Fond du Lac County Connection
This podcast will provide listeners with updates on the happenings of Fond du Lac County departments and local government.
Fond du Lac County Connection
Episode Two: Non-Profits and Service Organizations
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How do local non-profits stay connected and thrive? Fond du Lac County Executive Sam Kaufman sits down with UW-Extension’s Community Development Educator, Andy Wilson, to discuss what’s happening across the local non-profit landscape. Tune in as they unpack how organizations are joining forces, sharing resources, and how a structural shift in one non-profit can ripple throughout the entire community.
Good afternoon. Uh Sam Kaufman, Final Accounting Executive here today. I am joined today on our second podcast with Andy Wilson. Andy is the community development educator for UW Extension. Hello, Andy. How are you?
SPEAKER_00I'm doing good. Thank you, Sam.
SPEAKER_01Glad that you had the opportunity to join us. What I've been trying to do here in the county is go through and have individuals come talk about their roles in the county because a lot of individuals or our residents don't have an understanding as to a lot of what the uh government individuals, government personnel do with the other services provided. UW Extension is very unique and a lot of people don't understand the role UW Extension has itself. That UW Extension is not actually a county-run facility or operation, but some of the employees actually are county funded itself, including yourself, your position. So I wanted to take this opportunity to have you come on and talk a little bit about yourself and your job and kind of go over some of what you're doing right now.
SPEAKER_00Sure, I'd love to. Um, you know, it's great to have the partnership with the county so we can do a lot of the work that we do out there. And kind of in general, the way I describe extension before I get to myself is really um I think just that an extension of the county's arm where we can kind of go out and educate and do outreach and teach and educate the community and kind of the different areas that we that we work in. So my area in specific is community development. And the reason that that speaks so much to me is my entire background for 20 years was as a nonprofit executive. So I was the the ED and CEO of a couple different nonprofits, um, both you know, in Wisconsin. I actually did a stint abroad running one for a while. And so take all that experience and that knowledge, and then also my education with a master's in nonprofit administration to really sit down kind of in an intimate way with a lot of these nonprofits and figure out where you know what are those obstacles that you're facing? Um, you know, a lot of times it's fundraising, we hear that all the time. But sometimes it takes an outsider to come into an organization and really kind of dissect the way they're operating and really help them plan better for better sustainability. Because one of my biggest things is um working with nonprofits that you know really can only survive month to month with grants, sure that works, but how can we really create a much more sustainable plan to work with you know with these organizations so they can continue doing on all of the great work that they're doing? You know, and so you know, and when we say nonprofits, you know, we're talking food pantries, we're talking sometimes service clubs, we're talking um crisis centers, we're talking pretty much anything that um is a 501c3 that's registered for the bet the benefit of the community. Because if the county were to put the money into all these different resources that these 540 nonprofits in the county are doing, you know, we don't have a money tree, you know, to do that. So by partnering kind of liaison liaisoning between the kind of the two sides is really hoping to grow the the capacity of our local nonprofits.
SPEAKER_01Sure. And you know, uh before you actually started, because you started uh just a few months ago. I did. And so before your time, what was happening, uh just for your background, we as a county were looking at this from a budgetary standpoint as far as what is the role of UWXW Extension right now. We see a lot of counties right now are closing those up. Um some of the services they're discontinuing that UW Extension provides. Uh, I do support UW Extension, and one of the things I had a discussion with the prior administrator uh here, Cindy, um, was what can we change UW Extension that better serves our county? And one was your position. Uh, what I felt very strongly about was that the nonprofits at our county, I was seeing a time where they weren't finding new people to come into the organizations. There was a lack of leadership growth in those organizations. And I felt very strongly that nonprofits are very key and essential to providing services within our county because I've always said county government can't do it alone. We need those partnerships. And so when I talked to Cindy EW Extension, it was a matter of okay, what can we do with this position to revise that job description that better suits or better fits our nonprofit organizations? And they came up with the job description you currently have now, which I appreciate that. Yeah, which has more of an emphasis which is not on nonprofits now, and trying to help them and assist them and give them a tool uh to try and help their organizations grow. So you've had a chance to obviously look at the situation in our county with regard to our nonprofits. What are you finding out there right now?
