LINCOLN — State Sen. Terrell McKinney has a question for nonprofits: What is your plan to alleviate the need for your organization?

“We’ve had feel-good programs for forever, but communities like North Omaha are still the most impoverished,” he said.

Members of the Legislature’s Urban Affairs Committee on Friday heard testimony on a study McKinney proposed looking into the effects of an oversaturation of nonprofits and philanthropy in densely populated, high-poverty areas. The study is underway.

McKinney previously told The World-Herald that his experience growing up and working in North Omaha prompted the study. He saw a lack of investment by businesses, he said, while millions went to nonprofits year after year. He now represents the 11th District, which covers most of North Omaha.

After the hearing, McKinney shared data showing that 34% of people in his district lived in poverty in 1991. In years since, it stayed within a range of about 32% to 41% and was at 33.5% as of 2019.

There’s a need for nonprofits and philanthropists in our communities, McKinney said. But some nonprofits and philanthropists are viewed by some community members as self-serving while operating under a guise of benefiting North Omaha. A term for this, he said: “poverty pimp” — a label that implies profiting from misfortune, not truly wanting to eliminate it.

McKinney said the intent of the study is not to broadly attack nonprofits but to look at how money is being invested — to highlight an imbalance and rethink.

“We have to make sure that all the money isn’t going to nonprofit entities; we have to make sure that we’re doing something as a state to put money into small businesses within the community to help them grow and be sustainable,” he said.

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