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Chairman’s Roundtable On The Nonprofit And Voluntary Sector:
Findings From The Agency And Funder Dialogues - Part 3
This Community Dispatch provides an overview of community dialogues held
by the Chairman’s Roundtable on the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector with
community agencies and funding organizations. These dialogues are a continuation
of similar consultations held with volunteers in November and December 2005; the
results of which were described in Community Dispatch Vol. 10, No.5. The
Roundtable itself was broadly discussed in Community Dispatch Vol. 10, No.4. The
information gathered in these sessions is essential to understanding the Halton
community within the context of challenges and opportunities facing the
nonprofit and voluntary sector across Canada. I have asked Regional staff to
share their findings with the broader community.
Joey Edwardh
The Agency & Funder Dialogues
As the second and third steps in a series of community dialogues beginning
with volunteers, Chairman Savoline’s Roundtable on the Nonprofit and Voluntary
Sector sought the perspectives of Halton’s community agencies and funding
organizations. A total of eight agency and two funder sessions took place from
April 3rd to 7th, with 64 agency and 14 funder representatives participating.
The information gathered from the dialogues has been essential to the work and
forthcoming recommendations of the Roundtable, which will be brought forward at
the June 15th, 2006 Community Forum. For more details on the Forum, including
RSVP information, please refer to page 5 of this Dispatch.
Who Participated?
Agencies
(based on an 89% response rate, N =57)
While nearly all sub-sectors were represented, Social Services was
predominant (51%), followed by Education and Research (23%) and Health (14%).
Across all sub-sectors, nearly three-quarters of organizations were
incorporated as a nonprofit charitable organization. Sixty-three percent of
participants identified themselves as an Executive Director or other senior
level position.
Funders
(based on an 86% response rate, N =12)
With representation from all levels of government, service clubs, community
funders and the corporate sector, the funder dialogues were highly diverse and
encompassed a wide cross section of views. In terms of catchment area and
funding priorities, participants were most likely to fund with a local focus
(67%) and in the areas of social services (58%) and health (42%).
What The Roundtable Heard:
Challenges Faced By Agencies
Both agency and funder participants were asked to identify challenges facing
nonprofit and voluntary organizations in Halton. What follows is a broad
overview incorporating the perspectives of each.
Erosion of Financial Resources
Throughout the dialogues, both agencies and funders described a sector
characterized by the erosion of financial resources. Participants indicated that
agencies continue to be impacted by the deep funding cuts of the 1990s, while
current levels of funding have not kept pace with growing community needs and
inflation. Both groups pointed to a lack of core and sustainable funds as a key
challenge facing the sector, which has resulted in under-funded administrative
and capital costs and an environment of financial uncertainty.
Application Process & Financial Accountability Requirements
Compounding a lack of financial capacity, agencies identified the time and
complexity of the application process as a key challenge and drain on
organizational resources. This includes financial accountability requirements,
which were seen as onerous and requiring an excessive level of financial detail.
Of joint concern to participants were the challenges placed on agencies by
funding cycles and gaps in revenue. Such gaps were seen as hindering the ability
of agencies to exercise foresight and plan strategically, as well as creating an
unstable environment for staff. Ultimately, this was identified as having an
impact on the end service consumer, as gaps in revenue invariably result in gaps
to community programming.
Fundraising
While fundraising can help alleviate financial constraints, agency
participants identified time constraints and a high level of competition as
barriers to engaging in such activities. Funder participants acknowledged the
competitiveness of the fundraising arena, adding that communities can only
support so much and the fundraising dollar can only stretch so far.
Human Resources (HR)
Throughout the dialogues, agency representatives routinely identified human
resources as their greatest strength in pursuing the organization’s mandate.
However, both agencies and funders agreed that inadequate staff compliments and
the inability of organizations to recruit and retain staff pose significant
challenges to the capacity of the sector. Agency representatives attributed this
challenge to inadequate levels of compensation , which are exacerbated by
obligations to meet provincially legislated pay equity requirements.
As with their staff compliments, agency participants provided high praise for
the effort and dedication of their volunteers, but also acknowledged several
challenges. This included the recruitment and retention of a solid volunteer
base and the need to create role clarity amongst board members.
Physical Infrastructure/ Systems
In addition to HR and financial concerns, agency participants discussed
challenges specific to physical infrastructure. Of greatest concern was finding
a location balancing affordability and accessibility. Complicating matters was
the large and geographically diverse nature of the Halton community, including
the accessibility of transportation. Rounding out infrastructure challenges was
the cost, maintenance and expertise needed to establish a sound base of
information technology (IT).
