Category Archives: Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits

RVA 5X5: Enrichmond and the City’s Radio Silence

Posted on December 7, 2022 by | 14 comments

Photo credit: Flickr

by Jon Baliles

I won’t do a “Top Stories of 2022” list for this newsletter, but if I did, one of them would surely be the collapse of the Enrichmond Foundation and the radio silence on all fronts concerning its finances, the groups that depended on it, their assets, and the two historic Black cemeteries in its portfolio — Evergreen and East End Cemetery.

The important question is not so much what happened in 2022 (although that is important); the critical next steps — should anyone decide to take them — are what will happen in 2023?

A brief recap from the October 14 newsletter: “The Enrichmond Foundation was founded in the early 1990s and had grown to support more than 80 small, local, all-volunteer groups that worked to help Richmond in various ways, many of which focused on keeping the City green and clean. Enrichmond allowed the groups to use their insurance coverage and raise tax-free donations, served as a fiduciary for the funds each group raised, and distributed those funds as directed by the groups.

Suddenly in June, the Foundation announced a cessation of operations, leaving no transition plan. The Board voted to dissolve the Foundation but left no accounting of the funds it had in its accounts, and then within weeks the lawyer representing the Board stepped away from his role as counsel.

None of the “leaders” at City Hall has said anything about this. Not. A. Word.

The City’s Parks & Recreation Department has been able to assist some of the organizations, but there are so many they can’t do it all themselves. That’s why the Foundation existed. It is known that the amount of money held in trust for the various “Friends Of” groups is anywhere from $300,000 to $3 million, though I have been told recently that it is closer to the lower estimate.

While the City dawdles, how are these small “Friends Of” groups to do the important work they do (much of it is environmental) if they can’t access their donations? How can they raise money if they have no place to put it? The more this drags out, it is a safe bet those groups will lose volunteers, who will put their time toward other causes. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Posted in Blogs and Blog Administration, Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Corruption and Scandals, Economic development, Efficiency in Government, Government Transparency, Virginia history

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Suggestions to Ease Virginia’s Housing Crisis without Additional State Money

Posted on December 3, 2022 by | 33 comments

Courtesy californiahumandevelopment.org

by James C. Sherlock

The Richmond Times-Dispatch, on cue, wrote in an editorial the other day that more state money was needed to fund local housing.

Maybe.

But that is not the first place to look.

The governor wants to condition development aid to local communities on their reforming land-use policies to permit more construction.

I have a few ideas along that line.

Proffers, also known as conditional zoning, are a recognition that real estate developments have impacts on other properties and on services provided by the local jurisdiction. Fair enough.

The money for roads, sewers and schools has to come from somewhere. Proffers make the developers and their customers pay for a share of capital improvements deemed necessary by city/county planners.

Wielded unpredictably, and sometimes unethically, they are also part of the problem. See the excellent article Politics and Proffers by Matt Ahern for the games played with proffers and their cost to the housing economy.

Then there is low-cost housing.

The Commonwealth by law permits but does not require localities to waive fees for low-cost housing. That law, originally and curiously restricted to only non-profit developers, was updated in 2019 to permit the same waivers to for-profit builders.

Send state housing funds only to jurisdictions that do so. Require in law a limit to the costs of proffers for low-cost housing.

Finally, tax Virginia’s astonishingly profitable non-profit hospitals to help them with their mission of caring for the disadvantaged — in this case in low-cost housing. Continue reading →

33 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Economic development, Efficiency in Government, General Assembly, Housing, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Political Influence, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Regulations and Government Oversight

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The Governor Asks Virginians to Support Food Banks

Posted on November 23, 2022 by | 2 comments

by James C. Sherlock

Amen.

2 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits

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Homelessness in Petersburg – Part 2

Posted on November 23, 2022 by | 3 comments

Travel Inn was shut down by the ACE team in June. Courtesy Joyce Chu, Progress Index.

by James C. Sherlock

I wrote yesterday about the excellent investigative reporting by the Progress-Index about the knock-on effects of the renewal of fire and building code enforcement in Petersburg.

My position is that Petersburg must enforce its codes for public safety and the livability of the city.

But I also recognize the need to provide better solutions to homelessness in that city. I am pursuing a story on that subject.

But in the meanwhile, the Progress-Index’s Joyce Chu has posted her second article in that series.  I refer to

‘A fresh can of nowhere to go’: Health and stability stumble with fewer motel rooms for those on the edge”

It consists almost exclusively of the stories of those displaced with the closure of those motels.

