Feb. 13, 2009

Photo: Harvest Moon Photography

Nearly 250 grantmakers and nonprofit staff attended MCF's 2009 Funding Outlook program on Feb. 13. Participants discussed ways that everyone can work together to find opportunities for positive change amid the challenges.

• Funding priorities have changed.
• What are the overlaps and the deficits?
• Programs and issues feel they are being pitted against each other because of lack of funds or competition for funds.
• Lack of collaboration. How do foundations collaborate on issues?
• However, collaboration is not a panacea. It needs to be done selectively, carefully and deliberately. It feels like foundations are forcing collaboration rather than encouraging it to increase impact.
• What is the ROI on collaborating, given the time and effort needed to convene, plan, meet, etc.? Will it really result in increased imipact in the end?
• Fear-based thinking is paralyzing our ability to innovate.
• The framework for change is lacking. How should grantmakers measure change/success?
• How can funders work with nonprofits to determine their ROI? What are funders looking for?
• Difficulty launching new capital campaigns.
• Keeping up with technology: systems and training.
• Strategic planning timelines: "locked-in" vs. planning ahead
• Hiring freezes/staff capacity
• How to develop individual donors in this climate?
• Different "languages" and behaviors in different sectors.
• It takes a village, but we're funded in silos.
• When starting over, how do we connect with the community?
• Things that work are not "sexy" to funders, which results in educators/nonprofits creating new innovative programs to get funds. Nonprofits know what works.
• How do nonprofits stay in business when very few will fund general operating support?
• Morale within nonprofits is suffering, especially among front-line staff who are having to turn away needy clients.

What's different for different sectors?

Arts:

• Arts need to stay top of mind: how do we position the arts as integral to our lives?
• How do we communicate about the value of the arts in education?
• Arts perceived as frill/pork
• Majority of people don't think artists have real jobs.
• Arts workers are losing jobs, too.
• Questions about the future and leadership of the State Arts Board.

Education:

• Persistence of low income and diversity grad rates
• Foundation community could come together to develop a set of recommendations to push schools, government, etc.
• Educational institutions and nonprofits need to tell their stories better (youth outcomes)
• The story is more than math and reading scores
• More standardized outcomes — current outcomes do not show the complete picture of the student; need to reflect the "whole child"
• Need to get foundation boards into schools/classrooms to see needs, success, good things happening

Healthcare/Environment:

• A lot more people are using community clinics; can't afford insurance premiums; uninsured population skyrocketing and coming into ERs.
• Increase in clients while decrease in funding (health foundation assets are down).
• Elective surgeries (which pay the bills) are down.
• Resetting expectations to ensure basic levels of care.
• Health of the community is critical: violence, foreclosures increasing in already stressed areas.
• The well-being of people is tied to the well-being of the environment. Environmental policy is health policy.

Social services:

• Nonprofits are seeing increased demand for services at the same time that the sector will face huge losses of revenue. What will it mean for the community as a whole if this sector loses 15-20% of revenue, as predicted?
• Employment is harder for those with limited skill sets or work histories, because many skilled workers are willing to take jobs they wouldn't have considered previously.
• Language barriers for employment, particularly for immigrants.
• Need to shift the way we view volunteerism from something done in spare time to something that leads to job readiness.
• Volunteers have fewer hours to contribute because many have been laid off and are job searching.
• Hennepin County time limit to services — as amount of funding decreases, eligibility timelines are also decreasing or becoming more restrictive. For service organizations funded by government, it becomes more challenging to figure out who to refer clients to.

Good ideas for moving forward:

Funders:

• Funders have become specialists. Is it time to step back and become generalists?
• Funders need to let organizations create their own vision, while sharing greater community goals.
• Funders need to fund time for collaboration (it's outside of "regular" work).
• Funders could share info about how to measure success.
• Foundations need to be overt about support for the arts (be loud and proud).
• Keep recipients in mind: if a program is cut, don't eliminate all such programs for particular population groups.
• Foundations can help assist with leveraging money for small and medium nonprofits.

Nonprofits:

• Need to be proactive.
• It's not about changing everything you do. Instead, find intersection with other organizations.
• Need sessions on how you do it (merge, collaborate, innovate, etc.). What are the appropriate tools to move things forward? Any examples of success stories?
• Tight resources can mean retreating to silos; how can we avoid this?
• Need to remember that people support causes, they don't support organizations. Nonprofits will need to rally around causes to achieve results.
• Should tap into foundation/corporate sector expertise on messaging and marketing (seeking more than dollars).
• Need vision — but also need implementers.
• Look at non-traditional partners for collaboration. Eliminate duplication. More opportunities for relationship-building.
• Need to make sure that employees' needs are not overlooked. Is it fair to burden staff with pay cuts when they are already working hard for low pay?
• Need open discussion about losing grants and how the organization will deal with this reality.
• Fill non-traditional volunteer jobs with non-traditional volunteers (for example, hiring an unemployed person seeking to keep their skills up-to-date)
• Make use of technology: provide tech support, seek technology donations, make use of social networking tools.
• Make better use of board of directors. Employ not only their skills, but those around them. Board = Advocate.

Everyone:

• We need to re-set our expectations. Educate your end users so you can manage expectations. Be honest about what you can and can't do.
• Effectively communicate needs.
• Create a common voice/message and take control of that message.
• Potential for new thinking. Force boundaries to break traditional philanthropy models.
• Identify how to achieve excellence with fewer resources: share capital equipment, bulk buying, barter services, etc.
• Leverage resources to be more efficient — federal / state / private.
• Advocacy is even more important now.
• We are all leaders.
• We need to know the demographics of communities — who are the leaders (formal and informal)?
• Need to stay focused on values/vision of community.
• Twin Cities Compass: gaps are already identified. How do we close the gaps?
• Have to be transparent.
• Look at things from the community's perspective, not our own.
• Funders and nonprofits need to establish some priorities jointly.
• Balance long-term and short-term needs.
• Find innovation in unusual places: a door where it wasn't before.
• Some type of database is needed to see who is partnering with whom.
• We need more opportunities to convene funders and nonprofits together. Bring more people to the table.