Denver needs to change its nonprofit funding priorities. Some nonprofit organizations have to curtail their activities due to lack of funds, and others have so much money they can’t spend it all.
The Colorado Symphony Orchestra recently announced a drastic cutback in services, yet the Denver Botanic Gardens has so much taxpayer money that it spends it for events unrelated to the gardens and it competes with private businesses in ventures that are completely outside its mission.
I own Denver Urban Homesteading. In October, we sponsored the Second Annual Denver Chicken Coop Tour. This tour allows the public to get a down-to-earth education in chickens, ducks, goats, bees and chicken coop design and construction by visiting the homes of people who own them.
We also host a free monthly Chicken Swap, where people buy and sell chickens, ducks, rabbits and goats. And we sell organic chicken feed and chicken coops. That is an outgrowth of a campaign I began three years ago to change Denver’s chicken laws.
During this process, I created a school for urban agriculture, an indoor, year-round farmers’ market, and the events mentioned above to promote using animals for pets and for food production.
This is our mission, and we do it because we believe in self-sufficiency, knowing where our food comes from, the joy of getting closer to the land, reducing environmental degradation, and the humane treatment of animals.
However, this year, the Denver Botanic Gardens decided to hold its own chicken coop tour on the same date and time as ours, and even offered chicken coops for sale. Of course, our tour attendance was down significantly due to this, and we may have lost coop sales to them.
The mission of the Denver Botanic Gardens is stated on its website: “to connect people with plants.” That is the basis on which they get millions of local tax dollars each year. And with that money, the gardens holds activities that are completely outside its mission, such as yoga classes, dog play events, financial investment seminars and even bridal trade shows.
This is unnecessary spending that duplicates work done by the private sector, and what with the limited city funding available for our cultural institutions, perhaps some of this overfunding should be redirected elsewhere, such as to the symphony.
Their mission is also the basis on which they are granted an exemption from taxes as a charity, under 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code. That designation is granted by the IRS if a group is “lessening the burden of government.” What burden of government is the Denver Botanic Gardens lessening by holding chicken coop tours or yoga classes? Not only is it not a burden of government to host these events, but private enterprises are already doing them.
One of Mayor Michael Hancock’s stated priorities is to foster private enterprises engaged in local agriculture. We are one of those enterprises, albeit growing without any government support and paying all taxes. And, meanwhile, our tax money and that of others is being given to organizations that compete with us.
This is unfair competition. It is counterproductive for the city to subsidize a nonprofit which then competes with those of us scratching around in the dirt to make a living.
What to do about it? I say let’s use some of our tax money to pay the Botanic Gardens to grow its beautiful gardens and the symphony to play its beautiful music.
But then let’s allow the rest of us to promote sustainable living practices or to do the other things at which we are expert without having to look behind our backs at a nonprofit organization that has too much chicken feed and is squeezing others out of the coop.
James Bertini of Denver is a retired lawyer who has raised vegetables in his backyard since he was 10.
