The Art of Collaboration

I had the pleasure of meeting Jerry Adams about a year ago and the pleasure of seeing the Human Services Coalition (HSC) of Prince George's County in action at a conference this summer. What the HSC does is fantastic! It leverages its members' capabilities and helps those Nonprofits build capacity. There cannot be a more important time than now for Nonprofits to come together, share resources and support one another. I am reminded that whatever issues we face in our communities, it is usually Nonprofits at the forefront of solving those issues and providing service. I hope this article gives you some great ideas and be sure to visit their website to see how dynamically the HSC is serving its community. Bunnie

The Art of Collaboration: The Human Services Coalition of
Prince George’s County

by Jerry Adams, Executive Director

Incorporated in 2001 the Human Services Coalition of Prince George’s County (HSC) has hit its stride over the last three years. HSC has gone through the pretty typical growth pattern that many if not all emerging nonprofits that are now members of the coalition go through. We pretty much serve as an example to our member organizations as to how to become a sustainable nonprofit organization. Here is what has transpired:

The founders of the HSC were themselves executive directors of thriving nonprofits in Prince George’s County. They saw an extreme need for an organization that would 1) build the capacity of so many struggling nonprofits to deliver the best services to more people, and 2) advocate for resources and public policies that would enable nonprofits to be more effective and efficient. As with most start-up nonprofits, they had very limited funds. They committed themselves to be the volunteers who would start addressing the capacity building and advocacy needs with the help of a part-time consultant. After the first two years of trying to develop a program offering that was based on grouping organizations into affinity groups according to the type of services they provided (Youth, Aging, Disability, etc.), the leadership felt that they were not being very effective. The organization had no clear membership, and no committee structure to engage members in the work of the coalition. Something had to change.

In 2003, two of the HSC leaders went to visit the Howard County Association of Community Services, a very successful coalition of service provider organizations, to see how they were structured. Upon their return, they recommended a complete restructuring of the HSC. A Membership dues-paying structure was implemented. Four new committees were formed to engage the membership in developing and delivering a set of services to members: Membership, Public Policy, Programs, and Annual Conference Committees were formed. A part-time administrator was hired (still didn’t have much financial support). The board surveyed members to see what interests the members had. Membership meetings were based on those interests.

By 2004, the structure was in full swing and a small grant was awarded by United Way to replace not augment the previous funding. Most members felt that the organization’s offerings were not robust enough to impact on building capacity, and to make a difference with regard to advocating on behalf of the sector. During the next two years, membership dues, and corporate sponsorships from the annual conference provided the HSC with a growing fund balance. In 2006, the board decided to make a bold move to hire an executive director who could take the organization to the next level.

Since that time, the membership has seen a more than 100% increase. The organization’s budget has increased from $50,000 to over $300,000. These funds represent a growing awareness in the funding community and the county government of the value to all of the citizens of Prince George’s County of having an entity that can help nonprofits be more effective, and that can advocate on their behalf. These funds have come from a variety of sources and support significant new programs. HSC now operates an historic Nonprofit Incubator program funded through the Community Development Block Grant program. The Incubator provides core training, peer mentoring and professional executive coaching to 11 nonprofits. HSC has applied to the US Department of Health and Human Services for $500,000 to expand this effort to more than 20 additional nonprofits, and be able to re-grant $200,000 to some of those nonprofits.

HSC has a vibrant Public Policy agenda that has three sub-committees (made up of members and chaired by board members) that are seeking to 1) work with county departments to improve the efficiency of payments to nonprofits that contract with those departments, 2) seek to influence the development of the county budget so as to see the allocation of more funds to nonprofits, and 3) pass an ordinance requiring that a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) be part of every development and re-development plan that goes forward through the Planning Division. This effort is supported by a grant from the Washington Area Women’s Foundation as each of the public policy initiatives will assist single women headed households with children under 18 and incomes under $40,000 to achieve financial security. The Women’s Foundation grant allows HSC’s Public Policy Committee to have the support of a professional public policy consultant.

HSC continues to have wonderful support from the Prince George’s County Executive, and has recently been awarded a grant from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation for general operating. We enjoy ongoing collaboration with other funders and capacity building organizations. The Partnership for Prince George’s, a philanthropic effort hosted by the Prince George’s Community Foundation, has funded HSC to develop a public policy initiative concerning the county budget. We also collaborated on hosting three excellent forums on advocacy seeking to get more of our members comfortable with joining the advocacy efforts.

