Entries For: November 2007
2007-11-21
Thanksgiving: A Global Appreciation
In honor of Thanksgiving, I’d like to share a couple of very thoughtful and touching emails that I received from two exceptional young refugees, both of whom have FORGE scholarships to attend University in Zambia. Kwase is from Sudan and Antoine is from Congo – they are both in their mid-twenties. If you are like me, their words will help you to appreciate this special holiday in an even deeper way.
I wish you all a wonderful one…
-Kjerstin
*******
From Kwase:
Hi Kjer,
I was trying to understand and know this American Holiday called THANKS GIVING and why it is important to Americans and those who understood its origin. I hope I got it right from different explanations. I was told, it is in the memory of the hard time that the European Americans went through when they first came to America, ranging from lack of food and other basic neccessities of life. With this little knowledge on this great day, I deeply believe that I am part and parcel of this celebration including all the refugees in the world who have gone through similar experiences that our sisters and brothers went through in their first days and years in the USA. The general challenge to all humanity, is how can we stop the history from repeating itself ?
Happy Thanks Giving to all.
Lots of love
Kwase M
From Antoine:
Dear FRIENDS,
In this occasion of Thanks Giving, allow me to thank you for your generosity, commitment and hardworking in making FORGE’s mission happen; you really are people who raised, are raising, and will raise the Refugee community. You really have all contributed to the reduction of illiteracy, ignorance, poverty and many more in this community which was affected by war troubles in their countries.
By doing what you have done, are doing and will do, you are constructing our countries in advance.
As you know it, the refugee community is crying every day and night for help but not everyone can understand their cries, you have made it happen by understanding their cries and acting without waiting. We will never forget your incredible actions; you have rebuilt our hope and are still reinforcing it.
We have at least felt how much outside people care about us. You really shown your love to us but we have nothing to give back. THANKS FOR EVERY THING, you are right people doing right things.
Once again Thanks.
Antoine
2007-11-12
Looks can be deceiving
As it says above, I'm 24 years old. I started FORGE when I was 20. Yes... you can call me a young Executive Director.
Also, I'm relatively tall, thin, and (gasp!) blond. Some people say I'm pretty.
Those traits may come in handy for getting out of speeding tickets, but they are not always a blessing. When it comes to what I care about most – doing my job effectively – being a young blond female is often to my disadvantage.
By this point, I've gotten used to leaders of partner NGOs treating me as nothing more than a sweet little American girl until they see what FORGE can do. When they first come aboard, young FORGE volunteers often have a habit of challenging me until they realize that this is a complicated job that requires experience, tenacity, and a high level of intelligence. But invariably, when things go wrong, eyes immediately turn to me and fingers get pointed in my direction.
And that's all fine. Pile it on. These shoulders may be slender, but they can carry quite a heavy load. I've guided this ship through some stormy waters and I've always had enough wind in my proverbial sails to take the next step. That may sound a bit hardened, but don't look for a peg-leg or an eye-patch. This is what I signed up for. FORGE is too good and I'm too young to be salty.
Five years ago, when we started working in refugee camps, I had no idea what FORGE would become. Of course we were all on cloud nine, but it would've been very unrealistic of me not to anticipate uncertainty and difficulty as we grew. My wonderful parents encouraged me ceaselessly, but also made sure my feet were firmly planted on the ground. Dreaming pushed FORGE forward. Being grounded kept it from being pushed back.
It has all made me welcome the challenges. FORGE won't expand and improve without some sleepless nights and hardship. Broken pledges by donors? We'll get past it. Problems with inexperienced staff? FORGE can handle it. Bureaucracy on the ground in
This isn't supposed to feel nice. This isn't about dreaming. This is about work. And I've gotta get back to it.
- Kjerstin Erickson
www.FORGEnow.org
2007-11-06
Accountability!
Still working on FORGE's taxes while letting my mind run wild over the things I can’t wait to do once these are done.
Not knowing anything about government oversight of nonprofits before starting FORGE, I’ve been shocked in the past few years to find out just how few accountability mechanisms are in place for nonprofits. Sure, the government has basic guidelines for what a nonprofit can and cannot do, but the amount of leeway in what nonprofits can get away with (and how rarely they are caught) seems to me preposterous. From what I’ve learned in preparing tax returns (which are really the main form of accountability to the government), the IRS makes it ridiculously easy to cheat, hide, and get away with murder.
Now, I’m not trying to incriminate my organization here – FORGE is very diligent about its spending and accounting has always treated our donors’ dollars with intense care. However, I do wish that there was some way for the government to hold us truly accountable to our donors. Nonprofits with annual spending under $500,000 are not required to have any kind of independent audit whatsoever.
As it stands, there are only two ways for small-to-medium nonprofits to be held accountable for responsible spending of tax-free donor funds. The first is through the miniscule chance that the IRS decides to audit them, in which case the nonprofit is in big trouble if they turn out to be corrupt. The second is through paying for an independent auditor, which usually costs the nonprofit tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, no truly corrupt nonprofit is going to self-incriminate itself with an audit. On the other hand, most nonprofits (like FORGE) simply cannot afford to hire an auditor to either prove themselves clean or to find out what they might be doing wrong.
Now I understand that there are 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States, and that it is virtually impossible for the IRS to keep tabs on all them, let alone a small portion. But the fact is that these organizations account for billions of dollars of untaxed money that would otherwise be in government hands. The government doesn’t tax those funds because it trusts that the nonprofits are going to do some of the government’s work for them. But is trusting enough? Who is checking up?
Alright…back to work…
- Kjerstin Erickson
PS - While we're on the subject, anyone know a pro-bono auditor?
