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October 2020

Oct 26

Successful Mergers and Partnerships: More than the Numbers

By Sponsor Insight

By Jan Breiner Frazier, Planning Plus, LLC

Throughout our 30-plus year history as consultant professionals, we have worked with the leadership teams and boards of nonprofits as well as owners of for-profits who were engaged in various forms of collaborations — whether for a merger, a formal association or a strategic and documented partnership.

Unfortunately, we are often called in after the due diligence is complete and the merger has started down the road — only to experience a rocky start. The cause? More often than not, the numbers may work but the cultures do not.

During due diligence activities, leaders focus on a number of factual components for creating a “new” organization — including financial statements; current contracts; programs, services and other deliverables; competition; legal constraints; and competencies of the management teams. But all too often, they overlook the cultural issues within each of the entities that can quickly derail any progress.

When merging two or more nonprofit boards, it is critical to understand the operational environments. Are they structured, disciplined, forgiving, siloed, collaborative or innovative? Will the strengths of each organization complement or clash? How will individual company lifestyles mesh?

Perceptions by stakeholders about how or why the discussions took place must also be discerned. Neither organization wants to be viewed as “taken over” because that may be perceived by the community as a sign of weakness. Both organizations generally assure their staffs that the outcomes will be beneficial for everyone involved as they sell the idea to their teams. Yet, those driving the process often discount the emotional toll of going through organizational change as staff members have their own assumptions about their roles — which may change by necessity.

Several years ago, we worked with a merger of two organizations where it all made sense on paper. Both parties agreed the merger would benefit the community and result in a better financial position. There also was consensus on who would serve as the executive director. However, there was still a struggle with the organizations’ boards about equal representation, how to merge the staffs and which organization’s managers would be in charge. Fortunately, the executive director, with whom we had worked before, recognized that the board needed time and assistance in working through those issues. He dedicated time and resources to sponsor several sessions to work through the challenges. The organization continues to thrive today.

In another case, three organizations asked us to help them reach a merger agreement. The potential financial benefit was tremendous, since they no longer would have to support three leases, three executive directors, three IT systems and other overhead costs. But it all fell apart because no one could agree as to who would be in charge, whose name would be on the building, and how it would be communicated to the public.

In today’s uncertain environment, nonprofits may no longer be able to stand alone, particularly as funding becomes more precarious than ever before. As beneficial as mergers and other types of strategic partnerships can be, they are always messy. If you are considering any type of collaboration, here are a few things to consider in your discussions:

  • How do we describe the existing cultures, what are the key differences, and how do we mutually move to the culture dictated by the mission?
  • How do we identify who will be in charge — who is at the top and responsible for the success of the organization?
  • How do stakeholders — external and internal — view the proposed collaboration? How do we get everyone on the same page?

If you are entering the merger waters, we would be more than happy to help!

Jan Breiner Frazier, the managing member of Planning Plus, LLC, has been a consulting professional since 1988. She has designed and facilitated strategic, annual, and operational planning sessions for a multitude of organizations. Her work with non-profit boards and associations has included strategic planning, board development, and committee structure.

Oct 20

How are Nonprofits Evolving in the Midst of a Pandemic?

By Feature

Four local nonprofits share their strategies for staying on mission — in spite of unprecedented challenges

by Shari Finnell, editor, Not-for-Profit News

With Indiana approaching its ninth month of a deadly pandemic and another surge in cases, local nonprofit organizations are continuing to explore what it means to adapt. While many have implemented major changes, including virtual programming, facility modifications and alternative staffing, some are poised to evolve even further to accommodate a greater post-pandemic demand for services — both virtual and in-house.

As three local nonprofit leaders recently shared, nonprofits may need to continue to evolve for the foreseeable future as COVID-19 permanently reshapes how organizations operate.

Medical clinic adapts as more people lose jobs, insurance

Heart and Soul Free Clinic, a nonprofit that provides healthcare to the underserved, never considered shutting its doors as a viable option when COVID-19 reached Indiana in March 2020. The team was concerned that the population they served would be left without alternatives than emergency care. 

“Our biggest concern was the need to stay open,” recalled Lisa Kreag, executive director of the clinic, which is based in Westfield, Ind.. “A lot of the people we see are marginalized, low-income individuals. If our patients aren’t able to get to the doctor here, they don’t have other outlets. And we didn’t think ER was the greatest option because of the potential of exposure. We didn’t understand much about the virus at that time.”

The pandemic’s ultimate impact has yet to be seen, according to Kreag. With more and more people losing their jobs and, as a consequence, their health insurance, the clinic is now serving an increasing number of people. “We;re getting a lot of new patients and our costs are definitely increasing,” said Kreag, noting that the costs for lab work and prescriptions, which are covered by the clinic, are steadily increasing.

