Nonprofit organizations and corporations have one thing in common ”“ both await the trickle down from the economic stimulus package and realize the need to band together in turbulent times.
At the “Fast Changes ”“ Fierce Challenges” program last week at the Maria Fareri Children”™s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, some 120 area nonprofit leaders and corporate keynote speakers shared strategies to make it through the recession, both in a business and a personal sense. The host was Tarrytown-based Hitachi America Ltd.
“This is really a community collaboration since we”™re all being affected by the economic crisis,” said Lauren Garvey, a senior manager at Hitachi. “Nonprofits are being hit very hard and we wanted to find a way to bring corporations together to lend our expertise.”
The keynote speakers included: Pattie Sellers, editor at large, Fortune magazine; Sarah Masters, business product manager, Google; Matt Ganis, senior technical staff member at IBM; Andrea Nierenberg, president, The Nierenberg Group; and Garvey.
Prior to event start, the room buzzed with chatter from business and nonprofit leaders.
“Philanthropic dollars are drying up,” said Mae Carpenter, commissioner, Department of Senior Programs and Services for Westchester County. “Foundation dollars are drying up. Citizens are losing their jobs or have lost their investments and they aren”™t able to support or contribute the way they once did.”
“It was said at one time that Westchester County had more 501(c)3 agencies per capita than any other county in the country and that”™s why the quality of life has been so good,” she said. “But now it”™s a new landscape in terms of the finite amount of money that”™s available and yet the needs of the population are growing.”
Robert Miss, partner at Resource Development Counsel in Dobbs Ferry, echoed Carpenter”™s concerns. “I think we have to give people a renewed perspective on corporate philanthropy, which has changed drastically in the last 10 years,” he said. “Nonprofits need to know how that works and how they can be partners with local corporations.”
Said Cora Greenberg, executive director, Westchester Children”™s Association, “I hope it will inspire us to think about positive things we can do to increase our viability and sustain our programs, because they”™re needed now more than ever. No one seems to really know how the stimulus program is going to trickle down because it has to go through the state mostly and the state is like a big black box. Things will go in and you”™re never sure about what”™s going to come out.”
Throughout the program, the needs and concerns of nonprofit organizations were addressed by event speakers in an attempt to better the bottom line.
Nierenberg discussed the power of networking.
“The opposite of networking is not working,” she said. “Every time you meet someone, you have an opportunity to learn from that person and be a resource. You never know when your next association, volunteer, any collaboration can come about.” Nierenberg said it”™s vital to find creative ways to stay on people”™s radars and it”™s “always better to under-promise than over-deliver.”
Google”™s Masters shared tips and information regarding technology Google provides to nonprofit organizations and touched on various ways to reduce spending on IT processes and apparatuses.
Sellers discussed business and philanthropy, Ganis touched on the use of social software in advancing nonprofit messages and Garvey shared the importance of effective public relations.
