Hamlin On Non-Profits

As California confronts the debilitating impact of a rancid economy, the surface damage is stark. From fewer students headed to college because tuition has risen as family incomes drop to government services reduced as workers are furloughed or laid off – damaging everything from healthcare to street maintenance – the impact of the economy is easy to see.
Just below the surface, however, lies lasting damage done to the nonprofit sector. It is deep and wide and seems certain to generate pain long after a recovery takes hold.

There are countless examples of the savage consequences for nonprofits of a state budget in tatters.

Development funds from Sacramento to community nonprofits which construct affordable housing and homeless housing and services have all but dried up. Los Angeles has the nation’s largest homeless population and a stock of affordable housing so limited as to be absurd. Long after a recovery, workers in L.A. will struggle to find housing and the homeless population will continue to live on streets. It will be decades before nonprofits in L.A. can make up the losses. The pool of employees will be smaller and the shame of the city’s homeless crisis – which is hugely expensive – will last far beyond recovery.
California has been a leader in environmental action, but organizations such as the California Urban Forests Council have seen state support evaporate. Two years ago, CaUFC engineered a campaign which planted over 5,000 trees in southern California in a single day; today, no funding exists for such efforts. By the time such funds appear again, the state’s air will be demonstrably less clean, its population (and its young population in particular) less healthy, communities up and down the state less green.
California has slashed the budget which supports seniors who benefit from adult day care. The association which supports those adult day facilities, the California Association of Adult Day Services, has seen its membership drop precipitously as more facilities close under budget strains. This has enduring consequences, all bad. Families requiring more than one income rely on quality day care for seniors who would otherwise live at home – when that second income vanishes, state revenue drops and the families suffer. The support CAADS provides to remaining centers is diminished: a reduced capacity to train workers, limited support for legal and humane care and a reduction in the highest standards of care. Absurdly, every day care facility which closes forces more seniors into full-time care institutions, so California pays for full-time care, astronomically higher than that of day care. By the time recovery exists, it will be too late to save those squandered dollars.
California may be able to fill a few more potholes when a recovery takes hold. It won’t be so easy to fill the enormous holes in our society which California has visited upon its nonprofits.

There is a vital voice missing from the debate over healthcare reform. We’ve heard plenty from posturing politicians and well-heeled corporations and corporate front groups with specific agendas. We haven’t heard much – certainly not enough – from the nonprofits whose services constitute a significant portion of the U.S. healthcare system.

A huge nonprofit network delivers essential health care every day. Those who simply cannot afford insurance rely on this network when they confront a medical concern. Those who are employed but receive no healthcare benefits use the same network. Together, those two groups make up the overwhelming majority of those now outside the system.

When they need care, they go to emergency rooms or a community clinic.

Some ER care flows from corporations which treat healthcare as a business, but most is provided by nonprofits, religious institutions, foundations or tax-funded facilities. The same is almost universally true of community clinics, which exist only to serve, neither turning a profit nor created to do so.

This nonprofit network is critical to our healthcare system. Without it, hundreds of thousands would have no healthcare at all. These providers have vital knowledge: They know what day-to-day medical care demands, what the challenges are, what works and what doesn’t, what reform might or must do.
So why was this voice missing from the debate?

First, mainstream news media tend to rely on readily accessible sources and those sources are those which have the savvy and the resources to feed media. Hand-outs, briefing papers, well-timed releases and well-trained spokespersons (always available because they’re paid to be always available) are simply easier for reporters to use, so they do.

At the same time, healthcare nonprofits tend to shun advocacy. Most clinics simply provide care, pouring every dime they raise into services, not media. They are dedicated to their central mission and they resist dedicating any resources – time, staff, talent, funds – to anything but that mission. Some probably believe that their voice cannot compete with the wealthier, more clout-laden “big guys.”

Nothing will drive news media away from their reliance on the usual sources, but nothing prevents nonprofit healthcare providers from being one of those sources. The nonprofit healthcare sector is probably the most well-informed and vital in the debate on reform. If media have access to that sector, they will use it. In the current debate, the nonprofit sector has not banded together to create a unified voice or to generate valuable input. There is little evidence to suggest the nonprofits made an effort to reach out to media at all. The debate has therefore been deprived essential knowledge, experience and information.

Lots of folks are going to be unhappy with the final version of healthcare if and when it passes. It will be easy to blame “the media,” but the nonprofit healthcare sector hasn’t used media well. Their failure to contribute significantly may be understandable. It is also wrong.

