Bridge Fund Dot Org

I hope to complete my final report tomorrow morning, though I still have a tutorial, three classes, and a test to get through before I can really say I'm finished. Even then I'll need to incorporate the scores into my report, and I haven't even started the thirty-odd student evaluations I need to write.

Now that I'm wrapping things up, it's nice that the Bridge Fund, an organization for which I am technically only a contractor, has finally gotten its website running (please take heed, those of you who have followed the link in my sidebar and found only a picture of a yak-hair tent and an "under construction" notice).



I really encourage you to look through the new site if you have time, especially the photo gallery. They really did a remarkable job.

Kham Kampo Association

A couple of weeks ago at the Bridge Fund office in Chengdu I met a young man from Bathang, and engaged him slack conversation for a couple of minutes before realizing that he had been preceded by his reputation.


Lobsang Gonbo was a student in the well-known Xining English Training Program, where he learned to write grant proposals in English. Xining is the provincial capital of Qinghai (roughly Amdo for the old-schoolers). A proposal to replicate the program in The Tibetan School in Sichuan had the following to say:

The concept of the ETP originated with Kevin Stuart and Robert Lindstrom, both American foreign teachers of English at Qinghai Education College in Xining City. They wrote a proposal in 1991 requesting support for an English language-teaching program targeting Tibetan youth. The proposal eventually elicited interest, and consequently the program has been supported over the years by a number of different organizations such as the Trace Foundation (New York City), The Bridge Fund (San Francisco), Good Works (Idaho), Misereor (Germany), and the Ford Foundation (Beijing/New York City).

The Xining ETP also inspired the Bridge Fund to create the classes for which Tenzin and I teach. In Xining, students earn the equivalent of a vocational associates degree (dazhuan), whereas our students are younger and are studying for a high-school diploma (gaozhong biye zheng) or a vocational degree (zhongzhuan). The National Committee on U.S. China Relations highlighted the Xining ETP in a recent newsletter:

ETP trains Tibetan students to teach English in their own communities and to create community development projects. One student completed thirteen projects, benefiting more than 20,000 people, in medicine, solar energy, schools, libraries, and distribution of second hand clothes; several other students set up local, grassroots NGOs; and another is involved in language preservation.

I'm not sure, but the student mentioned in the above may have been Gonbo. It was Satina and Kat Cooley who first told me about Gonbo and Kham Kampo Association, the NGO he started. Kat is a close friend from Chengdu working for the international NGO Ecologia, and she and Satina had returned from KKA's solar cooker factory highly impressed. The former Education Director of Kham Aid John Geschek (sp?), a friend through Tenzin, called Gonbo an hardcore example of grassroots capacity building.


So needless to say I was stoked to meet Gonbo randomly in the Bridge Fund office that Friday afternoon. Gonbo gave me his card and the next weekend I taxied up the mountain to the KKA office in Kangding.

Gonbo is my age. He graduated in Xining only two years ago. He has another couple of young Tibetan men from the Xining ETP working with him, and has also hired a girl of twenty from the first Bridge Fund class out of Kangding Middle School (Tenzin is teaching the second class, preparing to take their examinations next weekend. My students are the third class.) The KKA does a lot of good work, like installing running water systems in towns, distributing small solar panels, and rebuilding primary schools like this one in Bathang County:


Although foreign teachers taught them to start an NGO, these smaller non-profits have no foreigners working for them (and rightly so). Except for an American in Beijing, us English teachers are the only foreigners in the Bridge Fund in China, and technically we're only contractors. I went to the KKA office to see if I could help them out with any English polishing. I met a woman from the aforementioned National Committee on US China Relations who was already volunteering for the week on that task. I'd finally gotten the opportunity to help and learn more about a local grassroots non-profit (what I'd like to get into when I get back home), but Gonbo said there was little I could do at the moment. Gonbo then surprised me by suggesting that I begin teaching my students about writing proposals.

My kids's English isn't nearly at that level, but last week I introduced them to the concept anyway. Gonbo sent me a copy of a proposal for a running water system to go through with them next week, and someone from the KKA is coming to talk to the class later on. Gonbo and the rest of the KKA staff have a lot of interest in Tibetan students in English language programs, because they are a product of those classes themselves.

