​Hawai’i Pacific Parks Association announced that it, along with its national park partners, has won an Honorable Mention Award in the Outstanding Public Engagement category at the Public Lands Alliance Convention and Trade Show in Denver.
This honor was awarded to the association’s Hawaii National Park Specialty License Plate Program to benefit Haleakala and Hawaii Volcanoes National Parks.
These awards celebrate the best in public lands partnerships and honor individuals, organizations, publications, products, programs and services that embody leading-edge achievements in the preservation of public lands and the enrichment of the visitors’ experiences.
The first specialty license plates in Hawaii became available from local DMV offices on Aug. 1, 2017, the 101st anniversary of the establishment of the two parks, originally known as Hawaii National Park. Designed by Ian Ryan of Sae Design, the plates feature colorful, iconic scenes, such as Kilauea Volcano erupting, and the nene, the revered Hawaiian state bird and a conservation success story. The program was authorized by a 2015 state law to raise funds for resource protection and education projects at Haleakala and Hawaii Volcanoes national parks.
The specialty license plates program is doubly beneficial because plate purchases and annual renewal fees mean an ongoing income stream for park programs. Because HPPA understands that nonresident park visitors still want to support the parks, it created merchandise items including a keychain spinner showing both national park plates and, for Haleakala National Park, a line that includes travel mugs, stickers, postcards and plate replicas.
​https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/license-plate-program-earns-award-parks-michael-towner

​A new specialty Massachusetts license plate is paying tribute to Dr. Seuss. The design featuring “The Cat In The Hat” celebrates the legacy of Springfield native Theodor Geisel.

“Dr. Seuss’s creativity has inspired generations to dream big and his own ingenuity taught millions the joy of learning,” said Sen. James T. Welch, of West Springfield, in a statement. “We’re lucky to be able to call Dr. Seuss our own here in Springfield and these license plates will be a reminder to all residents of the Commonwealth of the joy and impact his stories and illustrations have made in all of our lives—forever joining the spirit of Seuss and Massachusetts.”

Proceeds from sales of the plate will benefit the Springfield Museums, where the Amazing World Of Dr. Seuss Museum opened in 2017. In California, the 'Snoopy' plate proceeds go to California museums.

At least 750 people need to apply for the specialty plate before the Registry of Motor Vehicles produces it. The cost for the special plate is $40.

Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito will be at the museum Thursday to officially announce the plate. An auction for license plate numbers 1-99 will be held at a later date.

Just weeks ago it was announced that a new Dr. Seuss book will be coming out this fall, 28 years after Geisel’s death.

​BATON ROUGE — Steve Gleason, the New Orleans Saints legend whose off-the-field work for those stricken with ALS earned him the Congressional Gold Medal this year, may soon be honored with a Team Gleason specialty license plate.
Members of the House Transportation Committee unanimously approved a bill by Rep. Walt Leger to create the specialty plate.
Proceeds from the plate would benefit the Team Gleason Foundation, which funds research for assistive technology for those rendered immobile from neuromuscular diseases like Gleason himself.
Gleason will always be remembered for his blocked punt on the night the New Orleans Superdome reopened for the first time after Hurricane Katrina against arch rival Atlanta.

The longest U.S. government shutdown in history has the already overburdened nonprofit world on alert. The National Council of Nonprofits joined the National Governors Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in condemning politics as usual when it sent a letter to President Trump and members of Congress, calling the shutdown "a tragic failure of leadership" with "very real and lasting consequences."

Tim Delaney, president of the charity advocate, said in an interview that the shutdown is "an unnatural disaster."

But there isn’t time to dwell. People in need are looking to community-based organizations for assistance, ranging from basic nutrition to help with their taxes. And some of those funds are drying up as a result of the shutdown.

Sabeen Perwaiz Syed, executive director of the Florida Nonprofit Alliance, said a major source of funding for domestic-violence shelters are in jeopardy because they come from grants received through the Violence Against Women Act and the Victims of Crime Act, both administered by the Department of Justice. Syed said eight groups in the state are in talks to reduce staff within the next three weeks because of a funding lapse.

Jessica Castello, assistant director of the Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County in South Bend, Ind., told the Chronicle that about 40 percent of its operating budget comes from the Department of Justice because the group is a grantee of the Office on Violence Against Women.

