Stronger Nonprofits Initiative

The Stronger Nonprofits Initiative (SNI) is a data-informed program designed to help nonprofits align their facilities, capital usage, and financial management practices in support of their programming and missions.

About the Program

Mission-driven nonprofits are powerful engines of economic and social change that leverage their dedication and ties to the community to improve the lives of the people they serve. But the work of strengthening communities is difficult, and not all nonprofits face the same challenges — systemic inequalities in the United States disproportionately affect the ways that some nonprofits are funded, staffed, and supported.

SNI helps nonprofits that face systemic inequalities improve the ways they can access capital, manage their finances, and operate their facilities.

Administered by IFF in partnership with Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), SNI focuses on the intersection of nonprofits’ financial management, facility planning, and capital access. This 12-month program features a six-part training series, one-on-one coaching sessions, peer learning opportunities, and technical assistance projects. By the program’s conclusion, participating organizations will have crafted strategies to: 1) utilize capital to meet their needs; 2) adopt more reliable and resilient approaches to financial management; and/or 3) develop facilities strategies that can bolster their mission and programming.

The program includes:

Training Series

Featuring lessons and exercises focused on team-based nonprofit financial management, the training series is organized into a progressive curriculum that will take participants on a journey of learning, skill-building, and application. Taking place in-person over roughly six months, this series will also present participants with a significant opportunity to learn from and build a strong network with like-minded peer organizations.

This training series will focus on the intersecting ways that a nonprofit’s capital access, financial management, and facility can impact its ability to deliver its mission. Over the series’ six sessions, participants will first review the current state of their facilities, capital usage, and financial management practices, as well as where these three areas may be misaligned. Next, they will learn strategies that can help nonprofits position these three elements to support each other and their organization overall. Finally, they will develop an action plan, in partnership with coaches, tailored to address their organization’s specific needs in aligning their facility, capital, and financial management needs.

Facility and Financial Management Coaching

Throughout and following the training series, participants will also have access to one-on-one coaching with experts in facilities and financial management from IFF and NFF. These coaching sessions will assess participants’ facility needs, financial management strategies, and readiness to leverage debt capital in support of those needs and strategies.

Over the course of both the training series and coaching sessions, coaches will help participants build customized action plans that identify next steps their organizations can take to apply the concepts learned in SNI to address the specific challenges their organizations face in capital, facilities, and financial management.

Technical Assistance

Where applicable, some participants may benefit from technical assistance projects to implement specific plans and tools that would enable their facilities, financial management practices, or debt capital usage to support their missions and programming.

In the course of crafting their action plans, some organizations might identify further opportunities to take on specific technical assistance projects, such as evaluating potential avenues for addressing specific facility needs. Not every organization will necessarily have the need or capacity to pursue a technical assistance project, but opportunities will be available to pursue projects based on an organization’s capital and facility goals, as identified in their coaching conversations and action plans.

Learn more about SNI's 5-year impact!

Before, we were coming up with the budget within the finance department and then funneling it down to the program level. After working with our [financial management] coach, we start at the program level and feed that up into the budget. We sit with the program directors and hammer out the changing needs of the organization — for example, maybe we’re serving a new population and need an additional employment specialist. The team loves it.

Christa Hamilton, Centers for New Horizons

Program Goals

SNI aims to help participants coordinate their usage of capital resources, facilities, and financial management practices, leveraging them together to strengthen their mission delivery and bolster their resiliency to change. The program seeks to help participants:

plan for how to engage capital that meets their needs;
establish financial management and planning practices to manage and deploy that capital in ways that support their mission and strengthen their resilience to unexpected change; and
identify strategies to position their facilities as an asset that enhances their mission delivery and strengthens their financial position.

What will participants create in SNI?

By participating in SNI, nonprofit leaders will be able to learn management strategies grounded in facility and financial expertise, build deep connections with a network of like-minded leaders, and access critical resources that they may otherwise be shut off from.

Additionally, all SNI participants will leave with individualized action plans detailing specific strategies they can employ to address the barriers their organizations face in the areas of facility planning, capital access, and financial management. The action plan created through SNI will set participants on a path that could help them improve their financial sustainability, strengthen their organizational capacity, and gain access to high-functioning, purpose-built facilities.

What are the program's intended outcomes for participants?

The action plan created through SNI will set participants on a path that could help them improve their financial sustainability, strengthen their organizational capacity, and gain access to high-functioning, purpose-built facilities.

By helping nonprofit leaders align their capital, finances, and facilities, this program aims to ensure these nonprofits can remain powerful engines of change within their communities long into the future.

Learn more

Eligibility

To be eligible for SNI, applicants must meet the following criteria:

Be a nonprofit with 501(c)(3) tax status
Employ more than one full time staff member
Be in operation for 3 or more years
Have the capacity to engage throughout program (with at least 1-2 leaders committing to attending all sessions); ideal staff members to attend training sessions include:
- Executive Director or equivalent
- Director of Development or lead fundraiser
- Director of Programs
- Director of Finances
Geographic eligibility requirements will vary by market

Information Sessions

FAQ

How do I apply?

Applications will be posted on www.apply.iff.org.

No applications are currently open. Fill out the SNI interest form to receive updates.

Questions? Email strongernonprofits@iff.org.

SNI Interest Form

Want to learn more about SNI?

SNI is preparing to launch new cohorts in St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Columbus, and Chicago. If you would like to receive more information about these upcoming cohorts, please fill out this form, and we will add you to our email lists.