by Stephanie Narayanan, Director of Development and External Relations
My favorite part of Alabama history* is an elegant marble monument honoring…a bug. It’s not (just) the idea of memorializing a beetle that appeals to my inner storyteller; it’s also the quirky reminder of a timely lesson.
The boll weevil was not just an Enterprise, Alabama problem, but an environmental change that threatened US cotton production for the better part of a century, according to Smithsonian Magazine. What was different about Enterprise, though, was its response: Instead of focusing their energies on preserving cotton fields, farmers pivoted—first to peanuts, then to a range of crops that diversified local growing.
Hence, the boll weevil’s marble monument, which reads: "In profound appreciation of the Boll Weevil and what it has done as the Herald of Prosperity."
I’m not suggesting we celebrate the very real crises that are likely coming, but I am suggesting we focus on where there are opportunities.
In an ideal world, we’d be building up new models out of abundant resources—a strategy PCC has been working on steadily since before the federal funding cliff. Things are not ideal. We continue the work anyway.
My favorite part of Alabama history* is an elegant marble monument honoring…a bug. It’s not (just) the idea of memorializing a beetle that appeals to my inner storyteller; it’s also the quirky reminder of a timely lesson.
The boll weevil was not just an Enterprise, Alabama problem, but an environmental change that threatened US cotton production for the better part of a century, according to Smithsonian Magazine. What was different about Enterprise, though, was its response: Instead of focusing their energies on preserving cotton fields, farmers pivoted—first to peanuts, then to a range of crops that diversified local growing.
Hence, the boll weevil’s marble monument, which reads: "In profound appreciation of the Boll Weevil and what it has done as the Herald of Prosperity."
I’m not suggesting we celebrate the very real crises that are likely coming, but I am suggesting we focus on where there are opportunities.
In an ideal world, we’d be building up new models out of abundant resources—a strategy PCC has been working on steadily since before the federal funding cliff. Things are not ideal. We continue the work anyway.
We know that change will not be immediate. (The boll weevil isn't just an outcome metaphor but a process one too, since nonprofit lead times are closer to those in agriculture than those in tech.) Any organization with a heavy balance of grant and contract funding cannot diversify business models overnight. But long and hard is not the same as hopeless and impossible.
As we look at where PCC exists in a future landscape, we’re thinking about where the backbone role we’ve played to build thriving communities can mature to serve more complex needs. Where it can grow bigger and stronger in support of a (community) body doing the same.
We know funding will be tight. Our best hope of preserving service capacity is finding ways to work better. But having organizations of every size go through that process of procedural discernment and create a community’s worth of individualized solutions is not a good use of time or resources. It takes too much front-end time from every nonprofit while potentially making connectivity and collaboration more challenging.
So what’s the alternative? Backbone organizations doing their backbone best. Finding solutions that support collaboration across organizations and systems. Doing the day-to-day slog of implementing and managing those solutions so service providers and policymakers can focus their energies.
Perhaps most importantly, we are positioned to add leverage to the good and necessary work direct service organizations do. Our vantage point in supporting a network of partners can help us identify where modest investments can have an outsized impact. The classic example we use is Montgomery Cares’ MedBank Program—where we leverage an annual operating expense of less than $300,000 to bring more than $8 million in donated medications for uninsured Montgomery County residents.
As we look at where PCC exists in a future landscape, we’re thinking about where the backbone role we’ve played to build thriving communities can mature to serve more complex needs. Where it can grow bigger and stronger in support of a (community) body doing the same.
We know funding will be tight. Our best hope of preserving service capacity is finding ways to work better. But having organizations of every size go through that process of procedural discernment and create a community’s worth of individualized solutions is not a good use of time or resources. It takes too much front-end time from every nonprofit while potentially making connectivity and collaboration more challenging.
So what’s the alternative? Backbone organizations doing their backbone best. Finding solutions that support collaboration across organizations and systems. Doing the day-to-day slog of implementing and managing those solutions so service providers and policymakers can focus their energies.
Perhaps most importantly, we are positioned to add leverage to the good and necessary work direct service organizations do. Our vantage point in supporting a network of partners can help us identify where modest investments can have an outsized impact. The classic example we use is Montgomery Cares’ MedBank Program—where we leverage an annual operating expense of less than $300,000 to bring more than $8 million in donated medications for uninsured Montgomery County residents.
We cannot keep underfunding nonprofit operations—the “Nonprofit Starvation Cycle”—but we can think hard about where strategic partnerships benefit both an organization’s operating capacities and its beneficiaries. We need to get to a place of doing more with more. We can start by finding ways to leverage the resources—including backbones—we already have.
Community-building is an ecosystem effort. Diversification is not just a funding necessity but an operating imperative. We all need to be clear about the strengths we bring and the gaps others can fill. PCC has built trust by our insistence that we don’t try to replicate the work other organizations are doing. It’s a waste of energy on unnecessary competition when we could be building out balanced efforts. At PCC, we are focused on the value we can add. We are focused on the long-term health of a thriving community.
*Being Alabama-born and raised, having a favorite Alabama history moment is not as random as it sounds.
Community-building is an ecosystem effort. Diversification is not just a funding necessity but an operating imperative. We all need to be clear about the strengths we bring and the gaps others can fill. PCC has built trust by our insistence that we don’t try to replicate the work other organizations are doing. It’s a waste of energy on unnecessary competition when we could be building out balanced efforts. At PCC, we are focused on the value we can add. We are focused on the long-term health of a thriving community.
*Being Alabama-born and raised, having a favorite Alabama history moment is not as random as it sounds.
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