Similarly, Beth Goodrich, executive director of the Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said 32 shelters serve the state’s 75 counties. All of them are still operating, but that might not be the case in a month.

"When no one is present at DOJ to process reimbursement requests, state administrators cannot draw down those funds and they cannot reimburse local programs," she said in an email. "For some programs, it simply eliminates a position or two in the agency, for others it makes up a majority of their total funding."

She added: "The longer the shutdown continues, the scarier this becomes not only for the agencies but for victims themselves. They begin to question, How long will I have a place to live? Some people who have left abusive partners may feel they have limited choices on where to turn if the program that is assisting them now has to close."

Steve Taylor, senior vice president for public policy at United Way Worldwide, said he expects increased pressures on local organizations, especially ones that are helping federal workers and contractors who may not have ever needed goods or services from a nonprofit previously.

The fate of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, may be among the top worries for many advocates of the poor. For now, the benefits continue to flow, but the shutdown could interrupt SNAP assistance if it drags on much longer.

"We regard the SNAP benefits as fundamental to do what we do, so much so that we think helping people get their SNAP benefits is almost as important to us as distributing food."

In fact, the first thing the staff asks people coming through the door is, "Are you eligible for SNAP benefits?"

Bogan said his organization is preparing for its 11th annual fundraising event, the "Fill the Bag Benefit" in March.

The shutdown has also created financial concerns for individuals getting ready to file taxes. While the Trump administration has promised that the Internal Revenue Service will do what is necessary to send refund checks, Taylor is skeptical, partly because there may be a learning curve with the new tax code.

By Julian Wyllie  Read more here.

Kanye West pledged $10 million to back the completion of artist James Turrell’s work-in-progress, the Roden Crater Project.

Turrell has been working on the project since the 1970s to convert a dormant volcanic crater in the Painted Desert near Flagstaff, Ariz., into a series of viewing spaces, tunnels, chambers, and pathways that will offer visitors a variety of visual and auditory experiences.

West is a musician and record producer. Along with a number of different business ventures, he founded the production company and record label Good Music in partnership with Sony BMG.

Charleston, South Carolina – November 3, 2018 – As part of a move to small ‘decal’ size images for license plates in South Carolina, the ‘Protect Wild Dolphins’ license plate, designed by marine artist Steve Diossy, will be replaced in the new year. South Carolina DMV and Michael D Towner, CEO of Iconic Legacy, have begun the process of redesigning and approval for the reduced decal design and it should be completed and replace the original design in January, 2019.
 
Michael D Towner was responsible for the development of the program, along with the Protect Wild Dolphins license plate program in Louisiana. In Lousiana the full color plates are produced at the state prison, and by a machine invented in the early 1900s at Angola, a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former slave plantation that occupied the territory. Louisiana is continuing the use of full color designed plates. Georgia reverted back to full color designs from the decal design, after a significant decrease in specialty license plate sales due to an increase in registration fees.
Other states are looking to change the colorful specialty plate designs to a decal design, including Florida, where there are 123 specialty license plates. The DMV routinely cites uniformity and law enforcement as principal reasons for this move, but there is conflicting evidence on whether the distinctively designed full color plates actually help rather than hinder law enforcement in identifying would-be offenders’ vehicles.
The funds from the Protect Wild Dolphins license plate in South Carolina currently go to EarthEcho International, headed by Phillippe Cousteau Jr, the son of Jan and Philippe Cousteau Sr., and the grandson of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the iconic oceanographer. Philippe was born in Santa Monica, California and grew up between France and the United States, attending college in St Andrews, Scotland. He and his wife Ashlan are the stars of The Travel Channel’s newest series Caribbean Pirate Treasure.
EarthEcho International is a nonprofit organization founded on the belief that youth have the power to change our planet. “South Carolina has a strong marine heritage and a dynamic and beautiful environment.” Philippe states, “This funding enables us to work with strong local partners to enhance ocean and marine mammal education and conservation throughout the state and encourage its citizens to continue to be active stewards of the environment.”
Towner says that he hopes the design change will not adversely affect the program and is awaiting information from South Carolina DMV on statistics showing any changes to sales for license plates that have already undergone the switch from full color to the decal format. Unfortunately, it may take at least six years to evaluate the effects due to the two-year renewal process and the ability to keep the existing license plate until the mandatory ten-year plate replacement.
Michael Towner says that the new design will be a combination of the original full color design and the slogan ‘Protect Wild Dolphins’ and the draft will be available for viewing and comments in December on the website: ProtectSouthCarolinaDolphins.com.