Mission Drift & Community Capacity
When looking at the challenges identified by dialogue participants, it is not
surprising to hear that some agencies are drifting from their missions. It
appears as though many agencies are operating in a survival mode to navigate an
environment of inadequate financial resources and diminished infrastructure.
Contributing to this environment is what both agencies and funders saw as a high
level of competition for a finite pool of financial resources. The totality of
these challenges has resulted in a decreased capacity to meet community demand
for service.
Addressing the Challenges
In addition to identifying agency challenges, dialogue participants were
asked a number of questions on what is being done or what could be done to
alleviate stresses on nonprofit and voluntary agencies. While some strategies
represent proactive attempts at sustainable change, it is important to recognize
several of the following actions have been implemented as stop-gap solutions to
immediate pressures.
Restructuring & Reduction of Service
No one has a better understanding of the invaluable role of community based
services than the organizations that provide them. However, agency participants
discussed the need to reduce or restructure services as a response to inadequate
resources, contributing to greater wait times for service consumers.
Income Diversification
Although accompanied by many challenges, agencies are utilizing fundraising
and income diversification ventures to build financial capacity. This includes
pursuing in-kind supports, renting of space, charging fees for service and
making on-going, multiple applications for funding.
Human Resource Strategies
Despite already operating on inadequate staff compliments, some agencies have
taken additional measures to reduce HR costs. This included the use of contract
and part-time staff, summer students through Government of Canada programs and
partnering to create staff development opportunities. Agencies also noted an
increase in expectations placed on volunteers, as well as the need to promote a
culture of volunteerism in the community.
Being Strategic
Agency representatives pointed to strategic planning as a valuable tool in
guiding an agency to its objectives. Similarly, funders and agencies identified
the strategic pursuit of funds (i.e. funds reflecting the mandate of the
organization) as a key step to becoming more financially sustainable.
Creating Awareness
Profiling an organization and its services was identified by agencies as a
key strategy in developing organizational capacity. However, participants
stressed the need for greater access to advertising and marketing opportunities.
Funders seconded the need to generate awareness, noting the importance of agency
exposure and the use of champions as an existing best practice in agency
sustainability.
Expanding upon the need to create awareness, agencies and funders discussed
the importance of increasing knowledge around funding opportunities. Suggestions
included a database, information desk and central portal providing information
on available funds and the processes required to access them.
Advocacy
As with awareness, advocacy was both a strategy being implemented by the
sector and a strategy with room for expansion. Agencies also saw the need to
play a greater role in public policy dialogue, which has emerged as a key theme
throughout the Roundtable’s discussions.
Building Capacity: The Role of Funders
When asked about actions they have taken to contribute to the sector’s
sustainability, funders identified a number of capacity building roles. This
included the provision of capacity building services, such as outcome evaluation
training, fundraising and marketing supports, proposal writing workshops,
business skills modules, board training and leadership development.
Additionally, funders saw themselves playing a connector role, linking agencies
to services and supports in the community, including the facilitation of
partnerships and raising awareness of best practices. The importance of
establishing and expanding relationships past a strict dollars and cents focus
was also highlighted amongst funders.
Partnership & Collaboration
Agencies identified the importance of partnering as both an immediate and
future strategy for addressing challenges faced by the sector. This included
networking, the sharing of physical space, staff and administrative systems and
the possibility of creating central locations with shared-services. It should be
noted that such forms of cooperation should be considered distinct from
partnerships created solely for the purposes of meeting funding requirements, as
both agencies and funders stressed the importance of creating meaningful
relationships. Similarly, participants discussed the importance of expanding
ties with the private sector to the mutual benefit of both parties.
While partnership was seen as creating organizational effectiveness, funders
placed significant emphasis on the need to expand collaborative efforts to
reduce duplication of services and strengthen the overall health of the sector.
Similarly, both sets of participants were mindful of the need for funders to
work in greater collaboration. For agencies, this included exploring
opportunities to maximize total funding dollars.
Challenges Faced by Funders
Although a great deal of research has been completed on the challenges faced
by nonprofit and voluntary organizations, there exists a noticeable knowledge
gap on the issues experienced by funders. Thus, the dialogues asked funders to
describe some of the challenges they face in achieving their mandates and
objectives.
Changes in Governments & Priorities
Funders expressed frustration over inconsistencies and uncertainties created
by routine shifts in governments and governmental priorities. This included an
inability to make long term commitments and a lack of continuity amongst funding
programs, portfolios and mandates. In some cases, participants felt a sense of
disconnect with the community as priorities were seen to be dictated by
government agendas as opposed to local needs. Adding to these challenges was a
lack of connectedness within governmental departments and between levels of
government, resulting in a collectively disjointed approach to funding and lack
of awareness of the overall funding structure. Compounding these challenges were
variations in policies and procedures amongst local or regional divisions within
the same program/ portfolio.