This week Gonbo finally did send me some abstracts to proof. They're to be posted on the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, a very cool and thorough resource in five languages, useful for researchers (ahem, Michael) and interested amateurs alike.

Sunday Casual Reading

On some days every link begets two or three more, and soon my Firefox tabs are overflowing (a lot of my recent posts are really just research archives.) Let's just say it's been yet another educational morning.

I finally realized that WireTap Magazine is the youth section of Alternet.org. I'm also starting to see why everyone's switching from Blogger to Wordpress. The way that block quotes and pasting screws up the format in the new Blogger is pretty aggravating. No matter, in four months this blog will be finished.

WireTap Magazine, "Bigger than Hip-Hop." This article describes the current hip hop political movement: "So, culture, class issues, consumerism and varying degrees of complacency all divide African Americans, as much if not more than generational differences. In fact, to reduce the fragmentation of black politics into a generation gap is to play into the hands of the right."

"Shinin' the Light on White Privilege." A detailed history and time-line of the institutionalization of racial oppression in the United States.

"The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), is a national and international collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation." This group has roots in New Orleans.

Letter of the People of New Orleans to Our Friends and Allies: "The South has been traditionally underfunded and often exploited by institutions, including corporations, the labor movement, foundations, and the federal government. We have faced the legacy of centuries of institutional racism and oppression, with little outside support. And yet, against massive odds, grassroots movements in the South have organized and struggled and won historic, inspiring victories with international relevance." The list of signatories at the end of the letter is a Who's-Who of the New Orleans grassroots social activism community.

New Orleans Network - Web Resources. A database and calendar of social activism in New Orleans; possible model for the new CenLamar.

Southern Human Rights Organizers' Network: "The primary goal of the network is to develop innovative and practical methods of organizing across the region. Another important objective is to strengthen the capacity of civil rights and social justice organizations in the Deep South."

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. Their most recent publication, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, is described as follows: "In this landmark collection, over 25 activists and scholars describe and discuss the non-profit industrial complex (NPIC)--a system of relationships between the state, the owning classes, foundations, and social service &social justice organizations that results in the surveillance, control, derailment, and everyday management of political movements." This group has been particularly active in New Orleans.

Wiretap Magazine, "New Orleans: Continuing Crisis:"

For many in the nonprofit field nationally, post-Katrina New Orleans has been an opportunity for career advancement. While local residents have been too overwhelmed by tragedy to apply for grants, a few well-placed national individuals and organizations have not hesitated to take their place in line. Although some have no relation to New Orleans, they often have previous relationships with the foundations, as well as resources that translate into easier access to funding, such as development staff, website designers and professional promotional materials

[...snip...]

Foundations are an integral part of the current structure of U.S. nonprofits, a system that INCITE has called the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, to emphasize the intersecting, dependent and corporatized ways in which the system is constructed. It is a system in which organizations are frequently pitted against each other for funding, where organizers are discouraged from being active in their own community, and where accountability to and leadership from those most affected has become increasingly rare.

Update: In the spirit of Easter, the first four of the Eight Beatitudes,

• Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the land.
• Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
  
• Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
  

More Food for Thought

On the previous post I hadn't extended my research quite far enough, and Wikipedia (duh, Daniel, duh) suggested a great resource in the way of community agriculture: Local Harvest.

Local Harvest is a "comprehensive" directory of farmers markets, farms, stores, and restaurants that support community agriculture. It's easy to sign up to become a part of the directory. Maps are interactive and can be searched by state or zip-code. For example, one can easily get a list of Farmers Markets within 100 miles or all listings within fifty miles of Alexandria (from which I copped the six farms in the following paragraph). Another nice feature is that individual farm profiles provide recipes and the seasons when each of their products are available.

Most of the farm listings are not of CSA farms, though interesting nonetheless. Fred's Garden in Hornbeck (near Leesville and Many) is proud of their naturally grown tomatoes and summer squash, and goats and sheep are grass-fed and pastured by Running Moon Farm of Dry Creek (for wool) and Boggs Farms of Sugartown (for meat). Ville Platte boasts naturally grown peas and okra from Purple Hull Ranch Farm, premium jams and preserves from Bayou Chicot's Watershed Farm, and free-range chicken eggs from Sopers Hole Ranch.