It is powerful stuff.

3 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Crime, Corrections and Law Enforcement, Education (K-12), Homelessness, Infrastructure, Mental illness and substance abuse

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Petersburg Resumes Important Actions Against City Code Violators — Homeless Needs Increase

Posted on November 22, 2022 by | 38 comments

Travel Inn was shut down by the ACE team in June. Courtesy Joyce Chu, Progress Index.

by James C. Sherlock

Sometimes absolutely necessary actions have more than one outcome.

Such is the case in Petersburg.

Joyce Chu of Petersburg’s indispensable Progress- Index last evening initiated a multi-part series on the impacts of the city’s closure due to safety violations of two motels used by otherwise homeless people.

Her first article makes a case for more government and charitable services for the people affected by the closures. Good for her. No one wants people living on the streets and everyone wants the kids in school.

She explains that the California Inn, OYO and Travel Inn motels, among a group of low cost motels right off of I-95, were

also hotbeds of crime, drug overdoses and prostitution mixed in with families with children, according to former residents and homeless advocates.

She points out that Petersburg has resumed (after a lengthy period when it did not) enforcing its zoning codes. A team called the ACE team — Abatement, Compliance, and Enforcement — is on task, run by the Fire Chief.

Code enforcement is an absolutely necessary step to revitalize the city.

So is helping those adversely affected.  -Hotel owners should be forced within the limits of the law to assist. Continue reading →

38 Comments

Posted in Attendance, Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Children and Families, Crime, Corrections and Law Enforcement, Health Care, Homelessness, Infrastructure, Mental illness and substance abuse, Public safety & health, Regulations and Government Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements

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Food Bank Shelves Emptying — Time to Help

Posted on November 21, 2022 by | 11 comments

Almost empty food pantry Austin Tx. Courtesy KXAN Austin

by James C. Sherlock

Showing the dual effects of inflation — more people need food assistance and the costs of providing that food have risen — a local food bank we have long supported ran out of food this weekend.

First time ever.

The director told us that this is happening everywhere. See empty shelves in Austin Texas above.

If you have not dealt with one, food banks in my experience tend to be exceptionally well run, most by churches, synagogues, mosques or other faith- based organizations.

They screen their clients and keep careful track of donations. Most provide food by appointment or specific days of the week or both.  All that I am aware of have limits on how many times a month each client can access food to make it go as far as possible.

The best ones are hyper-efficient with donations of money. Most staff are volunteers.

I request those readers who can afford it to please try to help. If you have a food bank you already support, help them.

If you do not already give, you can go here and put in your zip code to find local food banks. I tried other sites and web search terms and none of them provided nearly so complete a list.

Donate food, money, your time or perhaps more than one of those.

You will feel good about it and God knows people need the help.

11 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits

Feel-Good Story of the Day: Ambulances for Ukraine

Posted on November 4, 2022 by | 14 comments

Senator Mark Warner speaks at Richmond Ambulance Authority event in front of the ambulance going to Ukraine.

The Richmond Ambulance Authority (RAA) has announced the donation of one of its ambulances as part of the “U.S. Ambulances for Ukraine” initiative. The RAA partnered with the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA), which coordinated donations from HCA Virginia, VCU Health, and the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System to stock the ambulance with medical supplies.

So far, the Ambulances for Ukraine initiative, launched by an Illinois hospital executive, has donated more than two dozen ambulances with supplies.

“Healthcare workers in Ukraine are risking their own lives for their calling to help others in times of need,” said Michael Roussos, president of VCU Medical Center, in a press release issued by the VHHA. “VCU Health’s mission to preserve and restore health for all people extends beyond the commonwealth.

— JAB

14 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits

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Not Gilly Sullivan’s Alumni Association Anymore

Posted on October 19, 2022 by | 23 comments

Gilly Sullivan

by James A. Bacon

Aiming to address the lamentable decline in state/local news coverage, States Newsroom supports local news operations in 29 states, including Virginia.

As Jim Sherlock detailed here, the nonprofit organization was launched in 2017 by the left-of-center Hopewell Fund, which itself is managed by the left-of-center Arabella Advisors.

Its Virginia Mercury digital publication has made a valuable contribution to Virginia journalism by breaking many important stories. While the Mercury can credibly profess to be politically “nonpartisan,” its news coverage leans hard to the port side on environmental and social-justice issues.

