Non-Profit Funding Shake Up?

Both the county and the city are looking at the way they are going to fund non=profits. I found out about both of them yesterday, and it seems many of the nonprofit leaders had no clue about it either.

Personally, I’m a little worn out by rearranging the deck chairs. No matter how many times we do it, we won’t create any more money. Meanwhile, thousands of hours of nonprofit time is spent in meetings, discussing everything except the fact that we just need more money. Years of not getting cost of living increases is taking its toll on agencies that are facing increasing needs and growing poverty. Issues and needs are becoming more complex. Staff is underpaid and overworked and there is a lot of turnover – I can’t keep track of all the people who are hired and quit at various agencies. And that means more time spent training new staff. It’s a race to the bottom. And now, we have another distraction.

COUNTY
There is a meeting today. This is all I know – but I plan to attend.

Discussion and possible recommendation to Executive Committee for a new RFP for a Review of Dane County’s Current Approach to and Future Planning for Human Service POS Contracts (amended project scope and timeline)

It may have been prompted by this from a year ago:

Memorandum

To: County Executive Parisi, County Board Supervisors, Lynn Green, and Jeff Kostelic
From: Dane County Children, Youth, and Families Consortium Member Agencies
Re: Position Paper on Dane County Human Services
Date: July 10, 2012

Attached please find a Position Paper on Dane County Human Services that was authored and/or approved by the leadership of the agencies listed below. The purpose of this paper is twofold:
1. To express concerns identified by CYF Consortium member agencies regarding the human services system in Dane County, and
2. To offer suggestions for addressing these concerns

We hope that the attached Position Paper will be a catalyst for opening a dialogue with the leadership of Dane County and will result in a more effective and more cost-efficient system of care for our citizens.

Agency List
Center for Families
Community Partnerships
Family Service Madison
Journey Mental Health Center
Madison School and Community Recreation
The Rainbow Project
Youth Services of Southern Wisconsin

Children, Youth, and Families Consortium Position Paper

The Current Situation
The human services system in Dane county is a mixture of public and privately provided services. Funding for human services comes from a variety of sources including: local tax revenue; state aid; state and federal grants; Medicare; Medical Assistance; the City of Madison and other municipalities; the United Way of Dane County; and private donations.

The vast majority of Purchase of Service (POS) agencies are non-profit organizations with multiple sources of funding to support the services they provide. These agencies actively seek funding from non-county sources including those referenced above.

This paper focuses on the relationship between Dane County and the Purchase of Service (POS) providers the county contracts with to provide human services. Contracts between Dane County and POS providers are managed by staff from the Dane County Department of Human Services (DCDHS).

During the last decade, POS providers have not consistently received Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA’s) in their annual contracts with Dane County. In those years where a COLA was provided, the COLA was not enough to offset the increased costs of providing services. POS providers initially responded to this dilemma by identifying and implementing efficiencies in both administrative and program operations. While this was helpful at first, the ongoing lack of cost-to-continue increases, coupled with reductions in county funding for some services, has had a negative impact on the human services system in Dane County. These negative consequences include:

• Reductions in service capacity
• Longer waiting lists for some services
• Changes in service delivery that are not in the best interest of clients

The ongoing lack of cost-to-continue increases from Dane County, and from other funding sources, has also resulted in many POS agencies freezing wages, eliminating retirement plan contributions for staff, and reducing health insurance benefits.

Suggestions for Improving the Human Services System
We have identified the following action steps that we believe will contribute to long-term stability for the human services system in Dane County. These steps are as follows:

1. In collaboration with POS providers, develop a new business model that includes a long-term plan (8-10 years) for funding human services. This plan should emphasize accountability, cost-efficiency, and delivery of high quality services. Once developed, this plan should be utilized as the basis for developing annual budgets for the Department of Human Services.

2. Allow the Department of Human Services to retain annual surpluses in order to develop a reserve fund to meet unexpected expenses. This reserve fund should be restricted for human services use only, and these funds should not be used as projected revenue for developing annual budgets.

