What’s a nonprofit organization to do amid this economic ruckus?

Enter The Dayton Foundation, which has served the area’s philanthropic needs since 1921. It offers an array of services for nonprofits, including the recently launched Nonprofit Alliance Support Program.

This pilot program will help nonprofits develop new, more-efficient ways to structure their organizations through partnerships, alliances or mergers. It will provide interested nonprofits with consulting services and technical assistance to create and implement these structures.

“Every nonprofit collaborates,” Dayton Foundation President Michael Parks said. “We’re interested in partnerships that are systemic, have a sense of permanence and are tipped toward mission integration.”

The frayed economy is hardly nonprofits’ only challenge, Parks said. Other stresses include difficulty finding board members, a changing corporate culture that limits what had been a source of volunteers and exodus of retiring baby boomers. Add to this the fact that the number of nonprofits in the five-county area the foundation serves has swelled to more than 4,000 in recent years.

Such troublesome trends led the foundation to partner with Montgomery County, the Dayton Power and Light Foundation and consulting firm Strategic Leadership Associates to create the Nonprofit Alliance Support Program.

“The experience with the economy is dumping fuel on the fire,” Parks said. “We wanted to find a way to support those nonprofits that wanted a different way to deliver services while maintaining the direct programs and services our kids, families and adults need.”

The program officially launched on March 19, when more than 70 nonprofit organizations gathered to hear an overview of the program.

“We also showcased three organizations that have gone through successful strategic partnering: the YMCA, Goodwill Easter Seals and Dayton History,” said Barbra Stonerock, director of community relations. “We wanted to give local examples showing this is possible.”

“We’ve since had a lot of offers of support from others in the community, such as legal and accounting services and office space,” she added. “It’s heartening to see other organizations and business interested in supporting nonprofit partners.”

The program will be implemented in three phases. The first was getting the word out. Interested nonprofits moved to the second phase by submitting a letter of interest to the Foundation in mid-April.

Each nonprofit then formed a study group comprised of a cross-section of its staff and board, which is working with a consultant on a readiness assessment evaluating the nonprofit’s mission, culture, strengths and weaknesses, as well as determining what the nonprofit needs from a partner and what it can offer.

This assessment will be the foundation of a competitive grant application due, due in late July, for those nonprofits who choose to pursue the program in its third phase.

“Our intention is to fund five to 10 significant partnerships that will be implemented through the next year or so,” Stonerock said.

Those pilots will help the Foundation tweak the program. In summer 2010, the Foundation will evaluate the overall program.

Already, response has been positive, Stonerock said.

“They recognize so many of us are so busy trying to keep our organizations afloat and deliver good programs that it makes it really tough to pursue these sorts of efficiencies,” said John Harris, Cityfolk executive director.

Still, this program is only one of a number of services The Dayton Foundation offers nonprofits.

It also works to develop long-term endowments. While the economy has put a dent in annual gifts, deferred or legacy gifts are still going strong, Parks said. The Foundation also holds, manages and provides stewardship to the existing endowment funds of more than 85 nonprofits.

Grants are yet another part of the Foundation’s work. It operates a discretionary grants program, funded by unrestricted gifts, to support community projects. Twice a year the Foundation selects recipients in a competitive process, and it usually awards between $500,000 to $1 million a year, with the typical grant running between $10,000 to $25,000, Parks said.

The Foundation also uses unrestricted gifts to support specific community initiatives that bring nonprofits together around one project, such as the current neighborhood schools project. Here, five new Dayton Public Schools buildings are being collaboratively developed as neighborhood centers by the district, the University of Dayton, United Way and five other nonprofit partners.

Indeed, such partnerships will ensure Dayton-area nonprofits survive the economic turbulence—and emerge stronger on the other side.

“The creative solutions being discussed now will have a lasting, long-term impact,” Parks said. “These more effective efficient, collaborative and financially feasible ways to service our various constituents is one positive and those strategies will be at work in our community for years to come.”