In a nod to transparency, States Newsroom publishes the names of all individuals and groups that have contributed $500 or more since November 2019. One of the names listed is the “University of Virginia Alumni Association.”

Conservative UVa alumni might ask themselves the question: why is their alumni association contributing funds to a left-of-center news organization?

I posed that question to Richard Gard, vice president of communications for the association. It turns out that the alumni association did not make the contribution. Rather, it acted as a pass-through for another UVa-affiliated entity.

And therein lies a story illustrating the opaque organizational structure of the University of Virginia and its Oort Cloud of satellite foundations and affiliated groups. Continue reading →

23 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Education (higher ed), Media

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Some Pretty Good Clues to the EnRichmond Saga

Posted on October 14, 2022 by | 15 comments

by James C. Sherlock

EnRichmond Balance Sheet, December 31, 2019

Jon Baliles wrote an article about the EnRichmond Foundation. Seems everyone is in the dark.

To throw some light, I offer the last Form 990 from EnRichmond that is available online. It was filed October 20, 2020.

It offers some clues, such as …

  • the name of the Executive Director;
  • the name, address and phone number of the tax accountant;
  • the names of all of the officers, directors and key employees; and
  • the fact that the EnRichmond balance sheet above lost more than half its net assets or fund balances from the end of 2018 until the end of 2019, not including the pumped up intangible assets,  perhaps indicating some issue — just saying.

The balance sheet indicates EnRichmond finished 2019 with savings and temporary cash investments of $210,961 and $124,699.

I guess it is possible for that amount to have increased to $3 million that is being discussed as missing, but the total revenue in 2019 was $1,175,990 which was exceeded by $1,542,978 in expenses.

I am also sure that Richmond police have this data. So it really cannot remain a mystery.

15 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Crime, Corrections and Law Enforcement

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Embarrassing Non-Action

Posted on October 14, 2022 by | 4 comments

Word from the City of Richmond? Crickets

by John Baliles

The EnRichmond saga continues and it’s not a good read. In fact, it’s pretty awful.

To recap, the EnRichmond Foundation was founded in the early 1990s and had grown to support more than 80 small, local, all-volunteer groups that worked to help Richmond in various ways, many of which focused on keeping the City green and clean. EnRichmond allowed the groups to use their insurance coverage and raise tax-free donations, served as a fiduciary for the funds each group raised, and distributed those funds as directed by the groups.

Suddenly in June, they announced a cessation of operations, and left no transition plan. The Board voted to dissolve the Foundation but left no accounting of the funds it had in its accounts, and then within weeks, the lawyer representing the Board stepped away from their role as counsel.

Here are some headlines (and links) to stories that have appeared since this summer. They are in order both chronologically and from bad to worse: Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Corruption and Scandals

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Scandal in Virginia Not-for-Profit Hospital Reported by the NY Times – Regional Perspectives

Posted on October 1, 2022 by | 29 comments

Richmond Community Hospital – “A glorified emergency room”?

by James C. Sherlock

Sometimes my subscription to The New York Times pays off. This is one of those times.

The subtitle on the Times story is:

Bon Secours Mercy Health, a major nonprofit health system, used the poverty of Richmond Community Hospital’s patients to tap into a lucrative federal drug program.

It is a blockbuster of a scandal, extremely well reported. I hope a Pulitzer awaits.

The Times, as is necessary in that paper, made it a racial issue. Bon Secours has for generations served the Black population of Hampton Roads nearly exclusively. It continues to do so and continues to lose money doing so.

That was not mentioned in the Times article. Nor in the editorial in the Richmond Free Press about the scandal.

But it doesn’t really matter. What happened in Richmond was wrong. This scandal is not the work of a properly led charity.

I have directly dealt with and reported on Bon Secours Hampton Roads for years. I will attempt to offer background on this mess for perspective both looking back and looking forward. Continue reading →

29 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Health Care, Leadership, Race and Race Relations

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Budget Earmarks for Nonstate Entities

Posted on September 12, 2022 by | 8 comments

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

For many years, the most interesting and fun portion of the state Appropriation Act was a section near the end entitled, “State Grants to Nonstate Entities-Nonstate Agencies.” The 2000 Appropriation Act, appropriating almost $36 million for these nonstate entities, is a good example. It included funding for historic courthouses, local museums and historical societies, and the houses of Founding Fathers, as well as for larger, statewide museums and organizations.

