Finding the right partnerships for collaboration is imperative for organizations to grow effectively and achieve high impact. By identifying and valuing the interconnectivity of the work we do with others, we are able to further our missions and expand our reach.

In this episode, Mia Mahaney of West Michigan Consulting Services joins us to discuss community partnerships and why they are important. While sharing the top reasons to engage these organizations, she also provides powerful examples of communities in action and highlights where you can find these potential partners.

Interested in learning more? Join Mia’s email list for monthly tips and resources or contact her at the information below. She also provides a great free worksheet with 12 questions to answer before you begin your next fundraising campaign.

 

Episode Highlights

• Welcome (1:16)
• What is a Community Partner? (2:52)
• Reasons to Engage Community Partners (4:33)
• Volunteerism (6:53)
• Community Partnerships in Action (12:24)
• Where to Look for Partners (15:28)
• Wrap Up (24:00)

The interview transcript is below for reference.

Guest Biography

Mia Mahaney, Founder and Principal Consultant at West Michigan Consulting Services

Owner of West Michigan Consulting Services, Mia Mahaney has over 6 years experience in the nonprofit industry, launching organizations, designing programs, and leveraging resources and partnerships to ensure program stability.

Mia is a committed, cause-driven consultant who partners with nonprofits to grow their impact, achieve their mission, and actualize their vision. She believes in the power of nonprofits and their ability to solve the most challenging problems with the right resources.

 

Contact

LinkedIn | Mia Mahaney
Facebook | @WestMichiganConsultingServices
LinkedIn | Mia Mahaney
Twitter | @Mia_WMCS

 

Interview Transcript

Emily
There is so much you can do with community. We love community engagement and community development at Nova Strategies. I’m excited for today’s guest because we’re going to be talking about community partnerships – ways that you can connect with others to further your impact. Our guest today is Mia Mahaney and she is such an expert in capacity building for nonprofits, here to share her insights and tips on community partnerships.

Welcome to the show, Mia, I appreciate you joining us today.

Mia
Oh, thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here.

Emily
Well, let’s start by having you share with the audience who you are and what you do.

Mia
My name is Mia Mahaney and I’m the owner of West Michigan Consulting Services. I provide capacity building services for nonprofits and impact businesses. A lot of people don’t necessarily know what I capacity building services and they ask what exactly do you do? It’s the word that I use to be all encompassing. Like, I do what you need me to do. So a lot of that is fundraising and helping build strategies for development. A lot of things have to do with communications, their marketing outreach and getting their name out there as well as building awareness for the organization so that they can do better fundraising and things like that.

Emily
I love that you use the word capacity building. I think it really does encompass everything that we can be asked to do sometimes working in this field, no matter what it is, someone’s got to step in and sometimes that means us. One of the things that you focus on is community partnerships and I’d love to level set with our audience to start. So, what is a community partner?

Mia
So a community partner can be anyone from a another nonprofit organization to a corporation or even a public sector partner, like a city or a township. Really it’s any entity that also has the same values and goals that your organization does.

Emily
It sounds like it can be pretty limitless in terms of who you involve as a community partner.

Mia
Oh yeah and I think too that a lot of organizations have more community partners than they realize they already have. Even if they understand the definition, if you start asking them who are their community partners, they come back with one name or one organization and it’s like, but I know that you talked to more people than that. I know that you’re more involved in your community than that. They must exist somewhere.

Emily
Exactly, and why are community partnerships so important?

Mia
So community partnerships are really important because of the resources that they can provide to the nonprofit and then also the collaboration. So the city for example, if they’re your community partner, collaborating with them will be tremendous on a really small nonprofit as the business has a marketing department and a finance department that smaller nonprofits might not also have. So partnering with them, you not only get the resources, they’re directly providing, you also obtain the indirect resources.

Emily
Right, right. Well said. You have a five point framework that I think is really great in terms of why someone should have community partnerships. I’d like for you to maybe highlight each and then we can dive in to each?

Mia
Yeah, absolutely. So the top five were awareness, advocacy, volunteerism, potential donors and new partners. So we’ll start with awareness. The first thing that community partners do, and even if they don’t necessarily know that they’re doing it, is they tell people what you’re doing. They will shine light whether or not it’s to their staff and the people that are their clients coming in or to other businesses that they’re connected with. Just bringing out your name and your awareness of your smaller organization.

It’s really important and that kind of lends itself to the advocacy portion. Corporate social responsibility is a huge name and businesses have kind of evolved, so in philanthropy from corporations used to be like, we support them. Maybe we have one press release and here’s the money, then that relationship is done. They’ve really moved on. Now, corporations tend to do their homework and they want to really believe in the values and the ethics and the goal of your organization. And then also they want to make sure not just that values and mission are aligned, but that before they donate, they ask what impact your organization is actually having. Now they’ve done so much research and they’re super committed. They’re not just going to send out one press release and give you a little bit of money there into your organization. They want a true partnership and that means that they’re going to share and now with social media and with all of the way that resources can be shared and news, they’re so excited and it’s probably everywhere, and then hopefully if they post on social media, then their employees will also share.

