Three Nonprofits Breaking The Mold
Nonprofit leaders often have to think creatively to provide optimal services with limited resources. Three nonprofits, Greyston Foundation, NPower and Dollar a Day, are breaking the traditional nonprofit mold by rethinking their structures, building networks and incorporating technology in forward-thinking ways.
USING PROFIT TO SUPPORT ACTIVISM
Greyston Bakery is a $14 million business that uses a radical hiring process: walk into the bakery, ask for a job, get a job. No interviews or references are required. This bold formula, which Greyston calls “open hiring,” has helped hundreds of Yonkers, New York, residents, many who were formerly incarcerated, to secure employment and rebuild their lives.
Greyston Foundation is a social enterprise that owns and operates the for-profit affiliate, the Greyston Bakery. A portion of the bakery’s sales is used to support the other services the foundation provides, such as the Greyston Family Inn, the Greyston Childcare Center and Greyston Health Services.
Greyston’s innovative management approach, which it calls ‘PathMaking,’ connects Greyston’s bakery business with the foundation’s social missions.
“PathMaking is our most original contribution to the field of community development,” said Jonathan Greengrass, vice president of development and public relations at the Greyston Foundation. “The philosophy is that individuals can be supported to achieve self-sufficiency through the holistic support of social services. This is much more than just case management—we look at a person’s entire life.”
Greyston provides a unique network of social services to its employees and to the Yonkers community at large. The Greyson Childcare Center offers reliable childcare for employees with children. The foundation also works to provide affordable housing to vulnerable populations as part of the journey to self-sufficiency.
Despite its untraditional workforce, Greyston operates a profitable and expanding business, showing that activism and profit can be compatible.
“[The bakery] is of critical importance to the structure of the organization,” said Greengrass, since it creates a stream of revenue that is supplemented by government grants and other, more traditional, nonprofit funding sources.
A major component of Greyston’s success has come from its 27-year partner- ship with Ben & Jerry’s, an international ice cream company. Greyston provides all the brownies that Ben & Jerry’s uses in their products. Partnering with a socially active and like-minded corporation like Ben & Jerry’s was crucial to Greyson’s success.
Greyston’s untraditional model began with its untraditional founder, Bernie Glassman, a successful aerospace engineer turned Zen Buddhist monk. In 1982, Glassman turned an old spaghetti factory into a housing complex for the homeless of Yonkers, and the organization grew rapidly. Glassman established the Greyston Foundation in 1982. Today, Mike Brady leads the organization as president and CEO, continuing to carry out Glassman’s motto that “there is no better life led than a life led trying to make others succeed.”
Nonprofits historically lack the resources to capitalize on new technologies, leaving staffers working on dated systems that hamper their ability to improve or expand services. NPower seeks to connect underfunded, understaffed nonprofits to resource-rich technology companies with a desire to engage in volunteering. By acting as a “virtual matchmaker” for nonprofits and skilled technology professionals, NPower brings nonprofits into the 21st century.
NPower has two flagship programs: Community Corps and Technology Service Corps. Community Corps links technology companies and professionals with volunteer opportunities at nonprofits and schools. Technology Services Corps is a program that trains underserved young adults and veterans between 18 and 25 years old for careers in the field of technology.
“We have given an outlet to chief tech- nology officers to capitalize on their passion for helping,” said Matt Sudol, director of marketing and communications at NPower. “The Community Corps spread like wildfire; technology people wanted to help and do good. Being a part of the program was like being part of a club that actually matters—something with a tangible result.”
Through these two programs, NPower connects nonprofits, communities in need and skilled technology professionals to create a “360-degree ecosystem,” explained Sudol. This network works to uplift communities by supporting nonprofits through technological advancement to increase their services, and by working directly with underserved populations to prepare them for tech careers.
“We find more and more that employers are looking at people with non-traditional backgrounds,” Sudol said. Technology companies are realizing that well-trained workers without college degrees are not necessarily liabilities and they can often get quality results from these candidates, Sudol explained.
Sudol attributes much of NPower’s success to its ability to gain insight and guidance from data analytics. By effectively using data, NPower is able to locate where new opportunities are likely to arise, how to expand already successful programs, or when to shutter problematic ones.
“Information is power,” said Sudol. “The more data you get, the more you’re learning.”
CROWDFUNDING FOR NONPROFITS
Kickstarter founder Perry Chen is harnessing the power of crowdfunding for the nonprofit community through his new nonprofit organization, Dollar a Day. The platform features one nonprofit each day, making it easier for individual donors to fund credible organizations.
Chen brings strong fundraising credentials from Kickstarter, where users have contributed over $1.3 billion over the past five years to a wide range of projects, the vast majority of which were for-profit.
The power of Dollar a Day lies in its simplicity: subscribed donors automatically contribute a dollar to that day’s organization, which is featured in a daily email that outlines the nonprofit’s mission.
The automated contribution payment process removes the donator’s burden of researching organizations.
“Every day we’re all supporting the featured nonprofit, together,” states Dollar a Day on its website.
Dollar a Day has a few requirements for donors and nonprofits: all recipients must be a U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) organization that is not religiously affiliated or aligned with any government or political party. Subscription donors participate on the grounds that they cannot opt out of contributing to specific nonprofits.
Dollar a Day features nonprofits in six sectors: education, health, economic development, arts, environment, and human rights. Dollar a Day “look[s] for organizations that pursue innovative solutions to problems in their fields, such as pushing the envelope with cutting-edge research, designing new methods to solve problems more efficiently, or identifying and tackling underrepresented issues,” it explains on its website.
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