​The fee from the purchase of the license plate is $60.00 every two years in addition to the regular motor vehicle registration fee, a portion of the fees collected has been specifically earmarked to assist local organizations and agencies who have the required credentials, licenses and permits to collect, analyze and archive scientific data regarding the dolphin population in South Carolina waters. 

​Towner advises that the primary component of the South Carolina ‘Protect Wild Dolphins’ program is the development of educational content, support of scientific research, and development and implementation of innovative conservation initiatives. Funding is used by EarthEcho International for specific education and conservation programs, directed at strengthening and supporting existing regional efforts to protect the environment, wild dolphins, and their coastal habitats and for scientific research conducted through collaborative efforts.  
Learn more at www.ProtectSouthCarolinaDolphins.com

​Jonathan Soros, an investment manager who is one of George Soros’s five children, wants nonprofits to raise money online without spending on pricey software.
So, in a move that’s raised some eyebrows, he and his wife, Jennifer, founded Give Lively, a company that started offering free digital-fundraising software to charities a year ago.
The company provides the basics: a way to generate donation forms for websites and emails. But it also gives charities the ability to raise money through text messages, the means to have supporters create their own fundraising pages, and, soon, a tool to sell event tickets. Nonprofits pay only a relatively small, but standard, payment-processing fee.
The couple wants to save nonprofits money and deliver online-fundraising services that are just as strong as what’s on the market today — if not stronger, says Jonathan Soros, 48.
Jonathan says he and Jennifer are not out to make money. Because the company offers free services, the couple — mostly known for backing liberal causes — sees it as a philanthropic project, despite Give Lively’s status as a limited-liability company rather than a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Jonathan Soros likened the couple’s funding of Give Lively to an "impact investment," albeit one where no profit will be made. Effectively what we’re doing is subsidizing the entire field of nonprofits that use this product," he says.
Most of the nonprofits that have used Give Lively so far are small. Still, some have recognizable names, like the Malala Fund, StoryCorps, and the Women’s March L.A. Foundation.
The company might be one to watch if it catches on with lots more nonprofits, experts say. But many nonprofit tech consultants and people who work at competing companies are skeptical of its offerings.
Civic Nation, which launched in 2015 and houses an array of advocacy and awareness campaigns, started using Give Lively’s donation pages starting in mid-2017, says Jenn Brown, the group’s executive director. The products are simple to use, she says, and "by far the best deal for our nonprofit."
Today, the charity, which projects that it will raise about $10 million this year, uses the company’s text-appeal services and its tool to allow donors to create fundraising pages for campaigns.
"As a nonprofit, my number one priority is to ensure as much money as possible is going toward the causes that people are donating in support of," she says. "So my priority is to work with online processors who charge us the lowest fees possible."
To generate a profit, other companies that offer similar products to Give Lively's tack on fees — sometimes up to 5 percent, depending on the service being used and how large the nonprofit is, experts say. Most providers also ask charities to pay for a monthly or annual subscription, with the price based on how large the transaction fees are.
By not asking for any payments beyond transaction fees charged by Stripe, a payment processor, Give Lively is a veritable unicorn. Its promise of free software is virtually unheard of in the nonprofit-tech space.
And that’s made some observers skeptical. How can a software company continue to grow, improve its tools, and compete with the likes of Classy, Network for Good, and Blackbaud with only one source of funding and no revenue?
"Seems unsustainable," says Sarah Sebastian, director of brand communications at Qgiv, a company that also offers digital-fundraising tools.
Some have questioned whether there’s another agenda. For instance, is the company looking to hook a lot of nonprofits by giving away services, only to sell its company to another vendor?
The answer to that is "no," DeParolesa says. "Our ethos is such that the idea of selling to a for-profit entity is sort of the antithesis of how we began," he says.
In late August, the Soroses approved a company statement drafted by DeParolesa called the "Forever Free Pledge." The pledge promises that all Give Lively’s current services — and some items still in the works, like the event-ticketing tool — will be free in perpetuity to all users, with no commitments. "We will never charge any annual fees, setup fees, hidden fees, or platform fees for our Forever Free Services," says the statement, which went online in August. "We pledge to offer each of our Forever Free Services for so long as we run each service."
A footnote at the bottom of the pledge says: "Stop trying to find a catch. There’s no catch."
Give Lively has some limitations.
The company can integrate its fundraising tools only with Salesforce. That means charities using other donor databases — like Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge — won’t get supporter data sent directly to their systems. They’ll have to download it and then manually import it into their databases — creating an administrative task that many charities don’t like.
Give Lively will be investigating ways to work with other fundraising software this year, but DeParolesa is unsure how long it’ll take to offer such services.
Today, nonprofits also need to use the payment processor Stripe as part of their Give Lively account. That service typically takes two days to verify credit-card payments for nonprofits. It takes seven days for contributions made by donors directly from their bank accounts. Among other reasons, the company uses Stripe because it offers good rates for processing nonprofit donations, DeParolesa says.
Give Lively, however, will start allowing nonprofits to use PayPal as its payment processor later this year, which charges fees similar to Stripe’s, but can send money to nonprofits faster in most cases.
Jonathan Soros acknowledges that it might be hard to get nonprofits that are used to doing business with other companies to join Give Lively.
"The transaction cost of shifting is not zero," Soros says.
Still, he thinks all nonprofits — no matter their size — care about saving money: "It really feels difficult to hand over a percentage of your revenue to anybody, whether you’re small or large."
​Michael Towner