Emily
Exactly. It just needs to start with one person and that energy and enthusiasm is so contagious. Not only will it spread to the other coworkers and employees who are there, but then now their customers or their clients are able to see it and it really does have that ripple effect. The awareness and brand advocates. Any nonprofit or association needs those and like you mentioned at the beginning, you probably have more of them than you realize. It’s just giving them the tools and the knowledge about the impact that’s being made in order to spread it. Those are great reasons.

Mia
Absolutely. Then the third was for volunteerism. A lot of nonprofits that are not the major nonprofits have limited resources. They need volunteers to not just do the warm bodies work. They need them to actually come in and do work for their organization, so if you can find some great community partners, they are really great resources for volunteers. If the business is pushing that, then their employees will feel that and they could again be skilled in different areas so you can get your highly skilled or high trained volunteers from them.

Emily
Right, and again, some places have corporate social responsibility programs or are more engaged in volunteerism. It’s more than just sending that check, so people want to get involved and they want to give their employees an opportunity to be hands on with the organizations that they’re supporting.

Mia
Absolutely, and then some organizations even have policies that if their employees volunteer a certain number of hours, they will donate x amount of money for x hours. I know that that’s actually a policy that’s becoming more popular. Even smaller companies are really interested in getting their employees out and engage. There have been really great data and resources that show that employees who volunteer are more likely to stay with your company and they’re more likely to be engaged in your company.

The fourth thing was for potential donors, so not only can the company donate as a corporate resource, but they can also be your largest donors as far as a pool of other donors. So the staff can give money. Clients can give money. For example, if you think of a bank, if a bank is supporting your organization, not only can the company itself donate, but then they have all these people that are coming into their bank that are seeing where they donated and the name of your organization. Then they’ve also got the number of staff that fill all of the tellers and each of them donate individually as well.

Emily
And in your experience are companies still doing matching gift? It seems like that would be an opportunity to have donors who are excited and then they’re also sharing that their company might do a matching gift as well.

Mia
Absolutely, absolutely. And then the fifth one was for new partners. In any nonprofit or any organization, the capacity to find new partnerships, I think people feel limited or stalled and it’s a bit like how people don’t realize that they have the community partners that they already have. They don’t see the potential for new partnerships as well. So really if this business or this public entity is promoting your organization, you now have access to every single one of the partnerships that business or public entity or other organization also has. They may not want to hand you a list like, here are all my partnerships. But if you can get into the networking with them and be like, hey handshake, here’s my organization. We’re really impressed with what you’re doing already. Also, this is what I do and be able to work that in smoothly on the side, it’s really great to find a new partners.

Emily
The networking piece is so important for organizations anyways,  since they’re constantly looking for donors to make that impact even stronger. The opportunity to look for even more people, volunteers in kind donations, just awareness in general is so valuable in those instances.

Mia
Yes! I think what people don’t necessarily realize is that it’s so important for collaboration. We kind of get into this mindset that there’s a competitive, you know, they’re taking the money that I might need for my organization, but really it doesn’t actually fall quite like that. There’s a phrase that we use quite frequently around West Michigan and they say that a rising tide floats all boats. I think as long as we are collaborating with our public and our private and nonprofit organizations around our community, then we’re just making the best impact we possibly can.

Emily
I’ve seen this, and I’ve even heard you say it a couple times, collaboration over competition or community over competition. This is really true. It can be tough when as leaders in our nonprofits or associations, we have this scarcity mindset. I’ve seen it regularly. There truly is an abundance of resources and money. It’s just finding these partnerships, finding the opportunities, and being willing to be creative. When we do collaborate, we really all are able to get further. I love the rising tide or rising ships, it’s such a great analogy and really encompasses the spirit.

Mia
Yeah. I think that it originally came from JFK or maybe is attributed to him, but I think that it really does lend itself to how nonprofits need to exist within their communities. Like you said, with the scarcity mindset or even the fundraising mindset that there’s not enough money to go around, there is. That’s just not true. For West Michigan specifically, I think that they said that we give around 24%, which is much, much higher than the nation’s average for giving. They also said when they asked all of these donors if they would give more, they said yes. So they just need to be asked in the correct way.

Emily
Yeah, absolutely. So you have some great reasons as to why folks should invest in community partnerships. Do you have any examples of this in action that you’ve seen that have really benefited the organizations you’ve served?