As the holidays approach and our schedules grow more hectic and busy, it seems a perfect time to pause to celebrate the strength, diversity and enormous value of the nonprofit sector. The work nonprofits do all day every day is indeed a gift that keeps on giving — communities across the nation draw on and benefit from the power and dedication of nonprofit organizations, staff, volunteers and Board members.
I’m delighted to extend to everyone in the nonprofit world my sincere thanks and wishes for happy, fun-filled holidays and a rich, successful, productive New Year.

I’ll be on hiatus until the New Year ~ Happy Holidays!
david

In my most recent post, I suggested a one-day “strike,” a single day in which nonprofits close their doors.
While I appreciate that such a strategy is harsh – and it would almost certainly lead to an ethical debate not unlike the one which inevitably comes with a police or doctor strike – I also know full well that the impact would be dramatic, indeed.

Consider what would happen if the nonprofit sector in your community shut down next Monday:

A substantial portion of the community’s workforce would stay home, unable to get to work because they didn’t have access to day care or couldn’t rely on after-school programs to care for their children when school ends.
A smaller but impressive segment of workers would stay home to tend to elderly parents because their adult day center wouldn’t be available to provide all the services – attention, feeding, medication supervision – some seniors must have.
Too many seniors would go without the hot meal local programs deliver to them.
Stressed teens, divorcing parents, troubled veterans and a legion of depressed or anxious folks would lose access to counselors, group therapy and stress management programs.
Addicts struggling with everything from meth to tobacco to booze would lose access to their programs.
A health care crisis would occur when clinics and hospitals ceased operation.
Soccer fields, baseball diamonds, football fields and basketball courts would be idle when every youth athletic program shut down. The local Y would be empty.
A lot of art would become instantly inaccessible.
Community theaters would go dark.
Local symphonies, choral groups, choirs and opera would be silent.
Churches would shut their doors.
Virtually all of the homeless and the poor in the community would suffer grievously: food banks would close, shelters would provide none.
The community’s economy would be seriously damaged – hundreds of nonprofit employees couldn’t spend what they didn’t earn.
Schools would lose the support and assistance provided by the PTA.
Community businesses would lose access to their Chamber, the Rotary Club, the Kiwanis lunch and the Optimist meeting; the local tourism organization wouldn’t promote travel and the business it brings.
Professionals – doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects – would be without the support, knowledge and resources their associations provide.
The local environment would deteriorate – conservancies, greening groups, clean air advocates, water conservationists, preservationists, tree planters and sustainability experts would be without resources.
That’s not a complete list.

To destroy a community, take away its nonprofits.

I often urge nonprofit and advocacy organizations to create mutually beneficial alliances with businesses and, recently, a colleague informed me of a website which appears to provide an ideal way to get started on that path.

The site is www.Gifts-Give.com. There, nonprofits can register and, upon qualification, be eligible for a 10% return on any and all gifts purchased from the site. The site itself maintains a list of potential recipients, so all your constituents need to do is find the items they wish to purchase and then designate your nonprofit as the beneficiary. It seems to be easy to use and the site provides a “How To Use” section as well as a specific means of nominating a nonprofit for inclusion on their list of beneficiaries.

A number of well respected and reputable retailers participate in the site and an impressive list of charitable organizations are involved as well. It is certainly worth investigating.

To make the site work to your maximum benefit, you’ll want to promote your participation once you are on the list. Make sure your core constituency knows about the site and its relationship to your cause using direct mail, e-mail blasts, your newsletter. Alert your Board and volunteers to the benefits they’ll trigger when the use the site; if you serve the public, make sure your clients know about it, too. The greater your marketing effort, the higher the return you may generate.

I suspect that this is one of several such sites and it makes sense for you to investigate all of them to find the best fit for your organization, but at the very least you can start here. Once you’ve gotten a sense of how it works and how to promote it, you’ll be far better equipped to go into your community and develop one-on-one affiliations with stores and merchants in your immediate area.

If you find this, or other sites, useful and beneficial, please take a moment to drop me a line so, together, we can alert the nonprofit world to such marketing opportunities – if you grow a little stronger and can share the ways and means of doing so with others, everybody will benefit.

I believe there is a direct connection between the health of the economy and the vitality of the nonprofit sector. Those who report on economic matters pay little attention to this fact, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Without the nonprofit sector’s deep and wide support, the business world and the economy would be in far sorrier shape than they are today.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that an army of reliable employees are reliable because they leave their children, safe and secure, in nonprofit day care facilities. An entire tier of workers do the same thing with their aging parents, too.

It’s no secret that thousands of businesses which do not provide health insurance for their employees are relying on nonprofit clinics to provide care; if the clinics weren’t there, employers would face huge absentee problems and a direct loss of production and profit.

