By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The Kenton County Mayors Group met at the Villa Hills/Crescent Springs Firehouse Saturday, and the meeting was a little shorter due to possible traffic and road closures with the visit of the president.
Ryan Salzman, Director of Advocacy and Engagement at the Kentucky Non-Profit Network, came to the meeting to explain what he does, and what his organization is all about.
“There are 4,735 501C3 charitable non-profit locations in the state of Kentucky with employees, and 12,000 without,” he said. “In Northern Kentucky there are 370 non-profits with employees, and 1074 total charitable non-profits. They generate $3.1 billion in annual revenue.”
Kentucky Nonprofit Network was first initiated at the University of Kentucky to be a capacity builder for nonprofits, mostly community action commissions.
“Then there was a real push about ten years ago to try and have a voice for capacity building nonprofits to be expanded beyond community action commissions, and also to have a voice for nonprofits down in Frankfort, so they had to spin away from the University of Kentucky,” Salzman explained. “So for the last 15 years or so, we’ve been a separate 501C3 nonprofit ourselves. We are kind of like a Chamber of Commerce, but for nonprofits in Kentucky.”
He said not all the nonprofits are members of KNN. The members do pay dues to the organization but there are a lot of advantages to being a member. Salzman said they can get access to resources that they might need, and they can learn how to do board governance, or how to deal with AI. Many of the things are issues that any organization deal with, but through the lens of the nonprofit, they would have to work on a different level.
“We also do a lot of education,” he said. “Twice a year we do a kind of roadshow that literally goes all across the Commonwealth in about 2 weeks in regional forums.”
He said that the next regional forum will be in Fort Wright, at Dean Dorton, a financial planning firm. They will be covering general updates, but Salzman said that they will be doing a training for AI for nonprofits, which will be helpful for everyone.
“Recently we had a virtual call about the Medicaid changes that are coming,” Salzman said. “That is helpful because if you are familiar with the Medicaid changes that are coming to the work requirements, and volunteer requirements, it is important, since people need to volunteer.”
He told everyone about a conversation his company had with St. Elizabeth, who are trying to help people who are eligible for Medicaid to be able to stay on Medicaid, and the hospital is reaching out to nonprofits, asking if they could accommodate volunteers for 20 hours a week. He said this is where their company comes in. KNN can talk to representatives at St. Elizabeth and find out the needs, and then take those needs to their members.
“So we try to provide those resources to the community, and kind of smooth over the efforts,” Salzman explained. “We also do advocacy work as well. And we had House Bill 480, which is about government contracting, and now, if you have a contract with the government, they have to pay you on time. That was not written in the law before, and we had nonprofits that were having to take out lines of credit, and even using their houses as collateral because the government wasn’t paying on time. It took about three years to get that bill passed.”
Salzman said during the pandemic, the city of Lexington was sitting on a lot of their ARPA money, and they noticed the good things that KNN were doing in Frankfort so they created the Lexington Nonprofit Coalition in order to do local advocacy work. That was followed quickly by the city of Louisville, who told the company they also needed a Coalition, and one was created. Then they had to look at Northern Kentucky, but they needed someone to guide efforts up in this area, so Salzman took the job. One of the things he is dealing with is making sure the nonprofits get the funds from the Opioid settlement.
“We do really well here in Northern Kentucky as it relates to things like opioid funds, and mental health, intellectual disability and aging funds,” Salzman said. “It’s not true all over the state. Not even close. So we are really kind of mirroring and finding those opportunities. The focus of this group is that we are trying to speak with one voice, and make sure we are addressing issues.”
Later in the meeting, County Clerk Gabrielle Summe talked about the election, and the preparations that are going on.
“Unfortunately the days of polling locations being static, where everybody goes, where you go, is over,” Summe said. “We want to put out some information because you are not required to go to a specific location, but we want everyone to plan when and where they are going to go to vote.”
She said the schools are not in good shape for polling places because so many are undergoing construction. Ryland Heights elementary, and Taylor Mill Elementary couldn’t be used, so Summe tried to find locations that were less than a mile from where people were accustomed to voting.
“The biggest impact for people will be next year when Lakeside Christian is not available because they have chosen not to be a polling place,” she explained. “So I don’t know what is going to happen next year. I can just tell people to prepare, do your homework.”
Covington Mayor Ron Washington asked if she had a prediction on voter turnout and she said probably 40 to 45 percent, although they are always hoping for more.
“It’s because this is a super, super long ballot,” she said. “All your cities have school boards, there are some judge races and you’ve got a constitutional amendment, and that is besides the federal issues. So it’s a lot. I put sample ballots on my website, to let people use what is available to them. I want them to be prepared.”