Beyond Charity How Nonprofits Develop Relationships

1
Beyond Charity How Nonprofits Develop
Relationships

• March Virtual Education Series

2
Relationship to the Government

• Supplementary - provide what the government is
  lacking
• Complementary - out-sourcing of a sort, like
  Welfare reform, or simply government support of a
  non-profit
• Adversarial - advocacy, regulations (does this
  term hold negative connotations?)

3
History/Context

• Early history religious in nature, supplementary
• Complementary Harvard, donations from private
  charitable sources, as well as government
  financial support. Also, Yale, Columbia. Some
  Hospitals/mental hospitals, similar situation.  
• Adversarial increased contracting, increased
  regulations/strings. Emphasis on making sure the
  organizations are doing what they say they are
  doing/intend to do.

4
Questions

• How does CKP fit into this framework?
• Are there ways in which we could employ another
  strategy to benefit our clients?

5
Non-Profit Advocacy and Political Participation

• Purposes Motivating, organizing, group
  mentality,
• programmatic advocacy hard to distinguish
  from other activities such as education
• serve as a liaison between the people and the
  legislation can tell government the real impact
  
• e.g. evaluate PRWORA outcomes

6
Challenges and Limitations

• fears losing funding, alienating donors
• can only use a certain percentage of tax-exempt
  resources for advocacy
• 501 (c) 3 more limits on lobbying 501 (c) 4
  can be expressly lobbying/advocacy
• Recent push for more regulations on advocacy
  from non-profits could be damaging for some
  purposes

7
Questions

• What methods of advocacy or related activities
  do we employ through CKP?
• One example newsletters/blogs

8
Relationships with other Organizations

• Networking!
• Use Contacts, make phone calls, pound the
  pavement
• This is why we do strategic planning/needs
  assessment if we know what the community needs,
  it is easier to find partner organizations
• These relationships are mutually beneficial.

9
CKP Specific

• Client Organization Relationships
• Youth Programs, Hospice, Habitat for Humanity,
  etc.
• Volunteer Organization Relationships
• Schools (this is our strength!), Religious
  organizations, etc.
• Service Learning
• These can overlap!

10
Our Biggest Strength Building Personal
Relationships with our Clients and Volunteers

• For the most part, our interactions with our
  clients help to build their self-confidence and
  keep me coming back week after week to see them
  and receive their warm greetings and hearty
  thanks. CKP helps build community through food
  we volunteers become a greater part of our
  community through our service, and our clients
  befriend us and become ambassadors who introduce
  us to their own sub-communities. These
  relationships are my favorite part of CKP, and I
  think that they are just as important as the food
  contributions we give. Our services go beyond
  just feeding the hungry we strive to build
  relationships and change lives through the food
  that we serve.

11
Hard Questions

• How is your Kitchen building relationships with
  client and volunteer organizations?
• With individual clients and volunteers?
• What can we do to encourage these volunteer and
  client relationships?

12
Resources

• Corporation for National and Community Service,
  Building Successful Partnerships
• Excerpts from Nonprofit and Government
• Complementary, Supplementary, or Adversarial? A
  Theoretical and Historical Examination of
  Nonprofit-Government Relations in the US (31-67)
• Nonprofit Advocacy and Political Participation
  (291-325)