2006 Collaborative Roundtable Wrap-up

Jan 06- The Collaborative Challenge
Roundtable members have been discussing The Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed Through Strategic Alliances by James Austen. This month's meeting was the second in a three part series toward developing these partnerships.

Feb 06- What Do For Profits Want?
The Collaborative convened a panel of business representatives to share their community involvement plans. The panel consisted of: Frank Nobile from John Hancock, Jesse Miller of Office Depot, Harry Wenzel with Univest and Joanne Zapata of Days Inn Horsham. Each panelist gave a brief overview of their community involvement program, history, agenda, goals, etc. Then the floor was open to questions and answers.

Mar 06- Fund Raising Forum
Kelley Ewing and Jolene Ewing of JAE Enterprises presented an overview of the intricacies of fundraising. Among the concepts explained was the need for nonprofits to learn how to succinctly present the service side of their work and, most importantly, their business side. For a supporter or "funder" to get the proper view of the nonprofit there must be specific, attainable, and measurable goals which the nonprofit has identified and fulfilled. Nonprofits were advised to present a profile that explains the actual return on investment a grant would produce for the corporate sponsor, foundation or philanthropic individual.

JAE Enterprises was quick to point out nonprofits must present a more articulate profile in their grant writing so that the funding source knows precisely what they are getting. Too long funders have been told of the sacrifice and service of the agency (which is very accurate, noble, and often heart wrenching). Yet, there is a necessity to attract different kinds of funding sources who are interested in how well the nonprofit agency:
1. does business,
2. promotes and sells its product(s) (putting the service in terms of a product),
3. has established its reputation in the market place, and
4. quantifies the return on the investment of the requested grant.

Apr 06- How Non-Profits Bring Value to Business Partnerships
The MS Society and GMAC Commercial Mortgage Partnership John Scott, Executive Vice President, Greater Delaware Valley Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and Roxanne Walter, Employee Volunteer Program Director, Department of Philanthropy, GMAC Commercial Mortgage presented and discussed the stages through which their organizations' present partnership evolved. Their presentation was designed to help area nonprofits formulate plans to approach businesses for partnering relationships.

An initial meeting, set up by a GMAC management employee, introduced John Scott to the GMAC Department of Philanthropy, represented by Ms. Walter. There, the MS Society presented info that made good business sense. They had researched GMAC and discovered the company's practices of volunteerism, past successes, employee involvement, goals and needs, and what was important to GMAC employees.

The MS Society proposed two projects and developed a presentation that would help the Dept. of Philanthropy sell the proposal to those individuals responsible for allocating funding. Mr. Scott provided a visual detailing:
· the value of mission
· what the funding would be buying
· who will see the advertising of the partnership
· who in the community and from GMAC would participate in the event or partnership
· the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for engagement, volunteer opportunities, and other recommendations that might help in decision making
· examples of previous successful events

MS Society defined how the GMAC and MS Society's missions matched, how the partnership was mutually beneficial and beyond just presenting their mission - they did their homework. This discussion focused upon the responsibility of the nonprofit to take the initiative, research with whom it would like to partner, find the commonalities between the two, try to arrange an introduction through an intermediary, show how the mission of the non-profit and the goals of the business coincide, and package its presentation in a way that would assist the business in making a favorable decision. After both agree to partner, the real work of the partnership can begin.

May 06- Employee Volunteerism Program Jeannie Fetterolf, Volunteer-Donor Services Coordinator, Gilda's Club of Delaware Valley: One of the most important things to do for your volunteers is to show them they are appreciated. Recognizing volunteers helps people to stay connected to your organization and feel valued. In addition, take time to learn about the volunteer (their educational background, job experience, interests and hobbies), so that they can be placed appropriately. This allows the volunteer to be more comfortable in their role, and helps the organization gain more from that person's experience. Hope Primas, Coordinator, Volunteer Executive Consultants Program of RSVP of Montgomery County: Finding the right people should be top priority for all volunteer groups. For VEC, the approach to finding, involving and keeping dedicated volunteers includes:
· Looking for skills-trying to match the kind of assignments we receive with the volunteer skill sets
· Appealing to the individual's interests
· Clearly defining tasks
· Inviting active volunteers to help recruit new volunteers
· Offering volunteers opportunities for continued learning and growth

Moreover, managing volunteers is both an art and a science. The job demands a wide range of skills with a high level of complexity. Regardless of the size of the organization, it is vital to ensure that individuals responsible for volunteers have the skills, experience and support to do the job well.

Cindy Rubino, Coordinator of Community Service, Arcadia University: Arcadia students turn to community service as a way to learn work skills, establish employment experience, prove their abilities and contribute to the community. We introduce them to a variety of new experiences, both culturally and socially. This year, our students have volunteered as far away as Mexico and Louisiana to help Katrina victims. Locally, Arcadia's Community Service Office is a volunteer resource, for both the Arcadia campus and the community at large. Students volunteer with a number of Chamber nonprofits. We believe that engaging student volunteers is a win-win partnership. Our student volunteers help organizations get the work they need to do done, while nonprofits help our student volunteers develop work skills, and to track and evaluate their work-related experience.

Roxanne Walter, Assistant Vice President, Community Initiatives Director, Capmark: Capmark promotes good corporate citizenship as an important part of its culture, and promotes volunteer programs that help employees get involved in charities they believe in and feel passionate about. When people believe they have made a difference, they feel good about it and are motivated to do it again.