It is also easy to find Louisiana's CSA farms that have registered with the Local Harvest. They show four. In addition to Pastime Farms and EquiTerra Farm mentioned in the previous entry Food for Thought, we find two more certified organic CSA farms: Gotreaux's Family Farms and Abba's Hill Organics. Gotreaux's Family Farms is in Scott, just west of Lafayette. They have fifteen shares (including half-shares, $400 / $200), and offer food (including honey and a number of meats) from September through July during two sixteen week harvest periods. Tours of the farm are also available. The weekly pickup point is Lafayette's City Garden Market.

Abba's Hill Organics is the one that got me interested; their motto: "Bees, Chickens, & Garden Pickins." They even sell their own sourdough bread. The farm is located between Many and Natchitoches, about seventy-five miles from Alexandria. In addition to having fifteen CSA shares ($15 / week, 20 weeks), they sell their produce and products at the Cane River Green Market in Natchitoches. It's nice to see the presence of a CSA farm in Cenla, and though they individual arrange share pickup and delivery, I doubt they'd provide service as far as Alexandria.

There are likely other CSA farms in the state, as even I have to admit that not everything can be found on the internet. Growing organically and naturally is gaining obvious popularity across the country. I am optimistic about the extent to which CSA will remain sustainable in other parts, and whether local community supported agriculture will finally make its way to Alexandria. I have a feeling that it is merely the matter of finding a willing farm close enough to the city (remember, CSA helps responsible consumers reduce the market risk for local farmers).

I also hope people will read the comments to the other Food for Thought post. A friend mentions that in Argentina, similar practices are used to provide food for destitute areas. Community gardens at schools nutritiously feed the schoolchildren. I also wonder if in the long run a CSA arrangement for an American school or Food Bank would be feasible.

Web Tech Possibilities for the New Cenlamar

Just throwing these out there:

• Volunteer Coordination

I came across this software, and it stood out immediately as it has all of the features that I had suggested in my original proposal to Lamar. Tendenci(R) makes software that allows websites to have open volunteer sign-ups with a variety of administrative controls. Anyone can see the number of volunteers that have already committed, and it includes calendar features. The interface seems pretty smooth. Cenlamar could get to the point where this type of technology would be handy when multiple groups are trying to recruit volunteers for specific times.

• Mapping
  

I read a lot of New Orleans blogs. Maitri's VatulBlog gave me a great idea. She has been working on the technical aspects of setting up a community website that maps crime in New Orleans. She settled with GeoPress for WordPress, detailed in this post, but in her previous post she lists some of the best open-source mapping software available, and most of it can be interfaced directly into a blog.

Perhaps the new hub of Cenla social activism could benefit from such a feature. Volunteer sites can be easily mapped, and as the community grows it would provide a quick graphic to see which areas of town are being overlooked. Habitat or the Food Bank could map its impact. The applications to open-source web mapping are limitless.

Food for Thought

One thing Louisianians of all stripes seem to be proud of is our food, be it Creole, Cajun, or Soul Food. Most of the cuisine that is considered typical of Louisiana is not the healthiest of foods. On the other hand, Louisiana has an amazing growing season, and when I worked in fine dining in New Orleans we were able to boast about our fresh local produce, from Vidallia Onions and Creole Tomatoes to strawberries, blueberries, and figs. This post is a bit disorganized, but represents my thoughts on food and some interesting local initiatives that people can take to simultaneously improve quality of our communities and the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables.

• Nutrition and Poverty
  

A recent entry on Facing South confirmed something I've known about for a long time, namely that Southerners tend to eat less healthily than the rest of the nation. "Supersizing the South" is a good read full of useful information. The piece begins with statistics about the number and nature of food advertisements targeted towards children, presents a state by state breakdown of obesity in the South, and finishes by quoting the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which says that "the highest rates of obesity occur among population groups with the highest poverty rates and the least education."

While that may sound counterintuitive to some (poor kids are supposed to be skinny, right?), it stems from the lack of education and availability of nutritious foods. Moreover, foods (perceived) to be cheaper are often higher in fat and added sugar. Fresh fruits and vegetables are generally more expensive and require more preparation than Easy Mac and Hamburger Helper. Healthy children also perform better in school (food for thought).