Mia
So actually around here, there is a nonprofit that exists to support children not only in their education, but in their home lives and to make sure that they are getting the best opportunities as they can. So the biggest challenge of the public school district is a really high truancy rate and making sure that these children are prepared for post-secondary education. Well, the way that this nonprofit operates is they have public, private, and independent organizations that all come together and they network with each other to really provide what they’re best at. So if for example, the private company is a bank and these children want to get into finance, they actually provide the resources for the kids to do job shadowing or to do internships. The way that it works is then the kids now have busing to get to their internships. They now have class credit that they can get to go towards their schooling and it really just meets the kids where they’re at to give them the resources for whatever needs they may have.

Emily
Wow. That’s so powerful. To be able to bring that many resources and really impact the next generation. It’s helping individuals right now and benefiting them in such profound ways, but that really will last a lifetime. That’s amazing.

Mia
Yeah. So before this organization actually existed, all of the different sectors from human resources to government to philanthropy, the faith communities even, they all spent money saying this is the need that exists in our community and this is where we’re trying it. But because they weren’t partnering together and working cohesively, they kind of were just throwing money at a wall and seeing what stuck. And when they came together it really was when the impact started showing in the data for this organization. Every single area that they collected data on has increased at least one percent, if not five percent, towards the child’s postsecondary education, enrollment, graduation rates, all of the different measurements  that they’re using, they have all increased.

Emily
I love data and those stats are incredible. I love how folks who have a job and they’re passionate about their job are so willing to give insights to these kids. It’s getting them excited for a potential career path. Even if it’s not that career path they go on, they’re excited about something. They’re seeing a potential future that they may not have seen before. There’s just so many benefits to this type of thing. That’s a great, great example. Wow. So Mia, you’ve given us some great reasons why we should invest in community partnerships. You’ve told us an amazing example or case study of how this can impact those around us. Where would you recommend that people start to look for community partnerships?

Mia
So the first thing that I would suggest is to look inside of the networks they already have. We have talked about how people may not know that their organization already has some community partners. So if you look at your preexisting network, you think about all the people and the businesses and the different organizations that you interact with daily. Those are really great places that you can already start reaching out and say, Hey, I’m involved with this organization. It’s a really great mission. It’s a really great cause. Would you be interested in supporting us in whatever way that you see them supporting you?

And then just really recognizing the relationships and the connections that can be made. So even if that potential partner that you’ve targeted isn’t interested in partnering with you in a long term scope, they may say, hey, this is perfect – I know this other business that would definitely partner with you. When I started my last position, I was in AmeriCorps VISTA which is full time. So it was a volunteer role for America and when I started my last position I was kind of thrown into the midst and I had no idea what I was doing. So what I started doing was just meeting everyone saying hi and explaining what I was trying to do. It was amazing the amount of business cards and responses that I got because the cause really matters. I think that’s true with all organizations. The mission is what matters.

Emily
Yes, the mission is what matters. And so many people, when they hear the stories, when they hear the why, they want to get more involved.

So let’s say that we have folks who are part of an organization and they want to get this going. So they’re starting a list of people that they consider community partners and they’re also noting what type of partner they are. Right? So inkind, volunteer, donor, maybe they have some other connection that you can be utilizing in the community. So how do you keep in touch with them over time? Maybe they say no to something right now, so how do you keep those touchpoints over time so that they keep you in mind in the future? What’s your recommendation there?

Mia
I think that it really can just be very synthetic in the what do they want? So was it a hard no. Did they not want to support your organization because they don’t have the time? Well is there a way that you can have them just reshare an image or something on social media, so they could still be supporting your organization but it’s not taking any time.  Or was it that they don’t have the funding to support you, and are kind of busy right now. Building those stewardship policies and the plans really is what is important. Going back to what I said about looking for new community partners, I think that again, people have a scarcity mindset like they do with fundraising, so it kind of gets to the point where they say we’re all connected by what, seven degrees of separation.

And I think that’s really amazing because it’s actually probably much smaller than that and especially in your community. I just found out that I’m like three degrees away from Jane Goodall, the primatologist. She’s kind of one of my heroes. So I was like, wow, I’m only three degrees of separation away. And I think that having grown up, hearing her name, learning the different amazing work that she’s done, and then being like, wow how close. Like I could get a hold of the mayor of my town, he’s only one degree and go knock on his door. It really opens up your mind to the different possibilities.

Emily
That is so cool. What a great connection. I like on LinkedIn, how you can see who you’re connected to. They’ll tell you who you have in common with other people or if you’re a couple people away. That really does make the world feel a little bit smaller and a little bit more community focused. I think for the most part, we’re all trying to have a positive impact on those around us and on the worlds.