SPEAKER_00So I'm finding a couple of things. And whenever you ask, like I said before, whenever you ask a nonprofit what's their biggest need, it's always fundraising, you know. So it's not our role, kind of through the county, to provide those funds to nonprofits, but it is our role to really educate them and coach them through a process of how to sometimes be more creative with how they're approaching fundraising. Because there is a term kind of in the nonprofit world called social innovation. Not sure if you're kind of familiar with what that is, but it's how do we create kind of a business system within our nonprofit that helps us earn revenue instead of just you know asking for donations and and grants all the time. Um, you know, so that's kind of one thing I'm hearing is we need to be more creative. And then the other thing I'm hearing too is that um, you know, most of the time when I'm talking to these nonprofits, they admit that they're oftentimes working in silos. You know, and some of that is because I don't want to use the word territorialism in a in a crass way, but they might be working with a specific funder on a specific project, and that's very important to them, you know, and sometimes competition for dollars is very difficult, you know, especially within kind of the same philanthropists all the time. So I am hearing a lot about that, but then I one of the biggest issues that I noticed kind of through some of the research and some of the the asset and data mapping is that transportation kind of remains a key stickler for a lot of these things. Um so there might be a food pantry in kind of a smaller area that might only be eight to nine miles away from somebody, but then if they're a you know single parent with no vehicle, how are they getting there? You know, so when I kind of look at the word social innovation, to me that's an opportunity. What can we innovate within that system to not only bring you know these resources closer to these areas of need, but how can we also kind of use that as a way to create an earned revenue, you know, earned income that that we can really help with some of these nonprofits? Um and then another key thing that I'm hearing a lot about too is um kind of the mental health services, you know, because I know a couple of things have been shut down. And so where are some of those opportunities where we can kind of bridge, you know, maybe like SSM, you know, the detox, because I don't think the detox is there anymore. You know, how do we kind of bridge some of that with some of the needs in the community to say, hey, we know this isn't here, here's another opportunity, because you know, if we can help them with this detox, then it lowers the bed usage at the shelters, then it lowers the emergency usage, you know. So that's what I talk about systems change. We have to kind of look at all those steps within a service and really figure out how do we start at page one to divert, you know, individuals or families from having to kind of go through this zigzag of systems use.
SPEAKER_01Sure. One thing I found too is that a lot of the issues that our society faces, they're using old models of trying to go through and solve a problem. And a lot of those models just aren't working anymore. Uh times have changed, individuals have changed, the patterns have changed. It seems to me that you have to change the model now to better serve those and get more productivity or uh a better outcome then for those individuals you're trying to serve. You know, the fundraising is always interesting to me because I know that these nonprofits are always scrambling for money. I see the broad fries going on, different things, and they're all struggling for that. And sometimes, you know, you're right, they they try and go back to the same people. And I know the county has talked to a few of them before in the past, and they've indicated to me too, it's like it gets a little wearying on them. They even only have so much money in their foundation. And they start asking, well, a lot of these organizations, are they providing duplicate services, for example? Um, are they really kind of working in silos that they really don't know what each other does? Uh, is there a way to maybe work with them directly to find out, you know, is there a way to collaborate between these organizations so they're serving one population together instead of separately? And maybe then they might help with their fundraising also. But what are you seeing out there for that?
SPEAKER_00So what we're working on right now, and I'll just say kind of we in general, but you know, I'm working with a group of key stakeholders to put together a type of kind of networking program, I guess we could say, for all these area nonprofits, because I think you nailed it on the point, is that you know, I I don't fault them for the silo sometimes, because like I like you said, they might not know what somebody is doing down in Campbell's port, you know, especially if they're you know from Ripon, you know, so I understand that completely. And so we're working on a way not only to kind of create more of a networking system for them, but a system that also includes education to these nonprofits. Because um, I think when you and I first talked, leadership development is a huge thing because, in my opinion, a nonprofit should run like a business, you know, should have you know the leadership well trained and you know, the accounting principles, the legal principles, and how to really manage this nonprofit, and especially if they can bring in new and creative ideas. Um, so that's probably gonna be one of our first things. But trying to find the right nonprofits to start with to kind of really start building this network out is kind of the key component on you know, finding that right leadership that can help us do kind of a what we call skills transfer. But I do want to touch on another point that you mentioned, I know it wasn't a question, but the brat fry thing. Um, so I used to kind of preach this all the time is that brat fries are great if you're not doing it for a fundraiser. You know, it might not make sense, but um, because a brat fry is never gonna raise you enough money to kind of cover that gap between the next month. But if you do it right, you have somebody out there with a clipboard getting names and addresses and phone numbers of people, you know, use that as a donor engagement tool and less of a, you know, we need your three, four hundred dollars from this brat fry because all the work that goes into it, if that's your only outcome, then I think we missed the point. So use it for networking connections and you know, getting them on your mailing list.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and a lot of people don't uh don't understand, don't realize sometimes that the donations are tax deductible to a lot of these organizations too. You know, you had um presented to me in a private meeting we had this document called Nonprofit Ecosystem Strategy Session document. That's a document you put together, isn't it? Correct, yes. Tell me a little bit about that, what the goal is.