I remember reading a testimonial around Thanksgiving written by an intelligent disabled woman. Like many other women in her apartment complex (mostly single mothers), she took advantage of deliveries from the food bank. The woman was older, and had learned to cook before the TV Dinner revolution of the Fifties had completely reversed American eating habits by the Seventies. She described how the younger mothers didn't know what to do with bags of flour (make biscuits and broth) and didn't know how to salvage slightly old vegetables into soups. A large part of the problem is simple lack of knowledge about how to cook a nutritious family meal with limited resources and time. The author suggested cooking classes to go with Food Bank deliveries.

• Farmers Markets
  

Farmer's Markets are reasonably popular in many cities, even in Louisiana. Most of us are familiar with the concept: once a week local farmers meet to sell local produce at a competitive cost. They generally benefit the smaller farms. According to an article about the Louisiana Small Farm Survival Fund at Foundations of Recovery, "farmers and small agricultural-related enterprises have been the foundation for our South Louisiana foodshed. The Farmers Markets who support locally grown, seasonal produce provide both an economic base and an important cultural gathering spot, creating a sense of community between urban and rural residents. Unfortunately, many farmers and local Farmers Markets sustained significant damage during Hurricane Katrina."

The Louisiana DOAF Farmers Market Directory (2005) completely catalogs the local farms and Farmers Markets qualifying for the Farmers Market Nutritional Program Coupon. In Rapides, only three roadside stands (Bayou Rapides Best Produce on Hwy. 28, Ole Grey Mule on Hwy. 71 South, and Poole Produce past Cheneyville on 71) and no Farmers Markets are listed.

On Google Maps there is a listing for a Farmers Market at 500 N 3rd Street, and also a different address and phone number for Farmers Market Booking. Digging deeper, one comes across this interesting tidbit in the Wikipedia entry for John K. Snyder, a former mayor of Alexandria: "One of his pet projects was a simple structure near the Red River, completed in 1975, called the 'Alexandria Farmer's Market,' by which farmers could take their produce directly to the people and avoid middlemen. Interest in the market was strongest in the spring and early summer, but many in time found the hours of operation inconvenient for their own work schedules. Supermarkets were just more accessible than were the farmers waiting patiently for customers to arrive."

Because the Farmers Market must be supported by proactive consumers who are willing to deal with seasonal availability and the lack of Kroger-style convenience, they are not always successful. Correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm way out of the Alexandria loop; I'll be back at the end of July), but my feeling is that the city still owns the defunct Farmers Market facility and rents it out for events like motorcycle shows.

An encouraging sign is the River City Market under the old Weiss and Goldring building, which Cenlamar describes as "downtown Alexandria’s arts, crafts, and produce market."

• Community Supported Agriculture (CSA farming)

Community Supported Agriculture has gained traction in the North, Midwest, and the Northwest. It's a revolutionary concept that grew out of a desire to reconnect consumers to local agriculture. Essentially, a small farm sells fifty to 500 shares of its harvest before planting to raise capital. Throughout the harvest season (which differs from place to place), it delivers boxes of fresh produce to a distribution center or directly to shareholders doorsteps. For a few hundred dollars, shareholders are provided weekly with fruits and vegetables. The food is often organic, always fresh, uses little fuel to be delivered, and is cheaper overall than shopping at the supermarket.

The Organic Consumers Association has an extremely informative article about CSA farming, both on the individual and network scale. A small farm often doesn't have the resources to provide everything a shareholder may want, so a CSA cooperative (or "connection channel") could take the role of coordinating produce from a number of local farms in order to best deliver goods without growing into corporate superfarms. They list all the advantages of Community Supported Agriculture:

The farmer benefits too. The connection channel bypasses the middleman, giving farmers profit margins more comparable to the farmers market. The farmer can retain a higher portion of the final selling price while bringing the cost to the consumer more in line with conventional agricultural products, thereby reaching more people. Advance ordering and knowledge of member preferences fine-tunes the planting process, reducing the farmer's risk of spoilage, surplus production, storage costs, and missed sales. With a pay-in-advance policy, the farmer gets the capital needed for planting and improvements. Most important of all, the connection channel can produce organic food in quantities sufficient to feed the earth's population while avoiding the social costs of industrial production and distribution. Instead of scaling up existing organic farms, one multiplies their number, and uses an extended CSA model to distribute the product to local and regional populations. When properly administered, the connection channel can often deliver in the afternoon what was harvested that morning, providing a field-to-fork time that no hub-to-retailer system can match.

