February 2005

Our system of care community has developed and implemented a local family-run organization that has been primarily funded by federal grant dollars. However, this funding stream will soon end, and o ur family organization and system of care partners are struggling with how to keep our efforts sustained. The members of our family organization's Board of Directors are very new in their roles, and staff morale is getting low.

What are some strategies that will help us sustain our family-run organization and raise staff morale?

Sustainability is a common challenge for local family organizations that have been developed and are being implemented within system of care communities. The following are some key areas that should be discussed directly with the family organization, families, partners, and policy makers as work is being done to sustain both family involvement and the family organization in your system of care community.

At least half of the members of a local family organization's Board should be family members of children/youth with serious emotional disturbance and other dedicated community partners. It is important for family organizations to ensure that their Boards receive ongoing board development so that they understand and are accountable for the organization in accordance with nonprofit laws and best practices. It is also important for the Board to have an appropriate level of knowledge around nonprofit sustainability. The Board should have a clear strategic and/or business plan that supports and builds upon the activities and services that are delivered. Review your Board membership and examine how the Board make-up resembles the leadership, strengths, skills, capacities, and knowledge that your organization needs for nonprofit sustainability.

There is a need for all partners to see the feasibility of investing in their local family organizations. When a family organization has developed enough to reach a 501c3 status, contracts are then awarded with federal grant dollars to support system of care family involvement activities and services . Based on the requested deliverables, how are your organization and partners planning to sustain these services without federal dollars? What information does your organization need to collect to demonstrate that the services and supports are of value and needed by families and partners? How is your family organization learning about the different funding sources that are available to support your organization? It is extremely important to build collaborative relationships with agency partners that represent various funding sources. Some of these funding sources include mental health, education, child welfare, Medicaid, juvenile justice, primary care, substance abuse, foundations, managed-care companies, other nonprofits, and private businesses. Creating partnerships with these agencies can lead to a redirection of funds to support family involvement in relationship to the needs of children and families involved with these funding sources. It is also important to educate your policy makers and legislators on why dollars should be allocated to sustain the services and supports that family organizations provide and how the family organization is a critical component of the overall system of care in your community.

For example, suppose part of your federal grant funds family partners to attend Individualized Education Plan meetings in the schools with families. To continue these efforts, it is crucial to build a relationship with school districts and your department of education. Help them learn how the services that your organization provides positively impact student learning and family involvement, and how they help reduce the rate at which students go to costly out-of-district placements. It is helpful to have solid data and successful family stories to share in these discussions. When thinking about creating collaborative partnerships, it is important to think about the following questions: Do the Board, Executive Director, staff, and volunteers of the family organization have the ability, skills, and capacity to build these relationships and partnerships? What governance structures exist in the system of care community that prioritize family involvement and sustainability? How have the members of this governance structure dedicated themselves to ensuring sustainable family involvement, and what training have they had in this area?

It is also important to examine your partnership with other family organizations in your state and determine how your two or more organizations can support one another. A statewide family organization may want to invest in your local services and supports, and in return, your organization may want to organize local families to support statewide activities that impact overall family involvement. When local and statewide family structures organize and partner there is a stronger, more united voice for sustaining family involvement that benefits all partners.

Morale is also an important component of sustaining a family organization. Staff should have a role in sustainability efforts. Part of this involves staff having access to up-to-date information to share with families and individuals with whom they come into contact. Staff and volunteers are great at building new relationships and partnerships in the community, and they can provide the best sales pitch by sharing families' success stories and the impact of their organization's services and supports. If staff members have reports, fact sheets, and other products to share, they are able to spread the knowledge of their family organization and system of care services and illustrate their relevance to the families and to the community. Providing opportunities to publicly acknowledge and thank staff and volunteers for their contributions is also a key part of maintaining morale.

Next month we will feature recent workshop information and some additional resources on the topic of sustainability and fundraising. If your family organization has any examples and products that you would like to share that helped to sustain family involvement and/or the family organization in your system of care community, please forward them to me at lisaconlan2@aol.com. We will share these as new resources.