Matthew Downey acts as the Nonprofit Services Program Director at Grand Valley State University's
Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. While he currently works in a Silver LEED certified building at 201 Front Ave SW, the Johnson Center did not live here when it began 20 years ago. In fact, the building that currently houses the Johnson Center used to be a bicycle factory. And the organization itself has grown to be much, much larger.
Walking through the sun-filled, modern facility, Downey explains that their mission is to guide nonprofits to success by helping them to increase efficiency and impact. They do this in a number of ways. There's the Foundation Review, the first peer-reviewed journal of philanthropy where, Downey says, "researchers who study philanthropy and foundation program officers can submit articles. This journal has created one of the first venues for foundations to talk in a structured way about the lessons they've learned." Libraries and foundations across the country are subscribers. The Center's own Philanthropy Archives is huge. The Frey Chair for Family Philanthropy is the "nation's only endowed research position that studies philanthropy and how family philanthropists seek to change their community and the world."
There's the Grantmaking School, the first national university-based program for teaching advanced grantmaking to foundation grantmaking professionals.
"The grantmaking school is basically the nation's premier program that teaches foundation program officers how to give away money," Downey says. "You've got limited money, but you want to make the biggest impact. How do you look at grantees and measure effectiveness, and measure the effectiveness of your current grantees?"
Then there's the
Community Research Institute, which collects, analyzes, interprets and makes available all kinds of data. They use a technology called MAPAS, a mapping tool, to create large, colorful maps displaying all kinds of information. "The visualization of data and mapping is their expertise," Downey says.
Part of the agenda, Downey says, is the democratization of data. "We as a state university can create trusting relationship," Downey says, "like the Grand Rapids Public School system, or the police and fire departments, so [people] will share their data with us. We can map that data and make that data available publicly. And, we can give people who are working at formal organizations or people concerned about their community the chance to examine that data, map that data and understand what's going on in their neighborhoods. Anybody could map their neighborhood. They could map crime in East Hills. They could look at data about the housing vacancies in Eastown in 2000, and then in 2010."
While the Johnson Center is a W.K. Kellogg Foundation grantee, they also work with the foundation. "One of the things we're doing is we've been contracted to be the evaluators, statewide, of grantmaking and whether it's been effective or not," Downey says. And in order to determine if a grant has been effective, one would assume that the Johnson Center knows how a grant can become effective. Herein lies one of the most important parts of what the Johnson Center does.
"We work a lot in Grand Rapids and in West Michigan and we basically help [nonprofits] in two ways: training, and workshops on any topic that a nonprofit needs to know more about. Things like how to manage your board, what it means to be a board member, fundraising, volunteer management, evaluation, financial management, social media. We average about 4-6 workshops each month, and thousands of people enroll."
On top of these workshops, the Center is available for questions. Through the workshops, those who work at nonprofits are able to come prepared with better questions and talk with Center staff about their issues.
"We'll sit down and talk to anybody for free," Downey says. "The door is always open. I tell my staff that in the nonprofit sector, there are 'haves' and 'have-nots.' Sometimes, you can have two organizations that sit on opposite sides of a single issues, and I say to the staff here that we will help anybody. If you have a social mission -- a nonprofit -- you can come here and we'll sit down to help you in any way that we can. The phrase I use is, 'we're here to help, not judge.' For me, there will be organizations that I may or may not agree with their social mission, but I leave my prejudices and ideas on how things should go at the door."
Downey compares nonprofits to small businesses, saying each nonprofit consists of two things: content, and the running of the organization itself. And much like in small business where the employees are charged with being competent in different areas, those who work in nonprofits also must have many skills. "Administrative, finance, attracting donors, building a brand, raising money, paying your staff, investing in the program," he rattles off. He continues, "I operate on the premise that people come to these roles through many pathways, but no one person can come with all of the skill sets they need to really, truly take on their job. The smaller the organization, the more skill sets the employees must be able to demonstrate. We don't always help organizations on the content or program side. Our thrust is that if you have all the info and resources, we can help you develop your professional skill set to manage the organization you're trying to run, regardless of what those programs are."
And that's how the Johnson Center is unique. Rather than just handing money to a nonprofit, the Center will teach a nonprofit how to properly execute programs and find their own funding, and then how to effectively use that funding to make the greatest impact. Additionally, they'll help an organization learn how to analyze their impact so they know what's working and what is not.
"We help them think through what good program development looks like," Downey says. "How do you make sure your programs are exactly the programs your community needs and wants, and how do you know if you've been good at what you've done?"
One such organization the Johnson Center assisted was an after-school program called Pathfinders in Muskegon Heights, held in the Temple Methodist United Church that sits across the street from the high school. Their mission was to make sure students stayed safe and out of trouble. They relied on one grant from the Governer's office called the Govern's Discretionary Grant for 11 years. But when the economy hit a slump in 2009, the grant disappeared and Pathfinders became dormant for two years. "During that time," Downey recalls, "they had one kid who was shot and killed on the street. Pathfinders had offered mentorship 24 hours a day. [The group] came to us in a state of desperation." Downey knew they needed another grant and multiple funding sources, but they also didn't have a board or any solid leadership or community leaders who stood up for the program. Together, they came up with a strategy over a few months to rebuild the organization, identify board members and raise money.
"The Johnson Center brought us back to life by teaching us how to sustain our program long-term," says Rev. Rob Cook of Temple Methodist Church. "Without their help, our doors might still be closed. Thanks to the Johnson Center, we're open and serving young people again."
Overall, the response to their work has been overwhelmingly positive, Downey says. "Now we're literally everywhere across the state," he says, mentioning their involvement in Detroit teaching fundraising to all food and emergency shelter programs. "Our reputation has really grown. But the nonprofit sector is huge, so the sky's the limit."
J. Bennett Rylah is the Managing Editor of Rapid Growth Media.
PHOTOS:
Matthew Downey, program director for non-profit services at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU.
Photography by
ADAM BIRD