Another challenge was ensuring that the clinic had adequate numbers of volunteers to support its mission. Before the pandemic, a significant number of the clinic’s volunteers were retirees — an age group that already had been identified at high risk for developing severe COVID-19 complications. 

However, replenishing the clinic’s volunteer pool did not turn out to be as difficult as anticipated, Kreag said. With many employees and college students facing job furloughs, reduced work hours and suspension of classes, many signed up to help volunteer. The clinic also welcomed new volunteers who signed up after reading about opportunities in the Wellbeing Coalition of Westfield.  

To ensure that it delivered medical services in a safe environment, the clinic temporarily eliminated walk-in services. “We wanted to control who was coming in and who was coming out,” Kreag said. “We don’t want people to walk right into the office.” And, as with most offices, Heart and Soul follows Centers for Disease Control guidelines by taking the temperatures of anyone entering the office and asking them to answer a list of questions to determine if they have COVID-19 symptoms.

While current needs are being met, Kreag also anticipates continued adjustments for the clinic as an increasing number of people experience job losses. Currently, Kreag said, the clinic has been fortunate because those increased costs have been covered by grants.

To accommodate future demands, plans to expand by adding hours, Kreag said. Currently, the clinic has limited hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “We’re flexible and small enough to quickly make changes by expanding hours — not facility space,” she said. 

Nonprofit unexpectedly expands to a statewide model 

Since 1987, the Indiana Youth Group (IYG), has been focused on meeting the needs of LGBTQ youth — many of whom had been kicked out of their homes, struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, and experienced hunger and homelessness.

And IYG’s headquarters, just south of 38th and Meridian streets in Indianapolis, had been a haven for LGBTQ youth who needed access to a hot meal, laundry facilities, computers and other support services. On any given night, up to 75 youth between the ages of 12 and 20 would visit the four-story building, which includes a commercial kitchen, art space, classrooms, computer rooms, a music room, management offices and hangout spaces, said Chris Paulsen, CEO of IYG.

That all changed in March 2020 as the pandemic upended life for Hoosiers. IYG quickly adapted, implementing a plan to ensure the safety of its volunteers and employees while ensuring that it was delivering on its mission to serve homeless or low-income LGBTQ youth — who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, Paulsen recalled.

On March 9, the IYG team decided to limit the number of volunteers allowed in the building, and restricted hours. “A lot of our volunteers are older. We just handled it with staff coming in three days a week,” Paulsen said. “By March 12, we went down to basic needs and stopped all in-person services.”

Instead of serving hot meals internally, the team started passing out hot pre-packaged food so that the youth they served could pick up meals. Youth also were allowed to use laundry facilities.

By March 27, the team had further pivoted, offering 19 different programs 36 times a month virtually. Because of the virtual nature of their offerings, IYG started attracting more youth from throughout the state. “We have picked up 127 new youth since the pandemic started,” Paulsen said.

IYG also noticed a troubling trend of homelessness and food insecurity increasing among LGBTQ youth. “The food insecurity has definitely grown since the beginning of the pandemic,” Paulsen said. “A lot of our youth have lost employment because they worked in restaurants or other public-facing jobs.”

Paulsen said homeless shelters generally are not safe for LGBTQ youth. “They avoid the shelters. Some of them couch surf, some trade sex for shelter and some are on the streets,” she said.

In spite of those increasing demands, the IYG building has remained nearly empty for more than six months. “No one has been hanging out in it,” Pauslen said. “It’s frustrating that we haven’t been able to use it.”

However, Paulsen and the IYG team are already making plans to further expand as a result of the pandemic — both virtually and in-house once pandemic restrictions are lifted. With an increasing number of LGBTQ youth engaging with IYG from across the state, the organization is prepared to continue its focus on delivering virtual services.

IYG has invested in new zoom rooms, laptops so that the team can integrate IYG’s in-person services with those engaging virtually. “We want all youth to have the same experience,” Paulsen said. “We applied for a grant to support the expenses. If it doesn’t come through, we’ll raise the money. We have 127 more youth we can’t walk away from.”

Nonprofit seeks ways to highlight its mission in pandemic times

As a nonprofit that focuses on helping women grow professionally, Passing the Torch for Women has expanded to a national model that relies on an extensive network of women mentoring other women.

From a logistical standpoint, pandemic restrictions did little to impact that model since most connections could continue virtually — with volunteers providing mentoring, said Deb Hallberg, CEO of Pass the Torch for Women Foundation. 

