Your nonprofit organization faces daily challenges and other issues loom on the horizon.
Consider the potential insights, perspective and guidance that a multi-disciplinary group of experts might provide—for FREE. We call this program the Nonprofit Highlight and it’s a pro-bono service provided by members of the Nonprofit Action Network (NAN.)
At the Nonprofit Highlight session you’ll meet in a one-hour roundtable session with NAN members. You’ll present your organization’s strengths and most pressing challenges. Then NAN members, who each specialize in a unique aspect of the nonprofit sector, will ask follow-up questions and offer objective feedback based on their assessment.
Each session concludes with a summary of the group’s core recommendations and actionable next steps for your organization.
Participants have found this free exchange of ideas refreshing, clear, and illuminating, and have used the insights shared by NAN members to successfully navigate their organization’s challenges. See below for a few examples.
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Interested in learning how your organization might benefit from the Nonprofit Highlight?
Contact Isaac Rodriguez, NAN member and Nonprofit Highlight Coordinator at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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NONPROFIT HIGHLIGHT CASE STUDY IV: Counseling in Schools
Counseling in Schools (CIS) brings quality counseling to students and their families in New York City public schools. Its mission is to advance the positive impact of education on society by providing dynamic school-based social and emotional learning interventions.
CIS currently provides individual sessions, peer group experiences, family counseling, creative arts therapy and afterschool activities – all from Licensed Professionals – to students and their families throughout the New York City area. Additionally, CIS offers professional development for teachers and guidance counselors, and strategic planning for leaders of at-risk and failing schools.
Principal
Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, Executive Director & Linda Senat, Board Member
Project Scope
CIS has been successfully operating for over 26 years, with much of its funding coming from government grants. Recognizing the need to diversify its revenue streams and find ways to offset administrative costs not covered by current grants, CIS sought input from NAN on how best to proceed. During their meeting, NAN members addressed not only these issues, but also some larger organizational opportunities.
Project Results
Immediately following their meeting with NAN members, CIS identified two take-aways:
A month later, CIS reported enjoying almost immediate success in one of these areas. In Kevin’s words:
“I sent out two appeals around the time of the holidays. The response we received was significantly greater than any other letter/email appeal we had previously made. During our consultation, [NAN member] Roxanne Greenstein mentioned that the most end of year dollars are donated during the last two days of the year. This encouraged me to send a follow up to our first appeal right after Christmas. Roxanne’s prediction of people’s donating habits was right on, as a third to one half of the monies we received came in on December 30th and 31st.”
Testimonial
“The group is very impressive in its breadth and depth of knowledge in the arena of nonprofit management. I found the meeting very validating and stimulating at the same time. I will take some time to distill the information and look to create some action steps ASAP. I hope that we can continue our relationship to mutual benefit as we move forward in our work.”
– Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, Executive Director
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NONPROFIT HIGHLIGHT CASE STUDY III: Stoked
Stoked is an action sports youth development agency. Its mission is to promote personal development, academic achievement, and healthy living to under-served youth through action sports culture.
Stoked currently partners with public high schools in New York City and Los Angeles to provide programming, which includes college and career readiness, afterschool enrichment, community service, and action sports outings.
Principal
Steve Larosiliere, Founder and Executive Director
Project Scope
Stoked has been operating successfully and expanding steadily since 2005, and is currently at a unique stage in its organization lifecycle. Steve joined NAN members in a roundtable discussion to address some of its most pressing strategic questions:
Project Results
Immediately following his meeting with NAN members, Steve identified two key action items based on the input he received:
A month later, he reported having taken several steps. In his words:
Testimonial
Steve said his experience with NAN was “amazing!” He thought it “was great to be open and honest with experts.” Additionally, he reported that he “got specific feedback on my issues that I can implement today.”
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NONPROFIT HIGHLIGHT CASE STUDY II: South Orange Public Library
Principal
Karen Hartshorn Hilton, President
Testimonial
"The South Orange (NJ) Public Library (SOPL) Board asked the Nonprofit Action Network (NAN) to take the library’s long-term capital project as a case study through which to share the various areas of expertise that comprises NAN. This became an infusion of ideas and expertise that has proven invaluable to the library.
In 2009, the South Orange Public Library received a NJ Historic Trust planning grant enabling the library to work with an architectural firm to assess and prioritize future needs of the our library. This included the evaluation of the original 1896 SOPL building and the existing 1968 building, as well as the current library programs. In the spring of 2012 we had received preliminary plans and reports from the architects and knew we were facing extraordinary challenges, ranging from the financial to the operational. Our biggest challenge was, immediately, determining what needed to be done and in what sequence. This is a project that is charting new territory for the Library Board and staff.
On April 4, 2012 the SOPL director and I presented our case in person to the entire NAN group. Just preparing a succinct and presentable summary of our case was an instructive exercise. During and after the presentation, NAN members asked cogent and insightful questions. The range in their specific areas of expertise meant that the questions were wide-ranging as well and brought to our attention many aspects for long-term capital planning that we had not yet considered. That meeting, in itself, was very helpful. Quite frankly, if we had stopped the process after some sort of remarks in response to the meeting from some NAN members, we still would have been grateful beneficiaries of many professionals’ thought.
But the process continued. In the next few weeks we received and returned requests for more specific information. Concerning marketing, strategic planning, & fundraising, the back and forth culminated in a three-hour on site meeting with NAN consultants and SOPL Board and Staff.
In summary, we highly recommend NAN and their Highlight program and appreciate the sharing of their collective wisdom. The depth of understanding of the issues facing the SOPL Connections project and the corresponding insight presented by the NAN Consultants are providing the critical tools for us the tackle our upcoming challenges. The NAN consultants helped us prioritize and develop the necessary staff and Board structure through with we will work on this ongoing project. Thank you for setting us on the right path.
Karen Hartshorn Hilton
August 2012"
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NONPROFIT HIGHLIGHT CASE STUDY I: Artistic New Directions
Artistic New Directions (AND, www.artisticnewdirections.org) is a nonprofit theatre company dedicated to the development of new works, new artists, and new ideas in the theatrical community. Offering workshops, rehearsal space and connections to actors, directors and writers, AND supports members of the performing community and their projects from inspiration to production.
Principal
Scotty Watson, Past-president of the Board of Directors
Project Scope
AND struggles to improve its fundraising success and also generate more publicity to attract supporters in general and participants to its programs.
Nonprofit Action Network Consultants
Peter Heller and Janet Falk
Project Results
Scotty Watson shared his thoughts on the consultation he received: "With fundraising, we are finding ways to asks more from our constituency; only approximately 20% are currently donating. As a result of the input from Peter, for example, during a recent cash flow emergency, we went to our members and asked for help. It turned out to be one of the best fund-raisers of the year.
With public relations, Janet Falk suggested we ask ourselves the questions “So what, why now,” when considering messaging to the public. This led to a new program where our members tell the story of how they came to us using social media. These stories will be a base for future PR campaigns about our company. Her input also gave us some ideas on how to measure how effective our current public relations consultant is, as well as giving us other avenues to explore.
Testimonial
"I can’t thank your consultants enough for giving their time to meet with us. We were sure left with a lot of food for thought! These meetings will hopefully change our company’s philosophy when it comes to Fundraising and Public Relations. Changing how you think about a subject is the first step in real organizational change. Nonprofit Action Network helped us use the right foot for the first step in our journey."