(continued).

 

Last year Family Connections, a nonprofit in Shaker Heights, embraced this model and refashioned their name and marketing materials, and added several fee-for-service components to their programming, including a modified version of their Learning English as a Family (LEAF) program.  Through foundation support, Joanne Federman, executive director of Family Connections was able to engage consultants to assist in the development of a new and sustainable business model for her organization.

 

With this new approach, Family Connections successfully contracted with the Cleveland Clinic to offer 12 weeks of family literacy home-visits and English language classes to nine international research fellows and their families. Aleksandar Ristic, one of the fellows at the Clinic, and his family found the program to be instrumental in accelerating their acculturation and limiting feelings of isolation.

 

“It helped me adjust to the Clinic's system, but also my daughter gained a lot from the home visits [with the cultural coach] because the usual pathway a kid would take to learn would be much longer without this type of help,” he said. “It's a good model [for other employers] and we are grateful to the Cleveland Clinic for funding it since we are not in a position to pay for it.”

 

His wife Maja agreed. “I feel like I am part of this society,” she said. “Before we came I was really concerned but now, after only 7 months, I feel like I could stay here forever.”

Author and Harvard Business School professor James E. Austin created a framework for collaboration possibilities between nonprofits and businesses.

 

He suggests that if nonprofits can envision relationships that move beyond donor-recipient, and can identify benefits to be gained by both parties, strong alliances can develop.  In general, nonprofits can anticipate additional resources, services, new perspectives, and greater name recognition, while businesses can anticipate an enhanced reputation, an enriched corporate culture, and increased consumer interest and activity because of their support of certain causes. It is the ability to construct value which is useful and of strategic importance to a potential partner that will launch cross-sector collaborations.

 

Mary Curran, senior director of special projects in executive administration at the Cleveland Clinic, said Family Connections was able to present a program package through LEAF that met their objectives for the research fellows. “By giving this extra benefit, we would relieve some of the pressure of adjustment and help them be more productive and effective at work.”

 

While creating value is vital to forming collaborations, what may attract one nonprofit to a particular partner or vice versa is a match in mission, values, or strategy. Going further across the continuum, Austin identifies a good fit as the strongest alliance driver because it creates natural links which can lead to long lasting collaborations where initiatives deepen over time.

 

Just as important as a shared social purpose, are the cross-organizational relationships. It is people who design, develop, and deploy partnerships. Having an openness and mutual respect to find the most effective ways to work together, with staff assigned to maintain and advance the partnership, and buy-in from front-line workers to top leaders is the glue that binds successful collaborations. Likewise, the effective management of collaborative efforts will create a clear plan for delegating responsibilities, expectations about services, and measures of accountability. This will keep both parties on the same page with a common language for understanding and guiding program goals.

 

Curran found the staff at Family Connections to be “always on point” and appreciated how they challenged the Clinic to consider customized, individual goals for each family over program-wide goals, which in the end provided a more detailed picture of the needs and wants of their employees.

 

With approximately 1.6 million nonprofit organizations operating in the U.S., and the economic recovery lagging, finding ways for different sectors to line up with social efforts presents an interesting opportunity for nonprofits.

 

Nonprofits must start to evaluate the worth of their services, search for partners that connect with their cause, consider what value they will add, and make sure they have the staff and systems in place to give focused attention to the collaboration. This is not an easy task when there is no system in place for potential partners to find each other and nonprofits have limited experience with cross-sector collaborations.

 

Family Connections and the Cleveland Clinic, which are both nonprofits of varying scale, have had previous experiences with partnerships, but what is noteworthy about their collaboration was their ability to find mutual benefits and begin the important task of relationship building. If they choose to build on those successes and discover the places where their missions and visions align, they have the potential to move to the furthest point along the collaboration continuum, where joint ventures and advancing each other's priorities are possible. It could be just the beginning.

 

Despite some of the challenges, Family Connections’ positive experience of collaboration with The Cleveland Clinic has Joanne Federman ready to engage with other sectors to see how their work intersects and connects. “We have gained confidence in marketing this program to other employers, and have increased our networking with those who are involved with the international community. We are now being more widely recognized as a provider of services to families.”

 

The Quiet Crisis, the Impact of the Economic Downturn on the Nonprofit Sector

http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/quietcrisis.pdf

Social Entrepreneurship: A Case for Definition

http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_the_case_for_definition/

Strategic Collaboration between Nonprofits and Business

http://nvs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/suppl_1/69

Fieldstone Alliance: 4 Keys to Collaboration

http://www.fieldstonealliance.org/client/tools.cfm

 

Click on the links below to read individual articles or visit our main e-newsletter page:

 

In this issue...

• Message from Bob Paponetti
• Literacy spotlight: Sari Feldman
• Bringing SPARK to Cuyahoga County
• Coming to an agency near you: NEO Literacy Corps
• Key success elements to home visiting program