Mission + Strategy = Social Value

Believe in Miracles: A Poem for the End of a Long February, 2008

From The Cure at Troy, by Seamus Heaney

Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise-up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term....

This was excerpted from Seamus Heaney, The Cure at troy: A Version of Sophocle's Philocetes (Noonday Press, 1991).

Cost of Serving Government Grants Drives Nonprofit to Merge

"It's overwhelming what the government requires you to do as a nonprofit with a small office staff," said Rob Stemple, Marketing Director for the former Somerset County Blind Center, which is now a division of the Susquehana Association for the Blind and the Vision Impaired (SABVI), in Somerset, Pennsylvania. Well said. Small nonprofits are particularly vulnerable to the difficulties of managing complex, onerous government contracts with lean staffs who are usually carrying out multiple responsibilities. Does this mean that small nonprofits should not have government contracts? No, but it is important for organizations to carefully assess the costs of contract compliance before agreeing to accept a government grant which could have onerous contracting requirements that small nonprofits are unable to meet. It takes deep back-office operations with talented professionals (paid the way talented people usually expect to be paid), to meet complicated contracting demands. What should small nonprofits do? Well in this case, Somerset County Blind Center chose to become a division of another nonprofit so they could focus more on the mission and less on the paperwork. In this case, it was a happy ending because both organizations were able to expand their missions and secure their futures.

Human Service Agencies Merge Back-Office Functions to Save $20M Annually

Tough economic times are forcing all nonprofits, large and small, to think creatively about how to cut costs. One extremely unique example of this creative thinking was recently announced in Chicago where nine of the largest and oldest nonprofit United Way agencies agreed to form a cooperative partnership to share back-office functions for their nonprofit organizations. The nine founding organizations' combined budgets total over $300M and include the Metropolitan YMCA, Hull Housing Association, and Heartland Alliance (formerly Travelers and Immigrants Aid).

An article in Crain's Chicago Business on Feb. 4, 2008 explained that the nonprofits involved in this new cooperative expect to save an average of between 2% to 4% of their operating expenses, for a total estimated savings of $20M annually. The group claims that the primary savings will come from the benefit of combined purchasing power, and not from lay-offs.

"We're in dire straits right now with all of these factors coming to a head," said Laura Thrall, CEO of Metropolitan YWCA. "The savings are important because of what it will allow us to do." Co-op members plan to shift back-office savings into programs where demand has been far beyond funding capacity for some time.

The co-op has its costs, however. The Chicago Community Trust is committting a grant of $400,000 towards establishing the cooperative and the members themselves have agreed to pay a fee of 0.13% of their revenue for the next three years to cover the costs of the cooperative venture. The group is hoping to grow and entice more nonprofits to join them, though, in which case the cost savings could potentially be even more significant.

A Poem For February 6, 2008

Hello! It is snowing quite heavily here in the Midwest as I write this to you the morning after Super-Duper Tuesday. The trees outside my window are sagging with the weight of the wet snow...

As you know, I like to share poems that help restore the spirit for people who are doing the difficult work in the nonprofit sector. Here is a favorite writing that was given to me by a former board chair when I left a leadership position.  I hope it brings you the same joy as it has brought me.

George Bernard Shaw - One True Joy in Life (partly from the Dedicatory Letter, in Man and Superman)
This is the one true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one;
the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances,
complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege
to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life
for its own sake.

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I've got hold of for the moment and I
want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to the future generations.
-------------------------------
If you have a favorite poem that you have "leaned on" during difficult times, please e-mail it to me and I will post it on my blog. - Jean