Mia
Absolutely. I would totally agree. I would just say that there is a caveat recognizing the users of the social media that you’re trying to connect with people. So like for example, they’ve said LinkedIn is very focused on people that have college degrees, people that are in the professional sector. Well that may not be where you can go and find new clients for your service, but great for finding donors.

Emily
Right, right. I love that. So using different social media for different purposes, different outreach for different reasons. Would you say that in person is still the best way to connect with other partners?

Mia
I absolutely would. I think that there is no substitution for meeting someone in person and just saying, here is what I’m interested in and here’s what I’m working on. You seem to share these values, is that true? Then just having a real conversation and connecting.

Emily
Yes. That one on one, the face to face, there’s really no substitute for that. I agree.

So Mia, you have a couple different tips on your blog about how to find new community partnerships. The first you list is current stakeholders, so our listeners are already going to get together a list of those folks they’re in contact with regularly. Second, indirect connections and third you have local, regional, state and national organizations. Can you dive into that one just a little bit?

Mia
In West Michigan, we are left with the abundance of different organizations that connect us together. So we have the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance, which is a regional organization. You can look their membership list. It’s available online and just kind of go through and be like, Hey, this organization looks like we do the same work. This is true for the state of Michigan too. They have the Michigan Nonprofit Association as well as the Michigan Community Service Commission. All of them support different nonprofits and offer different member lists. You can go online and see whether or not different organizations are there as they link to their website. Just kind of do your research.

Emily
Excellent. And targeted need is number four. So that would be in the case of a program that you’re dreaming up or say something specific that you can think of that you want to ask a certain donor or potential partners for?

Mia
Oh yeah. So if you are looking for an accountant, it kind of makes no sense to go to an arts company or even an organization. They probably aren’t going to produce the strongest accountants and the people that they have that do their accounting probably aren’t going to want to volunteer their time because they’re invested in art and that’s why they are a part of that business. Whereas if you were to go and look at the finance school next door, you might find some students that are much more interested in helping you.

Emily
Great. So true. So for someone who wants to start off, maybe they haven’t been thinking about community partnerships at all in these terms and they’re looking to foster this type of environment, what steps would you tell them to take?

Mia
I absolutely think that the first step would be to understand who you already interact with, what type of organizations and companies and people do you talk with on an everyday basis? Write out that list. Second, what do you need a community partner for and really understanding what you want them to come in and do. Do you want them to be a true partner and help with the decision making? Or are you really only offering those community partners specific ways to be involved? So if you understand your goals with the community partner, I think that’s the best way to move forward.

Emily
Out of curiosity, what do you recommend if you go to a community partner and let’s say you have a targeted idea in mind, but they have a different idea that maybe isn’t in your current strategic priorities. Maybe it’s somewhere you don’t really want to go. How should we handle that?

Mia
I think that if you are willing to open your mind and think, hey, we maybe can’t partner in the way we were originally thinking this would work for us also. Then move forward with what they’re thinking. That’s the basis of a partnership. On the other hand, if there is a very specific need that you need filled and they are unable to provide it, you can always move forward and you can ask them if they have any recommendations of places that might be interested in doing what you’re asking them to do.

Emily
Sure. If you shift directions. Absolutely. Well, this has been really helpful. I’m excited for folks to dive into this and really think about the community partnerships and the impact they can make. I do have a couple last questions for you, Mia. The first is if you were to look back at when you first started working with nonprofits, what advice would you give yourself?

Mia
I think that it is really important for me to look back and think, wow, they you can do anything in nonprofits, so I’m really caused driven individual and when I first fell into the nonprofit world, I really thought it’s going to be all about giving and getting people to give and doing great things. I didn’t realize at the time, obviously they’re still going to also need an accountant or law advice. So really you can exist in any profession, in any sphere and help out the cause. At the time, I was kind of stuck in the mindset of like we just do good things and it’s so exciting.

Emily
Yes. Yeah, I do like that about nonprofits. There is this misconception that they don’t operate as a business, but there are so many other factors. It’s not just what they do for communities, but the behind the scenes that are so important too. There’s many ways people can provide support in terms of help because there are so many different areas of expertise.

And one final question, what is the smallest action someone could take today to have the biggest impact?

Mia
So I’ve been thinking about that and I think they can donate $1 or $5 or they could donate their time. Honestly, the idea of donations. You have to have money to make an impact. At the same time, there’s a lot of people, they don’t have the capacity to give any money and in that case it’s just giving a couple of seconds of your time to share an image or to share via social media is really important as well.

Emily
Yeah. Those small things really do add up and like we’ve mentioned about community partnerships, if you share something small, there’s maybe somebody else who can give more on top of that and then others will give their time and that impact just spreads.

Thanks again so much for talking to us about community partnerships will be keeping these tips in mind and thinking about collaboration over competition as we move forward. We appreciate your insights and thanks so much for being on the show.

Mia
Thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun.