One way of helping not-for-profits includes 3-pronged approach

When it comes to giving back to their communities, for-profit businesses have more to offer than money and volunteer time.

Sharing business knowledge may be the missing link in some long-term for-profit and not-for-profit relationships. here is one example of such a partnership.

Not-for-profits often tend to eke along with just the amount of resources they need to get by, and that includes training money for organizational development, according to Jim Ernst, executive director of Four Oaks, the big social services not-for-profit organization based in Cedar Rapids.

The difference a for-profit can make became abundantly clear this year when GE Capital selected Four Oaks for its In the Community, For the Community program, this year.

The program is a three-pronged approach to supporting a not-for-profit partner that includes volunteering and a financial contribution, plus an unusual third element.

That third component is direct knowledge transfer. The first major initiative on July 7 was a daylong training session in which GE Capital hosted 28 Four Oaks employees at its Cedar Rapids facility.

A dozen GE Capital managers engaged the Four Oaks employees on project management, an area in which GE's expertise is renowned.

“They identified three or four projects for which they'd developed procedures and processes to walk us through them,” Ernst said.

The presenters were GE managers at the executive vice president level who'd flown in from Irving, Texas, and Danbury, Conn.

“The whole area of project management is becoming more important in child welfare/child family field from an industry point of view,” Ernst said, “and we've been floundering our way along it and doing the best we can.”

Ernst said project management has become especially important for Four Oaks in the information technology area. He said the complexity of meeting government requirements under programs such as Medicaid continues to increase.

“There's a vicious circle of expectations of compliance requirements rising, and the resources aren't necessarily available to move that fast,” Ernst said. “You really have to be able to figure out ways to be efficient in a world of minimal resources.”

GE Capital followed up in late August by sending volunteers for a day of painting at the Jane Boyd Community House, operated by Four Oaks in southeast Cedar Rapids. About 150 volunteers were involved in the painting, including Diane Cooper, GE president of equipment finance, who leads the leasing and lending business of GE Capital in Irving, Texas.

“When we engage in the community, we want to have a broad and deep relationship,” Cooper said.

Bringing top leaders in to help with the volunteer process signifies the importance of the Cedar Rapids operation to GE Capital, Cooper said.

Tom Myers, treasury operations lead at GE Capital in Cedar Rapids, helped coordinate the program. He said volunteering in the community is part of the GE culture.

“It really makes for happier employees,” Myers said. “They're working together. They're having fun. They're getting dirty, getting paint in their hair.”

Community involvement has direct benefits for the company as well, he added. Employees have more pride in an employer that provides company time for them to volunteer, and employee retention gets a boost from having employees engaged in helping the community.

“One hundred and sixty people - that's a lot of people out of the office,” Myers said. “It's a big investment.”

Several rooms at the community center were painted in carefully planned color schemes, including the tap room, a sort of time out area for young clients and the social room.

At the end of the event, GE donated $30,000 from corporate coffers to Four Oaks. Ernst said the funds will be used to enhance Four Oaks's Achievement Academy program, which focuses on enriching children's academic abilities as well as their interests and abilities in reading, writing and the arts.

Four Oaks was one of six sites nationwide chosen by GE Capital to be part of the In the Community, For the Community program. GE Capital employees already had worked closely with Four Oaks in other volunteer efforts, building a disc golf course and baseball dugouts, Ernst noted.

Employees at GE have the choice of where to commit the corporate contribution of $30,000 that Four Oaks received.

“Employees voted that the money should go toward expanding and refining curriculum for school work,” GE Capital's Myers said. “We sent a survey and they got to vote.”