​A test website for the Single Portal Initiative — a central electronic system that would allow charities to register in multiple states — went online Monday, announced state charity officials at a conference.
The new effort allows nonprofit officials to test the site and enroll their organizations to solicit donations in Connecticut and Georgia.
Charities should be able to register with more states by mid-February 2019 during a second testing phase, said Chad Canfield, operations manager for the charitable-trust section of the Office of the Attorney General of Michigan.
As more states join and charities provide their feedback, the site will be improved, he said. "What you see today or what you see tomorrow when you go back and look isn’t what the project is going to look like in six months or a year from now," Canfield said.
The idea for the Single Portal Initiative has been in the works for many years, Canfield noted. The goal of the project is to provide a central online registration system for charities and professional fundraisers to fill out for their annual registrations in multiple states.
The system would save charities time and money, officials say, because nonprofits would only have to enter in certain data and submit key documents — such as an informational tax form 990 — once. For many charities, the system would replace the bureaucratic labyrinth of completing applications — and often submitting the same documents — for multiple states.
The test website launched Monday allows only charities to register, not third-party fundraisers — a feature the project’s developers expect to add. Other features they hope will come later include an analytics tool that will help charity regulators detect fraud and negligence, said Joshua Goldstein, vice president for product at CityBase, which is part of the development team on the site for state officials.
State officials also want charity data to be automatically entered from the Forms 990 that organizations file with the Internal Revenue Service, he said.
Currently, the test site has separate fields to enter some of the same data for registration in both Connecticut and Georgia, Goldstein noted — though the goal is for charities to enter each piece of information only once to register with many states.
The bigger aim, he said, is for the registration process to become much faster. "If you’re a charity and you decide to register in a state, you should be able to complete that registration same day, if not same hour," he said, "and that’s our ambition."
​Michael Towner

According to the USDA, 1 in 6 Louisiana households with more than 784,000 family members struggle to put food on the table. 1 in 20 households report skipping meals because they don’t have enough money for food.

In Louisiana, 23% of seniors, nearly 1 in 4, face the threat of hunger. This ranks Louisiana as the second worst state for senior hunger.

Feeding America estimates that 1 in 4 Louisiana children live in households that are food insecure. In several rural parishes one-third of children are food insecure.

Louisiana offers a Feeding Hope specialty license plate. Feeding Louisiana opted to not use the John Lennon self-portrait image that is used on the 'Imagine' license plate for Feeding Florida, which has raised nearly $4 million so far.
​
​In FY 2016, 4 'Solving Hunger, Feeding Hope' specialty license plates were sold in Louisiana, in FY 2017, 1 was sold and in FY 2018, 6 were sold.
​Michael Towner