Public Policy Articles & Analysis

Well-formulated public policy solutions can profoundly improve the quality of life for people served by charitable nonprofits. But those solutions don’t just materialize out of nowhere; rather, the best public policies arise when nonprofits and the people they serve find effective ways to educate decision makers, share their perspectives and proposals, and exert collective pressure when needed to pass helpful legislation or to stop harmful proposals from becoming laws.

The NC Department of Revenue (DOR) recently announced that student loan forgiveness is taxable income for the purposes of state income taxes. This means that borrowers will need to pay state income tax on the amount of their student loans that are forgiven. Legislative leaders have indicated that theydo not anticipate that the NC General Assembly will change this law.

Earlier this year, the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits sent a candidate questionnaire on nonprofit issues to all North Carolina candidates for Congress and the NC General Assembly. The questionnaire is intended to help nonprofit leaders learn more about the candidates on their ballots in the 2022 election and also to help candidates have a better awareness of the work of nonprofits.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced last week that it plans to release new proposed regulations on the salary threshold under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in October. Currently, FLSA requires employers, including nonprofits, to pay their employees at least $7.25 per hour and to pay employees one-and-one-half time their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek. Employees are exempt from the FLSA overtime pay requirement if they:

State agencies partner with nonprofits in many important ways, including through contractual relationships, to provide programs and services that benefit communities throughout the state. As with any type of partnership, the contractual relationships between state agencies and nonprofits are not always seamless. The North Carolina Center for Nonprofits has recently sought feedback from nonprofits about their challenges with state grants and contracts.

A 2022  NC Senate bill (S.894) that would address a variety of issues that nonprofits have experienced with their grants and contracts with the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), including late contracts, late payments, underpayment for indirect costs, midstream changes to contract terms, and burdensome application and reporting requirements.

The bill would:

The North Carolina Center for Nonprofits has sent a candidate questionnaire on nonprofit issues to all 535 North Carolina candidates for Congress and the NC General Assembly. The questionnaire is intended to help nonprofit leaders learn more about the candidates on their ballots in the May 17 primary election and the November 8 general election and also to help candidates have a better awareness of the work of nonprofits.

Template Email to Candidates

Dear Candidate,

Opening: Introduce yourself and your organization, and say why you are writing. Include a link to the 2022 Candidate Questionnaire.

Middle: Tell the candidates a little bit about what your organization does and challenges you face that public policies have or could address.