Accountability Expectations
Similar to nonprofit and voluntary organizations, funders expressed
difficulties created by onerous accountability expectations. In some cases,
voluminous paperwork or vast geographical responsibilities resulted in
limitations to developing an intimate understanding of one’s catchment area and
funded organizations. In order to satisfy their rigid accountabilities, funders
felt undue expectations were ultimately transferred onto the community. For
some, increases in accountability were seen as being directly related to
heightened efforts to enhance accountability in government structures.
Limited Autonomy
Given the centralized policy structures of many funding organizations (most
notably government funders), participants described an inability to impact
decision making at a local level. Thus, while funders expressed understanding
and empathy around the circumstances faced by agencies, a lack of policy making
capacity limited their ability to respond. It was suggested that agency
frustrations would be more fruitfully directed at central structures and those
in a position to better influence change.
Lack of Capacity to Meet Needs
Irrespective of the type of funder, participants in the funder dialogues
clearly indicated their overall lack of financial capacity to meet the
community’s need for financial resources. As with nonprofit and voluntary
organizations, the resources of funders are stretched to their limit.
Internal Capacity
In addition to their limited capacity to allocate funds, funders highlighted
some of the same organizational restraints as nonprofit and voluntary
organizations. In particular, these comprised an inadequate human resource
compliment and lack of administrative/ operational capacity.
Moving Forward Together
Regardless of one’s role within the nonprofit and voluntary sector, there
exists a common goal of improving the quality of life in our communities.
However, the separate responsibilities of agencies and funders can create
different perspectives on how this common goal is best achieved. To develop a
greater understanding around where some of these differing perspectives can be
bridged, the Roundtable asked agencies and funders about accountability and
evaluation expectations, best practices in developing the agency/ funder
relationship and how best to move the relationship forward in its collective
sense.
Evaluation & Accountability Expectations
With the emergence of reports such as Funding Matters, much attention has
been paid to challenges faced by agencies in meeting evaluation and
accountability expectations. While the community dialogues confirmed these
challenges, it was also identified that funders face many of the same issues.
Thus, it was not surprising to learn both streams of participants shared similar
perspectives on establishing mutually agreeable accountability and evaluation
requirements, including:
- Flexibility e.g. depending on the type of fund, size of agency, etc.
- The need to speak a common language e.g. asking similar questions
- Simplification of requirements (bottom-line accountabilities)
- A recognition that evaluation requires financial resources
- The importance of feedback mechanisms between agencies and funders
Existing Best Practices in Developing the Relationship
When asked what has contributed to positive working relationships, agencies
and funders stressed the importance of on-going communication. In particular,
funders valued being invited to agencies and agency functions, opportunities for
routine communication and the creation of a mutual understanding. Agency
representatives indicated being clear, keeping funders informed and involved,
educating around need and taking time to build the relationship as key
practices.
Moving the Relationship Forward:
When asked how greater overall collaboration between agencies and funders
would benefit the sector, both felt opportunities for awareness and
communication would be created. Funder participants added the issues of the
sector are clear and it is time to move forward on addressing the challenges. In
doing so, agencies stressed the need to avoid the creation of bureaucratic
structures and to overcome caveats of agency-to-agency competition. Funders
highlighted the importance of setting realistic expectations, cooperating (not
finger pointing), finding the time and resources to facilitate the relationship.
However, funders reinforced the need to advocate to appropriate levels of
governments and/ or decision makers in order to impact systemic change.
Developing a Made-in-Halton Approach: Community Forum 2006
On Thursday June 15th, 2006, the Roundtable will be hosting a Community Forum
at Le Dome Banquet Hall, 1173 North Service Road East, Oakville, from 9 a.m. to
2 p.m. (registration begins at 8:30 a.m.). This forum is an opportunity for
agencies, volunteers, funders, elected officials, service consumers and the
broader community to develop strategies that will support the forthcoming
recommendations of the Roundtable and strengthen Halton’s nonprofit and
voluntary sector. The Roundtable encourages your participation in this important
process. To reserve your space(s), please contact Lori Kirkwood at 905-825-6000,
extension 7058, or toll-free at 1-866-442-5866; by email
lori.kirkwood@halton.ca
Alternatively, you can register online at
www.halton.ca/VolunteerRoundtable
PDF: 260k (Community Dispatch)
Produced by Community Development Halton
860 Harrington Court
Burlington, Ontario L7N 3N4
(905) 632-1975, (905) 878-0955; Fax: (905) 632-0778; E-mail:
office@cdhalton.ca
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