President's Message

(1/27/2010)

Greetings to the good friends and family of Common Good Ventures

The work of Common Good Ventures is based on relationships. While we work individually with nonprofits and networks of nonprofits to increase their capacity to help more people in Maine, some of our largest impact comes from the interconnections Common Good Ventures helps make.  In this issue of my President’s Message, I would like to talk about how these types of interconnections, between and among people and organizations, can strengthen the work of nonprofits in Maine.

Program for Nonprofit Effectiveness

Several times a year Common Good Ventures convenes its clients in the Program forNonprofit Effectiveness (our joint program with the Maine Community Foundation) in peer learning sessions to hear from experts, share experiences and ask questions around a specific topic.

Last September, Washington County Children’s Program (WCCP), United Way of York County and Southern Maine Agency on Aging (SMAA) requested a session on “guerilla” marketing – unconventional marketing methods designed to get maximum results out of minimal resources.  CGV invited two experts from Corporate Circle member TheVIA Group LLC to come and talk about the award-winning campaign they had done for the Salvation Army where 40 Portland businesses donated space for ads to be scribbled on storefront windows, printed on shopping bags and coffee sleeves, and written on bathroom mirrors. 

Participants came away from the session highly energized – and it shows in what they’ve accomplished since.  WCCP used what they learned to help their board spread the word about the organization, leading to a local Masonic Lodge offering to sponsor a fundraising event for them.  They’ve also become active Facebook users, garnering lots of great testimonials from clients and community members.  SMAA is using its connection with Maine Medical Center in their co-branded congregant meals program, to spread the word about other services, through staff at Maine Med and signs in the cafeteria where meals are served.

CGV’s new clients through the Program for Nonprofit Effectiveness (NPE), College for ME-Androscoggin, Rockland After School Alliance and Literacy Volunteers of Maine, will come together for a peer learning session on the same topic in February.

Youth and Community in York County

The work of Common Good Ventures in York County is structured around two different projects, but over time, those projects have been connecting in a way that is increasing the impact of both. The Maine Youth Transition Collaborative’s York County pilot project is a community-based network comprising youth, adults, and public, private and nonprofit organizations with the potential for driving significant positive change.  The problems of youth who have spent time in foster care are well-documented and include significantly higher rates of unemployment, illness, incarceration, welfare dependency and sexual and physical victimization than their peers.  Lack of support for their transition from foster care to adult independence compounds these problems. 

The United Way of York County is actively involving community leaders in the Financial Literacy for Youth network, a pilot for learning to nurture and grow “networks for social change” in their community.  Over the past 12 months more and more people from the community have joined in – from local business and nonprofit leaders to district school officials, drawn from all levels of functioning and socio-economic status.

However, these two projects do not operate in separate silos. CGV has worked with UWYC and other partners such as USM’s Muskie School to make sure that our Maine Youth Transition Collaborative work and UWYC network work benefit from shared knowledge and resources. UWYC staff is taking part in both efforts and the groups have jointly hired a single “network weaver” to facilitate network work across York County.

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In my last message, I discussed our work with The Collaboration on Service Innovation (CSI), a group of nonprofits serving children and adults with disabilities. CGV is helping them explore ways to work together to improve quality of services delivered to clients while reducing costs.  Five members of this group realized early on that for them the biggest impact would come from consolidating back office functions and committed to gathering the data needed to make objective decisions on how best to do that.  I want to make special mention of the technical assistance we received from volunteer Business Advisor Fred Hill in this effort.  Fred brought to us a data-driven process used by manufacturing firms to evaluate and consolidate back office services.  He gave generously of his time and expertise as we adapted his process to nonprofits and guided the CSI team in presenting its findings graphically in a way that showed clearly where the group’s strengths and best opportunities lie.  Thank you Fred.

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I also want to extend a warm welcome to the newest member of Common Good Ventures’ Board of Directors, David Burfeind.  David is Chief Knowledge Officer at The VIA Group LLC; as many of you know, VIA is a charter member of CGV’s Corporate Circle and a long-time corporate supporter of CGV.

Among other things, David is helping formulate a marketing and communications plan for CGV to clearly communicate to the nonprofit sector the work we do.  This will be especially important for growing the number of fee-for-service engagements we undertake, engagements that help subsidize our foundation sponsored and pro bono work with Maine nonprofits, helping them reach more Mainers in need.

Drew