The underserved and hard-to-serve are getting hit even harder. Starting with the financial meltdown in 2008, donations to nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area have declined by more than 10 percent, according to a study conducted by United Way. CEO Ann Wilson has warned that “the recession has severely compromised our community’s safety net.” Last year, the nation’s largest charities, the Chronicle of Philanthropy Top 400, saw a decline of 11 percent, greater than any in the past 20 years. The social support system is in trouble and those people it supports have nowhere to turn.
As individual, foundation and corporate philanthropy continues in a downward spiral, nonprofit organizations stand at a critical crossroads. The questions must be asked: What are nonprofits doing different this year to address this downward spiral? Where do they go to make up that annualized 11 percent in today’s economy?
The answers don’t come from asking past donors for more money. The answers must come in the realization that, to weather this storm with no end in sight, nonprofits must find new approaches and new funding streams.
While sustainability is an attractive buzzword, a sustainable organization must be adaptable to its current environment and react quickly and appropriately to maintain the support levels required to fulfill its mission. If the nonprofit sector is to survive, it must reinvent itself. It must move away from the outdated mores of separation from the for-profit brethren.
New supportive linkages and funding opportunities are available through private sector partnerships, and nonprofits can participate without risk of losing their mission or independence. Such cross-sector partnerships draw on the individual assets of each partnering organization, creating a sum much greater than its parts.
Cause marketing programs (a subset of cross-sector partnerships), such as those of breast cancer research fund-raising activist Susan G. Komen, have proven phenomenally successful in raising awareness and raising funds. Such campaigns are “the fastest growing area of corporate marketing spend,” according to Advertising Age—more than $1.6 billion in 2010.
Why? Because studies have shown the public wants to buy products and services from organizations that support a worthy cause. Smart companies know this and nonprofits need to learn it. Nonprofits represent the “cause” in cause marketing. And here’s the irony: Cause marketing works best when it involves small, local and personal campaigns.
10,000 Partnerships is a nonprofit initiative under the fiscal sponsorship of MarinLink. The organization provides a unique combination of online and onsite cross-sector partnership training, focused on small and midsize nonprofit and for-profit organizations. The mission of 10,000 Partnerships is to provide a continuum of support, beginning with a “hands-on” workshop, continuing through an integrated series of online and off-line support, culminating in completed partnerships.
Marin’s Autodesk recently sponsored full-day workshops presented by 10,000 Partnerships for 85 nonprofit organizations that receive funding and support from the company. Participants explored more than 25 distinct benefits that nonprofits and for-profits receive by working together, the primary one being increased contributions for nonprofits and increased business development for the for-profits. Loaned executives, pro bono services, in-kind donations and many more opportunities are available for those willing to think outside of conventional wisdom.
This is new territory for the nonprofit sector. The time is past for believing we can operate as we always have, under “normal” circumstances, because “normal” doesn’t exist. Now is the time to learn new techniques and build sustainability for the nonprofit world through partnership with the for-profit world.
As one who knew a bit about survival, Charles Darwin said it best: “In the long history of humankind, those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively will prevail.”
Bruce Burtch is executive director at 10,000 Partnerships in San Rafael. You can reach him at (415) 454-0839 or bruce@bruceburtch.com.