3. Those services which research has demonstrated provide a return on taxpayer investment need to be prioritized for additional investment. These include child welfare, delinquency, mental health, prevention, and substance abuse related services. This may include freezing or reducing support of services that do not offer a return on investment.

Contracting with POS Providers
There needs to be a more equitable partnership between the DCDHS and POS agencies the department contracts with. This includes:

1. Changes in the contract between the DCDHS and private providers that creates a shared risk

2. In order to preserve service capacity and maintain the integrity of existing services, private providers need to receive annual cost-to-continue increases.

3. If an annual cost-to-continue increase is not provided to POS agencies, contractual expectations should be changed to reduce POS provider costs for delivering services (i.e. reduction in the hours of service provided and/or number of clients served

CITY
The Mayor’s office sent out an email yesterday.

From: Iheukumere, Astra
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 12:11 PM
To: Cheeks, Maurice; Maurice Cheeks; Cnare, Lauren; Clausius, Joe; Demarb, Denise; Ahrens, David; Phair, Matthew; Schmidt, Chris; Subeck, Lisa; Resnick, Scott
Cc: O’Keefe, Jim; Noel, Laura; Schmiedicke, David; Simon, Debra; Monks, Anne; May, Michael
Subject: Non-Profit Sector Study

Greetings Alders,

The Mayor asked me to reach out to all of you as members of key committees and City Council Leadership to ask for your support in securing a contract based on the attached proposal with Brian Joiner and Associates to look for ways that the City of Madison can promote the effective development of Madison’s non-profit sector . The amount that the City would pay would not exceed $5000.00, so Council approval is not required, however, the Mayor feels that support from the Council and recommendations from key committees to secure the contract would be beneficial and send a clear message to the public that the City of Madison wants a vibrant and healthy non-profit sector that effectively meets the needs of the community .

To be clear, the Mayor would like for the following committees to review and support letting a contract based on the attached proposal:

1. Community Development Block Grant
2. Community Services
3. Board of Estimates

He also would like for Council to take action by supporting securing a contract with Brian Joiner and Associates to complete the work outlined in the proposal, not to exceed 5000.00.

Alders, please email me to let me know if you would support this proposal. I will also reach out to you by phone if I don’t hear from you today.

Jim-
Can you make sure that this item is on the next agendas for CBDG and Community Services?

Dave-
The Mayor would also like this added to the next Board of Estimates agenda.

Likewise, can this also be included on the next Common Council agenda? I’m not sure what the procedure would be since this is not a contract, but rather asking council to support letting a contract based on the attached proposal.

Thanks!
Astra

Astra Miriaku Iheukumere
Assistant to the Mayor
City of Madison Mayor’s Office
210 MLK, Jr. BLVD, Room 403
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 266-4611
aiheukumere@cityofmadison.com

—–
Astra,
Thank you very much. As we understand it: we will develop a proposal, not to exceed $5,000, that will lay out a process for gathering information (interviews, research, etc) from key stakeholders in the city and a few strategic national foundations. The information gained in this process will provide the groundwork for putting together a larger proposal of recommendations for next steps, which could include a combination of greater research and interviews, a summit, etc.

Is that how you understand it? We are open to shifting our ideas of process.

Thanks again,
Brian

Brian Joiner
3330 Tally Ho Lane
Madison WI 53705
608-358-6288

Here’s the proposal –

31 May 2013
Mayor Paul Soglin
City of Madison Mayor’s Office
210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Room 403
City-County Building
Madison, WI, 53703

Dear Mayor Soglin,

Strategic improvement of Madison’s Non-Profit Sector

Thank you for the opportunity to present a proposal to assist you to continue to promote the effective development of Madison’s non-profit sector.

Based on our understanding of your needs, as a result of our initial discussions to date, I am pleased to provide the enclosed brief proposal for the initial phase of this work, for your consideration.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this proposal further, and would be happy to provide any other information or clarification you might need.

Thank you again.

