I didn’t have to travel far for this evening’s Better Than Most. Just over to 5 Hanover Square at Lower Manhattan and the offices of the Nonprofit Finance Fund. NFF, as they’re known, empowers the people and organizations that generate opportunity and hope in underserved communities.
Human-service nonprofits work to improve lives in the country’s most troubled communities, but there’s another way in which they live on the edge: Many operate with less than 30 days’ worth of cash on hand.
The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities is a national organization representing hundreds of such organizations across North America. In this segment from the Business of Giving, CEO Susan Dreyfus addresses the severe financial strain many of them labor under every day.
Noting that governments pay roughly 80 cents on the dollar for the cost of social, health, educational, and other services they contract with charities to provide, Ms. Dreyfus calls on public agencies to fully fund those programs. She also discusses the importance of applying neuroscience to improve social services, and shares her theory of change for the 21st century.
Antony Bugg-Levine, CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, discusses why grant makers should start paying for true outcomes rather than for services, and talks about why nonprofits should focus more on long-term stability and less on short-term goals.