With more than 900 Delaware leaders and volunteers in attendance June 15th to hear organizational guru Jim Collins, Delaware’s nonprofit sector seems as healthy as it ever has been. Perhaps healthier.
And that’s likely a true statement.
When CEO Chris Grundner convened the annual meeting of DANA, the Delaware Association for Nonprofit Advancement, the energy in the room seemed palpable.
Three things, having watched and helped the sector for decades, secure the future for this robust sector. Among them are the quality of leadership, the increasing professionalism of the organizations, and the overall health of the volunteer corps.
With people like Grundner, Delaware Community Foundation head Fred Sears, Longwood Foundation President Eluthere “There” du Pont, and others at many agencies, the forward march aspect of the sector is strong.
So is the operational professionalism, supported by the increasing movement of business disciplines to the sector, facilitated not only by groups like DANA but by the quality of the leaders and volunteers, as well as the consultants in the sector.
The three Ts and the three Gs increasingly meet for the greater good, with the focus on volunteer leadership (Giving your Time, Treasure and, or Talent) along with the essentiality of fund-raising (Give, Get, or Get Off).
Most, albeit not all, groups seem to understand the benefits of strategic planning, fiscal management, donor cultivation, effective communication, and for many, policy advocacy.
And the spate of early-retirements occasioned by big companies, banks and others continue to build the volunteer ranks. And the volunteer ethic is strong, with Delaware’s taking their civic duty to a national and global scale, led by people like Dr. Tim Gardner who headed the American Heart Association to Kevin Kelley and the late Leon Weiner who had headed the National Association of Home Builders.
And an important sector it is:
“¢ The Delaware nonprofit sector generated $5.3 billion in revenue, 25% larger than the State’s operating budget;
“¢ More than 60,000 people are employed by nonprofits, about 14% of Delaware’s workforce;
“¢ More than $2.6 billion in nonprofit employee payroll goes into the economy; and
“¢ 93,000 volunteers reported a total of 1.4 million hours (valued at $31 million), a number likely understated by orders of magnitude given limitations in self-reporting; and
“¢ Delaware has about 1,200 nonprofit organizations chartered, ranging in size from a Christiana Care, about the largest in Delaware in employees and operating budget, to one operated in a spare room without budget or staff.
(Source: Delaware Stats from DANA and Indiana University)
The important number for Delaware is about 750 or so, when the little leagues, churches and synagogues, homeowners’ associations and such are removed.
But below the surface are both individual and systemic challenges.
At the individual level, some organizations have suffered from lack of effectiveness at the highest levels, or vision and fundraising issues. The board of one such significant organization is meeting this week to examine alternatives to its future, from replacing its CEO to even folding its tent.
The larger issue – the proverbial elephant in the room for nonprofits – is the structural changes in corporate America that seem to have impacted philanthropy.
Indiana University, which houses a national scale research and academic center on nonprofits, recently reported that corporate giving has dropped to its lowest levels since the 1970s. Much of that comes from shareholder pressure to reduce corporate giving in favor of letting stockholders make their own charitable giving decisions.
Individuals long have been the cornerstone of American philanthropy, with individual donors giving close to two-thirds of the $350 billion donated in America, and it’s remained stable over the years at about 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Much of that, though, has come in the form of faith-based giving, to churches and schools and similar faith and fraternal giving.
It’s been the giving of the DuPont Company, AstraZeneca and Wilmington Trust-type companies that have been the cornerstone of capital giving campaigns, with much also in operational giving, and those donors have been in historic decline.
What’s left is for the individuals and families to step up, and we’re seeing more of that.
To their credit, almost all of the financial planners and wealth managers I know engage their clients in legacy-building discussions about philanthropy. And organizations like the Delaware Community Foundation are there to partner as a conduit to provide for giving in what will be ever-changing conditions.
But each of us can do just a little more to help!
