Lessons from the Street: Capacity Building and Replication
2. Qualities of Success
What are qualities of grassroots nonprofit inner city organizations
that make for success? If we can answer this question, we can compare any
grassroots, nonprofit organization to the ideal, decide what may be lacking
in the organization, and create a technical assistance plan to move the
organization closer to the ideal.
Model grassroots, nonprofit organizations are not just based on good
program ideas. Our experience has taught that at least as important is
the presence of a clear, outcome driven mission associated with strong
board and staff leadership; skill in generating multiple income streams;
competent financial and organizational management; quality, flexible and
tenacious staff members who are given the opportunity for personal development;
and ability to use the media to further the organization and promote leadership.
Consider each of these qualities:
A Clear Mission and Sound Leadership
Successful grassroots, nonprofit organizations have clearly defined
missions based on measurable outcomes. The operating head of the agency
and the board of directors work well together and understand the role of
evaluation in defining the mission. The operating head is respected by
the board and the staff. Typically, the founder of a successful grassroots,
nonprofit organization works long hours and has a strong work ethic, intense
commitment, cultural sensitivity and considerable fundraising and political
skill. Such executive directors are empathic with and well-informed about
the people served by the nonprofit and communicates well with fellow staff-members,
inspiring staff to work as hard as they do.
Skill in Generating Multiple Income Streams
In part because funders have recognized a clear mission, sound leadership,
good ideas, multiple solutions, flexibility and competent management, successful
or promising community-based nonprofits are able to secure at least minimal
funding year after year. This is "soft money," because grassroots nonprofits
rarely are endowed.
Such programs typically have learned to keep a balanced portfolio of
public and private funders. They have staff, consultants or trustees who
can locate announcements of fund availability and write good proposals.
They mix restricted funding with unrestricted funding from private donors,
special events and sometimes for-profit income streams.
Successes like Delancey Street in San Francisco create business-like
and for-profit ventures linked to nonprofit programs. Delancey Street is
able to involve participants in business ventures -- in part because Delancey
Street participants are not thirteen year olds who still need to focus
on school, but adult ex-offenders who, if they can be turned around, are
more ready for steady employment.1 Other nonprofit organizations
involved with human development, like the Mid-Bronx Desperados Community
Housing Corporation in New York, have integrated youth programs into economic
development initiatives, and have generated income streams from the economic
development -- for example, through housing syndication.2
Still, even the most successful grassroots nonprofits experience funding
as a constant problem and have their bad times. Much of the reason is that
such nonprofits are not sufficiently recognized by citizens as cost-effective
investors in human capital. In turn, funding from the public and private
sectors remain minuscule compared to what is needed nationally.
Competent Management
One stereotype of the inner city grassroots nonprofit organizations
responsible for so much of what works is that they are begun by charismatic
leaders who cannot manage. There is some truth to this, and many nonprofits,
especially in youth development and human services, fail because of poor
management. However, successful organizations have competent chief financial
officers to manage grants and contracts. Many successes have the resources
for executive vice presidents who manage day-to-day, while the leader provides
vision, develops new ideas and raises funds with the board. Good management
helps generate good performance, which attracts more funds. More funds
increase the resources available for bringing on good managers. It is a
two-way relationship.
Effective Staff
In successful grassroots programs, staff are selected for their expertise
and typically come from the same background and communities as persons
in their program. Senior staff often have been at the organization for
many years. These staff members understand that multiple solutions and
outcomes cannot be routine or uniform. Variation is needed to fit individual
needs of children, young people and adults. Staff feel they are wanted
because of a supportive atmosphere. This facilitates participation by staff
and the development of their leadership skills.
To deal with more traditional funding bureaucracies, staff need to be
dedicated and tenacious. The founders of the Argus Community in the South
Bronx and Delancey Street in San Francisco, for example, have been at it
for over a quarter century.3 Staff members often devise innovative
plots and schemes to tunnel under or circle around the rules and regulations
of more traditional bureaucracies that provide funds. Those bureaucracies
tend to be narrow and categorical -- so at times they must be manipulated
if the community groups are to come up with funding for the comprehensive
interventions and multiple solutions that work best. To do all of this
usually requires attention to mundane, day-to-day detail. Staff at successful
organizations have considerable patience.
Such staff have opportunities for renewal and development -- although,
typically, they would like time for much more. There often are regular,
weekly staff development meetings, as is the case at Argus, where staff
share their feelings, aspirations, triumphs and frustrations. Staff have
access to professional development networks, and they exchange good practices
at meetings and workshops with peers outside their organizations.
Mastery of the Media and Communications Technology
The media can be used to publicize a grassroots organization. The result
can be education of the public that the program works. Such knowledge can
be leveraged into political action, legislation and public funding for
the program, and programs like it. It also can make private funders more
aware of the success, and increase their support. For example, Delancey
Street has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt,
ABC’s 20/20 and hosts of other national and local elections and
print media stories. As a result of Delancey’s program success and media
skill, its founder was given the lead by the Mayor of San Francisco in
reforming the city’s juvenile justice system. Major banks helped finance
construction of the Delancey Street residential and commercial complex
on the Embarcadero.4 Another example is the Dorchester Youth
Collaborative in Boston, where program youth appear in public service announcements
and commercials, frequent talk shows, have produced Blockbuster community
service videos and were financed by Hollywood for a limited distribution
motion picture, Squeeze.5 Not only can media capacity
share the word, but it can develop the leadership skills of nonprofit staff
and program participants, as the Boston program has demonstrated.
Conclusion
Based on these qualities of success, how can technical assisters at
the national, regional and local levels enhance the capacities of grassroots
nonprofit organizations? How can technical assisters then help facilitate
replications in other locations? Chapter 3 begins to answer these questions.