Working with Stakeholders

Frannie Peabody, founder of FPC

While reading The chapter about the role of human service nonprofits and promoting community building, I was thinking mostly about the organization where I am currently doing my internship: Frannie Peabody center. 

Currently the organization has approximately 400 clients and the organization specializes in case management for individuals that are living with HIV or AIDS in the state of Maine. Being an NHSO does mean that Frannie Peabody center has stakeholders as well as influential members in the community. I must say that I was a little upset at the accusation that NHSOs care more about pleasing their stakeholders than they do about their clients (p 685). I know that they have more obligations towards their stakeholders, however I disagree that they care more about them than they do their clients. 

At Franny Peabody center there is an agency director who does a lot of the legislative work and advocacy for the HIV and AIDS community. She is like the "bulldog" of the agency and she goes after what our clients need so they can get it. The board members discuss policies and fiduciary responsibilities and they do range from a variety of stakeholders such as other organizations in Portland that are affected by the work that Frannie Peabody Center does. 

The Service users and their supporters are the clients that access the services that are offered. Without our services, these people would have difficulty finding healthcare, housing, food security, access to transportation, access to proper medical care, access to mental health services and employment services, access to a number of different services due to the fact that many of our clients are below the federal poverty level. A number of our clients are also refugees or Asylees that come here seeking safety. Without Franny Peabody center these clients would be forced to navigate the system on their own which is incredibly difficult. I am a college educated woman and the excessive amount of paperwork required for each application for every single service is overwhelming and incredibly intimidating. With the case managers at Frannie Peabody center, clients are better able to have access to the resources they need.

The direct service staff are the case managers that work with clients day to day. We are a referral service and we assist clients in finding the different resources that they can use to help improve their lives. We have three or four different program managers that are charged with management responsibilities in support of direct services. These people help with financing the organization, case management supervision, director of operations, individuals that do grant writing etc. Without these individuals, the organization would have an incredibly difficult time doing day to day business. Due to confidentiality concerns there are not many volunteers at the agency. If they are volunteers they are usually the clients that are very open about their positive status and do a lot of fund-raising in the form of creating various events throughout southern Maine.

As far as the secondary stakeholders in the organization we do have individual donors that do contribute a great deal to the agency. There are a number of government contractors and foundation representatives. One of the more difficult aspects of obtaining money at Frannie Peabody center is that many foundations or organizations that do donate money have specific requirements for how the money is spent. For example, some organizations only want their funds to be used for MSM or men that have sex with men. Other funders may only want their money to go towards the elderly. These are just some examples. Many foundations have strict restrictions set upon the money that they wish to donate and this makes it very difficult for our agency because money is needed to run every aspect of the organization. Providing referral services to clients is only one part of the business. 

We also help with prevention and if restrictions are set on where the money goes it could mean that an entire part of the organization could be severely underfunded. For example a grant recently ran out that helps us provide a space for the prevention center in Portland. Without further grant money the prevention Center will close and prevention is one of the mission statements and goals of Franny Peabody center. Without the center we will only be fulfilling a certain part of our mission. 

It is true that organizations do you have obligations and responsibilities to the stakeholders that help keep their organization afloat, however I do not believe that this means we care more about stakeholders than we do about clients. In life there needs to be compromises and sometimes that compromise may be having to deal with other organizations, foundations, large pharmaceutical companies, the government, etc. It may appear to make our work more difficult. However if we look back to the idea of "social labs" we'll see that we do need various stakeholders in order to make effective change. If Frannie Peabody only had case managers then we would get nothing done for our clients and we would not be helping them. In order to assist them to the best of our ability we need to be able to work with stakeholders in order to get the resources we need. It's a tricky situation but in order to function and have a successful NHSO it is extremely necessary