The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit Management

More than 100 nonprofit organizations, both national in scope and local groups, have pledged to take part in a ServiceNation Summit, a non-partisan political campaign trying to push the issue of national service to the forefront of American life.

A New York City event scheduled for September 11 and 12 will include a town hall-type forum and is expected to include presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, although not at the same time, summit organizers said. McCain has agreed to appear and the event managers are awaiting word from Obama’s camp.

The ultimate goal is pushing a Voluntary National Service Act through the next Congress and signed into law by September 2009. A national day of action is being pushed for Sept. 27.

Organizers are making a clear distinction between national service and volunteering but also clearly support both, according to Tim Zimmermann, director of communications at Be The Change, which has offices in Cambridge, Mass., and Washington, D.C. Be The Change is the key organizing group, along with City Year, Civic Enterprises, and the Points of Light Institute.

Alan Khazei, CEO of Be The Change, said that the concept is to leverage the national service volunteers to help manage community volunteers. The national service individuals would be stipended through AmeriCorps or other federal programs. “It’s taking to more traditional national service. The statistics show $1 invested brings back $1.50 to $3 in social benefit,” said Khazei.

The hope is to boost the AmeriCorps stipended staff to 1 million by 2020, from the current roughly 70,000, Khazei said.

He said that 500 supporters are expected at the event in New York City. On September 12, leaders representing many sectors of American life will convene to ratify a Declaration of Service and to draw national attention to the platform of ServiceNation. Events around the nation will be held on Sept. 27 that will highlight national service and launch a 12-month campaign pushing for the passage by Congress of a Voluntary National Service Act.

There has long been some controversy between the stipended “volunteers” and those who work in their communities for no financial compensation. Independent Sector, the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization is one of the more than 100 organizations involved. Diana Aviv, chief executive officer of Independent Sector, said that there is common ground.

“Though there are differences between national service and volunteerism, what’s most important is what they share: a commitment to mobilizing individuals to address the important issues facing our communities and our world,” said Aviv. “The nonprofit community and the nation as a whole would be well served to foster both of these types of activities.”

Key financial sponsors for the summit include Time magazine, Carnegie Corporation, AARP, Target, The Case Foundation, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, and philanthropist James J. Jensen. Another key sponsor is the Amelior Foundation in Morristown, N.J., headed by financier Ray Chambers who has bankrolled volunteer efforts, such as the former Points of Light Foundation, for more than a decade.

The ServiceNation movement is comprised of prominent military, civic, academic, and social justice leaders. Among the leaders are: R. Sargent Shriver, Alma Powell, former senators Harris Wofford and Gary Hart, former Montana Gov. Mark Racicot, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, and former Surgeon General Richard Carmona.

John Dilulio, the first head of President George W. Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, is also involved, as are other former members of both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Some of the organizers don’t want the event compared to the Presidents’ Summit in 1997, during which all the former Presidents of the United States (Ronald Regan was represented by Nancy Reagan) descended on Philadelphia to push for volunteerism. It was a call to service that spawned organizations such as the America’s Promise Alliance, but had little long-lasting impact. Many of the people involved with the new summit were involved with the 1997 event.

Khazei is not one who wants the old summit at arm’s-length saying that anything that brings recognition to volunteerism is a good thing.
The organization lists 13 objectives:

Enroll 500,000 Americans annually in a revitalized AmeriCorps national service program, which focuses on key areas such as education, the environment, public health and disaster relief;
Send 100,000 Americans overseas each year through the Peace Corps, Volunteers for Prosperity and Global Service Fellowships;
Engage students in service learning op
portunities by expanding Learn and Serve America to reach 3 million students;
Engage teenagers in a “Summer of Service” to address problems in their own communities;
Provide opportunities to returning war veterans who want to continue to serve their country through a civilian service opportunity at home or abroad;
Make permanent the Citizen Corps and engage 500,000 Americans;
Create a new initiative of “Encore Service Careers” for baby-boomers and seniors;
Offer new support and performance standards for 400 volunteer centers;
Create the permanent National Service Council to play a similar role as the National Security Council and National Economic Council;
Establish a U.S. Public Service Academy;
Convene new Citizen Congresses;
Create regular Youth Constitutional Conventions at the National Constitution Center; and,
Launch a debate about why and how America should become a nation of universal national service by 2020.