Nonprofits Need Help, Not Just Directives

Everyone is talking about collaboration between nonprofits. The report, “Philanthropy in the First State: Dealware’s Nonprofits, Individual Donors and Grantmaking Organizations” points out that 1/3 of Delaware nonprofits are operating in the red. Those who are writing about the ramifications of this report are talking about the need for more collaboration or mergers among nonprofits that share the same mission space. But these writers are not going far enough. If 1/3 are operating in the red, then many more organizations are also cutting back on their internal infrastructure in order to make ends meet.

I have worked in business, on boards of nonprofit organizations, as an Executive Director of agencies, and now as a consultant to nonprofits; what I see is that it is easy to be directive and say “Do this,” and much harder to implement.

Forging synergistic alliances requires leadership from board chairs and clear strategic visions to see where there is mission compatibility. The nonprofit that already has one part-time person doing two full-time jobs does not have anyone with the time to consider finding synergy with other organizations; they are worrying about providing this week’s services. Boards chairs must take a break from figuring out where next to cut, and spend substantive time looking for others who are in their same mission space and could be potential partners.

Meaningful collaboration is an intricate process. Yet while everyone seems to agree that nonprofits should collaborate, there seems to be little effort toward offering guidance on how. In her perspective piece in the Wilmington News Journal, Michelle Taylor of United Way said, “true collaboration is hard and requires stepping outside of the comfort zone.”  Describing the partnership between United Way of Delaware and the Food Bank of Delaware, she probably understated the culture shock of two organizations first learning to work together.

Nonprofits may need a guide or facilitator who can walk them through the process and help them find and then implement those synergies. If United Way, the Delaware Philanthropy Forum, the government or other organizations really want to help the nonprofit sector come to grips with overlapping nonprofits, I challenge them to also provide the means to do it. There are people and organizations who can facilitate the collaboration, work with boards to study the mission space, find and approach partners, and guide the organizations into asking the important questions as they move forward with their plans. A nonprofit that is running on a shoestring — both in time and in money — cannot do it alone. It will need more than the directive to “Just Do It.” It will need help.