Although their staff members decided not to renew their office leases at Industrious, a co-working office complex on Massachusetts Avenue in downtown Indianapolis, they quickly shifted to meeting virtually from their homes. “We gave up our office spaces to streamline our budget, Hallberg said. “I think we are as effective as can be. We present an awesome program that was already virtual with many of our students, who are all over the United States. We’re taking it up a notch higher to create all-virtual programs so that everyone is available to participate.”

In the wake of the pandemic, Passing the Torch for Women created a needs-based fund to help students pay for groceries, utilities, rent and other bills. Many of its students have been furloughed or displaced from jobs, or have had challenges with maintaining their focus on their studies and work because of lack of childcare. “Women tend to have to do it all,” Hallberg said. “Now, as a result of COVID, we’ve lost even more ground.”

The main challenges presented by major events in 2020 — COVID-19 and social injustice protests — were primarily around messaging as a nonprofit, Hallberg said. 

Many nonprofits that did not neatly fall into specific categories directly related to issues such as hunger relief or anti-racism could find it difficult to attract funding in the current climate, Hallberg said. “We were reluctant to make a huge push to ask donors to give more because we knew everyone was going through the experience of downsizing and facing a lot of challenges,” she said. “We felt that it wasn’t appropriate so we streamlined our budget for as long as we could.”

While Passing the Torch for Women helps many minority women, the mission is not directly tied to social justice issues, which further complicates messaging, Hallberg said. “We help marginalized, non-traditional adult female students by helping them earn a wage above the poverty line,” she said. “We provide mentoring, networking and professional development. We are giving women hope, 30 percent of whom are single moms, 80 percent are on government assistance and about 80 percent are black and brown.

“We have our hand out to say, ‘If you will take my hand, I will share my wisdom and knowledge with you and help you cross that next finish line, and the next, and the next … whatever you set out in front of you as your goal,” Hallberg said. 

In spite of that focus, Hallberg said, Passing the Torch for Women’s mission is not directly tied to a demographic. “The focus (from many funding organizations) has been on helping those with a specific mission focused on minorities. It has prohibited us from getting some funding. We need to do a better job of telling our story.”

Hallberg remains hopeful that Passing the Torch for Women will continue its mission. “I know six months from now, and beyond, we’re still going to be here. We’re going to be OK,” she said. 

Oct 05

Don’t have a data partner? You need to get one … now

By Sponsor Insight

by Leslie Wells, Assistant Director of Communications, the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI

It’s a data-driven world, and finding a partner to help in the process is critical to a nonprofit’s future, its funders and, most importantly, to those whom the organization serves. Most nonprofits want and need to be able to show promising results to justify their existing efforts and their plans for future expansion. At the same time, staff members at those organizations also want to know that their hard work is making a difference. Having solid, reliable data can help them accomplish both of these goals.

But data can be intimidating, and many groups don’t know where to begin.

“Any nonprofit needs to start with solid questions and ideas about what they’ll do and who they’ll serve,” said Breanca Merritt, director for the Indiana University Public Policy Institute’s Center for Research on Inclusion and Social Policy (CRISP). “Data helps you answer those questions and make informed decisions.”

CRISP recently partnered with the Martin Luther King Community Center in Indianapolis to address community crime prevention, thanks to a grant from the Central Indiana Community Foundation.

After reviewing the research CRISP conducted, leaders at the MLK Center assessed their strategy and shifted their focus to young people. They used the data CRISP collected to secure a grant and create the Best Buy Teen Tech Center. From computers to a recording studio and a 3D printer, the new space gives at-risk preteens and teens the opportunity to explore tech-based interests, careers, and opportunities.

Merritt says the MLK Center project is an example of what embracing data can do for nonprofits — and she has advice for organizations that are just beginning their data journey:

1. Define your vision. Decide who it is you want to serve and how, then think about what data or other resources you already have — or don’t have — to communicate that story.

2. Find a data and research partner. If you’re not a data person, find someone who is. Let them analyze your data before you reach your own conclusions. They can help you translate your big picture goals into something more tangible and measurable.

A good data and research partner organization should:

  • Value your organization’s work
  • Be knowledgeable about what you do
  • Have a heart for your work, but the brain and expertise for the research you need
  • Be adaptive, flexible, and patient

3. Don’t forget funders. Use data to give funders a more comprehensive picture of what you’re doing, why they should invest, and the return on their investment.

4. Review the data often. Ongoing evaluation allows you to make course corrections and stay on track. Merritt recommends reviewing the data at the six-month or one-year mark — and beyond.

“The six-month mark is a very forgiving review time because if something isn’t going according to plan, you have time to fix it,” she said. “But long-term evaluation matters, too. You don’t want to get 10 years into a program and realize you need to make major changes.”

