How connecting neighbors can sustain communities and reduce pressure on nonprofits

By Greg O’Neill, CICF Marketing & Publications Officer

In Part 1 of this series, we caught up with Kelly Doucet a year after her CreativeMornings hot take, “Indianapolis has too many nonprofits.”

Kelly (now Senior Community Leadership Officer at Women’s Foundation of Indiana) used that common refrain to provoke a larger discussion at a difficult moment for nonprofit funding: As service needs grow and resources tighten, overlapping organizations can end up competing for the same dollars. That can dilute support, confuse donors and make it harder for organizations to achieve a greater depth of impact for communities. How do we build the necessary relationships and trust to enable greater collaboration and partnerships?

In this installment, we’ll examine how a for-profit service organization on Indy’s near-northwest side has uplifted the gifts and talents of everyday neighbors to strengthen community resilience, reducing a growing demand on the nonprofit sector.

TALKING TO NEIGHBORS

De’Amon Harges is the advisor for Indianapolis Foundation’s Community Ambassador program and cofounder of The Learning Tree. Founded in 2014 as a for-profit social enterprise in Indy’s Riverside neighborhood, The Learning Tree deploys an asset-based community development approach. This approach, also known as ABCD, supports overlooked assets already present in a community rather than focusing on deficits or needs. The organization grew out of what Harges first learned as the original Roving Listener at Broadway United Methodist Church in the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood. In that role, Harges went block by block, listening to neighbors and clocking the little-noticed but important work they did for their community, work that larger organizations often missed.

“When I shifted the lens to look at what’s already going on in a neighborhood and build off of that instead of introducing something new, that really opened my eyes,” Harges said. “People were already doing so much in their community. But if they didn’t have a 501(c )(3), how they served wasn’t always getting recognized as philanthropy or awarded with funding.”

Harges’ insight into less formalized methods of philanthropy motivated the founding of The Learning Tree. After moving to Riverside, he started with the assumption that residents were already contributing to their community in some way. They were cooking for others, checking on older neighbors, making art, watching others’ children, helping repair a neighbor’s home, sharing money, giving others a ride, and just generally sharing their gifts or talents in small, individual ways.

By supporting that work and awarding small grants, the Learning Tree allowed neighbors to continue or even grow their contribution.

The group also hosts gatherings where neighbors (along with potential funders, nonprofit partners, and others) can meet and learn from one another. This work of bonding neighbor to neighbor is as transformational as any grant. Studies show that Americans (especially young adults) are increasingly disconnected from the people who live closest to them. For those under thirty, roughly 25% report speaking to their neighbors at least a couple times a week; that’s a sharp decline from the more than 50% who said the same a decade ago.

When neighborhoods are less connected, it can push some needs into already-strained systems. These systems may not be widely trusted or accessible. However, when more neighbors know one another, those needs can be met earlier, more naturally, and with a foundation of trust.

For example, The Learning Tree identified well over 100 gardeners in Riverside within a 10-block radius, all working independently of one another. This included some neighbors whose gardens were larger than many nonprofit community garden projects. Not only did Learning Tree provide a forum for these gardeners to get acquainted and support one another, but some have begun selling their produce outside Riverside at local markets; one helped found a co-op for Black Hoosier farmers.

“This is what it means to operate out of ‘abundance of gifts,’” Harges said. “If we start around gifts instead of needs, we can find out what the community can address for itself.”

A FOR-PROFIT SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

The Learning Tree earns revenue through consulting, speaking, teaching, and convening. While they’re not a typical private enterprise, most of The Learning Tree’s work has been funded through their own work. As much as 70% of the organization’s income comes from earned revenue in a given year, with the remaining portion coming from outside funding.

That said, when The Learning Tree takes on larger projects, that funding balance shifts. A major initiative like their upcoming Hartmann Building revitalization in Riverside requires development funding; for that, it received IMPACT Central Indiana investment.

The Learning Tree also holds events around the state, including its Common Threads series, a partnership with the Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities.

They also host the BREAD dinner series, bringing together Indianapolis residents, philanthropists, and other stakeholders. The dinners are not designed as pitch meetings or strategy sessions. They are social forums meant to create the friendship, trust, and shared imagination that make collaboration easier.

The Learning Tree’s granting process is just as informal and personal. Meeting neighbors face-to-face and seeing the work that they do is enough to justify an award – no need for any proposal or approval process. While grants are usually on the smaller side, this model enables greater agility and responsiveness, preventing larger challenges from taking shape.

“It’s just us knowing our neighbors, recognizing what’s already going on, and being in a position to support it so it can grow and continue,” Harges said.

THE BENEFIT FOR NONPROFITS

The nonprofit sector’s response to a limited funding environment will go beyond mergers, closures, and stronger grant applications. Those may be necessary in some cases – and other leaders in this series will speak to them – but The Learning Tree points toward another possibility: a civic infrastructure where more of us notice the good work already underway. Then, that work can be connected, celebrated, and supported before anyone feels a need to create a new, competing organization.

Supporting this informal generosity can ease the strain on traditional nonprofits tasked with addressing more complex or comprehensive challenges that are beyond the scope of a single resident, block, or neighborhood. After all, multiple studies have shown that when more neighbors know and greet one another, it is linked to better physical, mental, and financial outcomes.

That means that your community’s next great resource may not begin with articles of incorporation but with a neighborly chat

NEED AN INTRODUCTION?

CICF has been making regional nonprofit connections for nearly thirty years. Have any questions about who’s doing what where? Drop us a line below, or better yet, register for an upcoming installment of our free Office Hours, open to any Central Indiana nonprofit. These peer learning sessions have doubled as a great way to meet others in the region’s nonprofit space, compare notes, and create partnerships.