Most of the amounts provided were small, especially in the context of the overall Appropriation Act. However, they were important to the local recipients and served to add to the political capital of the local legislators who sponsored the appropriations.

In 2011, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli threw what seemed to be a monkey wrench into this process. In an official opinion, he declared that such appropriations, although they may “serve noble purposes,” were in violation of the state constitution. Article IV, Section 16, of the Virginia Constitution plainly prohibits “any appropriation of public funds, personal property, or real estate…to any charitable institution which is not owned or controlled by the Commonwealth.” For years the legislature had operated under the legal fiction that such appropriations were not to “charitable” organizations, but for “historical” or “cultural” ones. Indeed the title of the budget program used for these appropriations is “Financial Assistance for Cultural and Artistic Affairs.” The Attorney General’s opinion ended that charade. Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, General Assembly, Government Finance, Politics, Uncategorized

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Virginia Needs Better Information Sharing to Provide Mandated Public Services to Illegals Efficiently and Effectively

Posted on August 3, 2022 by | 15 comments

by James C. Sherlock

I am on record as a persistent advocate of improving the quality of both schools and medical services for poor and minority citizens. It has been the main focus of my work for years.

In a directly related matter, we read, with different reactions depending upon our politics, of the struggles with uncontrolled immigration on border states on the one hand and D.C, New York City and Los Angeles on the other.

We are treated to the public spectacle of the mayors of sanctuary cities deploring massive new influxes of illegal border-crossers and asking for federal assistance. It provides one of the best object lessons in being careful what you ask for in recent public life.

All of that is interesting, but Virginians know that the problem is increasing. They know Virginia can’t fix it, and they want to know how Virginia will deal with it.

By law we owe illegals services. And we need to provide them efficiently and effectively both for humanitarian reasons and to ensure that citizens are not unnecessarily negatively affected.

There is work to do. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Children and Families, Defense and National Security, Demographics, Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, Government Finance, Immigration, Planning, Social Services and Entitlements, Virginia Law

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Where Does Virginia Most Need Charter Schools?

Posted on July 21, 2022 by | 40 comments

by James C. Sherlock

Discussing failing schools in Virginia, people tend to speak in generalities. When an example is needed, the City of Richmond Public Schools is chosen — an uncontested layup.

But failed schools are not a problem just in Richmond. And bad public schools in Richmond are not limited to RPS. They are a problem to which VDOE has paid lip service, hamstrung by Virginia law and constitution when trying to fulfill federal mandates with federal money.

I will be very specific about schools and school divisions and the potential to help those children with professionally-run charter schools. Currently not a single one of the six or so charter schools in Virginia is managed by a successful charter management organization (CMO).

The most useful public list that we have at the moment for this discussion is the 2020-21 VDOE list of “Schools Identified for Support and Improvement under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).”

I will use that list to offer specificity to a Governor who wants to help. Continue reading →

40 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Children and Families, Education (Early Childhood), Education (K-12), Federal issues, Uncategorized

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The Governor’s Tuition Freeze Request and the Board at UVa – It’s Complicated

Posted on July 12, 2022 by | 46 comments

Signatures from the first meeting recorded in the Minute Book of the UVa board of visitors, May 5, 1817 – ALBERT AND SHIRLEY SMALL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

by James C. Sherlock

Much has been made of a recent request by Governor Glenn Youngkin to eliminate a tuition increase at the University of Virginia and the Board’s decision not to honor it.

The tensions between means and ends that have to be resolved in producing a budget at any large and complex university are enormous.

UVa has implemented a Responsibility Center Management (RCM) budget model.

An RCM budget model decentralizes decision-making, provides incentives for innovation, and improves overall financial results and stewardship. It couples distributed program responsibility with meaningful authority over resources.

A central RCM budget product is thus fragile, in that changes have far reaching effects unpredictable at the board level. The later the changes, the bigger the disruptions.

The Governor’s request, while appropriate to his goal to help parents deal with inflation, arrived just before the start of the fiscal year. The board judged it to be too late to be accommodated.

This is the story of the budgeting process that drove that decision and why the endowment could not be used to fund the difference.  I think elements of this may prove be informative to all who send their kids off to college. Continue reading →

46 Comments

Posted in Charity, Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Education (higher ed), Governance, Government Finance

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