2001 role of nonprofits implementation report

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JACKSONVILLE COMMUNITY COUNCIL INC.2434 Atlantic Boulevard, Suite 100Jacksonville, FL 32207

(904) 396-3052 Fax (904) 398-1469E-maiJ ben@jccLorg

THE ROLE OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS STUDYFINAL IMPLEMENTATION REPORTJune 6,2001

The JCCI study on The Role of Nonprofit Organizations was released by study chair SherryMagill at a luncheon on May 26, 1998. The purpose of the study was to consider the role of thenonprofit sector in Jacksonville and how its performance might be improved to benefit the entirecommunity.Jill Langford Dame chaired the JCCI implementation effort, which met for the first time onSeptember 23, 1998. The implementation task force created five subgroups to address specificrecommendations of the study: Nonprofit Center Subgroup (Recommendation 1): chaired initially by Lizanne Bomhard andthen by Jill Dame. Donors' Forum Funders Subgroup (Recommendations 2 and 5): Rick Koenig, chair. Building Relationships Subgroup (Recommendations 3 and 5): Day Piercy, chair. Nonprofit Governance Subgroup (Recommendations 4 and 6): chaired initially by DickWeber and then by Davron Cardenas. Improving Philanthropy Subgroup (Recommendation 7): Dan Cook and Ed Hearle, cochairs.The subgroup chairs and cochairs formed a steering committee to meet periodically to maintaincontinuity and direction for the overall implementation effort.Analysis of implementation effortsRecommendation #1: TheJessie Ball duPont Fund should convene entities with aninterest in the local nonprofit sector to participate in establishing an organization whosemission is to support and advocate for a strengthened nonprofit sector in NortheastFlorida.Theorganization might be structured as an association of interested entities or as anonprofit with a board of individual volunteers.Functions of the new organization should include but are not limited to: increasing the public's knowledge and understanding of the significant rolenonprofits play in the community, including promoting regular media coverageof

positive results that nonprofits are achieving in the community;

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+ gathering data and disseminating information about the nonprofit sector, andconducting studies on important issues (e.g. the costs and benefits of collaborationand an assessment of outcome evaluation), in partnership with local universities andcolleges whenever possible;

+ publishing an annual "report card" on the extent and kinds of philanthropic giving inNortheast Florida;

+ advocating on behalf of the nonprofit sector as awhole, including issues ofimportance to the nonprofit sector in the local economic-deveiopment-ptenntnqprocess;

+ providing a forum for brining together nonprofits and funders to address tensions inthe relationships between them, increase awareness of each others needs, andpromote ways to work together effectively;

+ developing community resources tohelp support and strengthen nonprofits, such aspro bono services of consultants and accountants; and

+ exploring consolidated operation of certain administrative functions to reduce coststhrough economies of scale.

The Jesse Ball duPont Fund convened entities with an interest in the local nonprofit sector onMarch 10, 1999. Jane Kendall, from the Center for Nonprofits in North Carolina; Karen Beavor,from the Nonprofit Resource Center in Atlanta, Georgia; Sherry Abbott, from the FloridaNonprofit Resource Center in Orlando; and Peter Berns, from the Maryland Association ofNonprofit Organizations presented and answered questions about their nonprofit centers.After this luncheon, a new Nonprofit Center Concept Group was formed to work towardscreation of the Nonprofit Center. This group met over the next two years, surveying the localnonprofit community, examining different models for centers, and creating the business plan fora new center. On September 14-15, 2000, this group brought in Rose Mary Fry, from the TexasNonprofit Management Assistance Network, Inc., to build community consensus and discussfinal steps for the creation of a nonprofit center.The Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, Inc. (the "Nonprofit Center") was incorporated by JillDame on January 19, 2001, and files with the Florida Secretary of State on January 22, 2001.The Nonprofit Center has a five-member founding board consisting of Lois Chepenik, Jill Dame,Laurie DuBow, Fred Franklin, and Connie Hodges. The Nonprofit Center has applied for 501(c)(3) tax status. The board members are in the process of meeting with potential funders tobuild financial support for a three year start up period. The Nonprofit Center has receivedpositive response from the funding community and the Board is working toward a Fall 2001opening. ImplementedRecommendation #2: TheJacksonville Community Foundation, in its role as chair of theDonors' Forum, should explore ways to strengthen the Forumas a vehicle forconsidering issues of importance to IDea!philanthropists (e.g.assisting young peoplewith money in how to bephilanthropists and providing information to its members aboutcommunity needs in Jacksonville).

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The subgroup met with the Community Foundation (CF) to discuss thisrecommendation. In January 1999, the CF created the Philanthropic Initiative, a two-year program to involve selected young people and train them how to be philanthropistsand provide them with information about community needs. In January 2001, the CFcontinued the successful Philanthropic Initiative program with its second incoming classof young philanthropists.

