Big often not best for nonprofits

HELPING HANDS: From left: East Providence Boys and Girls Club Childcare Director Germaine Brito, Executive Director Erin Gilliatte and Teen Director Randie King. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
HELPING HANDS: From left: East Providence Boys and Girls Club Childcare Director Germaine Brito, Executive Director Erin Gilliatte and Teen Director Randie King. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

At their most recent staff retreat, the senior management of Child & Family, a social service nonprofit in Middletown, went on a two-day trip to engage in serious strategic planning and organizational framing.
The excursion, at the University of Rhode Island’s W. Alton Jones Campus in West Greenwich, was a success, according to Keith Taveras, vice president of institutional advancement.
He said it helped the agency’s leadership shape plans for future programs and services and examine their vision for its continued mission. The trip was taken several years ago, involved about 30 of the organization’s 160 employees, and was the last such one for Child & Family.
“This was before or right around the time when the economy crashed, so things are a lot different now,” Taveras said.
It was not, of a course, a nonprofit organization that led introspection into spending on staff retreats and company outings in the wake of the economic downturn that began in 2008. (That trend is largely attributed to American International Group’s corporate retreat that cost nearly half a million dollars just after the company received an $86 billion federal bailout.)
But the effects of the down economy – which remains in slow recovery in Rhode Island – also put a focus on streamlining staff programs in light of budget cuts which, in the nonprofit industry, were compounded by losses in government aid, donations and grants.
“I think that organizations in a tough economic climate probably are cutting back on some … kinds of activities,” said Jill Pfitzenmayer, vice president of the Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence at The Rhode Island Foundation in Providence. “I just think that’s a trend of the times right now and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.” Child & Family used to organize fairly large staff outings, including an annual holiday party at various Newport venues and summer BBQs. Both parties are a thing of the past.
“Our responsibility is to use our resources to benefit the families in Rhode Island,” Taveras said. “When we’re looking at what we need to do [to do that], some of the things that [got] cut impact only our staff.”
The Boys & Girls Club of East Providence also previously held a holiday dinner that Executive Director Erin Gilliatt described as “fantastic” for its 23 full-time and part-time employees.
But rough economic times brought changes to the way the organization gathers its staff.
“I think we really focused on trying to get away from there having to be a giant event to have team building and fun as a team,” Gilliatt said.
The organization adjusted, holding more low-key parties, including one holiday gathering that found Gilliatt hosting and cooking for her staff.
That reworking of the traditional company party is what nonprofits should be doing to compensate for what they may no longer be able to afford, say management experts.
“Any of these activities that you would do for employees are beneficial,” said Rick Smith, an adjunct professor of management at Providence College. “Whatever the event is, it is another way of saying to people that [they] add value to the organization.”
Gilliatt only threw a holiday party once by herself, but her staff regularly convenes for Friday pizza lunches. There is a staff member who coordinates other outings, including bowling and pub trivia nights. In place of staff retreats and off-site outings, Child & Family now holds potluck parties where the organization, Taveras said, pays for the core of what’s involved and staff members contribute the rest.
Child & Family’s board of directors also have adopted simpler dinners. Taveras said the board often orders dinner in when they meet during nonwork hours.
He said the nonprofit has benefited from these kinds of parties.
“[There is] morale building when you have everybody pitch in to make something special for the entire organization,” he said.
Pfitzenmayer said strengthening a company’s staff is an important part of getting employees together to team build and socialize.
The Rhode Island Foundation awards small organizational development grants that Pfitzenmayer said are typically used for reflective activities, including training and strategic-planning retreats.
The Boys & Girls Club of East Providence last summer collaborated with clubs in Pawtucket and Newport for a two-day retreat for 27 total staff members with such a grant and through the Boys & Girls Club of America’s Advanced Leadership Program.
Staff members stayed in a retreat house together to promote team spirit.
“It definitely brought everyone together and made people feel that we were investing in them and their own personal development, not just for our interest but their interest as well,” Gilliatt said.
Doris Feinberg, president of the Prospero Group, a Newport-based consulting firm for nonprofits, said that nonactivity-oriented team and morale building is as important as reward-centered parties.
“It’s little gestures that inspire people to feel good about their organization and want to work harder,” she said. •

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