January 18, 2018 (2:00pm)
1) Call to order
Board Members in Attendance:
Dana Serrata, Patti Meals, BJ Abel, Amber Martin-Jahn
Merri Taylor (Note taker)
Absent: Andy Schuricht, Lu Torres, Brenda Stout, Jessica Word
Board Chair Dana Serrata called the meeting to order at 2:04PM.
2) New Board Member Nominee Introductions and Vote
- Nominees (John Burnett, Heidi Parker and Zanny Marsh) introduced themselves, gave a summary of their backgrounds and why they are led to volunteer for a chair on the board.
- Dana Serrata thanked the nominees for their contributions and willingness to devote their time to ANN, for their heart for the nonprofit sector and sharing our vision in wanting to infuse some new life into the organization. Amber echoed her gratitude for their commitment and investment in the Nevada nonprofit network.
- Motion: Dana Serrata motioned for John Burnett, Heidi Parker and Zanny Marsh to be approved as board members for the Alliance of Nevada Nonprofits.
Motion to elect approved. Welcome to the board!
3) Updates
New fee structure for 2018 (Dana Serrata)
- ANN will implement a flat fee of $150 per year for all membership types. We are also moving to an annual renewal date, instead of an anniversary renewal date, as issuing invoices will be a more efficient, simplified process for our bookkeeper. Invoices for 2018’s dues are going out this month (January) and if you renewed in 4th Quarter of 2017, you will not need to renew again until January of 2019 — so you’re getting up to 3 months free.
- Any auto-renewals that were happening have also been suspended, so if you received an email from PayPal saying your payment was suspended, don’t worry, that was related to the auto-renewal and you will receive an invoice instead. This should be a smoother process for everyone and eliminate any confusion or surprises.
New Website (Dana Serrata)
- ANN’s website (www.alliancefornevadanonprofits.com) has been revamped and relaunched. Please go check it out and if you find anything that needs to be fixed please let us know.
- Also on the website is an easy-to-navigate calendar where there are a lot of training opportunities, workshops, webinars and different programs and events coming up.
- The new website also has a “Member Spotlight” where we will be rotating through each month and highlighting different members.
- If people are interested in forming a 501c3, there’s information at the bottom of the home page to connect them with the National Council of Nonprofits to do that.
- If you are a member, you can log in to get access to things like a library of different policies and procedures that we encourage you to use and adapt for your own needs for your agencies. There’s also a catalog of webinars that have already taken place that you can watch if you missed them or rewatch. Your ANN member password will get you into that area.
Upcoming Programs (Amber Martin-Jahn)
- January: Nonprofit data for beginners (ANN partnership with Idealware, ANN member discount)
- February: 4-session series on the Role of the Board
- March: Free webinar on infographics and the value of using them as a nonprofit
- March: Visual Storytelling webinar series (deeper look at infographics) which is fee based
- March: Single-day intensive Nonprofit Institute (a national partner) in Las Vegas (if successful, we will hold another one in northern Nevada as well. They are bringing together a great mix of national and local trainers.
- We are working to increase our partnerships with regional AFPs and Nevada Gives nonprofits throughout the state and are including their programs on ANN’s calendar so you can find training opportunities from several organizations in one convenient place.
- Please continue to check out the calendar for upcoming events. Many are free and ANN members receive great discounts on the fee based programs with a discount code which will be emailed to you. Or you can email Info@AllianceForNevadaNonprofits.org if you need a member discount code.
Introduced Merri Taylor (Administrative Specialist, To The Point Creative)
- Merri is ANN’s new virtual assistant, as ANN is a virtual organization. She monitor’s ANN’s inbox to get your questions answered and is helping the board with member communication, website/blog and calendar updates, social media and our back-end administrative tasks.
4) State and Federal Policy Challenges for Nonprofits
- Amber Martin-Jahn shared that ANN has been requested to do a presentation at the Nevada Advisory Council on Federal assistance in early February. One of the things we’ve been asked to discuss are some of the policy challenges at a state and federal level that may be a barrier to nonprofit participation in terms of bringing increased federal funds into the state and a barrier to nonprofits working with state agencies and managing those passthrough funds they’re getting from the state. Please reach out to Amber if you have input that you would like us to consider as we prepare to present.
- Dana Serrata shared that ANN participates as an ally member of the National Council of Nonprofits, and they do a great job of tracking nonprofit issues at a federal level, so members will see us sharing information from them, as well as ANN advocating at a state level for the nonprofit communities. If an issue does arise, please reach out to ANN’s board members or email us and we’ll make sure that the issue is on our radar and track what is happening.
5) Member Questions
Q: Judy Andréson, Director for the Family Resource Center in Elko said she was on a conference call with National Alliance for Nonprofits and they were talking about how the tax reform laws are going to affect nonprofits overall and asked for ANN’s insight from Nevada perspective. They also mentioned there may be new employee deductions that we need to be aware of.
A: (Dana) The concern from the national level is because of the tax reform and raising the standard deduction, the thought is that people will not be as charitable in order to get the tax deduction as they have been in the past. Less people will be itemizing their tax returns. Others aren’t concerned because people give for a variety of reasons that don’t have to do with the tax deduction. The consensus is that nonprofits will need to up their game and be strategic in telling their stories so they connect emotionally with donors. We will pass along information as we learn more.
Q: Another member asked about the business tax. Their auditor mentioned that businesses can elect to make a donation to certain nonprofits versus paying their state a business tax.
A: We’ll see what we can find out and post it on the website.
Meeting Adjourned at 2:26 pm