July 2007 Brown Bag Minutes

At this second Brown Bag, a panel of corporate and philanthropic leaders discussed the value of the nonprofit sector in Montgomery County, and how we can identify, measure and communicate that value. Panel members spoke about how they viewed the nonprofit sector in Montgomery County and posed some of the tough questions they think about when they consider the value of nonprofits.

Panelists included:
Bill Schlossenberg, Director of Public Affairs/Associate Publisher, The Gazette and member, Corporate Volunteer Council (CVC)
Jackie Ogg, Deputy Director, Montgomery County Community Foundation
Chrissina Herbert, Corporate Volunteer Council
Carol Trawick, Founder of the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation

Nonprofit Montgomery! and
Montgomery County Office of Community Partnerships (OCP)
Brown Bag Lunch #2
July 17, 2007

Meeting Notes

Welcome and Introductions
The participants were welcomed to the second brown bag lunch meeting by Molly Callaway and Cindy Price. MaryAnn Holohean gave an overview of Nonprofit Montgomery!, reviewed the meeting handouts and introduced the guest panelists. Bruce Adams provided a brief overview of the Office of Community Partnerships and pointed out that the conference room in which the meeting was being held had been named the Charles L. Short Conference Room in recognition of Chuck Short’s (Special Assistant to the County Executive) many years to of service.

Panel Topic – “Our Perspectives on the Nonprofit Sector of Montgomery County”

Bill Schlossenberg, Director of Public Affairs/Associate Publisher, The Gazette and member of Corporate Volunteer Council (CVC)

• The nonprofit community is a very important facet in the day to day functioning of
  the Gazette.
• The better the nonprofits do, the more people they are able to serve, the better the community is as a whole.
• Tries to support the nonprofit community whenever possible through free advertising and direct monetary support. (Wants to invest in an already proven nonprofit – the return on the investment is that the nonprofit is actually performing the good work it promised to do. Sometimes we support a unique situation, e.g., giving free advertising to an 11 year-old and his brother who planned a fundraiser for the homeless).
• Nonprofits should be run “as a business.”
• It is very important to keep lines of communication – let us know what you are doing with our support – let us know your needs.
  
  Carol Trawick, Founder of the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation and corporate and community leader
• The nonprofit community identifies undone work and does it. Nonprofit leaders are “heroes” – combining passion with specific skill sets.
• Has experience with all three legs of the stool – government, private/business and
  nonprofit.
• Business view of the nonprofit community: they’ve got: passion, expertise,
  ability to identify where the needs are; they don’t have: management and
  funding expertise
  ° Nonprofits are constantly chasing the funding for their programs.
  
  ° Many nonprofits keep going to the same businesses for funding; and these
  businesses see constant requests for funding.
  · Montgomery County has a unique pool of businesses – the County’s
  small business community is not 60-65% of the overall pool, but well over 95% - a lot of these are consulting businesses because of the federal government – this means that there is a very large number of small businesses with whom nonprofits are not now communicating with whom they need to communicate.
  
• Encourage businesses to adopt a nonprofit through the Volunteer Center or
  Community Service Day.
  ° Link the hidden small businesses with nonprofits.
• Ask these small business leaders to sit on your nonprofit board, but only where they can make a difference.
  ° When bringing a business leader on the board of a nonprofit, be clear about the skill set you are seeking (finance, human resources, etc.). Also, be clear about your expectations of a potential board member.
  ° Businesses think in real outcomes – create a time line, follow up, relate the project back to the general community.
  ° Businesses see results when giving to political campaigns – this same thought process should be used by nonprofits when developing a funding proposal.
• Larger nonprofits could bring smaller nonprofits under their auspices as subcontractors (must fit within their mission).
  ° Smaller nonprofits have the expertise; larger nonprofits have the management capabilities.
• Nonprofits need to organize their finances to reflect direct cost, indirect cost, general and administration cost
• The Trawick Foundation has a program (a nonprofit village), Go Occupant, that offers small nonprofits their first professional environment.
  ° Private office and access to equipment
  ° Brown bag lunches with other nonprofits to share information
  
  Chrissina Herbert, Allstate Insurance and member of Corporate Volunteer Council
• Nonprofits should be effective and accountable.
• Nonprofits should model themselves after for-profit businesses.
• General perception of nonprofits is very good.
• Businesses want to know
  ° Is it going to help the business (retention, publicity)?
  ° What’s in it for us?
  ° Will it affect our bottom line?
  
