Liaison Offices Need Community Support to Resist Electoral Winds

When it was created in 2004, the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships was a pet project of then-Mayor John Hickenlooper, who is now the state’s Democratic governor. He brought in a campaign volunteer and nonprofit executive, Mike Roque, to lead it and gave him lots of face time.

Since Mr. Hickenlooper left the mayor’s office, things have changed dramatically. The Office of Strategic Partnerships has been housed in three city agencies in less than a decade and is no longer run by a mayoral appointee.

“It’s drifted,” says Miriam Peña, who now heads the office and is developing a strategy for what it will do next.

Similar scenarios have played out for other nonprofit liaison offices in state and local governments across the country, which may thrive or wither depending on the elected officials who come and go.

“They’re fragile,” says James Ferris, director of the Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at University of Southern California. “Getting them to stick is difficult.”

Government Support

Creating a long-lasting liaison requires champions among nonprofits and an entrenched position in city and state bureaucracies. If a liaison position is too tied to a particular politician rather than institutionalized, it is unlikely to survive big election-driven changes.

Ms. Peña believes the Denver office will survive. It has the ability to house newly formed nonprofits in shared office space, help them secure grant funding that dovetails with city priorities, and measure the impact of their work, she says.

Another reason she doesn’t think the office is in danger of being shut down is that it receives steady funding through a franchise fee paid to the city by Xcel Energy.

Elsa Holguín, senior program officer at the Rose Community Foundation in Denver, says the liaison office will play a large role in evaluating the prospect of social-impact bonds geared toward improving the lives of young children. Foundation representatives have been discussing the appropriate role of philanthropy in such a project, and Ms. Holguín says the Office of Strategic Partnerships has dedicated a staff member to evaluating proposals. Without city support, making plans will be a waste of time.

“None of this is going to happen unless the government is ready to do it,” she says.

An Even Hand

The Michigan Office of Foundation Liaison, created in 2003, has survived changes in administrations.

One reason, says Karen Aldridge-Eason, who has led the office since its inception, is that she is not firmly a part of philanthropy or state government. She is an executive on loan from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and is paid by a consortium of foundations. Despite the outside funding source, Ms. Aldridge-Eason works in a state government office and has been accountable to both a Democratic and a Republican governor. The arrangement helps her serve foundations and state employees with an even hand.

“We keep confidences on both sides,” she says. “If we can’t be trusted, we can’t do our job.”

A similar office in New Mexico didn’t survive a change in parties.

Former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who was instrumental in creating the Office of Philanthropic Outreach, lost a 2010 bid for governor, and the office died shortly afterward.

Reliable Support

Ms. Denish says the fact that the office was closely tied to her didn’t necessarily kill it. A bigger reason, she says, is that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a major supporter, decided not to provide more money after an initial grant of $400,000.

“The bottom line for us was Kellogg,” she says. “They weren’t a reliable funder.”

Dana Linnane, W.K. Kellogg’s policy communications manager, says the foundation remains active in New Mexico. Since 2009, the foundation has funneled nearly $73-million to grantees in the state.

Randy Royster, president of the Albuquerque Community Foundation, agreed the liaison office’s dependence on Kellogg was a significant reason for its demise.

“You’ve got to build a bigger network of funding,” he says.