The North Star initiatives

• Published date: 01 April 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30434
• Date: 01 April 2018

APRIL 2018 NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

3

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

cluding delays in payments and excessive reporting

requirements that can tie up nonprot workers who

could be spending that time helping clients instead�

We have also seen that both government and phi-

lanthropies place restrictions on funds that make

it more difcult for nonprots to respond to their

communities’ changing needs� The current regulatory

and legal environment and underdeveloped nancial

risk management capabilities for CBOs are also con-

tributing factors�

Q: Human services CBOs also face challenges

regarding recruitment and retention of the talent they

need for highest performance, a common issue among

nonprots in general. What can they do to address this?

Susan Dreyfus: This is a critical issue in our report

and one that all human services CBOs face� CBOs,

while providing opportunities for people to perform

truly fullling work, often must pay less and ask

more of their staff than private-sector employers�

We must solve this problem by ensuring CBOs are

paid the full cost of delivering the outcomes that our

government partners are asking of us and making

sure our donors know the importance of investing

in our organizations� We need the resources that are

necessary to invest in critical capacities for highest

performance like data, technology and the capacity

for innovation, and we must do more to form deeper

partnerships with universities and other institutions

that can help us attract quality talent, develop their

skills and retain them�

Q: The report concludes with ve “North Star” initia-

tives that aim to address all of these challenges and set

the course of tapping the full potential of human services

CBOs as crucial partners in the larger human services

ecosystem. What will it take to accomplish these goals?

Tracy Wareing Evans: It will take a commitment to

change across multiple levels, from CBOs themselves

to local and state agencies, funders, regulators and

legislators� While it will not happen overnight, this

report provides an important roadmap to how we can

get there, and offers a number of concrete examples

of activities taking place today that are moving all

of us in the right direction�

For more information

Susan Dreyfus is president and CEO of the Alliance

for Strong Families and Communities, a strategic action

network of social-sector organizations that has a national

reach in thousands of communities across America.

Tracy Wareing Evans is president and CEO of the Ameri-

can Public Human Services Association, a bipartisan,

nonprot membership organization representing state

and local human service agencies through their top-

level leadership. For more information, visit http://www.

alliance1.org or http://www.aphsa.org. ■

The North Star initiatives

A National Imperative: Joining Forces to Strength-

en Human Services in America identify ve “North

Star” initiatives designed to put human services

community-based organizations on the path toward

nancial stability while improving population health

and well-being, increasing economic productivity

and lowering social costs over time� They are:

• Commitment to outcomes. Efforts should be

focused on a common set of widely used outcomes

with exibility and accountability� Funding should

be targeted to outcomes and results rather than

outputs or services delivered�

• Capacity for innovation. The human services

sector must develop its capacity for innovation

through better data sharing and analysis, techno-

logical strategies, and knowledge and leadership

exchange� Public and private funders also need to

recognize the importance of the capacity for innova-

tion and the need to support that through funding�

• Strategic partnerships. CBOs must look for

opportunities for deeper partnerships, mergers, af-

liations and networks with other human services

CBOs and related systems� Grants from public and

private funders should include allocating nancial

resources toward partnership, merger and network

development�

• New nancial strategies. CBOs and their board

of directors must look to develop more robust -

nance and nancial risk management capabilities,

including scenario planning, recovery and program

continuity planning, benchmarking and self-rating,

reporting and disclosure�

• Regulatory modernization. Regulators at all

levels should engage with community-based hu-

man services organizations in a review and reform

of CBO regulation, particularly in the area of

litigation risk, which has become a serious issue

for CBOs�

To read the report in full, visit http://www�

alliance1�org. ■