Towards the end of the article they discuss the how to determine the proper number of shareholders for a given CSA farm.

It took a while, but I was able to find two examples of organic and CSA farms in Louisiana, provided by the Southern Organic Resource Guide.

Russell Roy is the proprietor of Pastime Farms, the largest organic farm in the state, in Roseland, Louisiana. He makes his own compost, uses organic pest control, and has over four-hundred members in his CSA. From May to November, Pastime Farms delivers weekly produce picked no more than thirty-six hours before.

Paul and Maria Davidson are wildlife biologists ("learned folk") that began EquiTerra Farm decades ago in Clinton, Louisiana. The farm was slow-going, but they've expanded it to grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and they even have goat and sheep herds (which is something I've always wanted). The Davidsons' goal is to have "a model sustainable farmstead to show others, especially young farmers, that a decent and honest living can be made on a small farm, working with the land and not against it.” Young people intern at the farm to increase interest in the project.

I was telling a friend from Rochester that a CSA farm could work in Alexandria, but enough people interested in buying shares outright might be difficult to find. She was surprised: "Being healthy markets itself!" I explained that Central Louisiana is unlike California and New York in that everyone is not totally motivated to eat fresh, organic foods. It's usually a priority of the professional class.

And I realized that while CSA is an awesome idea and that it will definitely work in Louisiana once small savvy farms can be found, it only provides the most educated or well-off with an opportunity to score fresh local produce. It would need to be heavily tweaked to make even a tiny impact on the issue of poverty and nutrition.

• Community Gardening

Community Gardens are a nice way to bring neighborhoods together while emphasizing social responsibility and nutrition. The model is flexible, but they usually are in a common space, and individual community members are able to utilize the harvest in some proportion to the work or capital they provide for starting and maintaining the garden.

Parkway Partners of New Orleans has a very readable community garden introduction and guide, which even lists the addresses of active community gardens in NOLA.

If nominal start-up efforts and training are provided by motivated members or an outside organization, community gardens can be successful in any part of a city. They are arguably most needed in the poorest areas, and could provide fresh produce to them more easily than CSA farms.

I hope that other people find this stuff as interesting as I do. Comments and criticisms are always welcomed but seldom received.

Emily Metzgar and LANO

As I continue to investigate the Louisiana nonprofit scene, the organization LANO (Louisiana Association of Nonprofits) keeps popping up, sometimes in unlikely places.

The columnist and blogger Emily Metzgar (Shreveport Times) has recently interviewed Dr. Melissa Flournoy, the CEO of LANO. The podcast can be downloaded at the previous link.

I generally like Metzgar's opinions and commentary, and her interests parallel my own: the impact of internet on local politics, accountability and transparency in state government, and responsible and informed policy creation.

On a related note, an old friend (no pun intended) David Britt, the current president of the United Way of Central Louisiana, has started a blog. I look forward to having an easier way of following his opinions.

A Look at the Web Resources of the United Way of Central Louisiana

The impetus for this post came from David Britt, who has been president of the United Way of Central Louisiana for the past decade. Dave left a comment in my previous post, and I felt compelled to make up for overlooking his organization in my hasty and incomplete overview of the nonprofit scene in Cenla. It would take months to uncover every nook and cranny of the Louisiana nonprofit sector's web presence, and fortunately the United Way of Central Louisiana has already completed most of that work.

The homepage of the website for the United Way of Central Louisiana is unassuming and does not belie the bevy of resources it makes available. That said, it's two most important components, the Volunteer Center and the Guide to Human Services, are easy to locate. They will each be dealt with in turn. The homepage also has a link to donate, and an announcement that it is one of just twenty-two organizations in the state to be certified by LANO's (Louisiana Association of Nonprofits) Standards of Excellence accountability program (please see the previous post for more on LANO and the Standards program). It's easy to see why: in every project and forum, one can find almost full disclosure on contacts, financing, goals, and various ways to get involved.

