Nonprofit leaders talk perserverance | Long Island Business News

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Nonprofit leaders shared their insights about the recent pause in federal funding and other matters at the State of the Long Island Non-Profit Industry breakfast at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury on Thursday.

The annual Long Island Business News event drew an estimated 225 business leaders from the region. Moderators included Brian Sackstein, an assurance partner and leader of Anchin’s Not-For-Profit Group; Rachel Fernbach, a partner at Moritt Hock & Hamroff; and Dylan Saperman, a partner at Moritt Hock & Hamroff.

“I think what we want to always do is just ensure that your business is fiscally sound,” said Vanessa Baird Streeter, president and CEO of Health & Welfare Council of Long Island, a regional, nonprofit umbrella organization for health and human service providers. “Take the opportunity to look at your bottom line, engage in cost-effective measures that are going to help your bottom line so that if there is a pause … you have reserves that can assist and help you in that time frame.”

The breakfast was held just one day after President Donald Trump’s budget office rescinded a memo freezing spending on federal loans and grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country. The memo, which was issued Monday by the Office of Management and Budget, had frightened states, schools and organizations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington.

“These past couple days were very chaotic,” Suzette Gordon, president and CEO of SCO Family of Services, which delivers programs and services to underserved communities, told the audience.

But as organizations on Long Island were trying to sort through the confusion, she said, there was a “sense of community” among other nonprofits, which shared information and resources.

And beyond “buckling up,” that strength in community is what will help nonprofits persevere uncertainties, she said. “You overcome things. You don’t avoid them. You go through them,” she said. “I believe we’ll get through.

“You need to look at every service that you have – you need to look at how lean you can get to run” the organization, Walter Stockton, president and CEO of Kinexion, a management service organization for an affiliate network of seven not-for-profit organizations.

That way, if funding is paused, organizations will “be prepared,” he said. He noted that some thought support would lapse during the previous Trump presidency, but that hadn’t happened. He added that this time around he thinks the federal government will “support our programs.”

Still, Streeter said, organizations can protect themselves by looking at their fiscal structure, emergency operations accounts and other lines of credit to put themselves in the “best fiscal situation possible,” she said.

The panelists also spoke about strategic alignment, collaborations and partnerships.

“Mergers and acquisitions can work for a lot of people, but if you have three organizations that are all losing [money] and they want to get together, that doesn’t mean that it’s … going to work,” Stockton said.

“There can be cost savings, but there’s probably some infrastructure problems that are not letting them move forward to a profitable position to the work that they’re design for,” he said. Working through problems can be challenging and time-consuming, and alignments may not always present the best fit.

The panel was mixed on remote working. Streeter said that while the organization works on a hybrid schedule, “I like to be in the office,” adding that she is typically there five days a week.

SCO also has a hybrid policy. “I’m working with talented professionals, who are getting the work done,” Gordon said. “If my issue with deliverables is where they’re doing it, I don’t have the right person working for me.”

Kinexion has an on-site policy for its office staff. “We like to have everybody there,” Stockton said.

“It works for us, and one of the reasons I can tell that is we don’t have any vacancies in those areas,” he said.

The panelist agreed that interacting in person is most valuable, especially when planning is underway.