The list is endless. Workers who enjoy cultural events are more creative on the job because they’ve seen a play or attended a concert or been inspired by an art show – all of those activities are conducted by nonprofits. Young people are healthier – freeing their parents of worry and additional health care burdens – because they’re in athletic programs created and administered by nonprofit organizations.

There are dozens of examples in your community.

This should translate into sustained support flowing from businesses to nonprofits, but such support is the exception, not the rule. Sure, large corporations parade modest donations to nonprofits and some businesses participate in United Way campaigns, but in the main, businesses simply don’t support the nonprofit sector in significant numbers.

So I want to suggest a plan of action.

Over the next few months, I suggest that each community’s nonprofit sector organize to find creative ways to let the business community know how much they contribute and how valuable that contribution is.

It could be as simple as developing a flyer which every agency passes out to every client, asking the clients to deliver the flyer to their place of employment:
“I came to work today because a nonprofit is caring for my children.”
“My back ache is being treated by a nonprofit clinic.”
“In our community, nonprofit agencies generate salaries of $XXXXX and that money comes in your door every day.”

Or it could be as dramatic as a one-day “strike” in which nonprofits close their doors to show the business community just how vital their services are. What would your community’s businesses do if day cares closed, clinics shut down, after school programs ceased?

Nonprofit leaders are resourceful and creative and smart. Apply those assets to demonstrating to your community just how important your contribution to the community is.

Give it a shot. When you do, drop me a line about your plan – I’ll share it with others and they can build on your initiatives until, sooner or later, the business community is convinced of that which we all know to be true: without the nonprofit community, business as usual doesn’t exist.

Over the past few months, I’ve been urging nonprofits to seek out opportunities to create partnerships with businesses. Recently, a correspondent asked me to cite some examples of partnerships which have worked.

There are several current examples which serve as good models. The Susan G. Komen Foundation, which supports breast cancer research, has forged alliances with several major commercial enterprises, for example. The foundation invites supporters to shop at Bloomingdales and a portion of the sales go back to the foundation. Similarly, a number of corporations sponsor Walks to support AIDS research or other healthcare causes. In L.A., the local United Way secures corporate sponsorships for its annual Walk For The Homeless. In all these cases, the corporate sponsor gains exposure, good will and the potential for new customers while the nonprofit generates income.

Here’s another good example. A large apartment complex in Los Angeles needed to show off its property to potential new residents. The property contains lots of green space, mini-parks, shaded walkways and handsome landscaping, all surrounding several high rise apartment buildings and blocks of townhomes. Their marketing goal was to show a new audience these amenities, demonstrating the virtues of life in the community. To draw that new audience, the complex created a partnership with a nonprofit and staged a large art show featuring the works of local artists and artisans. The resulting event served everyone’s needs: the nonprofit was able to provide information to thousands who attended the art show and to generate donations during the show while the apartment company created an event which allowed a sizable crowd to experience the property first-hand as they strolled around the art show.

In all these examples, significant promotion is a key factor. Using advertising, direct mail, flyers and, sometimes, electronic media exposure, both the commercial enterprises and the nonprofits co-promote their partnerships, so both get maximum benefit from their alliance. The nonprofits promote heavily to their own constituents, encouraging participation so the corporate entity gains new trade; the corporations promote their support so the nonprofit reaches a broader audience.

Such alliances need not be large or elaborate or expensive. An independent ice cream store in a mid-sized suburban community supports local nonprofits by featuring special flavors which generate income to the nonprofit; the nonprofit urges its constituents to patronize the ice cream parlor. The arrangement doesn’t cost anybody a lot, but it creates a new revenue stream for the parlor and the nonprofit.

That’s the point, of course: by forging smart alliances, business and nonprofits can each generate benefits which serve their individual and mutual interests – in doing so, they also serve their communities. More importantly, in this challenging economy, both may well find financial support which they each sorely need.

One of the messages I keep delivering to the nonprofit sector is simple, if obvious: If they don’t know who you are and what you do, they won’t support you. These days, that fact has greater meaning than usual – funds are scarce, competition is stiff, demands on many nonprofits to provide service and support are higher than ever, so generating support isn’t just important, it’s critical.

Here’s a good tool to use when you want to generate news media exposure for your organization and its cause: Look for trends and patterns.

There’s nothing mysterious about this technique. If you consume any news media at all, you know they cover trends frequently, reporting on everything from the rise and fall of the Dow Jones average to the changes in school attendance in flu season. Many, many nonprofits have the ability to spot trends and they ought to use that ability to generate coverage. Here are some recent examples which will help you figure out what to look for:

In food banks across the nation, demand is rising higher and higher but resources aren’t keeping pace with that demand;

In many communities, shared donation programs like United Way or community foundations are generating far less income than they once did and those who benefit from these fundraising campaigns are suffering.