The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation funded our strategic planning effort that will be our guide for the next five years. They have also asked HSC to submit a proposal for general operating funds as they see that we have reached the limit of our current staff, space and equipment capacity to expand our work to help more nonprofits succeed and thrive. In light of the dire economic times, HSC hosted a dynamic one-day Nonprofit Survival Kit Summit that encouraged member organizations to collaborate, share resources and otherwise help each other survive. A panel of funders also told members what they had to do in this new economy to attract funds ... COLLABORATE! ... our theme for the year.

Friendraising

Nonprofits can't afford to do business as usual, they have to get creative and try new strategies. When I came across Jenifer Daniel's website and I saw that she calls herself a "friendraiser" I was fascinated. What does that mean? Jenifer explains below that friendraising is all about cultivating relationships not just donations. Bunnie

In the past few years, nonprofits had experienced healthy growth in terms of dollars raised. The industry saw record years for fundraising across America with natural disasters and free flowing credit. However, the current recession is presenting challenges for all organizations.

Organizations must now deal with shrinking donations and reductions in services. Many arts and culture organizations are on the brink of collapse with some even closing their doors.

Now more than ever, nonprofits need friends. Unfortunately, most do not know or understand the strategic ways in which they could obtain them.

I have worked on developing strategies that help organizations transition their fundraising activities to friendraising activities such as: obtaining new friends, educating them on your mission, mobilizing them to act as advocates and acknowledging their efforts for doing so.

Obtaining New Friends

Easier said than done right? Not necessarily so. With the rise of social networks, it is easier than ever to find and cultivate new friends. The problem is that most groups don’t know how to use social networking effectively. Some groups believe that ‘virtual friends’ aren't friends at all. But they are incorrect. Virtual friends function in a world that is unfamiliar to nonprofit organizations. NPs are so used to doing the work of their surrounding community that they miss the virtual community.

Some of these new friends belong to multiple networks, have several email accounts and have lived in several states before the age of 35. These virtual friends are ripe for the picking and they are multi-taskers – the perfect new friend to have for the longevity of your organization.
You want these new friends in your fold. You will benefit from them today by cultivating new avenues of fundraising, developing a service minded volunteer core and as future potential leaders for your board.

Educating Your Friends

What good is it to obtain the friends if you don’t include them in your mission? You should be using this time to educate them. Host them in your location, tell them what you do and explain to them how vital it is in the community. They will see that their participation is needed and required and they will do what they need to make sure that your organization survives. Educating your friends expands your staff exponentially.

Mobilizing Current Friends

Now that you have obtained and educated these new friends, how will you use them? Hopefully for the betterment of your organization. You should use these new friends to help you promote your mission. For instance, if your group operates a museum, you should have a ‘young friends’ group to help introduce your museum to young people. This introduction begins a lifelong relationship and helps you bring others into the fold. Then they tell all of their ‘friends’ through Twitter and Facebook that they are hanging out at the local museum – this sparks interest among a group with whom you had no knowledge of before.

You should also mobilize your friends as advocates. When you know your funding is on the chopping block – use these educated friends to mobilize on your behalf. When your organization asks for continued support from the county or state – letters or emails from hundreds of your friends speaks volumes.

Acknowledging Your Friends

Now that you’ve obtained your friends and they’ve done some work on your organization’s behalf – it’s time to thank them. And I know that your budget is crunched so don’t think that you have to throw a big soiree –but you do have to honor their participation.

Offer your friends lifetime memberships at discounted rates, give them a special bumper sticker acknowledging that there are a ‘friend’ (see the AMIGO campaign from the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, NC http://www.latinamericancoalition.org) and keep a printed running list of your ‘friends’ in the same way that you acknowledge your new donors. Show your friends that you value their time as much as you do their donation.