ImplementedRecommendation #3: TheHuman Services Council should provide a forum in which HSCmembers and the nonprofits they fund canjointly develop strategies to reduce tensionsin their relationships. Issues to be addressed should include how to:+ increase iuntiers' attention to outcomes with less attention to how services are

provided;+ develop mutual understanding about expected outcomes and when and how to

measure their accomplishment;+ broaden the definition of outcomes to include the qualitative merits of a program,

when specific results cannot be numerically demonstrated;+ justify the time and financial cost of paperwork and monitoring requirements, to

ensure that what funders require nonprofits to do is really needed for accountability;+ evaluate the common application form and related processes; and+ reduce duplication in reporting requirements and monitoring.The HSC responded quickly to this recommendation. On November 4, 1998, the HSC hosted a"Salute to Our 1998 Non-Profit Partners." This became an annual Nonprofit Recognition event,hosted again in 1999 and 2000.The HSC also created an annual "town meeting" for nonprofit funders and providers to discussissues of common concern, with the first town meeting held August 25, 1999. Town meetingtopics have included communication between funders and providers, outcomes, and local andnational trends in health and human services.The common application form has been reviewed annually and streamlined. Monitoring andreporting requirements have been reviewed, and a pilot Common Monitoring program isunderway for those agencies receiving funds from three or more HSC partners.

ImplementedRecommendation #4: Toenhance their governance capabilities, nonprofit governingboards should:The subgroup articulated the difficulty of addressing implementation efforts towards nonprofitorganizations and their governing boards, as the study concluded that accurate aggregate data

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are not available or are incomplete for the number of nonprofit organizations. This created theneed for the subgroup to explore how to identify the target organizations for thisrecommendation. In addition, the subgroups explored several approaches to identify trainingand other resources available for nonprofit organizations and to encourage greater use of thoseresources by nonprofits.JCCI volunteers met with representatives from the City of Jacksonville's nonprofit registry todetermine its usefulness as a database of nonprofit organizations. The database is notcomplete, and the City does not allocate sufficient resources to the registry to bring it up to auseful database of nonprofit organizations. The City does not consider investing the staffing orfunding necessary to do so as a high priority.Additional compilations of nonprofit organizations, such as those in online databases(Guidestar.org, for example) or maintained by other nonprofit organizations (VolunteerJacksonville, the Cultural Council, or the Human Services Council, for example), contain theprimary nonprofit organizations in the area, but are not considered to be exhaustive.As of November 1999, Sherry Abbott, from the Florida Nonprofit Resource Center in Orlando,provided the following information for the Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area (Clay, Duval,Nassau, and St. Johns counties);501 (c) 3 nonprofit organizations not filing 990'5Other 501 (c) organizations501 (c) 3 organizations filing 990'5

2,1271,182647

Total nonprofit organizations 3,956Subgroup members encourage the new nonprofit center identified in the studyrecommendations to maintain a database of nonprofit organizations.

engage in ongoing board capacitywbui/ding activities to improve governanceand ensure that each board member receives formal training in governanceearly in his or her membership on the board;

expand use of existing training resources in Northeast Florida;

The subgroup took the fallowing actions to implement these recommendations:1. Advocate for the Human Services Council to include board governance as a topic in anupcoming meeting of nonprofits.The Human Services Council, in response to ather study recommendations, has established anannual Town Meeting to bring nonprofits together with funders and discuss topics of commonconcern. While past Town Meetings have not focused on board governance, it remains a topicfor consideration as the focus of a future Town Meeting.2. Advocate for funders to encourage nonprofits to increase board development.Implementation efforts looked at both "carrot" and "stick" approaches to encouraging increasedboard governance training. Carrot approaches include efforts to make training more accessible,

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affordable, and desirable to nonprofit organizations. Stick approaches involve encouragingfunders to include questions about board governance training in applications and in monitoring,and rewarding nonprofit organizations who take board governance training seriously.Funders interviewed, including the Cultural Council, Human Services Council, JacksonvilleCommunity Foundation, and the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, felt comfortable with the level ofencouragement they were providing to nonprofit organizations to seek board governancetraining. Some funders were allocating funds directly to pay for board training. Others askedabout board training in funding applications. The Common Monitoring Committee of the HumanServices Council developed a comprehensive monitoring checklist, which includes a significantsection on board governance. While common monitoring is designed for those organizationsthat receive funding from three or more HSC partners, most of the funders are using thechecklist.3. Advocate for increased marketing of training opportunities for nonprofit boards.Several organizations provide training for nonprofit boards. One provider of board trainingopportunities in Jacksonville is Volunteer Jacksonville, which has recently completed a strategicrefocusing process and is expanding its board training programs. The Institute of Governmentat the University of North Florida is also providing board governance training, as are numerousprivate consultants in Northeast Florida.The subgroup calls on the new nonprofit center to maintain a common calendar of trainingopportunities, and provide information and referral services to nonprofit organizations tosupplement the marketing efforts of training organizations. This calendar could be included inmailouts to nonprofit organizations or maintained and updated on-line on a website hosted bythe nonprofit center.

