View Research by Author - Erwin de Leon

Erwin de Leon is a research associate at the Urban Institute's Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. He is currently part of a research team examining the breadth and depth of nonprofit government contracting and grants. He has authored or co-authored reports and articles on government contracting and grants, stimulus funding of government programs, community-based immigrant organizations, public education organizations, and alternatives to Gross Domestic Product. He is also a columnist at Feet in 2 Worlds, an immigration news website, and a regular contributor to the Nonprofit Quarterly and the Huffington Post. Prior to joining the Urban Institute, de Leon was a research associate at the Aspen Institute's Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program. He is a PhD candidate in Urban and Public Policy at the New School where he received his MS in Nonprofit Management.

MetroTrends blog

Publications

In The State of Society, measures of national well-being that go beyond gross domestic product (GDP) are identified. Existing indicators and systems are found lacking in assessing the full economic value of caregiving and the contributions of women. This report presents the results of a meeting of leading experts on national indicators convened by the Urban Institute and the Center for Partnership Studies. Participants considered the strengths and weaknesses of existing indicators that measure social wealth, identified measures that need to be developed, and made recommendations for the placement of social wealth indicators in U.S. National Key Indicator System.

Funders want to know that their funds are being used for the purposes intended and are being spent efficiently and effectively. This is especially true when resources are constrained. This report reviews literature on measuring administrative expenses and analyzes the administrative expenses associated with the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG). The administrative expenses of Community Action Agencies that administer CSBG funds are compared to those of similar nonprofit organizations. The study’s findings suggest the need for greater clarity and consistency regarding administrative expenses across federal guidelines; greater training and technical assistance for financial officers who prepare reporting documents; and possibly different benchmarks regarding acceptable levels of administrative expenditures based on size of organization.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), $1 billion was provided to the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) network to supplement existing CSBG funds to alleviate the causes and conditions of poverty in local areas and develop strong, healthy, and supportive communities. This report presents the findings of an extensive evaluation to document the services, promising practices, and challenges that emerged during the CSBG ARRA initiative. ARRA represented an unprecedented infusion of funding, accompanied by increased monitoring and accountability. The lessons learned have valuable implications for CSBG and the CSBG network. Fieldwork was conducted in California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Washington.

Findings from the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy’s National Survey of Nonprofit-Government Contracting and Grants show that a majority of human service organizations in Washington, D.C. are struggling due in part to challenges posed by working with the government in providing programs and services to District residents. At a forum of nonprofit leaders and government representatives, participants confirmed the study’s findings, shed light on issues unique to the city, and proposed initial recommendations to address some contracting challenges.

This compilation of state profiles from the 2010 National Survey of Nonprofit-Government Contracting and Grants, provides national and state-by-state snapshots of human service organizations that have contracts and grants with local, state and federal governments. The individual state profiles are designed to document the extent of nonprofit-government contracting, processes and problems. They also examine the impact of the recession on these organizations and the cutbacks they have made to keep their programs operating. States are also ranked according to number of grants, types of issues, and actions taken by human service nonprofits to address the challenges they face.

This report explores the results of the 2010 National Survey of Nonprofit-Government Contracting and Grants, a study of human service organizations designed to document the extent of nonprofit-government contracting, processes and problems. It also examines the impact of the recession on these organizations and the cutbacks they have made to keep their programs operating. While contracting problems are not new, many are exacerbated by the deep recession that has reduced government budgets and private contributions. Nearly 33,000 human service nonprofits have government contracts and grants, and 9,000 organizations with expenditures over 100,000 were surveyed for this study.

This brief summarizes results of the 2010 National Survey of Nonprofit-Government Contracting and Grants, a study of human service organizations designed to document the extent of nonprofit-government contracting, processes and problems. It also examines the impact of the recession on these organizations and the cutbacks they have made to keep their programs operating. While contracting problems are not new, many are exacerbated by the deep recession that has reduced government budgets and private contributions. Nearly 33,000 human service nonprofits have government contracts and grants, and 9,000 organizations with expenditures over 100,000 were surveyed for this study.

There are more than 19,000 nonprofit organizations devoted to supporting public education in the United States. These organizations include booster clubs, parent-teacher groups, public education funds, scholarship funds, high school alumni associations, and others. This report assesses the current status of education support organizations; provides details on the activities, capacities, and resources of public education funds; and compares Public Education Network member organizations with other types of education funds. On the basis of a survey of public education funds and an analysis of the latest data available from the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the report identifies key similarities and differences among the groups.

This study provides an overview of a broad range of existing measures that go beyond gross domestic product (GDP) to offer a more complete and accurate picture of how a society and its economy are faring. Based on a review of the literature and an analysis of major arguments and rationales for moving beyond GDP as a measure of national well-being, this report identifies 14 categories of national well-being. It synthesizes hundreds of indicators found in 28 reports that present alternative indices and systems of well-being into 79 indicators organized under these categories.

This study examines immigrant integration through the lens of community-based organizations. Based on interviews with nonprofit leaders and an analysis of data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the study found that immigrant-serving nonprofits provide a wide range of programs and services to foreign-born communities which promote the social and political mobility of newcomers. Findings also suggest a potential spatial mismatch between immigrant-serving organizations and the people they serve. The organizations are concentrated in the metropolitan area while immigrant populations are growing in the outer suburbs. Moreover, different political and administrative structures and policies affect the ability of these nonprofits to serve their constituents.

Return to list of authors