Senate Bill S8873

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S8873

SPONSOR: PARKER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the not-for-profit corporation law, in relation to
requiring certain not-for-profit corporations have a board of directors
which reflects the ethnic demographics of the communities that they
serve

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This bill would require non-profits that receive funding from the state
to have boards that reflect the ethnic makeup of the communities that
they serve.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Non-profit shall not accept state funds unless the board of
directors consists of directors which reflect the ethnic demographics of
the communities that that non-profit serves.
              

Section 2: Effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

By receiving state funds, non-profits are entrusted to fulfill a vital
duty for the communities that they serve in. In order to fully under-
stand the needs of those communities and remain accountable to them, it
would assist in the execution of those duties if the boards of non-pro-
fits accepting state funds were demographically similar to those commu-
nities. By having boards that are as ethnically diverse as the communi-
ties they serve in, they may be better able to relate to shared
experiences of those communities and better identify problems and
solutions that are within their scope of service to address. As data
bears out that ethnically diverse police departments provide better
service to ethnically diverse communities, the same may be true for
non-profits that use public resources.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

There is no fiscal impact to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become law.