By Siobhan Canty, CEO, Jefferson Community Foundation
Jefferson Community Foundation connects people, ideas and resources to build the future of Jefferson County. Siobhan’s past includes roles at Knight Foundation, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, and the Greater Washington, D.C. Community Foundation.
A retired executive joins a nonprofit board, asks for a ‘five-year growth strategy,’ and is met with polite, exhausted silence. The staff aren’t being difficult. They’re wondering how to explain that ‘growth’ this year means keeping the lights on and the volunteers coming back. Neither side is wrong. They’re just speaking different languages. I call this sector blindness, and in a county as generous as ours, it might be one of the biggest hidden barriers to getting good work done.
Jefferson County is home to some of the most generous, community folks there are. Many people will tell you they move here because of it. There are over 140 nonprofit organizations dedicated to serving the people of Jefferson County and each one of them has multiple Board members, volunteers and donors helping them to succeed. Working together on community issues is fundamental to who we are.
But it’s not always easy. There are hidden risks along the way that can derail the best of intentions. One of these is what I call “Sector Blindness”. This is when neither a nonprofit nor a community member recognize or acknowledge the vast influence their backgrounds in different sectors can have on the potential success of their work together.
We have all seen it happen: a volunteer or donor who has had a long career in the private sector carries assumptions, expectations and language into their community work that seems foreign to nonprofit staff. It also happens when nonprofit leaders assume all of their volunteers, Board members and donors arrive with an understanding of the fundamental challenges of running an organization here in Jefferson County.
If we are to create sustainable partnerships that yield real impact in our beloved community over time, we need more than individual acts of Board leadership and volunteering. We need to build trusted relationships. We need to acknowledge and bridge divides in ways that foster a genuine understanding of how each other operates and how that influences the way we all work together. Here are a few things to consider.
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE: Nonprofits talk about mission, community impact, equity, fundraising and long-term social change. People with backgrounds in business or academia often are more oriented to language of growth, efficiency, innovation, market performance, and financial sustainability. Words such as “mission,” “stakeholders,” “impact,” “clients,” “customers,” “scalability,” “sustainability,” and “return” can carry different meanings depending on the sector. When getting to know each other, dig in and clarify definitions to be sure you really understand each other.
ABUNDANCE MINDSET: Many of the folks that are in positions to volunteer or donate have had lucrative careers in private business or academia, sectors that frequently have access to significant resources. Our local nonprofits face growing and complex community needs, unpredictable funding, grant restrictions and a volunteer management infrastructure that is often weak and under-resourced. It is helpful when volunteers with backgrounds outside of the nonprofit sector understand that our local nonprofits operate within a different resourcing ecosystem and are able to include that in their thinking as they shape their engagement plans.
ACT AS EQUALS: Traditional nonprofit-community relationships often position the volunteer and donor as the “givers” or “those who have” and the nonprofit as the “receiver” or “those who need”. This model can limit the potential of a partnership. The most productive relationships treat both the organization and the community member as partners with equally valuable resources and expertise. This shift changes the conversation. Instead of asking, “What can you give?” organizations can ask, “What can we accomplish together that neither of us could accomplish alone?” The relationship becomes less about the transactional act of giving and more about solving problems together.
BE HONEST ABOUT FIT: The strongest partnerships invest in getting to know one another before deciding exactly what to do together. Community members and nonprofit leaders should discuss their values, priorities, constraints, expectations, and definitions of success. They should also be honest about what they cannot offer. A nonprofit should feel comfortable saying that a proposed volunteer arrangement does not address the organization’s actual needs. A volunteer should be able to explain when a proposed engagement falls outside their capabilities, availability or priorities.
The challenges facing the communities of Jefferson County today are too complicated for nonprofits and community members to solve in isolation. The future belongs to partnerships that recognize different perspectives, communicate clearly, create shared value, and treat each other as equals. With curiosity, trust, and a shared commitment to meaningful outcomes, it can build bridges that lead to solutions no single person or organization could build alone.
