning and downward trends in policy advocacy by nonprofit organizations. Also launched in 2023, and to be delivered in 2024, is a complementary qualitative study that will help us understand what is happening underneath the quantitative data delivered in 2023. All of this work, true to is practice, is then intended to shape a series of tools, trainings, and other interventions needed to ensure that nonprofit organizations understand the laws which govern their advocacy and lobbying efforts and are active and effective advocates within those legal parameters.

Membership and communications services:independent Sector provides communications and other services to support its membership specifically and non-profit Sector leaders more broadly. These services include member engagement through events, both virtual and in person, where insights and perspectives on topics relevant to the Sector are shared. In addition, we produce a set of communication products that lift up leading work in the Sector, including our own, to keep Sector leaders better informed of and connected to important activities happening across the Sector at a national level. These products highlight, among other things, relevant convenings, research, program efforts and other activities that may be beneficial. These activities act to raise awareness and understanding and support stronger networks across Sector leaders and their organizations.