I know it’s long overdue (who needs a little refresher on how to keep up a blog?) but we wanted to post the results of the Nonprofit Town Hall Meetings here:
On April 9, 10 and 15, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and the Council of Community Services of New York State convened three Town Halls of New York State nonprofits to discuss the Nonprofit Congress held this June in Washington DC, and to solicit thoughts, ideas, and responses to the following questions.
Below are the responses from each of the town halls.
If nonprofits (both in this room & throughout New York State) were fulfilling all of our promise, what would we be doing?
NYC
• Collaboration to address constituents’ needs effectively
• Influencing policy while leveraging resources
• Want good PR for the sector/demonstrate excellence by the vast majority of the sector
• Our outlook should be positive & be the force of the positive outlook
• PR image/no more scandals!
• Communicating our accountability & transparency & value of our work to the general public & our constituents that we serve
• Maintain our differences from the for-profit sector
• Bring light to certain issues
• As we get larger, help more grassroots organizations’ thrive
• Mission driven organizations
• Reduction of ignorance, increased tolerance, strengthening communities
• Build stronger boards and stay mission driven
• Customer Service as an institutional culture
• Access to information and public trust
Albany
• Spend more time fulfilling mission, instead of chasing $$
• Adequate and predictable resources/funding
• Act as catalyst of change and greater impact in our community
• Reconcile differences between subsectors
• Reducing competiveness
• Be serving all of our constituencies – no waiting list for services
• There would be no need that we were not meeting
Virtual
• Meeting the needs of all our clients
• Seen as an equal partner – a group that is invested in by the community and that government covers our expenses better
How would you describe your vision of the ideal nonprofit community in New York?
Albany
• All nonprofits have a voice!
• Collaboration is a good thing!
• Perceived as generating progress and key part of society
• Balance between corporate and mission needs
• Have a voice with policy makers to develop/report metrics
• Build the perception as meeting critical needs of our nation which left unmet would be crippling
• People are committed to the mission, rather than the individual organization within that mission.
Virtual
• Well-funded and well-respected
If there is one message you could convey to a political candidate (national, state, local) what would it be?
NYC
• We do your work – work with us as real partners (funding & strategy)
• The power of the nonprofit sector (how many voters in your area are affected/use/work for nonprofits)
• Largest community employer – biggest voting block is the senior citizen bracket – economic stabilization
• Implement cultural diversity and differences and values into daily agenda
• Hold yourselves to the highest standard that you expect from us. Do cost benefit analysis for your constituents that we serve.
• Nonprofits should be a part of the input into the funding cycle
Albany
• Nonprofits provide a critical service that needs to be addressed; more collaboration between nonprofits and government to meet those needs.
• Try a day without nonprofits
• “If you cut us, do our communities (your votes) not bleed?”
• Use us to benefit and build the communities
• We are the backbone and the heart of society/of our communities
Virtual
• Charitable giving is no replacement for government funding
• Increase the administrative funding from government (there is hypocrisy in that the government’s administrative fees are much higher than what they allow nonprofits to have)
How can the strengths of the New York nonprofit community be used to support the work in the state on any Top Priority
Albany
• Use of grassroots efforts to talk to the media Op/Ed pieces
• Community Profit instead of “Nonprofit”
• More media savvy, press releases, letters to editors
• www.google.com/alerts & Yahoo feeds
• Number of nonprofits in NYS and throughout the country! CCS has nonprofit statewide report on #’s
• Access to large, influential nonprofits and highly recognizable celebrity-driven organizations
Virtual
• We harness the energy from the subsectors into the whole sector which creates a large voice for the sector
• Use/create more multi-tenet centers to save on rental costs, administrative fees.
What are you doing to support the priorities?
Albany
• Internal accountability and best practices
• Creating a communication tool for the nonprofit sector (NY Nonprofit Press)
• Building awareness through their advocacy to media and elected officials (systems Advocacy Network) [required collaboration!]
• Good at promoting towards youth
• Civic engagement that’s more meaningful than “shelving books”
NYC
• Acct/BP: Review our services, self evaluations;
• L: Developing leaders thru our daily trials
• L: Development of interns into F/T employees
• L: Encouraging youth’s ideas into action
• OE: Training & Prof Dev. T&TA/ Capacity building/Grants & Scholarships
• Ad: Legislative breakfasts/ Advocacy Day in Albany/Policy testimonies/Convene coalitions for issues/conversations with electeds
• Support: Management/TA
• Strategy building
• Articulating role within community/collaborating with other organizations
• Pursuit of excellence in management/leadership
• Support: Seeking to tell our stories to funders/electeds/community
Virtual
• Economic impact study for the local county
• Raising awareness of the nonprofit’s accountability
• At a few symposiums updatae, they’ve effectively matched nonprofits and government to partner more and interact better
• Executive Director retreat on succession planning
• Starting a Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Oswego
Collaboration in Action
NYC
• Continue the collaboration that has begun here/maintain the motivation
• Effort to get information out to our constituents that are not here (regular email updates)
• Nationally – communicating the value of our sector (without the burden)
• Filling the voids in our society.
Albany
• Convene thematic groups (subsectors) to encourage talking to each other and possibly collaborate more (done strategically!)
• Models for sharing costs/tasks – greater efficiencies
• Press release templates/guides to dealing with media, and how to tie in the local issues with the greater nonprofit sector
• The new media: how do you make it work for your nonprofit?
• Web 2.0 tools – nyned.org presentation
Virtual
• Convene more of these town halls!
• Lobby Day with both State & Federal government for nonprofits
• Work to get information about this into the Legislative Gazette in Albany to help raise awareness of these issues and take action
• Video campaign about the impact of nonprofits
• Multi-tenet centers
• Shared training and build the skills of nonprofit staff
What could Happen on the Federal Level to Support the State initiatives?
Virtual
• New President
• Cabinet level position for nonprofits, or an advisory board
• Adequate funding for essential services
• Need to get some concrete action steps to present to officials
Filed under: nonprofit congress | Tagged: np congress townhall