These trends are all newsworthy and they all flow from a single source, the nonprofit universe. Whether as a free-standing story (“Local Nonprofit Suffers Losses, Community Service Diminished”) or as part of a “wrap around” story (“Area Clinics, Museums, After-School Programs All Facing Hard Times”), aggressive nonprofits should spend the time it takes to catalog evidence of trends and then offer the results to local media.

Telling the public at large who you are and what you do is always a good idea – in tough times, finding and exploiting trends is an excellent way to keep your organization healthy and your cause well-served.

My partner and I conducted a training session for a group of arts organizations in Ventura, CA last week and an issue came up which I think offers an interesting object lesson for nonprofits seeking new ways to expand their bases of support and their influence.
The group represented a pretty wide spectrum of arts programs – drama, art, dance and music programs for youngsters and adults. During the training, they all appeared to agree on a single common concern – their community doesn’t have a quality public performance venue. We suggested that they consider banding together to launch a campaign to create such a facility.
There are a lot of good reasons to do that and they reach far beyond arts programs. Look at what could happen if they work together:

They’ll have a solid proposal which has considerable appeal for the community they serve.
The issue has real news value – a campaign built around it could generate media coverage as it is launched and as it moves forward. It is news, it could be controversial and it will have appeal to a large audience (which, of course, is what news media seek).
Every group participating will have a platform from which to advocate their particular program, be it music, dance, drama or art presentations.
The groups will all draw on the strength of numbers – a dozen groups making the case are far stronger than one or two alone.
Every group gets a fundraising pitch – When You Support Us, You Support The Arts In Ventura.

The beauty of this concept is that it serves each participating organization whether the campaign is successful or not. If they persuade the community to create the venue they need, everybody wins. If the venue doesn’t materialize, every single group will still have elevated its profile, increased its stature as a community resource and expanded public awareness of who they are and what they do. Even if they lose, they win.

While the arts provide a natural platform for this effort, countless other nonprofit causes can benefit from similar thinking. I’ve seen lots of stories (far too may, but that’s a topic for another day) about food banks suffering the inevitable consequence of the current economy: Too much demand and too few resources. There is no reason that food banks in medium and large communities can’t join together to expand public awareness of their plight and public support, too.

Health care clinics face the same circumstances – greater demand, reduced resources – and could benefit from a common advocacy campaign which is also a marketing tool.

In fact, most nonprofits in most communities share goals and objectives with other nonprofits – groups serving children, mental health agencies, athletic programs, literacy organizations and more. The list is long and rich.

I don’t pretend that this is easy work. Most nonprofits these days are struggling just to hold their heads above water and many face reductions in programs and staff, so mounting a common cause campaign is a daunting challenge.

Yet, if there is a community benefit to be derived from a shared campaign and the participating nonprofits can benefit from expanded exposure and heightened stature in their community, the idea of building a common cause campaign is well worth considering.

A lot of nonprofit leaders have a tendency to denigrate “corporate” marketing techniques and I think that’s a mistake.

This attitude seems to be based on the assumption that nonprofit endeavors are some how more “pure” than commercial enterprises and, therefore, those engaged in cause work will become sullied if they begin to act like corporations. Phooey.

The fact is, good marketing is good marketing and when it works, it works for those who use it regardless of their motive.

Nike’s universally recognized swoosh defines everything the company does.
Netflix offers current subscribers a discount when they bring a new customer to the company.
Tiffany’s is on the second page of the New York Times every single day.
The pharmaceutical industry’s ubiquitous ads (“Ask you doctor about. . .”) have spawned far greater demand for their products than would otherwise exist.

There are lessons to be learned from those examples.

The greater the number of people who know who you are and what you do, the more effective your organization becomes; the more effective your organization becomes, the better able it is to serve the cause. Greater service to the cause generates an even broader awareness of who you are and what you do. That cycle is exactly what nonprofits should strive for.

Some pretty smart and successful nonprofits have done exactly that.
When you see a Red Cross, you know exactly what it stands for.
You don’t have any problem understanding the mission of the Make A Wish Foundation or the goals of Special Olympics or the United Way’s purpose.

Nonprofits one and all, those organizations have recognized that smart marketing is a tool which actually enhances their ability to do the right thing. They may be big and well-financed, but they didn’t start out that way – they got big and generated substantial support because they marketed their cause smartly.

So don’t sneer. Study. Spend some time looking at the ways in which effective corporations communicate their messages and learn from them. Figure out what techniques and strategies are most effective and find ways to adapt them to your work.

What you learn and incorporate into your efforts on behalf of your organization will make it stronger and better able to fulfill its mission, more effective in the service of the cause.
How can that be a bad thing?