Kingston Economic Development Corporation (KEDC) and The Community Foundation for Kingston and Area (CFKA) are partnering to present a workshop series that has been designed to offer guidance and assistance to not-for-profit companies in tackling common business problems.
The series is being delivered in two sessions with the first, Strategic Communications Planning, taking place on October 30 from 1-2:30 and the second session, Audience Mapping and Key Messages for Not-For-Profits, being delivered on November 13 from 1-2:30.
KEDC says marketing experts Adam Walker and Phil Gaudreau will be leading both workshops.
Stacy Kelly, Executive Director of CFKA said the catalyst for establishing these workshops was trying to find ways to help community agencies build themselves up while exploring avenues outside of grant opportunities.
He said that economic development of not-for-profits can sometimes be overlooked, but they represent a ton of employment throughout Canada and in Kingston.
“Economic development is often just thought of as strictly for profit but that certainly isn’t the case,” Kelly said.
“Especially when you look at workforce, there’s a large number of Kingston residents who work in the not for profit sector… and in conversations that we’ve had with various organizations, I mean, there seems to be some commonalities.”
KEDC and CFKA decided to partner on the initiative as they said in discussion they realized they had a similar idea about what the community needs in that sector were and could complement each other.
They are hopeful that the workshops will help not-for-profits to add to their toolkit and build more resources for their organization.
Kelly says a lot of not-for-profits have started to pivot to look at options for collaboration and exploring routes like merging resources and backend operations to make organizations more sustainable, so the workshops also could facilitate some networking and idea sharing among not-for-profits.
“We’re sort of… I don’t want to say forcing, but sort of creating opportunity for people to collaborate around some issues facing the city,” Kelly said.
“A lot of magic can happen when we create those opportunities for people to collaborate.”
The first two workshops being offered are focused on marketing and communications, business elements that both organizations running the series say tend to be challenges for not-for-profits.
Rob Tamblyn, KEDC Business Development Manager for Small & Medium Enterprises, says that’s where they’re starting based on what they have come to believe the common challenges are.
But with an eye on future workshops, he says this will also provide an opportunity to gauge what else organizations could benefit from in a learning session.
“I think that the goal is, as well, as we’re rolling out these workshops, is to actively engage in the participants and say, ‘okay, this is what we started with, what do you want to see next?'” Tamblyn said.
“And then trying to create content that’s going to help.”
The not-for-profit sector is a huge employer, with over 844,000 people in Ontario working in the sector and 2.5 million in the country, and KEDC and CFKA say they face the same challenges as for profit businesses.
Kelly says these businesses are tasked with staying true to their mission and are often concentrated on that, but they can’t lose sight of business principles or they won’t be able to deliver on their mission.
“A lot of folks are concentrated, as well they should be on sort of the mission or the cause as sort of the number one priority,” Kelly said.
“But again, in order to be able to make that happen, you have to be able to actually have the infrastructure, the resources, technology, you know, the financial resources to be able to achieve your cause and mission.”
While these organizations can tap into grants, Kelly says these workshops are trying to respond to their needs and help them be more self-sustainable without grant reliance.
“We’re trying to invest in their people and their knowledge and skill set over time,” Kelly said.
“And we want the academy to obviously have legs and respond to their needs and be as agile as we can.”
While funding is an issue for many organizations, KEDC and CFKA agree that there are also knowledge gaps that won’t be solved by money.
Both workshops are being held virtually, and registration can be completed online.