Also, Merritt advised, reviewing data earlier on might be even more useful than waiting until the one-year mark, depending on the length of your program.

The CRISP Clinic
Even with this advice, many organizations often lack the staffing, time, and/or expertise to conduct even small assessments of internal data, client experiences or community engagement.

That’s where Merritt and her team can help. Beginning in spring 2021, the CRISP Clinic will begin accepting new organizations. The clinic will provide low- to no-cost research and evaluation services to help nonprofit organizations in Central Indiana that serve diverse populations and address issues of equity and/or social policy. The hope is to expand the services to other regions.

At the heart of the clinic is a diverse team of service-minded student researchers who can put their critical-thinking and evaluative skills to work for nonprofits in need. The student researchers will be overseen by Roxy Lawrence, a program analyst at CRISP. Initially, the clinic’s projects will likely be relatively small in scope, ranging from support in program development and capacity building, to client participation and engagement. The team will seek to understand how effective programs are, and the level of stakeholder and/or community engagement.

“These students have been instrumental in identifying, interviewing, and surveying the philanthropic organizations from which many local nonprofits receive funding,” Merritt said. “They’ve helped develop an application for organizations, a rubric for scoring those applications, and a schedule for onboarding and managing the clinic’s projects.”

Organizations will be selected based on three primary selection criteria:

Does the organization or program aim to achieve equitable outcomes among participants, service goals, or other aspects of the work?
Does the organization or program address issues of social policy?
Would the organization not be able to obtain these services elsewhere at low or no cost?

The team also will take into consideration other factors, including whether an organization could conduct any research-related activities on its own, the demographics of the clients served, the size and need of any related work, and the organization’s willingness to work with students.

These projects would last no more than three to four months each, from the initial identification and meeting with stakeholders, through development and implementation of research strategy, and the culmination in a final report.

Organizations that are interested in applying for the CRISP Clinic can reach out directly to Lawrence and Merritt at IUCRISP@iu.edu.

Leslie Wells

Oct 05

COVID-19 forces more than 40 percent of Central Indiana nonprofits to reconsider facility needs, and some to implement new delivery models, according to CA survey

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor, Not-for-Profit News

After more than seven months of operating under restrictions caused by COVID-19, most nonprofit organizations have made adjustments in programming and/or office operations,  with some permanently changing their service models with the aid of technology, according to an informal survey by Charitable Advisors.

For some, the new normal has revealed inadequacies in employees’ ability to deliver services from home. However, others noted some positive outcomes.

“Now we understand we can work successfully from home,” one survey respondent said. “The silver lining is that we all gained better technological skills. Plus, we adapted by recruiting, training, and working with volunteers all through virtual means — remarkable.” With that significant shift, the survey respondent said that the team plans to reduce its lease footprint in the future.

Another survey respondent questioned the need for a facility if social distancing continued to be a requirement for the foreseeable future. “Our current space is not set up for social distancing,” the respondent said. “Do we need a physical location at all?”

However, a significant number indicated that they will continue to need their facilities to deliver services.

Of 59 nonprofit representatives who responded to the survey, which was conducted in August 2020 …

  • more than 30% said that everyone was working from home;
  • nearly 38% said programs are being delivered virtually;
  • slightly more than 12% said programs have been suspended;
  • more than 44% continue to deliver in-person services;
  • more than 40% reported that they are now reconsidering their facility needs;
  • and more than 50% say they do not anticipate any change in facilities post-COVID.

Numerous organizations also reported that their team has become more innovative about facility usage in an effort to maintain social distancing as outlined under COVID-19 guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, a survey respondent reported, employees at their nonprofit work as part of a staggered shift pattern to maintain social distancing in facility environments that do not allow for those regulations to be met at full capacity. “Everyone is working from home but they may come in on designated days to limit the number of people in the office,” the respondent said. Another said that their nonprofit is now open only two days a week instead of five days a week.

Also, a significant number of respondents said they are safely providing in-person services by implementing adaptations and restrictions. Some of the nonprofits that provide essential services, including medical care, haven’t stopped delivering services. However, they are operating under different guidelines.. “We are currently pre-screening patients by phone and scheduling appointments, instead of our walk-in hours,” a respondent said. “We may continue a hybrid version of this protocol in future months.”

Another respondent said their team adapted for social distancing but have no plans to change their use of their facilities in the future. “Our work really requires human interaction. Virtual is a poor substitute.”

Several respondents said the pandemic also initiated their thinking about creating a remote workforce. “We plan to shrink our office footprint, but that was planned for 2021 anyway; not directly because of the pandemic,” a survey respondent said. “In response to the pandemic, we would shrink now if we could without a lease penalty.”