Nonprofit organizations play a vital role in building healthy communities by providing critical services that educate and assist community members in improving their economic standing. It is the mission of most nonprofits to meet people where they are and help them to where they want to be. Building the capacity of community-based organizations should be an intentional effort that happens by the hands of civic leaders, elected officials and other stakeholders who help shape policies and directly impact the communities they serve.

Strong nonprofits and community leaders are often the voice of the people they serve due to being the “boots on the ground” in community organizing and development.  These organizations should understand better than most what their communities’ needs are. While nonprofits are the source of help and resurgence for communities, they also need more assistance themselves to provide these important services to the community.

Most nonprofits surveyed feel they struggle with funding and marketing issues, which generally means they are unsure of where their future dollars are coming from, and they feel there is not enough awareness of their service to the community.

According to a survey conducted by The Bridgespan Group (for JPMorgan Chase), more than 200 nonprofits serving low and middle income (LMI) communities identified the top four areas where they needed the most help. In addition to fundraising (61%) they listed communications and marketing (51%), program evaluation (38%), performance management (33%), technology (31%) and strategic planning (29%). Other areas for strengthening included board governance, human resource management and financial planning.

Even when some community organizations overcome hurdles for locating and receiving municipal/state/federal funding, there are stipulations on spending. Expenditures of government funds should have strings attached (i.e. measurable outreach and impact), but it can also be a limiting factor to strengthening other obviously weak areas of the organization.

Public and private funding for nonprofits tends to focus on building and expanding programs, as opposed to investing in organizations’ core infrastructure, organizational growth and leadership development. As a result, many nonprofits are starved for the kind of support that can strengthen their operations, enable them to deliver their services more effectively and ultimately help create a strong economy that is good for all sectors.

So what can be done? Putting it simply, businesses and government entities need to place more financial importance on the work good nonprofits do. If there are some community organizations that don’t have the right operational pieces in place, there should be communication and assistance to bring them up to standard so that they can be better positioned to help others. The idea of support should exceed funding and programming needs and lead to organizational sustainability.  Elected officials need to engage with these life changing organizations and encourage them make the changes and connections they need to support their mission.

Read more here: Aspen Institute

We feel a strong nonprofit sector is essential for equally strong communities and are committed to using our services to help strengthen by assisting leaders from the nonprofit, philanthropic and civic communities in identifying opportunities and obstacles to increasing capacity. Contact Social Solutions Consulting today for your free consultation!