Sustainability of Non Profits?

The Fox Valley has easily over 500 non-profit agencies. Many of them are smaller and run by individuals who saw a need not met in the community. Rarely do smaller non-profits collaborate or join together to become one larger agency. The biggest issues that smaller agencies deal with are funding resources and building a client population to implement the goals of the agency’s initial creation. Many people create a non-profit organization because of some event in their life or they saw a need and wanted it addressed in the community.

When I worked for the Boys and Girls Club Fox Valley, most of their programs were and still are funded by community grants, program-specific funds, and state/national grants. The Boys and Girls Club Fox Valley was created in 1998 out of a deadly gang fight that rocked the community back in 1995.
(http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-07-06/news/9507060158_1_gang-nicknames-joker-members)

That event sparked a conversation about safe places for teenagers to socialize and spend their free time. When I worked with youth on gang prevention, I did a lot of research through the Office of Justice Programs(OJP) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Most negative behaviors in teenagers occur in the after-school hours. So there is correlated evidence that after school programs help prevent juvenile justice related behaviors. Although, during school behaviors are very much a part of a juvenile justice social worker’s job.

The Fox Valley Community Foundation (cffoxvalley.org) is one place to begin obtaining grants for an agency or a particular initiative that brings value into the community.  It also offers beneficial information on financial sustainability of an agency or service. According to their website, 986 non-profits including schools and hospitals received funds from various community grants and personal donor funding sources in the 2014-2015 fiscal year.