develop new leaders to ensure an ongoing source of board members;The subgroup identified several organizations and programs that work to develop leadership.Project Blueprint and the Prudential Youth Leadership Institute focus on developing volunteerleadership skills and preparing for board governance. Volunteer Jacksonville maintains a list oftrained volunteers available for board membership. Other programs focus on developingleadership in conjunction with community service, such as Leadership Jacksonville, YouthLeadership Jacksonville, NCCJ's Metrotown, jacksonville Children's Commission's youthAction Council, the University of North Florida's Leadership/Service programs, and JacksonvilleUniversity's community service programs. New programs, such as JCCI Forward, are alsoworking to develop new leaders.

recruit board members based on organizational needs for specific skills andresources, not just for fundraising or image; and

Volunteer Jacksonville has recently expanded its board training to include a new course ondeveloping the nonprofit board, which includes training on recruitment of board members.Implementation efforts for this recommendation were then combined with the recommendationto increase use of available training resources.

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develop a clear structure of board and staff roles and responsibilities to clarifythat the board is accountable to the community for determining theorganization IS mission and its programs.Again, expanded training opportunities make implementation of this recommendation a part ofadvocacy for increased use of training.Recent efforts by the Human Services Council to emphasize board governance as part of themonitoring procedure promise to encourage nonprofit attention to this topic.

Partially implementedRecommendation #5: Funders should: seek ways to improve the dialogue and more effectively partner with the nonprofits

they fund; adopt flexible funding guidelines that allow nonprofit governing boards to decide howbest to utilize funds; more commonly provide multi-year funding; and include in grants and contracts sufficient funding to cover operating expenses foradequate administrative, needs assessment, planning, evaluation, and board and

staff training needs.The HSC forums (annual nonprofit recognition and Town Meeting formats) have been used asan effective means of improving dialogue between nonprofit funders and providers. Nonprofitproviders are invited to sit on HSC committees as appropriate. The HSC also uses focus groupmeetings to obtain feedback from agency providers. These opportunities have improveddialogue while addressing concerns.

ImplementedRecommendation #6:Nonprofits should: strive to maximize efficiency in their use of administrative funds; seek to stabilize their funding base through a variety of strategies, such asdiversifying funding sources and collaborating with other nonprofits; consider, when appropriate, options for mergers that would improve the delivery of

cost-effective, high-quality services; and adapt their expectations and uses of volunteers to match the time commitments

volunteers are willing to contribute.

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The subgroup struggled with the implementation of this recommendation. Identification of anadvocacy approach to the general nonprofit community posed the greatest difficulty. Thesubgroup determined that the best approach for this recommendation was increasedcommunication and education of the nonprofit community.This recommendation is seen as a possible function of the nonprofit center outlined inRecommendation #1. Further action on this recommendation is deferred until the nonprofitcenter is established and is able to take action to encourage nonprofits in these areas.

Not implementedRecommendation #7: Renewed efforts should bemade to review. re-evaluate, andimplement recommendations from the 1990JCCIstudy onPhilanthropy in jacksonville.In particular: The United Way of Northeast Florida and the Jacksonville Community Foundationshould increase efforts to foster personal philanthropy to attain individual giving

levels at least equivelent to those in comparable cities. TheJacksonville Chamber of Commerce should establish a committee that promotesbusiness involvement in the community. as well as individual and corporate

philanthropy. This committee should promote giving from existing businesses andaspart of recruiting new businesses.

TheUnited Way, Jacksonville Community Foundation. and Jacksonville Chamber ofCommerceshould actively encourage individuals and corporations to commit tosupporting the nonprofit sector. They should establish and seek to enforce acommunity standard for the percent of income contributed per year. the number ofvolunteer hours donated. and the value of goods and services contributed.

The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce established a Nonprofit Task Force on September 15,1998. This task force has continued to meet through 2001 to address nonprofit concerns.In January 1999, the Planned Giving Council of Northeast Florida (a coalition of charities andfoundations) began a "Leave A Legacy" campaign to encourage people to make charitable giftsthrough wills and trusts.The United Way and the Community Foundation have continued to encourage increasedcharitable giving in the community. Giving to the United Way increased from $14.6 million in1997 to $15.8 million in 1998, $17.3 million in 1999, and $18.3 million in 2000.

Implemented

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2001 role of nonprofits implementation report

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