Crisis, conflict, social media, and ego are devastating communities across the country, and last week, we saw them lead to an unprecedented attack on our nation’s Capitol. This public display of selfishness and lawlessness violated every ideal of democracy in America. Left buried in the day’s wreckage was what remains of our country’s once proud history of putting service above self – a history defined by the sacrifice of those who have fought to prevent our differences from fulfilling our shared obligation to serve our country, our communities, and each other. The January 6 mob attack was sickening proof that these values, and the community-building civic infrastructure necessary to support them, have been dangerously unattended for too long.

Service to our communities, and our country, is a value that good people from all political parties must find a way to discuss and prioritize as a matter of national policy under a new administration and new Congress. We, in the nonprofit sector, must never forget this moment, or those who have weaponized hypocrisy, privilege, disinformation, and fear to marginalize the principles and people that hold democracies and communities together.

To do that, we will need to collaborate with the public and private sectors to scale our capacity to bring communities together to more effectively engage and collaborate with the volunteers we will need to take on the challenges our democracy now faces.

The Nonprofit Infrastructure Investment Advocacy Group (NIIAG), a national coalition of more than 35 national, regional, and local nonprofits and foundations, is calling on the new administration to invest in supporting and strengthening the civic infrastructure in communities across the country. NIIAG urges Congress to amend the ​National and Community Service Act of 1990 ​to include $350 million in capacity-building grants to:

  • expand the capability of local organizations and agencies to successfully attract and engage the service of volunteers both virtually and in-person
  • accelerate the transformation of the nonprofit sector with greater access to technology, data, and research
  • scale the non-commercial digital backbone for effective cross-sector volunteer mobilization and collaboration in America

Read the full article about volunteer service to expand democracy by Greg Baldwin and Laura Plato at Independent Sector.