Cover Story: Feeding the Need

To accommodate the arrangement, the only thing A2H really had to do was add a staffer to administer the program. Everything else was more or less an extension of existing programs.

“Obviously ... you have meetings and decide things, but that’s all just program management,” Delany says. “There was no huge layer of staff or administration or oversight that needed to be added. Oversight is constantly going on in our network.

“If another individual or foundation wanted to replicate this anywhere in the country, it’s something we can pretty much do anywhere,” he adds, with just a hint of that old “hint-hint” tone in his voice.

What it comes down to, basically, is a case of a nonprofit organization capitalizing on its strengths and using existing programs to generate another income stream in a relatively painless way.

“Every organization probably has some strengths that already are in place that if they can extend that into another program, [it] will help them expand their resources, which will help them do an even better job of reaching their missions,” Delany says.

Other parts of the equation
A2H also has staff to focus on individual philanthropy and corporate relations, which are, respectively, relatively new and recently restructured.

The two-year-old individual philanthropy staff, Delany says, focuses on major and planned giving and is striving to “meet as many donors as possible and start working with people of means a lot more carefully.” Individual philanthropy currently accounts for $1.5 million (5 percent) of A2H’s annual contributed income. Delany has his eye on increasing that to 15 percent to 20 percent.

The facet of A2H fundraising that used to deal solely with grants (corporate philanthropy and private foundations) was restructured in 2002, resulting in the separate foundation relations and corporate relations staffs. Corporate relations now accounts for $6.7 million (23 percent) of A2H’s contributed income.