The tabs at the top of the website hold a large amount of useful information about the United Way of Central Louisiana and their programs. Under "Katrina/Rita," the website provides the minutes to the Long Term Recovery Committee and information on the Cenla Hurricane Recovery Center. In the tab "Our Community," one finds the "Human Services Forum," a monthly meeting for nonprofit staff to network with their peers. Also in "Our Community" is a list "About Member Agencies" of the United Way of Cenla, such as the Hope House, the Salvation Army, and the Boys and Girls Club. In "Links," nonprofits can find a number of useful sites from The Louisiana Office of Community Development to Grantsmart. Another tab describes the quarterly educational "GIS Forum," for people who work with Global Information Systems. "Young Professionals" provides information on an organization for those under the age of forty to network with other community-oriented professionals in the Cenla area.

The Volunteer Center provides a searchable and browsable database of volunteer opportunities for the seventeen member agencies of the United Way of Cenla. There is also a calendar, though it seems seldom used.

The real meat lies in the Guide to Human Services, which goes far beyond the member agencies of the United Way of Cenla. It uses an interactive website, called CommunityPoint, that is described as a "powerful website application designed to increase public access to community resources. It enables managers of information and referral data to publish and edit data in a real time environment." It is an open system that has an easy application process for organizations. Hundreds of charitable organizations in Cenla have gotten involved. There are unique searches to find volunteer opportunities, agency profiles, (which “include address, phone numbers, web, and email addresses, hours, disability access, fees, eligibility requirements, and service descriptions”） agency wishlists, and--perhaps most important--the specific services provided by various agencies. It also includes a calendar, but it too appears to be underutilized.

My favorite link on the United Way website (here's where the nerd in me comes out) is the Pathways Mapping Initiative, which is a compilation of articles and case studies for the development of communities in America. It can be found in the "Solutions to Poverty" selection of the "Our Community" tab. Pathways has two initiatives: Child School Readiness and Family Economic Success. A tab at the top of the Pathway's website gives you the option to view each initiative's Components, such as Attributes of Effectiveness, Examples, and Rationale. For the first-timer, the Actions Overview gives a sense of the breadth of Pathways' resources (these links are for the Pathway to Family Economic Success). The Pathway Navigator is interesting, though my personal favorite, of course, is the list of Indicators.

To list one example of many, "More Outlets for Reasonably Priced Goods and Services" is in the group of Community Investment indicators under Family Economic Success. This indicator acknowledges that in inner-city areas, retail goods are generally more expensive. A link to a project that analyzes vendors is provided, and suggestions and concerns are discussed. Essentially, nonprofits or policy makers could use this information to begin to address the disparity of goods-pricing in economically depressed areas. Other indicators include "Increased Home Ownership," "Increase of Levels of Family Income and Earning," and "Children With Health Insurance."

My personal interest lies in methodologies for evaluating and monitoring public policy and nonprofit projects. These kinds of websites provide virtually limitless resources for researching social empowerment.

The website of the United Way of Central Louisiana has many more features, and here I've listed those that I feel are most important. I encourage you to peruse their site, and if I've missed anything, let me and other readers know by leaving a comment. Their website is just one of many examples of the impact the Internet can have on the nonprofit sector. As evidenced by the explosion of personal and political blogs, the open exchange of ideas on the web is democratizing information and allowing ordinary citizens to easily get involved at the grassroots level. There is one caveat, of course: sitting in front of your computer is no substitute for leaving the house and getting your hands dirty.

Nonprofit Coordination and Capacity-Building Research: Some Examples from the State of Louisiana

This post is inspired by a dialog with Lamar White, Jr., who works as an assistant to Mayor Roy. With a new administration comes new ideas and the chance to innovate in the face of institutional inertia.

Nonprofit organizations are a vital part of a community's ability to provide services to the marginalized, and nonprofits often work independently of the government and compete with each other for limited resources. Because of this, any opportunity to eliminate redundancy in services should be readily welcomed. On the other hand, government must tread the fine line between advising and interfering, as nonprofit organizations have the desire--and the right--to make their own operational decisions.

In the following I hope to present examples of efforts to increase efficiency in the nonprofit sector, and suggest that these efforts stand on two important legs: coordination and research. These legs correspond to the reasons for merging the Center for Nonprofit Resources and the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center into the Greater New Orleans Nonprofit Knowledge Works in 1992:

1. Local initiatives focused on building the capacity of the nonprofit sector are uncoordinated and inconsistent in their messages, often working at odds with one another.
2. Much of the key information needed for planning either does not exist or is not readily accessible.

