August 30, 2011 | Read Time: 2 minutes
When most foundations want to strengthen the management of the organizations they support, they hire consultants to work with grantees. They figure that the consultants will help nonprofits grow in their ability to serve the community.
In Phoenix, St. Luke’s Health Initiatives believes in investing directly in the consultants so that local nonprofits of all kinds (not just the foundation’s grantees) will have access to the kind of training they need.
The strategy evolved naturally from other work the foundation supported. It had started an effort called the Technical Assistance Partnership to enlist nonprofits and consultants to help organizations work together to improve specific types of management skills.
In 2005 and 2006, St. Luke’s and the consultants formed a new effort, a learning community, that eventually expanded to include more than 200 members. There are no requirements for membership or dues.
For consultants, the benefits include:
- A better understanding of consulting approaches that focus on an organization’s management strengths, rather than simply looking at ways to improve its weaknesses.
- Referrals that help consultants get new work.
- A better understanding in the community of the role and value of consultants.
- Peer support and camaraderie in difficult times.
- More collaborative projects and learning opportunities.
St. Luke’s provides these benefits by hosting a monthly meeting that focuses on specific needs of consultants, orchestrating an annual consultant retreat, and sponsoring a special Web site open only to members.
Other Arizona foundations have come to recognize this effort as a way to carry out their own communications.
For example, the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, one of the largest foundations in the state, started a partnership with St. Luke’s to hire BoardSource, a nonprofit committed to building exceptional nonprofit boards. The project is intended to improve the governance of Piper Trust grantees as well as to educate local consultants about how to help other nonprofits achieve better governance.
Bonnie Wright, director of St. Luke’s work with consultants, says the foundation’s approach could easily work elsewhere.
“There is no fixed recipe for success,” she says, “although a relatively open and flexible environment, a sponsoring organization that is comfortable working with networks and shared control, and the availability of experienced consultants are conducive to success.”
