logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
    • Glossary
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Newswire | Officials Reconsider Fees on Athletic Fields in Fla.

Rick Cohen
October 13, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

October 13, 2010; Source: St. Petersburg Times | What does it take to make public officials realize that their efforts to eke every last nickel and dime out of nonprofits in the form of increased fees is counterproductive and wrong? It takes nonprofits standing up and saying, enough!

Hernando County, Fla. has been hiking fees for county park users for some time, including parking fees at boat ramps, which residents understood. But county commissioners’ October 1 hike in fees for use of athletic fields by nonprofit youth leagues got a stronger reaction. The youth groups protested, loudly, in numbers, and explained to the commissioners the adverse consequences of making families and nonprofits pay higher and higher costs for kids’ use of public recreation facilities.

The commissioners reacted with what seems to have been a unanimous Gomer Pyle-type “Gaaw-aawl-ly,”—it never struck them that the constantly rising fees might be too costly for lower income families and for hard-pressed nonprofit youth athletic leagues. One commissioner tried to be compassionate, but clearly didn’t get it. He created, he said, a nonprofit—named Play Ball Hernando—to raise money that would help families pay the fees, and he donated the first $500.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

He missed the point completely. Trying to dump the cost of public facilities onto lower income families and the nonprofits that serve them through user-fee charges is just completely wrong-headed. The solution is to stop this silly practice, not to create a nonprofit that might—just might—raise money to help people pay the fee that the County is exacting from the budgets of other nonprofits.—Rick Cohen

 

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Nonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

summer_sidebar_subscribe
You might also like
What is Climate Psychology? An Interview with Climate Psychology Alliance’s Rebecca Weston
Rebecca Weston and Iris M. Crawford
Ruling on Affirmative Action Could Affect Hiring
Isaiah Thompson
The Great Integration Question
Saphia Suarez
Preserving Places of Belonging in Asian America: The Value of Community Voice
Seema Agnani
Economic Justice: Nonprofit Leaders Speak Out
Dr. Akilah Watkins, Nelson I. Colón, Jon Pratt, Marla Bilonick, Clara Miller, Seema Agnani and Gary L. Cunningham
What Can a COVID Outbreak at a Writing Conference Teach Us about Community Care?
Alison Stine

NPQ Webinars

Oct 5th and 6th, 2:00 PM ET

Mastering QuickBooks 2023

Advanced QuickBooks for Nonprofits for Online Users

Register Now
Oct 26th, 2:00 PM ET

Becoming A Great Manager

How to Conspire and Align with the People You Lead

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Summer 2023 issue

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Funders
  • Magazine Art

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.