SPEAKER_00So I guess knock down the silos to really try to pull all these nonprofits together to, you know, not only share resources, but how can we find true collaboration and systems change? So when I say systems change, it kind of goes back to um, you know, if we can make some changes on why people are going to the food pantries, because instead of giving, you know, 10,000 pounds of food out a month, how how how can we develop a different system so they don't need to go to that food pantry anymore in the first place? And so by working kind of with this nonprofit ecosystem, um it's uh I guess a large-scale educational effort that we're looking at because you know in in the database that I have right now, we have 540 registered 501c nonprofits. So if we can give them the right education on, you know, true collaboration is how do we partner on a project instead of just sharing some resources that we have. So by partnering on these different projects, can we start creating a a systems change where you know if we change something in the uh the food pantry system, well, that might affect somebody else down in the shelter system. It might that might affect somebody else down in uh you know a mental health system. And so there will be, you know, some I don't want to say the word back pushback on that because you know by doing true collaboration, you know, and in my theory, you know some of these nonprofits might join with others, you know, so it might kind of lower the number of the nonprofits, but they're working together, they're no longer competing for those resources, and it's a lot easier for the the funders, you know, because I used to be one, that when you hear that collaboration word, oh, they like that a lot better. But again, we have to define kind of a difference between collaboration and just sharing.
SPEAKER_01Well, one of the problems too I've seen with some nonprofits is that you know, they're a lot more most of them are volunteers. And because the fact that they're needing to fundraise, sometimes they don't have enough money to even say hire a proper staff person who has the background in the skill set to run the operation. So they rely on the volunteers who don't have as much experience to do that. And I tend to find when I've talked to a few of them, they're just a little bit lost as far as okay, what's the best avenue for our organization here? What type of a strategy plan can we put together? And I think that's where UW Extension really comes in to try and help those organizations out. I'd love to see actually, um, at times, maybe an annually, a nonprofit type of conference to be held at our campus where you can go on through to have all of them come there, even from the region, and just kind of collaborate on ideas and discussions about what is it we can do to help better serve our communities itself, fundraising ideas. They can have tables out too, showing what type of organizations they are, so people become more aware of it. Because a lot of people in the community don't even know they exist. Um, you know, a lot of them I didn't even know existed until I became county executive and start seeing the list of the organizations that were out there. And and every one of them serves a very specific purpose. And we're very blessed to have them in our county uh helping our residents out itself. But what do you think the county can help do also to try and help you partner in this?
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, I think that's that's a great beginning of it. And I think another thing that the county did, maybe didn't know that the county did it, but kind of getting me connected to, you know, the those certain key stakeholders that I'm working with right now to kind of work on kind of building up a network. I would say whenever you're around, or if somebody even has a question of like, hey, you know, or or if it's even a criticism saying, hey, there's not enough, you know, not enough health help for people with low low income. Well, let's have a conversation because there probably isn't that long list, they just don't know about it. Um, but I also think perhaps we can partner on um, because I know there's a couple different resource lists out there, but it probably wouldn't hurt for all of us to kind of put our heads together and get the most updated resource list kind of put out there publicly and just to make sure that uh you know we have the right information. Sometimes those organizations might not exist anymore or they kind of go out, but I'd say that might be a really good next step to kind of partner on a really good resource list, even if it's searchable.
SPEAKER_01Sure. And I know like the Sophia Foundation is out there. Uh you've got the Nefond Like Area Foundation with uh Greg does a wonderful job out there. Have you had a chance to talk to them at all?