Warm wishes,
Brian Joiner, Senior Advisor
Kristen Joiner, Consultant
Jon Sandbrook, Consultant
Rebecca Ryan, Advisor

PROPOSED APPROACH
Madison has the existing infrastructure and the potential to lead the nation in innovation and collaborative civic engagement within the non-profit sector.

Madison has a strong culture of community development, an authentic sense of civic duty, a national profile as a progressive-thinking city, and a reputation for attracting more research funds than any other college town. Madison also has a non-profit sector with a strong contingent of innovative thinkers and bold community visionaries.

However, Madison’s non-profit sector is currently struggling without a cohesive strategic vision for broad-based transformational social change. In response, individual service providers are necessarily focused on delivering discrete and largely disconnected activities and services, some of which inevitably run counter to others. This is inefficient and limits the potential effectiveness of the non-profit sector.

Now is the time for that strategic vision and leadership to emerge to harness the existing strengths of Madison’s non-profit sector and elevate the city’s position as a national model for social service innovation and civic engagement.

Based on interviews and research, combined with our own expertise in quality improvement and the non-profit sector on both a local and national stage, we will provide you with a report and a framework of recommendations for the strategic improvement of the non-profit sector in the city.

The process, which will be iterative and evolve as we learn from each interview and our own research, will include the following components:

Conducting a series of 12-15 one-hour interviews with various stakeholders in the Madison non-profit sector (specific list of stakeholders to be determined), including:
Local non-profit organizations.
Local government representatives.
Local community foundations/funders.

Conducting a select few interviews with strategic national funding organizations.

Collating existing data analysis and research regarding the effectiveness of Madison’s non-profit sector.

Specific topics for discussion during these interviews may include the following (but not limited to):
Understanding of the national non-profit funding environment and priorities and their relevance for Madison.
Perception of the current state of Madison’s non-profit sector capacity and capabilities and the current processes for development of this capacity and capability.
The current process for evaluation of the impact of non-profits.
Current constraints on performance of local non-profits.
Sustainability of local non-profits.
Overall potential and vision for Madison’s non-profit sector.

DELIVERABLES
The key deliverable will be a report and a framework of recommendations for the strategic improvement of the non-profit sector in the city, based on the interviews and research completed.

THE TEAM
The team completing this work will consist of:
Brian Joiner – Senior Advisor
Kristen Joiner – Consultant
Jon Sandbrook – Consultant
Rebecca Ryan – Advisor

INDICATIVE COST ESTIMATE & TIMELINE
The total cost associated with the proposed engagement, as outlined above is $5,000.

The estimated timeline to complete the proposed engagement is approximately eight weeks, but this may vary depending on the availability of those individuals to be interviewed.

FUTURE WORK
The information gained in the initial work, as outlined above, will provide the groundwork for consideration of recommendations for next steps. Next steps may include developing further plans to:

Seek national funds – Attract new national grant dollars to Madison, put forth by foundations that want to fund innovative projects in social change.

Re-align funding criteria & priorities – Re-examine how it the City of Madison evaluates and rewards nonprofit organizations to ensure that programs that are doing the most good are supported.

Create an innovation fund and incubator – For research and development, catalytic funding, mentoring, support, professional development, and capacity building for innovation in non-profit organizations.

Embrace regional, national and international best practices in philanthropy – To encourage further investment in capacity building, ongoing professional and technical assistance, developing social impact models and grants, and more.

Host a non-profit/philanthropy summit – To expose local grant-makers to national best practices, and to expose national grant-makers to Madison’s most innovative social change agents and projects.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Primary Contacts
Brian Joiner (Senior Advisor) 3330 Tally Ho Lane Madison, WI, 53705 (608) 358 6288 brianjoiner38@gmail.com
Kristen Joiner (Consultant) 461 Orchard Drive Madison, WI 53711 (608) 520 3371 kristenjoiner@gmail.com

ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PROPOSAL
Please confirm your acceptance of the proposal outlined above by signing below and returning a copy.

The Mayor’s Office of City of Madison confirms and accepts the engagement to provide the services set out in this engagement letter dated 31 May 2013.

Buckle up! Another bummpy ride this summer for non-profits seems to be coming up.