Esta ley crea el Programa de Pasantías de Capacitación para Organizaciones sin Fines de Lucro en Puerto Rico. El programa, administrado por un Comité Conjunto, busca capacitar a miembros de organizaciones sin fines de lucro y corporaciones especiales de empleados en áreas de gestión como liderazgo, planificación, administración y recaudación de fondos, a través de pasantías en organizaciones con experiencia. La ley establece la composición del Comité Conjunto, la aprobación de reglamentos para la implementación del programa, y asigna fondos para su operación.
(Approved September 23, 2004)
To create the Training Internships for Nonprofit Organizations Program and to provide for its administration, regulations and financing.
Our contemporary world has witnessed a redefinition of the role of the state. With the concept of a benefactor state that is in charge of addressing social needs, the vision has emerged of the state as an enabler that promotes intersectoral collaboration and initiatives based on communities. The rise of multiple private citizen or citizen group initiatives with purposes widely varied in nature has been a catalytic agent of change and at the same time a consequence thereof. Many of such initiatives have been consolidated into nonprofit organizations as legally conceived, in other words, into non governmental entities legally constituted under the laws of the state as nonprofit corporations and established for public purposes, thereby qualified to be tax exempt.
There is no doubt that such entities contribute to the strengthening of democracy and citizen participation, since they operate based upon the ethics of social investment and collective development, and they stand out for the large diversity of the products and services they offer to society, as well as the fact that, given their origin and their openness to diverse theoretical frameworks and strategies, they tend to strengthen more efficient, effective
and timely affirmative responses to address the particular needs and interests of individuals and social groups, and because they prioritize preventive and proactive labor with respect to social problems and needs.
As with all human capital organizations, nonprofit organizations need to develop the skills required to accomplish the activities they perform. The culture of the organization compels continuous education of members, or in other words, the acquisition of competencies, as well as motivation and selfempowerment. In this regard, the study of values, theoretical frameworks and methodologies particular to these organizations is important. However, training in technical aspects pertaining to the structure and operations of these organizations is also important.
Nevertheless, a large majority of nonprofit organizations are small, lowincome community entities that are hardly able to face the expenses that these training processes entail. Therefore, in recognition of these organizations' endeavors that are supplementary and complementary to governmental action, and in response to them, the state should contribute to the establishment of a solid support infrastructure that includes the empowerment of alternatives for such training.
Section 1.- The Training Internships for Nonprofit Organizations Program, is created attached to the Legislative Donations Office, which shall be developed and administered by a Joint Committee, is hereby created pursuant to Section 3.
Section 2.- The purpose of the Program shall be to enable the members of the nonprofit organizations incorporated as such pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and of the special employee owned corporations established pursuant to Act No. 74 of August 29, 1990, to learn
the operations of local and foreign organizations with solid experience, which shall allow them to develop their capabilities in management areas such as leadership, community development, planning, administration, drafting of proposals, adoption of new technology, conflict resolution, evaluation and measuring of results, fund raising, public relations, and the coordination and development of projects.
Section 3.-Joint Committee The Training Internships for Nonprofit Organizations Program Joint Committee is hereby created, which shall be in charge of the development and administration of said Program. The Committee shall consist of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, the Chairpersons of the Committee on Ways and Means and on Education, Science and Culture of both Houses and one member of each minority party in the House and the Senate, appointed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. The Chairperson of the Committee on Education, Science and Culture of the Senate shall chair the Committee for two consecutive years, to be subsequently replaced by the Chairperson of the Committee on Education and Culture of the House every two years. Members of the Joint Committee of the Training Internships Program may appoint other members of the legislative Chamber to substitute them during their absence, for all legal purposes, in the Joint Committee of the Training Internships Program works. For their participation in the meetings of the Joint Committee, the members thereof shall receive the per diem established by law with respect to attendance to legislative sessions and committee meetings. The decisions of the Joint Committee of the Training Internships Program shall be decided by simple majority vote.
The Joint Committee of the Training Internships Program shall approve Bylaws not later than sixty (60) days as of the approval of this Act. Said Bylaws shall include all rules, procedures and considerations necessary for the implementation of the Program, including the appointment of an Executive Director of the Program and the determination of his/her salary, the criteria for the selection of candidates for the internships, which shall be part of the small or medium nonprofit organizations that do not have internal programs or sufficient resources to defray the expenses for training their personnel, the criteria for their coordination with nonprofit organizations that are able to participate as training centers, the criteria to ascertain the amount of the scholarships to be awarded to the interns and the scope thereof, the annual evaluation of the results of the Program, and any other matters that the Committee deems pertinent. The Committee shall make the Bylaws as flexible as necessary so that the needs of the candidates and the nonprofit organizations of which they are members may be addressed adequately and individually.
The amount of one hundred fifty thousand $(150,000)$ dollars is hereby appropriated from unencumbered Commonwealth Treasury funds to the Legislative Donations Office to defray the operational expenses of the Training Internships for Nonprofit Organizations Program during fiscal year 2004-2005. A budgetary appropriation of an equal amount shall be consigned annually for subsequent years as a separate item in the budget of the Legislative Donations Office.
The Training Internships for Nonprofit Organizations Program is hereby authorized to solicit and receive other private, municipal, Commonwealth
and federal contributions for the purpose of complying with this task. Section 6.-Report The Joint Committee of the Training Internships Program shall render to the Legislature of Puerto Rico an annual report on its implementation and status.
Section 7.- Effectiveness This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval, with the exception of Section 7, which shall take effect on July 1, 2004.
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 462 (S.B. 2434) of the $7^{ ext {th }}$ Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to create the Training Internships for Nonprofit Organizations Program and to provide for its administration, regulations and financing, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $29^{ ext {th }}$ of May of 2007.
Francisco J. Domenech Director