SPEAKER_00I I have, you know, actually quite a few times, and uh Sophia Foundation and I meet kind of on a every other week basis right now because we got some stuff that we're working on.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, but uh look forward to kind of talking more about that at a future date.
SPEAKER_01Sure. And well, you know, even if we can talk maybe about in 27 holding some type of a conference at the campus, I'd be very open to that idea. I just want to be able to provide a forum for them to come together, uh, not only from our county, but even the region, you know, from other counties around us that might be of assistance because I'm sure a lot of them are facing the same problems that that our organizations are too.
SPEAKER_00And it'd be a lot easier to kind of do, you know, instead of trying to meet with, you know, a couple hundred different organizations to help them out on different topics, what a great way to do it all together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and even if we do open it up as a public type of event too, that if these organizations have their tables out, the public can come see what services are out that they're providing, just to give more awareness as to the organizations. You know, I I one of the things we I we should probably do too in the county is see whether or not, you know, maybe putting on our our county webpage some type of list of all the different nonprofit organizations.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, as I was mentioning, if we kind of partner together, because you know, I have a list, you have a list, you know, somebody else might have a list, but it's probably time for us to kind of combine those lists. Sure.
SPEAKER_01You know, and have the updated contact information, maybe you know, this way they can reach out to them and find out what it is they're providing and how they can assist. And it's a resource too for our county because if somebody calls us, we have a list to say, you know what, try and call this organization. That might be somebody who can give you some assistance here with it. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your schedule right now as far as uh Monday through Friday, you're there?
SPEAKER_00Um by there, do you mean in the office? Yes, well, in the office. Yes. Yes and no. So it really depends on kind of what meetings I have coming up. And so what I love most about this kind of role is the kind of the face-to-face meeting with the people that we have, because um it's nothing without built relationships. You know, if they don't trust us, then they're not gonna want to work with us. Us meeting extension, us meeting county, you know, whoever that may be. And so most of my time is out. Um, you know, sometimes helping an organization with a strategic plan. So I'm working with my predecessor right now with a local organization. Um, it's kind of a longer-term effort, but really getting them a good strategy and operational um plan going on there. Other times it's meeting with coffee with somebody, might be a leader in the community. Um, other times it might be going through a webinar, you know, that I have to go through. So the best part is every day is different. Um, but it always kind of centers around what I'd say is a couple things, relationship building, um, building trust, and learning as well. Um, you know, and then I'm starting to work with a colleague of mine pretty soon on creating uh actually a fundraising, uh multi-part fundraising webinar is as well. Sure. Kind of help.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's that's excellent. I I know that uh if you really enjoy talking to you prior to today with regard to what you're looking to do, and I'm excited about this because I said when when we redid the job description after I met you, uh I thought you're a perfect fit for this.
SPEAKER_00I think actually my name was in the job description before you sent it out.
SPEAKER_01So very much so. Just as a side note, I'm very interested you mentioned to me a little hobby you have. Uh oh no more. Just to get people the get kind of get an idea of who you are. I thought it's very interesting. What tell us a little more about that one?
SPEAKER_00So uh I'm a nerd by nature. Tech, you tech everything. I mean is if you plug something in, I want it. But uh so I do have a small side hobby of a 3D printing farm. So I do I'm a CAD designer, you know, by not by trade, I trained myself. And so I like to see little problems around you know the area. What I say, like my house, the town, kind of my camper kind of stuff. And most of the time, it's things you can't buy, so I'll design these things and kind of create a few little inventions. And as I was talking, I had another fun one that I did, but now it's spacing out on me. Oh shoot, I forgot it. But yeah, like one of my first inventions. So I I you know I don't know if I can call myself an inventor yet, but right now I think on my profile, I have about 30 different weird things that I've designed to kind of solve different little little problems that people have. Have you had a chance to patent in any of them? Not yet, because until you mentioned it earlier, I haven't even thought about that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that sounds like a fun hobby, though. I plug something in usually burns out. So I'm not the creative engineer like that, so that's fine. Well, Andy, I really want to thank you for your time being here today. And hopefully, I said we can keep this partnership going with UW Extension in the county uh in this and like I said, we could talk further about uh trying to hold some maybe some kind of a conference uh for nonprofits in 207 our campus with that one. So too. Well, thank you again, Andy, for being here. Everyone, thank you for listening. I'm with uh Andy Wilson, community development educator for UW Extension. Have a good day.