Legislative Visits

Earlier this week, I visited our nation’s capital to attend the annual meeting of KNN’s membership organization, the National Council of Nonprofits. Despite the long to do list that I generate as a result of this trip, I love these meetings. The great ideas and connections with our peers from other state associations of nonprofits strengthen our ability to best meet your needs for education, training, consulting services and money & time-saving member benefits.

The annual meeting includes participation in the National Council’s Lobby Day. This year, I visited with Representatives Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth and the staff of both Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative Hal Rogers. Our direct messages this year reinforced what we have all known to be true about our sector: nonprofits are critical to job creation and policies that encourage giving and volunteering are essential to our sector’s ability to meet community needs. In addition, some nonprofits are essential government partners in providing services and the terms of these partnerships must be honored.

These legislative visits reiterate for me the considerable responsibility KNN has to both educate and advocate on behalf of the nonprofit sector, our members and the neighbors we serve. Sharing the stories of our sector, your stories, with these elected officials and their staff is an honor. Supporting your work to strengthen our neighborhoods, our communities, our commonwealth is a mission we are passionate about! Thank you for the opportunity to partner with you to make Kentucky a better place to live. Please share with us ways that we can better serve you, strengthen this partnership and build a formidable collective voice for our nonprofit sector.