Remember, friendraising is a strategic process and much more involved than this blog article, but it is a necessity. And in hard times like this – it’s good to have friends.
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jenifer daniels – jenifer daniels is the "friendraiser" – a nonprofit management consultant based in Charlotte, NC. She specializes in community relations, grassroots advocacy, trainings and workshops and signature events. To find out more about her – visit her site http://www.jeniferdaniels.com/ or tweet with her at http://www.twitter.com/thefriendraiser

Effectively Involving Your Members in Your Organization's PR and Advocacy

Nonprofit Conversation is now being read in 27 countries! I have been concerned that our content is U.S. centric and have been doing some outreach to nonprofit/NGO leadership in other countries. It doesn't matter where you live, if you are engaged in nonprofit activities, the challenges are often quite the same. Below, Mark Buzan of Action Strategies (Canada) provides advice on effective public relations (PR) and advocacy. Mark is our first international contributor! Thanks Mark! Bunnie

Effectively Involving Your Members in Your Organization’s PR and Advocacy

by Mark Buzan, Principal, Action Strategies

The success of any nonprofit plan is hugely dependent on how it treats its public affairs. It comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, and has to get creative as sources for revenue are obviously different and harder to come by than traditional profit-making businesses. This said, knowing that your current and prospective members can help you get your message, mission, and needs out to the world at large, is absolutely crucial to the sustainability and future success of your nonprofit. So how do you go about treating your members and your key audiences so as to engage them in advancing your cause – particularly in public relations campaigns? This is important because the “holy grail” of grassroots campaigns occurs when other organizations and individuals become “evangelists” for the message you are promoting.

The same can be said of government relations campaigns and the benefit of utilizing tools that support grassroots campaigns that involve members and rally stakeholders to your cause. Increasingly, it is not enough to bring your issues to government. You have to demonstrate public support for your position. Your organization may be under public attack and need to publicly defend your practices and positions. You may want to shape the governments' policy agenda. To do that, supporters, members, employees, your industry’s customers and/or suppliers need to be mobilized!

More and more, the Internet can be used as a tool to rally support and advance your cause. In a networked society, organizations have no choice but to establish their positions in the online political marketplace. You go on-line to educate, motivate and organize citizens, opinion leaders and government decision-makers to take meaningful off line action. It's a new dimension for advocacy.

But, Internet advocacy and other outreach efforts are still a complement to traditional government relations activities. Communicating your views directly and personally to decision-makers should always be part of any on-going strategy. Below, is a list of some good ideas on how exactly to get your members involved in your nonprofit’s communications and advocacy.

1. Fundraising: One of the most basic and fundamental ways to get your members involved in public relations is creating interactive and mutually beneficial fundraising opportunities and programs. Host an informational walk for a cause. People undoubtedly invite their non-member friends to join them for company. It all starts with one or two more people knowing about your cause, and if the fundraising event is one that they enjoy, they tell others, and so on and so on.

2. Internet: Though this may seem an overused topic in pr these days, it is one of the most effective means of getting your name and cause out there, quicker and to more people than you could ever do with non-internet advertising or pr. Start with an interesting and interactive website and draw members and non-members alike to your site by all means you can think of. Start a blog, involve yourself in relate topic forums, write articles online, and get your current members to do the same.

3. Keep Contact and Hold Attention: By valuing the network you may already have with your current members and clients, you can maximize their individual networks to voice your goals, initiatives, and needs more loudly and far-reaching. Send your members e-newsletters, postcards, and invite them to special events to keep them abreast of all of the exciting things you are doing with your nonprofit. By doing this, you not only keep them constantly engaged with your nonprofit’s presence, but also put yourself at the front of their thoughts when it comes to their casual and professional efforts for the pr and marketing of your nonprofit.

4. Coordinate how you & your members make their presentation to MPs: Last week, I attended an interesting panel discussion held by the CSAE. Three MPs from the Conservatives, Liberals, and NDP were present offering input that I have long advised NGO executives. First, have a steady balance between emotion and logic. As I alluded to in a previous post, Tough Economic Times and the Federal Budget, often non-profits come to legislators with a healthy dose of an argument that comes from the heart. The trouble is that is often not enough. There needs to be a solid reason as to why a proposal makes sense and fits into the the agenda of the government.

Also, when considering how to involve members into an advocacy campaign, the options also include sending them to meet various MPs. When doing so, often under a "On the Hill" campaign, make sure they are well prepared with briefing papers that have first been sent to the MPs in advance. Ask the attending member(s) to also bring a copy. Finally and above all, don't assume what an MP knows or doesn't know. Acting as if you know more on a given subject than an MP that may have come from a professional background in that field will only put them off. Assuming they know a given subject when in fact they don't will only frustrate both parties - your volunteer representative and the legislator.

Mark Buzan is Principal of Action Strategies, a Public Relations and Canadian Government Relations Consultancy for non-profits. Subscribe now to his Lobbying and PR tips newsletters at www.actionstrategies.ca/Action_Strategies/Newsletter.html