June 06- Board Member Development
The Basics of Board Development and Retention
Laura Ottten, Ph.D., director of the Nonprofit Center at La Salle University gave Roundtable participants valuable information on Board development and recruitment. Otten states that "building a Board is a process - it takes time, but do it right and the return is immeasurable". Accordingly, there are three basic steps to success. First, build the Board by recruiting members for a team, and not simply individuals.

This dovetails with step two - create a Board profile by developing a grid of all of the characteristics needed around the table to accomplish the organization's strategic goals. Look at demographics (geography, age, sex, ethnicity, etc.), areas of expertise based on strategic goals, connections and access to people in the community and personality traits. Develop a questionnaire for Board members to complete and map the answers against a grid of traits. Determine the missing and absolutely necessary traits and get all Board members involved to complete the search and fill in the gaps with new Board members who balance the organization's needs. Treat this like any other hiring process. Create a job description - what are the expectations for Board participation? Interview each candidate and be prepared to answer the question of why someone would want to join your Board. Ideally, put any potential Board member on a committee for 6 months to a year to see if they are really suited for the role.

Lastly, make sure that the Board is educated about what it needs to do to develop itself. Development must be at the Board level, but it needs support from the organization's staff. The Board must understand its real responsibility - there are legal issues generated by its bylaws and state requirements. There are financial responsibilities to not only understand the implications of the information provided but to also realize that the success of a nonprofit needs to be judged by the balance of its financials and its mission.

Bottom line: Board development is a process and must be handled regularly by a Board Development Committee. This is not a static, once-a-year item, but an ongoing activity.

Many thanks to Laura Otten for a great presentation, even in the face of weather-related adversities on June 28. Laura conducted the first half of her workshop via cell phone to the office as she sat in traffic on the turnpike.

Sept 06- What Do For Profits Want (part II)
What do Businesses want regarding how businesses approach volunteerism, parameters within which they work, and their giving criteria…. Rev. Kotzen, Co-Chair of Collaborative opened the panel discussion and the 3 panelists presented their views and questions and attendees views were exchanged for the 8-10am Roundtable discussion.

Panelist's initial presentation:
Wes Somerville - Prudential Financial - has a company contributions budget geared to the involvement of local staff. It is comprised of annual goals, networking opportunities, support for volunteerism, and a flexible matching grant program that is employee driven. Additionally, Prudential has Volunteer Grants geared towards employees who work with one agency on a long term basis; a Global Volunteer Day - where Prudential employees and their affiliates can work with local nonprofit agencies and also contribute to the agency by means of a challenge grant; and Prudential offers each employee a Personal Volunteer Day with full pay. For high school students who volunteer with nonprofits, Prudential also presents a Spirit of Community Award each year.

Prudential Financial also has its own foundation, headquartered in New Jersey. This foundation structures a 3 year grant for a pre-selected regional area - North Philadelphia is the area recently selected.

Prudential also encourages loan packages for charter school development, and on a carefully selected basis loans dealing with venture capital funding.

Megan Duryea - Fox-Rothschild Attorneys at Law - has several levels of involvement. At the corporate level the firm has Board selected areas of interest to which the firm donates funds (over a million dollars has been donated). At the attorney level - each attorney is encouraged to be involved in a local nonprofit, through pro-bono work or special rate structures. The firm's community involvement, volunteerism and charitable giving is purely attorney driven - including the large amounts donated by the Board. Clerical and paralegal staff are encouraged to also volunteer their non-business hours time.

Bernadette Dunn - Motorola, Inc. - has three areas of community involvement. Education, where there are mechanical, scientific, or robotic concentrations; environment, which includes major disaster relief efforts, school recycling efforts, collecting and refurbishing cell phone technology, etc.; and community, where employees are involved in their community nonprofits and relationships are established between Motorola and the local community.

The discussion was engaging and attendees interacted with the panelists and all benefited from the exchange. Perspectives that were addressed included how smaller businesses get involved with volunteerism, how The Collaborative can help in this effort to get more businesses involved in the local community, several ideas regarding internet exchanges of ideas, etc. The Roundtable discussion with several people actively engaged in exchanging information and looking forward to our next Roundtable on October 25, 2006.

Oct 06- Government Funding Opportunities
The Roundtable panel this month addressed sources of funding and grants for nonprofits. Panelists consisted of Kathy Phifer of the Montgomery Co. Dept. of Housing and Community Development, Toni Crawford-Major of the Dept. of Community and Economic Development, Lisa Shulock of NPower of PA, Marty Sands-Zimbardi from Senator Greenleaf's office, Matthew Vahey from Representative Shapiro's office and Julie Slavet from Congresswoman Schwartz's office.

Phifer gave out handouts and application forms with information on eligible activities for grant funding. Crawford-Major also discussed funding. She and her assistant Toni McClendon can be contacted with questions at (215) 560-2083 and (215) 560-2256.

The Offices of Senator Greenleaf, Representative Shapiro and Congresswoman Schwartz can be contacted to provide direction for funding opportunities, although they do not provide direct funding.

NPowerPA provides technology help for non-profits. They work to make client's technology secure and stable and help with using technology more effectively. This help includes support, web design services, and software selection.

The 19 Event:
The "19 Event" gave new direction, commitment and energy to the efforts of the Collaborative. The meeting was active with valuable feedback and featured the original 19 non-profit participants in the Collaborative. The Collaborative seeks innovative ways to solve new and recurring issues. Many of these issues are the same ones faced by "for-profit" companies. The members of the Collaborative met to discuss strategies.

Nov 06- Marketing Your Business
Facilitated by Wes Somerville of Prudential Financial (an ex-Nonprofit Marketing Director), The Collaborative provided many tools and sharedreal-life experiences (positive and negative). We also reviewed some current examples of marketing materials that attendees are using.