Creating a Community Impact Statement
Why does your school, college or university need a Community Impact Statement?
You’ll find the answers and helpful tips on how to create one in a presentation by MANS&C Legislative Counsel John J. Spillane and Paul A. Belsito, executive assistant to the president of Assumption College for government and community relations.
The presentation was delivered at the Nov. 7 AISNE fall meeting. It covers everything from the public’s perception of nonprofit schools and today’s municipal climate to how to tell your story to an independent audience.
Community Impact Statements detail the social and economic contributions our institutions make to their communities.
Click here to download presentation. [pptx file]
PILOT News Wrapup:
Communities Step Up Demands for Voluntary Payments
Amid growing demands for PILOT programs, the head of the
Association of Independent Schools of New England (AISNE)
recently underscored MANS&C's call for nonprofit schools and
colleges to improve communication with their cities and towns.
Speaking at the spring AISNE Conference, Steve Clem said it is
important that nonprofit schools and colleges recognize the difficult
financial straits in which their cities and towns find themselves.
At the same time, he continued, our institutions must help
communities understand two important points:
- They, too, have been hard hit by the financial crisis in many ways,
including declining enrollments, teacher layoffs, investment losses
and a tougher fundraising climate.
- They are good neighbors and good citizens that are already making
a wide range of significant contributions in cash and in-kind to
their communities – often to the tune of millions of dollars.
"I never hear towns acknowledge this, at least in their public
statements," Clem said.
He noted that in Massachusetts approximately 10 percent of all
K-12 students (about 10,000) are enrolled in private schools. With
a median per-pupil expenditure of $13,000, Massachusetts cities and
towns collectively would have to spend an additional $1.3 billion
annually to educate these students without nonprofit schools.
Clem urges schools to use the term "voluntary payments" rather
than "PILOTs." "When you are providing either cash or in-kind
services to your town, NEVER identify what you provide as a PILOT
or a SILOT [services in lieu of taxes]," he said. "Just using those
terms suggests that you recognize some kind of tax obligation."
In Massachusetts, state law protects nonprofit schools and colleges
from having to pay property taxes.
Channel 5 Report
Pressure is mounting in the media, as well. A news item on Channel
5 recently focused on St. Mark's School in Southborough and
other nonprofit institutions that do not pay property taxes to their
communities. Southborough officials have asked St. Mark's to make
$300,000 in voluntary contributions to the town, a figure the school
says it could not afford.
"They essentially get free services without having to pay any property
tax," according to one Southborough selectman
The school has helped its town pay for a new police cruiser and fire
truck, however, and regularly allows the community to use its facilities
In Brookline, officials claim the town is losing $4 million a year in
property taxes it cannot collect from nonprofits and that gap gets
worse when nonprofit schools buy more property to expand or
house their faculty.
One Brookline official said the taxpayer is paying for the loss of
revenue from property that goes off the tax rolls and also paying for
the town services the nonprofit receives.
As a result, Brookline has secured PILOT agreements from 12
nonprofits, none of them schools or colleges.
Worcester PILOT
In Worcester, city officials and Clark University recently announced
an agreement under which the university will pay $262,000 in lieu of
taxes to the city this year. This amount will increase by 2.5 percent
annually for the next 20 years.
Clark already pays the city about $75,000 annually in property taxes
on non-exempt properties. The new agreement covers 20 taxexempt
Clark properties and will be used to support the Worcester
Public Library and pay for improvements to the neighborhood
where Clark is located.
The Massachusetts Association of Nonprofit Schools and Colleges
At the State House and in town halls across the commonwealth, pressure is mounting on nonprofit schools, colleges and universities in the mistaken belief that we are not paying our fair share.