The Role of Funders
The first question Munro Richardson asked was how funders should respond to organizations that are struggling.
“I think it depends on the nature of the struggle,” said David Smith, president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kansas City. Sometimes, Smith observed, the struggle results from a nonprofit assuming too much responsibility. Then there are struggles because of inefficiency or performance issues. Smith believes that the funding agency can help in either case “to keep [the nonprofit] from going there again.”
Sister Vickie Perkins SCL, president of the Cristo Rey, a college prep school for an underserved population, addressed the question of whether, in moments of crisis, funders could help nonprofits address the urgent issue. “One thing I think funders can do is pair people up,” she said. She observed that funders often work with many organizations and are in a position to match those that have complementary needs and strengths.
Jim Dougherty, director of De La Salle Education Center, believes that any potential collaboration has to bridge serious divides and requires serious work. Alice Ellison, VP of Community Relations at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, which helps fund De La Salle, spoke to one successful collaboration in which she and her colleagues helped arrange a program for students in the arts at De La Salle with the Kansas City Art Institute.
Relationships
Denny Barnett asked what it was that made for a good relationship between a funder and a recipient. “What do you each need to know about each other to make it a successful partnership?”
“I think people give to people,” said Janice Benjamin, vice president of development of the University of Kansas Hospital. At her institution, it is a case of identifying physicians who have the clout to attract potential donors. These donors traditionally respond to an individual appeal. “That has always been my theory,” said Benjamin, “and I have seen it proven many times.”
“I think Janice brought up a very good point about relationships and people investing in leaders,” said Jan Lewis, executive director of Catholic Charities. “We talk very strategically and identify those things both parties want out of the grant.”
Richard Wetzel of J.E. Dunn and the Dunn Family Foundation thinks it important that agencies know exactly what funders are interested in funding. The smart agencies, he said, are figuring out what the funder is interested in and then positioning their request for that. The funders, Wetzel continued, need to understand what they are really funding and to ask for results. He added, “I think a good relationship requires interaction on both sides.”
Scott Barnhard, president of financial development for the YMCA, worried that smaller agencies without the expertise to solicit funds would continue to miss out. He felt that the foundations and funders should be a little more open to worthy agencies, even if they have less sophistication.
The question was posed as to whether there was any such thing as an incubator for new and small nonprofits in which they could nurture their organizational skills. David Renz, the director of the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership at UMKC’s Bloch School of Business, did not see such an incubator as feasible at this time.
Renz worried that foundations would go out and develop their own strategic plans without sharing intelligence
with the folks on the ground. “I think we really have to be more encouraging in the exchange of info,” he said. “These agencies are on the streets making stuff happen and sensing what is happening and where it is going.”
Bill Bruning, president of the Mid-America Coalition on Healthcare, was concerned that savvy non-profits would adjust their mission to accommodate available funding. “That must not happen or you lose your integrity,” said Bruning. But he still sees room for the entrepreneurial non-profit to mold its mission to meet funding opportunities, as long as such adaptations are consistent with an appropriate long-term strategy.
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