As the backbone of civil society, nonprofits have a duty to try to prevent the nations broken budget process from undermining public confidence in our democratic process. They also have a strong self-interest in doing so since the budget crisis threatens their ability to advance their particular missions. The nonprofit sector is uniquely equipped with the resources and core competencies to lead a large-scale public education and advocacy campaign in support of bipartisan budget reform. This is not a call for conservatives and progressives within the nonprofit sector to suspend the ideological debate over the size and role of government, but rather a call for them to cooperate in creating an honest and responsible framework for this debate.