THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
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For Immediate Release
December 5, 2000
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Today I am pleased to announce the release of a report by the
Interagency Task Force on Nonprofits and Government identifying exemplary
partnerships between federal agencies and private nonprofit organizations,
highlighting best practices, and providing recommendations for further
federal efforts to support and expand these partnerships.
When Vice President Gore and I were elected eight years ago, one of
our key priorities was to shape a new model for the federal government, one
that neither made government responsible for meeting all of society?s
needs, nor took a hands-off approach, leaving charitable organizations
alone to address the challenges faced in so many communities. Instead, we
sought a third way -- a smaller government, committed to giving people the
tools they need to make the most of their lives, while working in
partnership with its citizens and living within its means.
For this kind of government to work, we must have a strong civil
society, with a thriving network of national and community-based nonprofit
organizations that can marshal the resources of the American people to meet
the challenges before us. We had this in mind when the First Lady and I
hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Philanthropy in October
1999. There I named an interagency task force made up of my White House
staff and representatives of 19 federal agencies to examine one important
facet of the third way: partnerships between the federal government and
nonprofit organizations. I directed members of the task force to identify
the best examples of these private-public partnerships and evaluate the
ways in which they could be improved and replicated.
In thousands of instances large and small, government agencies are
working with national, state, community and faith-based nonprofit
organizations, and in the process, are redefining the role of government in
the 21st century. From AmeriCorps to the Welfare-to-Work Partnership, from
environmental protection to national immunization programs, nonprofit
partnerships are improving the lives of citizens from Florida to Alaska,
Hawaii to Maine.
The role that nonprofit-government partnerships play cannot be
overstated: they make government work better and, in turn, nonprofits are
strengthened by these relationships. As a result, they are an essential
part of our safety net for citizens in need, and when all else fails,
nourish and protect the youngest and most vulnerable among us. These
partnerships help ensure that the arts and humanities flourish, work to
protect our environment and other national treasures, and help foster a
community where neighbors can gather and support one another. In these
ways, and many more, they strengthen and sustain our civil society.
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