I couldn't have said it better myself. This organization is an excellent example when it comes to the innovative capacity-building research necessary to achieve nonprofit coordination in Alexandria. The GNO Nonprofit Knowledge Works

strives to enhance the management capacity of the local nonprofit sector to provide information-driven, systemic and effective solutions to community problems. We believe that evidence (data, published research, and community perspective) is an essential foundation for the development of effective social programs. And our unique emphasis on systems is based on our theory that no matter how well agencies operate independently, real community change will depend on nonprofits working together in systems that are oriented to meeting clients’ multidimensional needs. [emphasis mine]

[Although Hentschel (1999)* claims that data can be either quantitative or qualitative and that methods are actually more or less contextual, the common wisdom in America is that "data" refers to hard statistics derived from quantitative methods. Because of sampling techniques, this kind of data is usually very general and is good for identifying trends. "Community perspective" here would include qualitative information, teased from interviews and case studies. It yields highly contextualized results and is useful for determining the cause and effect relationships. "Published research," of course, can be either quantitative or qualitative.

Moreover, qualitative evaluative techniques have only recently come into the mainstream for assessing and monitoring the results of nonprofit programs and government policy. Traditionally, the "hard" statistics of quantitative empiricism, which emphasize reaching benchmarks and goals established before the onset of the project, have dominated evaluation. This approach to management and monitoring has been criticized for being inflexible. Qualitative and participatory evaluation methods often build in mechanisms for the ongoing assessment of projects, taking not only top-down management priorities into account, but also considering the demands and adaptations of the beneficiaries and stakeholders of a project. This empowering epistemological shift has obvious political implications, and our government does not exist in a vacuum of good policy research bereft of political motivation.]

The GNO NKW describe the purpose of one current project, a Community-Based Service Network, as the development of "a local model for the use of wraparound funds to increase coordination of care among local agencies." Wraparound funds usually do not come from typical funding streams, and therefore can be used more flexibly. Another project, the maintenance and dissemination program called Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, is a staggering resource with important lessons on the way community data and advice can be made available for the entire public (honestly, if you skip every other link in this post, at least look at this one).

Another example of the use of analytical information to inform public and nonprofit policy comes from the Urban Institute. They have compiled a research bibliography of studies related to Hurricane Katrina that is broken into six components:

(1) housing;
(2) children and families;
(3) arts and culture;
(4) disaster preparedness;
(5) community health; and
(6) poverty reduction and asset development.

This research has been compiled to be a tool of policy-makers and community organizations struggling to understand the problems (and their potential solutions) wrought by the failure of the levee system of New Orleans. It is, of course, only useful if it is used.

The group that may be most vital to streamlining our state's nonprofit sector is LANO, the Louisiana Association of Nonprofits. Their website advertises

• an expansive slate of trainings covering a wide range of nonprofit topics

• one-on-one technical assistance to help you confront the challenges you face in the nonprofit world

• member discounts that significantly lower the cost of operating a nonprofit and let you spend more money achieving your mission

• representation of the nonprofit sector to the Legislature, Governor's Office, and other local, state, and nation government agencies

• leadership for the nonprofits world, bringing national best-practices and innovative strategies to Louisiana.

LANO, in addition to the Greater New Orleans Nonprofit Knowledge Works, gives advice for starting one's own nonprofit organization. Their website also has a number of extremely useful features, including employment listings (I wish I would have seen this when I was preparing to get my B.A.), a member directory, and (wait for it) a central calendar of events and training. Perhaps the most notable is its section on capacity-building, which is highlighted by an eightfold certification program for ethics and accountability to improve the operation of nonprofits, called Louisiana Standards (also a must-read).

"Why haven't I heard of LANO before now?" you may ask. A possible reason is suggested by the graphic at left. LANO has five major operating centers, the closest of which to Alexandria is Lafayette, though we are grouped with the Northern Louisiana region out of Shreveport. At first glance, this may seem like regional discrimination, but let's consider a few numbers. As mentioned on CenLamar, Alexandria has about eighty nonprofits. According to an Urban Institute report, in 2003 almost half of nonprofit expenditures came out of New Orleans, when the state of Louisiana boasted around 3200 nonprofits. At that time, New Orleans was "home to nearly 900 charities spending $4.3 billion and holding $6.3 billion in assets."

