Nonprofit Congress

The Nonprofit Congress, an initiative of the National Council of Nonprofits and the state association network, empowers individuals and nonprofits to act collectively for positive change. Building on the fundamental belief that nonprofits are vital to society, the Nonprofit Congress is guided by shared values and priorities established by nonprofits in communities across the country. To find out more, please contact us! You can also subscribe to our Nonprofit Congress Updates feed, sign up to receive our e-newsletter or read our blog.

• Historical Background
• Infrastructure
• Financial Support
• Additional Support
• Progress-to-Date

Historical Background

In late 2004, Dr. Audrey R. Alvarado, Ph.D., former executive director of NCNA , and Robert Egger, President/CEO of DC Central Kitchen (who had just returned from a trip to India to study the Indian National Congress), met to discuss the idea of uniting the nonprofit sector. Initially, they considered the idea of bringing thousands of nonprofit leaders together for a march on Washington, DC. By mid-2005 their idea evolved from hosting a single event into convening a dynamic series of unifying gatherings of nonprofits across the nation; ultimately, it took the form of the Nonprofit Congress.

To transform this idea into reality, in late 2005 Audrey Alvarado brought together a small group of individuals, including Tim Delaney and Ralph Benko, to join NCNA staff and Robert Egger. Everything started with a firm commitment to creating a safe space for local nonprofits to gather to share their hopes, dreams, challenges, and concerns so they could unite around what they share. What emerged from those planning meetings was an initial two-year, four-part process that built from the individual to the local community and then up to the national level, returning to spread back across the country:

Phase I: Personal Declaration - In 2006, individuals from all 50 states proactively showed their personal support for nonprofits by signing the Declaration for America’s Nonprofits. The Declaration was a formal acknowledgement that the time had come to unite the sector around its common values, create a unified vision, and recognize the power nonprofits could wield collectively if we united under the proud banner of the nonprofit sector.

Phase II: Town Hall Meetings - Through 117 Town Halls in 43 states, hundreds of nonprofit leaders across the country came together in their local communities to share their dreams, express their concerns, and define their values. Other nonprofit supporters unable to attend a Town Hall in their state shared their thoughts online. The information provided at the local level was collected and sent to NCNA, which collated the information.

Phase III: National Meeting - On October 16-17, 2006, more than 400 nonprofit delegates gathered in the nation’s capital to review the summaries from the Town Halls and the online discussion. Using that data and following deliberations, delegates then voted to select the nonprofit sector’s three top priorities:

•    Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness (Accountability/Best Practices and Leadership)
•    Advocacy and Grassroots Community Activities
•    Public Awareness and Support of the Sector

Phase IV: Nationwide Follow-Through - State and local nonprofits took the priorities back to their local communities and started working on those priorities. NCNA supported different working groups that cut across state boundaries to work on topics of mutual interest. The ideas that bubbled up from the local level and garnered support nationally as the core priorities thus were getting the focused and creative attention that nonprofits had proclaimed they deserved.

To pull off such a massive, nationwide, and essentially overnight endeavor, required two forms of resources: infrastructure and finances.

Infrastructure

The dream of bringing the diversity of America’s nonprofits together in a common cause could be achieved only with the help and involvement of many others, including a convener, a team of committed leaders, and an endless cadre of volunteers.

NCNA was the logical convener of this effort. With its network of state and regional nonprofit associations serving over 20,000 members in 41 states and the District of Columbia, NCNA links local organizations to a national audience through state associations. Those state associations – which help small and mid-size nonprofits manage and lead more effectively, collaborate and exchange solutions, save money, engage in critical policy issues affecting the sector, and achieve greater impact in their communities – served as the backbone of the Town Hall meetings. Other valued nonprofit allies helped by staffing those Town Hall meetings and, in several instances, hosting Town Halls.

Overall leadership came from Audrey Alvarado, who served as Project Director, and co-chairs of the Steering Committee:  Robert Egger and Michael Weekes, President & CEO of the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers (and then Chair of the NCNA Board). Those leaders relied on advice and direction from a diverse Steering Committee comprised of dozens of nonprofit leaders from almost every state.

In addition, Audrey Alvarado, Tim Delaney, Robert Egger, and others took the message of the Declaration and the Nonprofit Congress throughout the country, talking to groups about the need for the nonprofit sector to unite and inspiring the field to the possibilities of a more powerful voice for the sector.

