State of the nation - Diana Aviv

Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector, spoke to Caitlin Mackesy Davies about the issues now facing our colleagues in the US.

Just a few minutes into our conversation – and despite her graciousness – I’m fairly certain that I can’t be the person that Diana Aviv would most like to be spending time with right now. Aviv, president and CEO of US non-profit leadership forum Independent Sector (IS), has just come back from a string of speaking engagements, and is about to set off on another gruelling tour before hosting the IS annual conference in Detroit. And, early on in our chat, Aviv mentions that she would be at the Points of Light Forum in College Station, Texas – joining President Obama and former President George HW Bush – ‘right at this minute’ if she weren’t so tied up with other commitments. Engage interview aside, why does Aviv have so much on her plate, during what should – in theory – be a time of renaissance for the US voluntary sector?

Of course, financial concerns are just as pressing right now for the US charitable sector as they are for the UK, and there is the need to support organisations as they work through these issues. But with a former community organiser at the helm of federal government, shouldn’t it be easier than ever for nonprofits to get the support and attention at the highest levels that they need? ‘That’s an interesting question,’ says Aviv. ‘I don’t know the answer to that.’

But she does say that the sector is having to acknowledge that some of the enthusiasms of the campaign trail can seem less pressing when considered from the Oval Office. As Aviv puts it: ‘[President Obama] now has to look at what he is doing in Afghanistan and Iraq, has to decide what he is doing in North Korea, and then there are the small problems of healthcare, immigration and education. Even though you have a particular background, the context in which you do your work can be such that you can’t engage with the non-profit community in the way that you had before, though you may be sympathetic to it. Your work is on a much larger scale.’

Nonetheless, Aviv cites the president’s early action on community service – signing the Serve America Act into law just three months after taking office – as an instance in which his background has worked to the advantage of the independent (voluntary and community) sector: ‘I’m not sure that another president so early on would have considered this to be an important part of his work.’ Obama’s lead on the issue, says Aviv, has ‘inspired many people to believe that community service is an honourable profession,’ which should mean that more young people view the sector as a desirable career option, building up the talent pool.

Subtle shift

Aviv has also seen a subtle shift in White House thinking on the issue: ‘The last President Bush also talked about service, but he did it in a very different way. His conception of service was connected to his faith, creating an office of faith-based and community initiatives. Whereas this president has created an office for social innovation and also strengthened community engagement.’ She is keen, however, to point out that ‘the notion of serving and giving back to community and

society is not a Democratic or Republican notion, it’s really an American notion.’ Another difference, she points out, is that many of the people who are helping President Obama do his work are drawn from the non-profit community: ‘That was not true of the Bush administration. So while we had to make contacts and friends with people in the Bush administration, here we are keeping up contacts with the people we already know.’ Perhaps demonstrating the truth of this statement is the fact that Melody

Barnes, head of the White House Domestic Policy Council, was added as keynote speaker at the Independent Sector Annual Conference just days after I spoke with Aviv. Barnes, a key aide to candidate Obama, was one of the people with whom Aviv and leaders of IS member organisations met prior to the election, and through the transitional months before Obama officially took office. To the table Aviv brought a wish-list of priorities, developed through discussions with the membership, which IS members hoped to see adopted by the incoming administration.

Causes for concern

Aviv points to the issue of free speech, and protection for the rights of Americans to speak out through non-profits, and the need to ensure the rights and safety of US citizens carrying out charitable work throughout the world as two crucial discussion points on the agenda: ‘There was a legitimate concern that terrorists might use charitable organisations as vehicles to attack America, and we did not think the way [the Bush administration] chose to handle this was the right way to go. We wanted to make sure that this administration was mindful of supporting our work throughout the world.’

With about 30 per cent of money for the charitable sector coming from government – well over 50 per cent for those operating in health and human services – ensuring the sector has a say in the developing policies of any incoming government, she stresses, is a vital part of the IS role.

When it comes to the sector’s ability to exercise a continuing voice on policies, however, recent actions by President Obama have been less friendly. Taking steps to reduce what he feels to be the undue influence of lobbyists in Washington, Obama has imposed new limits and reporting requirements on them – and this applies equally to those campaigning on behalf of non-profit and for-profit interests. As a general rule, those wanting to discuss or advise on legislation that affects their beneficiaries must join a register of lobbyists and file reports six times a year that detail all activities and contacts they have with Congress and federal policymakers, the resources that support those activities, and any contributions the organisation and lobbyist make.

With initial restrictions, announced in March 2009, aimed at those organisations that hope to benefit from Recovery Act Funds, by September 2009 the president had announced a ban on registered lobbyists being appointed to federal agency advisory boards and commissions. Aviv feels that although the president ‘had in mind lobbyists that work for business’, when he introduced these measures, ‘the fact of the matter is that if the non-profit community wants to engage in outreach to Congress, we have to register, and the added restrictions have made it difficult to reach the White House and this administration.’

While it may come as a surprise to the UK sector that its campaigning efforts amount to lobbying – with its implied hard-ball tactics and even a hint of faintly unsavoury practices on this side of the Atlantic – for Aviv, it’s a fair label. ‘I don’t consider lobbying to be a pejorative term, myself. I think it is simply part of what the sector does. For those who get funding from government, or for those who want to influence government – whether they get money or not – they have a constitutional right to petition government, exercise free speech and also to peaceably assemble. Some people call it lobbying, some call it advocacy, it’s all the same thing.’

Though this ambiguity is the source of some tension, Aviv remains optimistic about the ability of the independent and public sectors to tackle the pressing concerns of the country – including the vexed question of delivering healthcare reform.

Priority match

Aviv shies away from my suggestion that the sector is better off with Obama, (‘That’s a partisan question,’ she says, ‘so I can’t answer that.’), but she does agree that the sector’s priorities and preferences are ‘probably more in line with where Obama expressed he was going than where opposition candidate John McCain expressed he was going – on funding for children, housing, the environment and a whole range of policies.’

Seeming to back this up, Melody Barnes’ conference speech is entitled ‘Navigating change together’. With Obama’s approval ratings trending down, and a nationwide debate on the very nature of the government’s role in providing services heating up, it seems likely that this administration will continue to call on civil society leaders to help it find its way through the choppy waters. Aviv’s already packed diary seems destined to get even fuller.

Hear Diana Aviv at the NCVO Annual Conference on 23 February. Phone 020 7520 3160 or book your place online.