Michael L. Pearis |
The Groden Network CEO
All nonprofits endure the misperception that we are not “real businesses.” With over 400 employees, 26 locations and $30 million in revenue, The Groden Network is very much a business.
All nonprofits have important missions to serve their community, and they have strong brands in the communities they serve. In the Groden Network’s case, it’s autism. Outside of our own community, there is less brand awareness and interest in what we do. This branding is important, especially without the large marketing budgets major brands have.
Branding is critical as we create the public-private partnerships we need to fill the ever-growing gap between our contracted public funding and operational costs, develop vocational opportunities for our clients and seek to remain competitive as an employer. This last one continues to grow in importance as we come out of the pandemic and the nature of work changes. Unlike grocery stores and restaurants, we cannot just raise our tuition or rates when the marketplace demands higher salaries. Furthermore, the human services workforce crisis means the most vulnerable Rhode Islanders are going without critical services.
Another area nonprofits often fail to think like businesses is in resource allocation. Infrastructure updates, particularly technology updates, need to be a priority. The Groden Network is coming out of the pandemic with an electronic-health-record infrastructure to collect data and a state-of-the-art business-intelligence platform to allow us to analyze that data, ultimately resulting in better client outcomes.
These are the lessons I took with me into the nonprofit sector from the corporate world.