Financial Support

The dream of unifying the nonprofit sector from the ground up rather than with a forced top-down message was not an easy concept to sell. But we found a group of enthusiastic believers in the management team and boards of directors of Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California (NIAC) and affiliate, Alliance of Nonprofit for Insurance - Risk Retention Group (ANI-RRG). With little tangible proof that the effort would “take off,” Pamela Davis, President and CEO of these companies, and her leadership group believed in the idea and invested in the effort through a challenge grant. This investment was instrumental in securing additional supporters who willingly stepped up both to meet the challenge and support charitable nonprofits, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Philanthropic Collaborative, and the Ford Foundation. Without their timely support, this effort that has helped nonprofits across the land would not have been possible.

Additional Support

In addition to those already mentioned, the Nonprofit Congress would not be where it is today without  the support of Isabel Lopez, Marcia Avner, Steve Graham, Elizabeth Boris, Kari Beardsley, Micah Jensen, Glenn Kates, and the NCNA staff in 2006, including Erica Greeley, Sherrie Hinton, Jocelyn Harmon, Qui Diaz, Adeela Abbasi, and Rick Cohen.

 

Progress-to-Date

We have forged a common identity built from our shared values of dedication to the betterment of the communities we serve, commitment to serve others, serving as a catalyst for change and innovation, and operating with ethics and integrity. We also have identified the Top Priorities of the nonprofit sector; these Priorities have become the goals for collective action.

Nonprofits set the following Top Priorities for the Nonprofit Congress: 

• Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness: Ensure that the sector has the resources it needs to serve communities and is effectively and efficiently managed. This priority emphasizes Accountability/Best Practices and Leadership.
• Advocacy and Grassroots Community Activities: Empower individuals and nonprofts to act collectively for positive change.
• Public Awareness and Support of the Sector: Increase public understanding and support so that nonprofits can continue to do their best work.

Now is the time for action. Individuals and organizations across the country have been taking action to address the Top Priorities of the Nonprofit Congress. Following are a few ongoing national projects that began as a result of the first national meeting in 2006.

PRIORITY: Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness

•    Leadership: A working group representing a broad spectrum of nonprofits has developed a workbook titled Work With Me: Intergenerational Conversations for Nonprofit Leadership that organizations can use to begin structuring a dialogue about leadership transfer across generations. The workbook is now available for sale and distribution. The group also published a compilation of nonprofit leadership programs [PDF] from across the country in November 2007.

•    Accountability/Best Practices: The Nonprofit Capacity Building Initiative (NCBI) is designed to secure federal funding through legislation that will support organizations that have a proven ability to deliver training, technical assistance, and consultation to small and midsize nonprofits. Best practices will be developed based on research, knowledge, and experience of nonprofit capacity building efforts across the country.

PRIORITY: Advocacy and Grassroots Community Activities

•    Town Hall Meetings are one of the signature elements of the Nonprofit Congress. Almost 100 Town Halls were held throughout the country in 2007 and 2008 focused on sharing resources, fostering collaboration, and planning for future activity. Reports have been compiled and are available on our website.

•    Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network (NVEN) recognizes that individuals least likely to vote are often most likely to receive services from nonprofits. The Nonprofit Congress partnered with NVEN in April 2008 to publicize the launch of their new website which features resources, toolkits, state-specific information, legal guidelines, and much, much more. 

•     The Primary Project is designed to educate presidential candidates and others about the nonprofit sector. Developed by Nonprofit Congress co-convener Robert Egger and coordinated by the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, the Primary Project provided extensive training to help nonprofits reach all candidates and received substantial press coverage. The lessons learned from the Primary Project are being compiled for use in local and state elections, furthering encouraging nonprofit involvement in the election process on a nonpartisan basis.

PRIORITY: Public Awareness and Support of the Sector

•    The Public Awareness Project Working Group is engaged in efforts to increase positive public awareness of the nonprofit sector through the lens of reframing how we talk about the value and impact of the sector. The Work Group will develop practices based, in part, on two key principles. First, nonprofits are valuable assets - builders and weavers of society and of communities. Second, a well informed public and media will ensure that the important work of nonprofits is duly recognized and appreciated.

•    Now that thousands of nonprofits have signed the Declaration for America’s Nonprofits, the next step is to ratify the Nonprofit Constitution, which affirms the values of our sector. The Nonprofit Constitution is a key document nonprofit staff can sign to proclaim their belief in and adherence to the guiding principles of the sector. Our actions must be consistent with our values and holding ourselves and each other accountable to our values is a critical step to ensure the public’s trust of our work and value.

You can also download this information in PDF format.