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Businesses for charity
Nonprofits are learning how to look at themselves in a new way -- one that could make asking for handouts a thing of the past. |
by LORINDA TOLEDO
With a reputation already established in New York, Texas and Florida, Social Enterprise Ventures LLC is now aiming its focus at helping New Mexico nonprofits learn how to support themselves.
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Social Enterprise Ventures teaches out of a workbook designed by the founders.
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"Earned income training – Social Enterprise Ventures – has the potential to change everything about the way a nonprofit manages itself, the way it thinks about itself," founder
Jean Block said.
A social enterprise is a business venture that an organization with a charitable mission uses to support itself, without compromising its values. Block describes Social Enterprise Ventures as a crash course in business management for nonprofits.
The first two-day training session will be May 1-2 at the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.
"Funders need to have a better way to understand what nonprofits are looking for, and nonprofits certainly need a better understanding of what funders are looking for," Block said.
The best of both worlds
Based in Albuquerque, Jean Block and Randy Gleason decided to form Social Enterprise Ventures in late 2006, based on their years of personal experience in the nonprofit and business worlds.
Block has worked as executive director and development director at several nonprofits, including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of New Mexico and the United Way of Central New Mexico. She also managed a local law firm.
Gleason was previously executive director of development and chief fundraiser for the University of New Mexico Hospitals, and has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry.
After training for three years in social enterprise under the Pathfinders program provided by the National Center for Social Entrepreneurs, Block and Gleason began their own curriculum with Social Enterprise Ventures.
Early in 2007, the company also brought Florida-based Cindy Kane on to help cover the Southeast region of the U.S. Block, Gleason and Kane also have their own consulting companies where they speak to nonprofits at day-long workshops and motivational seminars.
But Social Enterprise Ventures goes a lot further than a one day workshop could, Block said.
"When a nonprofit invests [in this program], it comes to the table saying, 'We need to change,'" Block said.
Social Enterprise Ventures’ nine-month Expedition training program costs $12,000 regardless of size. The Expedition program consists of seven modules with weekly homework out of a copyrighted workbook.
Throughout the program, Block and her partners work closely with nonprofits to help them implement away to achieve earned income – without obstructing their mission statement.
Innovators embark
Katharyn Weigand, director of the Amarillo Area Foundation's Nonprofit Service Center, said it researched social enterprise for more than a year before deciding to help five Amarillo nonprofits find funding to go through Expedition.
"Making these organizations sustainable enables us to find funding for a greater number of organizations," Weigand said.
J.D. Gamble, the Amarillo Senior Citizen Association's director of finance, said participating in Expedition has changed the way his association thinks about itself.
"These days, everybody is pushed and stressed financially," Gamble said. "[Charitable organizations] have no choice, you have got to go into business to provide for your charity."
At first, the senior citizens decided to start a catering business. However, they soon realized that despite their culinary talents, catering would require more time and manpower than its aging membership could provide.
So, Gamble said the senior citizens took another look at the assets they possessed to help them start a business venture that would be the most beneficial to them.
The group realized they have a large facility in a centralized location that went practically unused on the weekends. They also realized their oversized parking lot provided an empty space that many businesses did not already have.
The senior citizen’s association decided to use these assets to begin hosting a monthly flea market that they hope will attract people from throughout the Texas Panhandle and parts of New Mexico.
Through social enterprise training, the association has managed to find a business that requires no investment and is not labor intensive for its aging membership.
Choosing a path
For nonprofits that want to test-drive the Social Enterprise Ventures program or do not have the funds to invest in the Expedition program, there is Road Trip, a two-day condensed version of the nine-month program. The cost is $250 per person with a minimum of 32 people per training group, plus trainer expenses, with two consultants.
"Some nonprofits come to learn about earned income because they are forced to, because their funding source says, 'We're going away,'" Block said. "Others come to the table to learn a different way to manage themselves because they want to grow."
Those who wish to attend the May Road Trip can register online before April 25.
Written April 22, 2008
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