It's no surprise that Alexandria is not home to one of LANO's centers. In light of this fact, and LANO's extensive resources and training opportunities, more Alexandria nonprofits should be encouraged to get involved with the greater nonprofit sector of Louisiana. When browsing the member directory, one finds that the Alexandria members include:

AfterCare Ministries
The Arts Council of Central Louisiana
Cenla Advantage Partnership (CAP)
Cenla Area Agency on Aging, Inc.
Cenla Medication Access Program (CMAP)
Central Louisiana Aids Support Services, Inc.
Central Louisiana Community Foundation
Central Louisiana Partners in Literacy
Community Development Works
Community Healthworx
Family Counseling Agency
Friendship House Adult Day Services Inc.
Hope House Inc.
Inner City Revitalization Corp.
Kent Plantation House Inc.
Louisiana Youth Prevention Services
Pediatric Therapy Center Inc.
Rapides Children Advocacy Center Inc.
Renaissance Home For Youth
Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation, Inc.
The Extra Mile Region VI (Pineville)
The Orchard Foundation
The Rapides Exploratory Education House, Inc.
The Rapides Foundation
The Shepherd Center
United Way of Central Louisiana Inc
Volunteers of America of Central Louisiana
YMCA of Central Louisiana
YWCA of Central Louisiana

That's twenty-eight by my count, excluding the Extra Mile because it's in Pineville. Some of these memberships may be defunct or expired.

LANO was founded in the late nineties by the Council for A Better Louisiana.

CABL is an excellent public interest research organization. They frequently conduct surveys on voter opinions (such as this one on statewide support for Health Care Reform), and they publish a popular resource called the Louisiana Fact Book for the 2007 Election Year: How Do We Measure Up... How Far Do We Have to Go?


I have only begun to understand the impact of operationalized research on the coordination of nonprofit organizations. I have learned that responsibly applying appropriate research methodologies--be they quantitative or qualitative--is essential to determining the efficacy of a particular project. Moreover, a combination of these methods can be used to uncover ways for the entire sector to improve. To name a couple of quick examples, quantitative statistics can be applied to government data to find patterns in target groups and funding streams, and qualitative research practices can be used to measure the opinions of those in nonprofit management towards government policies.

Let's return to my favorite example, the Greater New Orleans Nonprofit Knowledge Works. They explain the four areas in which they operate, which correspond strikingly to the needs of the nonprofit sector in the City of Alexandria:

1) collaborating with local funders to help them use evidence to strategically invest in the community;
2) working with collaboratives of agencies to design evidence-based, systemic approaches to addressing community problems and then with their member agencies to help them participate in the redesigned system;
3) providing individual agencies with on-demand information and advice to address their technical assistance needs; and
4) creating and maintaining centralized information systems and infrastructure for the local nonprofit sector.

The Knowledge Works is at the cutting-edge of innovation in this field, claiming, "Our systems redesign consulting and our information products require a good deal of innovation because we are working in young disciplines without much codified knowledge." It's true: determining the best research style, method of variable operationalization, and data analysis is no easy task (indeed, this is the field that I hope to study in graduate school; read my original musings on this subject here). In fact, among other things, the organization provides workshops for "evidence-based program planning and grantwriting." But what if a small organization lacks the resources to contract or train a researcher with such technical qualifications?

Consider the following study, conducted by researchers from Loyola a few years ago: Online Communication in Nonprofit Organizations. Following a basic research design, this study investigates the difference between email responses from nonprofits when donating directly to an organization's website or when donating through an intermediate website (to ensure legitimacy). The analysis of this study was accomplished by using descriptive statistics no more complicated than high school algebra.

Remember, making lasting and beneficial change in a community is a long process that requires the transparent participation of a number of actors, including policy-makers, community leaders, and researchers. In my opinion, this change must involve both top-down (government) and bottom-up (grassroots) feedback. Empowering beneficiaries to become active participants gives them a greater stake in their democracy, and ensures the longevity of whatever endeavor will be undertaken.


*Hentschel, J. (1999) Contextuality and data collection methods: a framework and application to health service utilisation, Journal of Development Studies, 35, 64-94.