  Jackie Ogg, Deputy Director, Montgomery County Community Foundation
• The Montgomery County Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, is 11years old.
  ° Works to build charitable giving/philanthropy by Montgomery County residents.
  ° Area of expertise is donor advisement.
  · Approximately 125 donor advised funds for charitable giving.
  ° Of the $20 million given last year, 75% stayed in this region; 50% of the regional giving stayed in Montgomery County.
• There are significant growing pockets of poverty in Montgomery County.
  ° Different nonprofits are rising to meet the needs of the community.
  ° Montgomery County is still a “hard sell.” Many people do not recognize the reality of needs in the “new” Montgomery County.
• Sharing Montgomery Fund provides support to County nonprofit organizations.
  ° A vehicle for recognizing and learning about the challenges and the nature
  of nonprofits with the County.
  · 38 of the 100 requests received $250,000 in total funding last year.
  · Six categories reviewed to determine funding eligibility:
  - Meet guidelines
  - Track record
  - Impact
  - Management
  - Leadership
  - Financial capacity
• Three categories of nonprofits:
  ° Large, well established
  ° Kitchen table – leaders in the communities, have a skill, helping neighbors; sometimes by default become nonprofits (under ten years old).
  ° Established, District of Columbia based nonprofits following their clients as they move into Montgomery County.
• Want to fund all types that are out there and encourage communication within the sector.
• How to build the capacity of the nonprofit sector?
  ° RFPs for nonprofits to come together to learn about collaborating – small
  and large nonprofits
  · Stipends for smaller nonprofits
  · Series of workshops
  ° A Learning Circle initiated in 2006 focused on building the capacity of the
  nonprofit sector in the County with recommendations for county government,
  philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.
  ° Invest in the collective development of the sector – Nonprofit Montgomery!
  
  Questions
  Question: How many requests are received a month? [to Bill Schlossenberg]
  
  Answer: 75-150 requests. The Gazette is able to act on half of the requests, mostly through free advertising. Tend to support projects involving children and the arts, staying away from religious institutions across the board unless the money being raised is going to children or to feed the hungry.
  
  Follow up question: What can the nonprofits do to diminish the load?
  
  Answer: A certain amount of advertising space is allotted in each edition for nonprofits. The nonprofits should collaborate and submit requests for this space on a rotating basis. One of the worse things that can happen is that we agree to provide the free space, a deadline is established, and the nonprofit never remits the copy.
  
  Discussion
  Building relationships
  ● Important to develop a relationship between the nonprofit and the business.
  - The nonprofit must hold up its end.
  - Everyone needs to be able to say what they need or want to get out of the partnership.
  - Developing partnerships takes time and work.
  - Use Community Service Day as a means for connecting small nonprofits with
  businesses for a day. The nonprofits should follow up with the businesses and work
  to form partnerships.
  ● The business community is not monolithic.
  - Each business is different – comprised of different individuals.
  - Brainstorm on how to approach each business.
  - There is no specific model that will work for everyone.
  ● It’s about trust and value. Businesses want to know that their money is being invested and
  handled wisely.
  ● Is it feasible to have peer on peer dialogue with nonprofit, government and business sectors?
  There seems to be no place where the three can come together and debate and discuss these
  issues.
  - Each sector needs each other – must have the skill set to talk each other’s language.
  - Government has been a great support and true partner to the nonprofit sector.
  - Government can be a facilitator and an enabler.
  - Office of Community Partnerships (OCP) is working to bring nonprofit and
  business sectors together.
  - Nonprofits need to have a relationship with the Department of Economic
  Development (DED). It is difficult for nonprofits to even be recognized in any literature from DED.
  - The Volunteer Center helps to build the relationship with business, nonprofit
  and government sectors. They also have a monthly orientation for nonprofits.
  
