We had a very productive discussion at our Nonprofit Leadership Roundtable last Friday, March 25, at Chesapeake College. There were two guest presenters: Brooke Hisle from Health Care for All and Marcia Leach, the Director for Training at Chesapeake College.
Brooke reviewed opportunities for subsidized health care coverage for nonprofits in Maryland. That coverage is available for nonprofits with 2-9 tull-time employees earning an average yearly wage below $50,000 that have not offered health coverage to their employees in the previous 12 months. For more information on the Health Insurance Partnership, contact http://mhcc.maryland.gov/partnership or call 410-764-3460. In addition, Brooke explained the new Health Care Tax Credits if you cover at least 50% of your employees’ health insurance premiums, employ 25 or fewer full-time equivalent employees, and have employees that earn an average of $50,000 or less. You can get these credits as a direct payment even if you are tax exempt. For more information on the tax credits, visit the IRS website and search for “Form 8941″: www.irs.gov.
We also discussed the Calendar and Nonprofit Forum on the MSCF website. There are regular entries on the Calendar but very little usage of the Nonprofit Forum. It was the view of those present that a list of email addresses for nonprofit executive directors would be just as useful. They also suggested that we eliminate the password control on the calendar. We will look into both of these and let you know what we decide. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on these services, send me a note with your comments.
I announced that we expected to host one final workshop this year on May 19 at Chesapeake College. The topic would be planned giving programs for nonprofits. We will post more information on the website in the very near future.
Lastly, Marcia Leach reviewed other training opportunities for nonprofits in the Chesapeake college non-credit course schedule. The Foundation has established a fund to cover the fees for these couses for employees and volunteers of Mid-Shore nonprofits. We will simply allocate funds on a first come, first serve basis to those nonprofits that request funding from the Foundation. We will announce more detailed procedures shortly.
As you can see, there are a number of important, new opportunities for area nonprofits. We will continue to explore ways to enhance our services and expand training opportunities.
Stuart
