SUCCESS STORIES

We are a nation of volunteers. Each year, 61 million Americans donate their time to charitable causes. Nonprofit organizations rely on volunteers to help feed the hungry, paint buildings, and raise money by participating in walkathons or bike rides.

The leaders of the Jericho Road Project in Concord, Massachusetts believe we can do more and we can do it better.

Business Consulting for Nonprofits

Another form of volunteering on the rise is the kind that gives professional time. Skills-based volunteering coordinates the time and skills of management consultants, technology professionals, lawyers, architects, and accountants to help nonprofits tackle operational and strategic challenges.

This second model was the inspiration behind the Jericho Road Project, which began when the First Parish Church in Concord, Massachusetts adopted the nearby city of Lowell.

Since its founding and growth with the long term investment of the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation and others, over 80 volunteers have worked with almost every major nonprofit in Lowell, donating approximately $500,000 each year in pro bono services.

Hidden Capital

Despite the opportunity, skills-based volunteerism outside the legal profession is still in its infancy. A survey conducted by the Deloitte/Points of Light Foundation found that very few corporations match employee skills with community needs. The study also found that only 12 percent of nonprofit organizations aligned the roles of volunteers with their workplace skills.

For entrepreneurs like Jericho Road, our nation of mismatched and underutilized volunteers is less of a problem and more of a dizzying opportunity.

“Skills based volunteerism is one of the best hidden resources for nonprofit organizations”, says Dan Holin, Director of the Jericho Road Project.

The pro-bono consulting helps organizations address mission-critical problems familiar to many businesses. Corporate teams work with their nonprofit colleagues to redesign financial and organizational systems, develop technology plans, help with facilities planning or wrestle with complex legal issues.

Targeting smaller cities allows Jericho Road to have a greater impact relative to its peers in larger cities. Small cities have fewer sources of private and corporate funding and often lack the range of support organizations that provide business assistance to the nonprofit community.

The New Frontier of Capacity Building?

Jericho Road quickly discovered that its small city strategy helps it focus on the capacity of the nonprofit community as a whole.

“We want to change the quality of life in the city. If our only indicators are a good portfolio of separate nonprofit consulting projects, we will have failed,” says Mr. Holin.

The proof of the model’s success is how it has begun to bring together coalitions, launch organizational partnerships, and help the community investigate new organizational models.

Nonprofit leaders are eager to explore new ideas during these challenging economic times. Fortunately, business innovations such as shared back offices, mergers, joint operating agreements, networks and other approaches are familiar territory for volunteers from the private sector.

Programs like Jericho Road are catching on as corporations expand their notions of philanthropy and social responsibility beyond making cash donations to communities.

Jericho Road’s program is being replicated in nearby Lawrence, Lynn, and Worcester, Massachusetts and the organization is now positioned as a national leader in the fast growing field of skills-based-volunteerism.

Grantee: The Jericho Road Project
Project Location: Eastern, Massachusetts
Grantmaker: Theodore Edson Parker Foundation

For more Information Contact:

Phil Hall, Theodore Edson Parker Foundation c/o GMA Foundations, 617-426-7080
Dan Holin, Executive Director Jericho Road Project 978-369-9602, x457