Institute Without Walls.

Bringing NPO management together

Capacity builders may find a new place to connect and discover crucial tips for their trade. That's if the Institute Without Walls gets into full operation.

The institute is an initiative of The Alliance for Nonprofit Management in Washington D.C. The alliance resulted from the 1997 merger of the Nonprofit Management Association and the Support Centers of America. It focuses on research for nonprofit management and governance.

The new Institute Without Walls is intended to be a "think-do-tank" where knowledge is based on shared communication and where people regularly draw on the expertise of other colleagues, said Roni D. Posner, Alliance executive director.

Capacity builders generally provide technical assistance so nonprofits can operate better to achieve their mission. They perform training, consulting and meetings facilitation, and also have an eye on strategic planning. The profession includes people who work in various areas from fundraising to outcomes assessment and human resources.

"We realized there was a much bigger tent of people dealing with these issues," said Posner. "The profession includes people beyond consultants and leaders in Management Support Organizations (MSOs)."

Posner pointed to people in academic centers, researchers devoted to nonprofit management, a range of funders and other related affinity groups that could include grant makers, publishers and financial intermediaries.

"Nonprofit managers are often passionate people about building communities, but they often lack management skills to operate the organization," Posner said. "They need management help to link members together."

Posner believes the institute can help solve some of these problems by linking the professionals so they can address the issues plaguing nonprofits. "Measuring outcomes isn't like in the corporate world where we can determine how many widgets are sold;' she said "We want to help nonprofits become business-like in some ways but we want them to also maintain the focus on engagement."

Some of the plans for the institute call for a Design/Dream Team that will think, plan and develop the institute in an on-going basis. This team will be led by the "Dean" of the institute, Ruth McCambridge, who facilitated three regional meetings last fall.

An Online Learning Platform hopes to engage Web and listserv communication with interactive discussion and guest facilitators.

The results could lead to collaborative working groups; a searchable repository of reports on the field and practice tools for research and evaluation tools.

"The institute will be a place where practice questions can be answered," she said. "We also want to push to the next level and seek the additional knowledge that flows from those questions."

Part of the research aims to identify a deeper, more exact map of the "universe" of who is doing key research.

The Alliance recently received verbal notification from the Rockefeller Foundation that it will fund the institute with $150,000 for the first year, Posner said. Then it will determine the progress, with a possible two-year commitment for $300,000. Grant applications have been submitted to several additional foundations.

The initial $150,000 is needed to begin work on the design team and start the platform. "If we are to do this correctly, we would need the total to hire the staff, do the research and start the curriculum training," Posner said. "It will take more than a year to get going, but at least we have the initial funding so it will be easier to get more."

"That figure is only a beginning. I'm optimistic about the funding," said Terry Williams, former vice chair of the Alliance board. Williams is more concerned with the annual meeting in Cleveland, held in April. "To translate the goals into reality, we'll need a coalition to come together?'

To become meaningful, the institute will need useable information on the Web site along with good answers. "We will need providers who can fulfill expectations that when a member helps, the assistance is really effective;' he said. "When the word gets out about the reliability of the institute, then others will be willing to participate with the group?'

The conference in Cleveland was the second step in the institute's development. The first was the conference in Boston last year where agreement focused on three basic projects. The organization dealt with standards for providers recognizing occupational diversity and improving the advocacy for the sector.

Williams hopes that the third conference, in San Diego next year, will showcase items already working. "To get to that point, we need some successes, such as individual providers improving their operations and certain funds for a longer term of support;' he said.

The Alliance tracks its Web site user sessions and found users remain for seven to 10 minutes, explained Posner. "Our reports show that we have 750 people a day;' she said. "We need to hire someone who can manage those conversations and user sessions so we can push the knowledge froward into research and training?'

Some issues on the national level include looking at strategic planning. For example, the state association in Louisiana put together a southeastern consortium of capacity builders to provide management assistance to rural communities.

Nonprofits are underfunded, understaffed and need management, explained Posner. "We're at a moment in time where the spotlight is on the nonprofit sector to develop a culture of communities;' Posner said. "We know the people who are working in research centers, but the research centers are not bridging the gap to the next level of discussion. We need to create the traffic that goes back and forth?'

Tom Pope is a New York City-based journalist who writes about management issues.