Offerings designed to strengthen impact of nonprofit organizations.
The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, a national strategic action network of human service community-based organizations (CBOs) aligned through a common vision for a healthy and equitable society, announces the availability of new back-office operations offerings specifically designed to more efficiently and effectively meet the administrative needs of CBOs.
The formalization of this new offering comes in response to the Alliance’s recent report, A National Imperative: Joining Forces to Strengthen Human Services in America. This groundbreaking report, developed in conjunction with the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), details the need to strengthen and preserve the pivotal role CBOs
play in the larger human services ecosystem. Among four other “North Star” initiatives, the report outlines the importance for CBOs to develop more robust finance and risk
management capabilities.
The Alliance’s new service offerings provide a support structure that allows organizations to effectively execute on their missions and focus on direct service to their communities.
The Alliance’s best-in-class administrative services feature a variety of finance, human resources, and risk management products including:
- Accounting and bookkeeping
- Employee benefits (medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance, etc.)
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Retirement planning
- Payroll processing
- Unemployment tax program
- Group purchasing and savings
By partnering with the Alliance, CBOs can outsource various financial and administrative duties for which internal capacity and resources may be limited. As part of this new venture, the Alliance also is offering competitive and robust benefits packages, enhanced retirement
planning services, and comprehensive EAP and work-life services to their employees at a reasonable cost, regardless of their size. In addition, the Alliance’s unemployment tax program combats hidden expenses, avoids claims volatility, and enables better management of cash flow and claim tracking.
Such services, delivered directly through the Alliance and key partners, can be selected and packaged according to an organization’s specific needs.
“Along with our expertise in human resources, finance, and administrative operations,
it is our intent to enhance and expand our support services to help leaders address needs related to fundraising and development; marketing, public relations, and communications; and information technology,” explains Lenore Schell, Alliance senior vice president of strategic
business innovation.
The Alliance currently works with multiple national membership associations and community-based organizations, including Youth MOVE National, to perform back-office operations such as accounting, payroll, bookkeeping, human resource administration, and information technology.
“Contracting with the Alliance is one of the easiest lines for me to justify to the board of directors when they ask about the budget,” said Johanna Bergan, executive director of Youth MOVE National. “We are a very mission-driven organization, so knowing our financial books are in order lets us focus our energy where we want it to be—with our network.”
“Our goal has always been to create solutions that support our network’s ability to help all people reach their fullest potential,” says Alliance President and CEO Susan Dreyfus. “Our new offerings eliminate constraints community based organizations often face when delivering on mission by bolstering their approach to risk management, improving the effective use of their budgets, and benefiting from shared services and continuous learning and improvement.”
About the Alliance
The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities is a strategic action network of thousands of committed social sector leaders who through their excellence, distinction, and influence are working to achieve a healthy and equitable society. We aggregate the very best sector knowledge and serve as an incubator for learning and innovation to generate new solutions to the toughest problems. We accelerate change through dynamic leadership development and collective actions to ensure policies and systems provide equal access and opportunity for all people in our nation to reach their full potential through improvements in health and well-being, educational success, economic opportunity, and safety and security.