If you've served on a nonprofit board (and there are many of you), you understand the meaning of "limited resources." Board members and executive directors spend a good chunk of time researching HR policies, legal questions or how to dive into a strategic plan.
No more. A unique partnership between CCA Global Partners in Manchester, the NH Center for Nonprofits and the NH Charitable Foundation, will deliver vital resources to nonprofits at a click of a mouse.
The Nonprofit Resource Platform, which launches in spring, is a Web site that will offer hundreds of resources, including human resource tools, budget templates, accounting information, marketing ideas, sample board governance policies, and assessment tools, all vetted by experts.
By using the platform, nonprofits will also be able to tap into discounts from national and local vendors on items such as credit card processing, gasoline, and Web site design and hosting. In addition, there will be an online networking component where nonprofit users may connect with peers through blogs, chat rooms and an online marketplace. "It will be soup to nuts," says Mary Ellen Jackson, executive director of the NH Center for Nonprofits.
The project's partners each bring something unique to the table. CCA Global, which has 25 years of experience providing platform-based resources to small business cooperatives nationwide, will provide technical and development expertise through its Social Good Division.
The NH Center for Nonprofits will provide content and promote the site to nonprofits. The NH Charitable Foundation will monitor and evaluate the project. Once tested here, CCA's Social Good Division plans to develop a national platform.
The goal is to save nonprofits time and money. "We hope it will make nonprofits more efficient and give them scale and allow them to focus [more] on mission," says Denise Sayer, director of strategic initiatives for CCA Global Partners. Instead of spending hours looking for policy samples or documents, nonprofit leaders will be able to go to the Nonprofit Resource Platform and get answers in minutes.
The idea for the project arose from a discussion three years ago between Howard Brodsky, chairman and CEO of CCA Global Partners, and Lew Feldstein, former president of the NH Charitable Foundation. Brodsky says the Charitable Foundation and the NH Center for Nonprofits wanted to make nonprofits more "organizationally stable." CCA had the tools to help.
About 15 corporate, private and local foundations are providing financial support for the project, which has raised approximately $765,000 "It's one more tool we don't have right now," says Katie Merrow, vice president of program development for the NH Charitable Foundation. "It's groundbreaking for New Hampshire."
Current Issue - May 2024