  Communication
  ● Communicate the value of the project/program before you approach the business for support –
  trust and personal relationships are key.
  ● Companies want the tangible. They want to know where the money is going, what the money
  is doing (outcomes).
  ● Companies appreciate positive reinforcement and “thank you’s.”
  ● Keep the lines of communication open. Let the business know what you need, what’s going
  right.
  
  Collaboration
  ● Subcontracting can work when there is mission alignment, but it has often failed because the
  cultural dimensions of the relationships have not been deeply explored and understood ahead
  of time (“cultural can range from ethnic differences, to the balance between service and
  advocacy, to the manner in which services are delivered to the office environment).
  ● Once the small nonprofit becomes linked to a larger nonprofit the mission and “culture” of the larger organization often becomes the driving force.
  - To be successful, the small nonprofit would come in with a program/project clearly
  defined. The large nonprofit would manage the small nonprofit’s “business” functions
  not the program/project.
  - Failures arise when criteria are not set up and contracts do not spell out specifics.
  ● Set up a system in which businesses are invited to learn of ways they can make a difference in
  the communities. A monthly stipend would be collected from each business and dispersed to
  the participating nonprofits. The more experienced nonprofits would make the pitch.
  - Businesses like one on one relationships.
  - Each nonprofit has to figure out what works for them.
  
  Finances/Funding
  ● Nonprofits should do research before putting together a funding proposal.
  - What does the company want to see?
  - Know how the company handles asks.
  - Know the company’s fiscal year and when to apply for funding.
  - What criteria does the company use to determine funding?
  - Look at the marketplace when planning the fundraising. How are the fundraising
  dollars being spent? Have to spend money to make money.
  ● One of the biggest problems nonprofits feel they face is disrespect.
  - A sense that they are always begging for money.
  - How do they garner the same respect as the politicians who ask for money?
  ● For-profit businesses are better at identifying what they want. Nonprofits know they want
  money, but many are not willing to do what it takes to get it.
  ● The ability to leverage is very important. Show how every dollar was leveraged into
  additional dollars.
  ● Recognize that in most businesses there are two pots of money – transactional
  advertising/marketing money throughout the year and grants that are usually focused on a
  single calendar date.
  - Do not assume you can get money from both pots; or use the first to get the second.
  ● Smaller businesses face the same start-up issues as nonprofits.
  ● Nonprofits have a tendency to go after the money before determining if it will cover the true
  costs of delivering the services. In doing so, they end up getting further and further behind in
  accomplishing their mission. One of the most important contributions business leaders can
  make to nonprofits is helping nonprofits demonstrate to foundations and government what it
  actually costs to deliver a service because often these costs are not covered by funders even
  though no business could operate without them.
  ● Know and use the skill sets of the board of directors in raising funds.
  ● Teach nonprofits how to set up their finances to show direct and indirect costs;
  general and administrative costs. These areas must be included in the financials so
  that the nonprofits have the ability to hire additional staff such as grant writers.
  
  Goal
  ● Sustainability
  
  Next Steps/Follow up
  ● A nonprofit expo is scheduled for Wednesday, October 17, 2007 in the cafeteria of the
  Executive Office Building. The expo will tie into the County charitable giving campaign.
  Members of the Corporate Volunteer Council will be invited. A tip sheet will be provided for
  the nonprofits who participate.
  
  ● Try to link business and nonprofits for Community Service Day, October 27, 2007.
  
  ● Request that DED include nonprofit information when preparing literature for new
  businesses.
  
  ● Next Brown Bag Meeting on August 21, 2007, will be hosted by Crystal Carr, City of
  Gaithersburg.
  
  Announcements
  ● Funding Expo, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at the Long Branch Community Center, Silver
  Spring, 7-9 p.m.