Submitted by: Elizabeth Bolton, Ph.D. Professor of Community Development
Newport, Gus. “Why Are We Replacing the Furniture When Half the Neighborhood is Missing?” The Nonprofit Quarterly, Volume 12, Issue 4, Winter 2005.
Introduction
“If we are truly concerned about the effectiveness of community-based nonprofits, a central question we must absolutely ask ourselves is whether the governance of individual community organizations enhances or interferes with good governance on a community-wide level” (Hall, p. 32). This article is provocative in that it challenges the view that the more non profit organizations there are the better it is. Gus Hall writes from the perspective of being the Vanguard Foundation program director in charge of ground efforts in New Orleans in response to the Katrina disaster. During the time since the Katrina hurricane, nonprofits have been seen at their best and their worst. This article suggests that as a community resource it is appropriate to examine their mission and the accountability of their board to the mission. Including client groups in the board membership increases the probability that the board will be accountable to its mission and to the public on a continuing basis. This is important whether the funding comes from grants made by local, state of federal government or voluntary contributions.
Main Ideas
Does the governance of individual community organizations interfere with good governance on a community wide level? Gus Hall believes it does. He says that nonprofits were created to serve communities in a great variety of ways to include health care, food security, child care and jobs and more. The nonprofit sector fills in the gap between the deficits of the public sector and the private sector. But what about the negative effects of all these nonprofit organizations? Hall says that when bad public policy and poor governance are covered up by creating more and more nonprofits, this allows issues that should be connected or joined together to be handled as separate issues because the nonprofits will be competing with each other for limited public funds and private donations. Another effect is that some of the issues that get attention cannot bring about beneficial change because they are limited in scope. The effect of working on an issue through the efforts of many organizations rather than as a system wide issue is that the beneficiaries get short changed in the process. Some people are served but many are not.
Hall calls for inclusiveness of the recipients of services in the decision making process. This is important because boards change, conditions in communities change and without a constant outreach and communication to the target audience, the real message may get lost. The interpretation of this is that the mission may get side tracked. This happens all too often and what was once a mission with focus and purpose becomes a new mission with only a nuance of the former one remaining. Large foundations that were funded by wealthy benefactors with clear ideas about how their funds should be spent have been known to redirect the mission and the subsequent use of the funds.
It is well known that policies change and strategies must be in place to recognize which policies change and in what ways they change. When this is known, then determine how these policy changes might affect the governance of the organization and most particularly the client group. If these policy changes do not become connected to the issue they are supposed to influence, nonprofit boards become entrenched and separated from the issue and ultimately their mission.
Before being the program director of the Vanguard Foundation, Hall was the executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DNSI) in Boston which was one of many nonprofits serving different issues, ethnic groups and personal or organizational histories. He notes that despite all the nonprofits working the area it was a profile of urban devastation with vacant lots, dangerous playgrounds, and widespread evidence of lack of public interest and investment. The Mable Louise Riley Foundation led the way to organize the nonprofits into a coalition that would engage the community in the decision making process to determine what the residents determined as the greatest need and how they might be met. Initially, the Foundation visited Dudley Street with the idea of funding the purchase of office furniture. They were shocked by the vacant lots and empty buildings. One board member remarked that it seemed strange to replace the furniture when half the neighborhood was missing. From this observation emerged the theme that the presence of a great many nonprofit organizations does not necessarily mean that the situation will improve. Rather, it might indicate that the governance of these organizations may well be interfering with the governance on a community wide basis.
Through the efforts of the Riley Foundation and nonprofit leaders in the community, the element of inclusiveness became a major factor in uniting the nonprofits in the community development initiative. Hall describes the rebuilding and redevelopment process that occurred in Boston’s Dudley Street neighborhood as the stages of an organization’s growth. He ends by challenging nonprofit boards to rethink the role they could play in rebuilding neighborhoods and whole communities. He calls for forming more partnerships, creating interlocking agendas with more players, learning from and working with one another in new and different ways. Hall is a visionary who sees the potential in community based nonprofit organizations working together through their boards and client group representatives to become more responsive to the needs of the citizens who live there.
Implications for Extension
During the past few years Florida has had more than its share of hurricane disasters that have caused major damage in practically every part of the state. Community responses have ranged from organized plans to waiting for help to arrive. Community based organizations are called on to provide volunteer services, rebuild infrastructure, and deliver food and supplies to families and many other tasks. Community leaders are always proud to cite the efforts of these organizations in times of need.
The message in this article for extension is to seek to organize the nonprofits to act in a cohesive and collaborative way with some overlapping mission or goals. Be prepared to help the community organizations meet and form some common bonds. Assist the supporting organizations to work in unison rather than in competition with each other. Help the participating organizations form an ad hoc board of directors to represent the immediate need and the interests of their group. Stay in touch with policy makers and policy changes that may affect the local situation. Be prepared to include the targeted groups in the membership of the ad hoc board or on the permanent boards of local organizations. Extension county faculty work with community based organizations in every aspect of extension encompassing agriculture, family and consumer sciences, community development, sea grant, and 4-H. No other local resource has a greater knowledge of the community and its needs. Further extension has an existing network of personnel, technology and organization that can make a lasting difference before and during a natural disaster such as a hurricane.
Labels: Bolton, nonprofits, RNYCU
