CommunityCare Promotes Nonprofit Management

Sprinkled with foundations that distribute millions of dollars in grants annually, Northwest Arkansas is a healthy market for nonprofit businesses. With offices in Springdale and Bentonville, CommunityCare Foundation Inc. distributes $5 million-$7 million each year, but the organization does more than give out money.

In October, the foundation will launch the first in a series of four educational courses for nonprofit administrators and volunteers. The foundation’s executive director, Suzanne Ward, and director of programs, Emerson Goodwin, are designing the program to strengthen local nonprofits, enabling them to do the most with the money they receive.

The courses, called the Nonprofit Learning Series, will focus on board development, strategic planning, fund-raising and marketing.

“Those are the pillars that move an organization forward,” Goodwin said.

The classes will start with the basics of organizing a board of directors and lead the students through resource management and public relations.

Working with a $40,000 budget — from CommunityCare’s $150 million endowment — the half-day Nonprofit Learning Series classes will meet quarterly at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale.

Most of the expense, Ward and Emerson agreed, would stem from hosting the course instructors. Although teachers of the classes have not yet been selected, the managers said the instructors would visit Arkansas for the sessions.

Teams consisting of at least one staff member and one volunteer must attend each session, but the organizations can send different people for each course.

The Nonprofit Learning Series will cost $25-40 per person to attend all four classes, and Ward said she wants to attract teams from 50 different organizations for the first course.

Ward and Emerson used Nonprofit Resources in Little Rock as a model for organizing the Nonprofit Learning Series. Nonprofit Resources hosts similar workshops on a larger scale. It offers 30-40 courses per year in Arkansas, said Bonnie Johnson, Nonprofit Resources’ executive director.

Johnson said she is excited about the Nonprofit Learning Series. Formal training for nonprofit management is rare, even in a dense population of nonprofit organizations, such as Washington and Benton counties.

“Northwest Arkansas is a really vibrant area for nonprofits,” she said, adding that most nonprofit administrators, including executive directors, often must “learn hands-on.”

Connie Hendrix-Kral, a CommunityCare program officer, also has a plan to fortify nonprofit managers in the area. She is on a steering committee to open a Northwest Arkansas chapter of the Association for Fundraising Professionals. Currently, there are 11 at-large local members of the national organization, she said, and only 15 people are needed to start a chapter.