SitemapIn a recent Nonprofit Quarterly article, Elizabeth Castillo wrote about the need to recognize resources other than money as important sources of working capital. One of the categories of capital she references is “relational.” This story is a great example of what she is talking about.
Writing in the Vindicator of Youngstown, Ohio, Graig Graziosi provides an excellent window into the “stone soup” approach to community change among the area’s nonprofit and public institutions, which often must address problems caused or left by government and business. (It’s the kind of work we’ll miss when the paper closes its doors at the end of the month.)
The article describes the living dynamic of this as a “lattice-like network of nonprofits and community action groups…constantly growing and contracting as funding shifts and new problems emerge.” Deb Flora, executive director of the Mahoning County Land Bank, remarks on the need for interdependence. Flora, whose public land bank has helped buttress area nonprofits, observes that, “If anyone is thinking of doing any kind of nonprofit work, then they have to understand that collaboration is key. You have to think about who you can work with; you have to have partners.”
As Graziosi notes, through collaboration, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation(YNDC) “is spared from having to compete against private entities for property and doesn’t have to spend extra money dealing with liens.”
To read the full story from Nonprofit Quarterly, click here.