Imagine a better future

Editor's Notes

• #2: Introduce Self & Background
• #3: I don’t need to rehash this topic too much, so I’ll get straight to the point. Public libraries have seen an increase in demand for services at the same time our funding sources are decreasing due to the financial crisis. That’s a given. But other nonprofits are also being affected by the lack of resources. The state has decreased and eliminated funding for some types of organizations completely. Federal money from the American Recovery Act is gone. The charitable giving deduction is on the chopping block in Washington as a way to help balance our budget and decrease national debt. The nonprofit safety net that many of your customers rely on for basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, education, etc. are at the most vulnerable point in many years. As librarians, we need to step up to make sure that we’re providing timely information on how nonprofits can position themselves to be strong during these lean years so they can continue to operate to support our communities social and economic infrastructure. Raise your hand if your library provides business services? Job help, business counseling/programs, directory databases for marketing, displays or reference collections for business owners? Consider this: Arizona has more than 20,000 registered nonprofits and religious congregations Arizona nonprofits inject more than $17 billion into the Arizona economy; their payroll alone well exceeds $3 billion --Alliance of Az Nonprofits We need to pay attention to this vital part of our state’s economic well-being.
• #4: This is what many people are currently experiencing in the nonprofit realm. There are tons of connections and ways that information is created and dispersed.
• #5: This is a visual of what you really want to end up with at the end of the day. Your library should be the central point of all of these groups, individuals, and events. This is an ideal realm, and I’m continually striving to end up with something like this here in Pima County.
• #6: The next few slide titles are going to be very familiar for any experienced library staff person when you are planning new services for your library customers. You’ve all done this before, and you’ll do it again, but I’ll talk about how you can think about these things in terms of nonprofits and creating a working project around these segment. First, you need to do a survey of your community’s current nonprofit sector. I’m sure many of you already have connections with nonprofits in terms of partnerships with programming, providing community space for meetings, etc. Open up a conversation with the leaders of these organizations who are already utilizing the library in some way. Find out where they could use information to improve their operations. Are they in the middle of searching for a new CEO or board members? Is marketing or branding their nonprofit’s services a problem? Do they need help with fundraising? Do they have a development officer or director? Is it all dependent on when the CEO has time? Are key staff people responsible? Do they have a written fundraising plan in place? Do they have volunteers? Are they looking to recruit volunteers or need help managing them? Are financial best practices being met? Do they have access to information about accounting firms specializing in nonprofit finance? Collaboration is a buzz word for funders and donors. Do nonprofit managers have spaces to discuss possible collaboration or mergers? Are there organizations that are looking for assistance? Do other nonprofits know who’s providing similar services in your community? Once you’ve discussed community needs with local nonprofits, you can perform a SWOT Analysis. I love these! Strengths: What is working really well in your community? Where are nonprofits really excelling in daily operations? Weaknesses: What is your community lacking? Coordination of services? Financial best practices? Are fundraising efforts bringing good returns? Where are nonprofits particularly vulnerable? Opportunities: From talking to nonprofits, did you glean from them any opportunities that the library could help bring to fruition? Collaboration with another agency to provide community-wide training? Professionals at one nonprofit who would be willing to share their viewpoints on strategies to create nonprofit success? Training for the library staff in charge of your new resources? Threats: What is going on in the nonprofit realm that is dangerous for nonprofit health? I’ve already mentioned funding woes & fundraising woes earlier as two.
• #7: First, look internally. Who on your library staff could you pull to work on this project or ask for assistance? Natural talents? Background? Knowledge or interests? During your community assessment, did you meet any particularly important movers and shakers in terms of nonprofit consultants? Perhaps they have vast experience or know a lot of people.. Sometimes those two things come in the form of one person, so make sure you keep them informed of what the library has to offer! Are you aware of any professionals who would be willing to volunteer some time at the library to do workshops? Provide you with local resources or information about organizations or meetings? For example, is there a group of nonprofit accountants who have brown bag lunch trainings once a month? Local organizations who coordinate trainings? Offer classes? (Nonprofit coalitions, community colleges, regional offices of larger groups?) National organizations’ websites often have local representatives and free resources on their websites. Start with some recommended links pages. We’ll talk about where to go to get started shortly.
• #8: You probably already own some books related to nonprofit management, financial best practices, volunteer management, grant proposal writing, or others, so make sure that you are aware of what is available so you can tell your customers about the books. One way to do this is to create a pathfinder or bibliography of your materials. Remember, you don’t have to do this alone! Try to get another staff person to assist you and act as co-creator of your own info center. This will help lighten the load in many ways.
• #9: Think back to the Community Needs Assessment earlier. You’re going to be focusing your first efforts on filling the gaps on what you’ve identified as weaknesses in your community. Let’s briefly talk about each model. You have this slide available as a handout to take with you today to help guide your efforts. Free searchable grants databases: Grant Wrangler (schools), federal and state grants pages, FC Foundation Finder; Also, look for pages from local private grantmakers to feature on your website.
• #10: There are over 400 CCs throughout the world.
• #11: Make sure that your staff are aware of this new resource that you’ve created for your customers. Librarians should take note of any programming you’re having, as well as preferred websites for reference questions. There are free resources where people can have their questions answered about nonprofit fundraising and management on the ASU Lodestar Center, so your staff doesn’t even need to be able to answer questions by themselves. Anyone who works in the library should know and recognize the resources you’re providing to the nonprofit community, especially if you’re drumming up a lot of publicity for the center in your community. You don’t want anyone to walk in and ask a staff person about this who doesn’t know about the new services. You should also periodically offer refresher courses to your staff people to keep them up to date on what you’re offering. The frequency of this training is really dependent on your own assessment of how well they can answer nonprofit questions.
• #12: This is an ongoing facet of having a relevant information center in any realm. The handout I’ve provided with Action Sheet at the top has a list of websites that you can visit which discuss ongoing trends in the nonprofit realm. We’ll talk about each of these in a bit. All of these resources have email lists that you can sign up for on their websites. Of course, you’ll be talking to nonprofit representatives as you provide your new services and you’ll hear what needs they have or issues that they’re currently facing as a matter of course. Good nonprofit advocates are always talking about what they’re doing, what they need to do, and how you can help. That leads us to the listening aspect of this cycle. Listen to their needs and try to provide the resources or support that would aid them to achieve their long-term goals. Keeping up with current news aides this aspect enormously. Watch what is happening in your community. Simply by proclaiming interests in the nonprofit realm and by handing out your card, you’ll find yourself added to lists that push out information via direct mail, email, and events. Finally, make changes to your services or collection based on the demands of your customers and wider trends that you have picked up on.
• #13: Your library’s website can be a springboard for your new resource center. Highlight books, databases, periodicals, events, reference services, etc. on your website. This will also be a place you can direct newcomers to nonprofits when they need basic information about operating a nonprofit. Simply use the distribution paths you already have in place for advertising your other programs. No need to reinvent the wheel here. However, you may want to identify some key organizations that speak directly to nonprofit professionals in your area to advertise your new center or services. They may have a listserv with a dedicated audience that you can piggy-back onto to help you get the word out. My best practices: Email listserv.
• #16: These are additional examples of some Nonprofit Info Center websites.
• #17: Whatever model of information center, or even topic of the information center, you want to make sure that you know your role in providing the services you’re advertising. You’ll sometimes get people who want you to provide them lists of potential foundations or who want you to locate businesses who will donate money, products or services to their specific nonprofit. You shouldn’t be responsible for those kinds of requests. Make sure that you play the role of information professional rather than fundraiser for your nonprofit customers. Another issue that sometimes arises is that anytime someone has a grants or nonprofit question, staff will refer the question to the person who supervises the info center. To avoid this, make sure you train your current and any new staff on how to access the resources you’re providing. Finally, there are just tons of websites out there related to nonprofits and fundraising. Information overload is quite easy to achieve. Start exploring a few vetted websites to see what information is available and to get an idea of what should be considered reliable and authoritative nonprofit resources as you go. This brings us to a few recommended starting points for you.
• #18: Again, all of these resources are available on your handout. Let’s talk about each one briefly. The Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits is a unifying association formed in 2004 to advance the common interests of more than 20,000 nonprofits in the Grand Canyon State. They: Serve the  Arizona Nonprofit sector  by providing quality information, training, and networking opportunities; Support the nonprofit sector by offering savings through group-buying discount programs; Protect the nonprofit sector by representing the nonprofit sector at the Arizona Legislature, state agencies that regulate nonprofits, and many other local arenas of decision making across the state; and Promote the nonprofit sector by projecting a collective voice to the public about the sector’s essential contributions and significant challenges in our communities. Grantspace, a service of the Foundation Center, offers information and resources that are specifically designed to meet the needs of grantseekers. You can view recordings, listen to podcasts, search for information, get information in specific subject areas that your nonprofit customers are working in, access reports, and communicate with other grantseekers across the US. The National Council of Nonprofits deals a lot with what’s going on in Washington DC, and is a good source to visit for trends affecting the entire US. PND gives updates on fundraising and individual philanthropy, as well as issues and news briefs on recently published reports of interest to a broad nonprofit constituency.