Staying Human in Nonprofit Work: Chris Swanson on Relationships, Funding, and Peer Support

Hi, Chris. Thank you so much for joining us today. I’m really looking forward to hearing a little bit about your story and your nonprofit journey. If you could take the time to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about that journey, what led you into this work and what keeps you inspired today? Great.

Well thank you Nicole. I really appreciate the conversation. So I’m Chris Swanson and I am one of the co-founders of C Impact and we are a collective impact collaborative of human service focused, uh, organizations. And, and across the globe we have 68 organizations to date. And I came to this work with a background in education and I’ve always believed in, uh, ecological systems and how, um.

It takes, you know, a village to, to, you know, use the cliche, but, uh, but it really is true, um, from my earliest roots as a classroom teacher to being a principal. And then, uh, after that I was a, a faculty member at Johns [00:01:00] Hopkins University and, and I saw firsthand that, uh, if we wanted to improve education, but kids were coming into schools hungry or with mental health crises, that we couldn’t get those outcomes.

And so, you know, really fundamentally we have to have. All of those systems working better together. And, and I saw that there were these barriers and these, these, um, gaps in our service delivery. And so I wanted to create a mechanism to help organizations work better together. And the reality is, for most nonprofits, there’s this competition mindset.

There’s a scarcity model and we need to overcome that. And they don’t have the infrastructure that most, you know, large organizations are, are privy to. In the US just 3% of the nonprofits control 97% of the funding. And so, um, we set out to start, uh, see impact to really address that democratize access to resources and um, help to, [00:02:00] to change that scarcity mindset and competition, uh, approach into a collaborative model.

And, and that’s what, what excites me, that’s what inspires me to do this work, um, is to see the system change into. A approach that, that is really coordinated, collaborative, and helps people, communities thrive while seeing the organizations that serve them in, uh, in a more sustainable way. I love that. I think the, the collaboration component, it’s, for me, that’s a huge, um, piece that I also like, really thrive in and like love seeing when that comes together.

Um, you said this is some of the work that up, so I’m, do you have. Specific story, project, or impact moment that like really could tan, like be tangible for that component? I, I do. And, and just because you said you can, you can edit it. Uh, I’m gonna click off camera real quick, uh, and uh, uh, have a little bit of a [00:03:00] cold.

Uh, so all is well. Alright. Thank you. Um, so, uh, yes, uh, you know, when I think about, um, you know what, what. You know, really kind of lights me up in terms of, of this work. Uh, uh, I, I believe, you know, in on the entire life system and, and going at the, the lifespan of, of how all these parts come together. It’s, it’s very much a, uh, you know, rising tide lifts all boats and, and how everything is interdependent.

But, uh, given that, I mean the, the research is super clear that. You know, when we invest in early childhood, we get the biggest bang for our buck. And, and you as a parent of a 4-year-old know this. I, I’ve got two kids on the opposite end of the spectrum, but, uh, you know, they’re not so far removed that I, I don’t remember the, the, you know, the impacts of our early childhood space.

And so, uh, a number of our organizations that are in the collaborative are really focused on that. Birth to five, um, space, and whether it is in improving childcare, improving the [00:04:00] affordability of childcare or the quality of childcare, um, helping, you know, parents and, and, and mothers in particular to, um.

To, to, uh, get access to those really critical years with their, their children helping the mental health level of our, our moms helping to improve kind of the economic situation of families. Yeah. We have organizations that are touching on all aspects of that, and, and that’s what. I, um, I take the most joy from is, is helping those groups to one, not function in silos because each one’s sort of touching a piece of the elephant and they don’t always see that.

Um, you know, a lot of times if you’re an executive director of one of these small to mid-size nonprofits, you’re so in the weeds. I, I talk about like Maslow’s hierarchy of, of needs and, and you’re in survival mode. And so you’re head down every day and you can’t look up to see, well, here’s how my work connects to somebody else’s work.

Mm-hmm. And, and I, I see that’s, [00:05:00] you know, the role that we play at C Impact. And, and if there’s, you know, something that I’m particularly good at is helping those organizations to make those, those connections. And that’s. Just so, uh, fulfilling when you get, you know, here’s this organization that is trying to improve access to childcare.

Here’s this organization that is trying to improve maternal health. They’re working on the same goals, so they don’t see it. You bring them together and now you’ve got a powerhouse and they’re pushing policy, they’re pushing, uh, more effective solutions and that is really creating systems change. I love that.

Yeah, I love it too. It’s the, the ecosystem building kind of, and I think when we, we talk about understanding what’s available and the resources, I think what you’re creating makes a lot of sense. Like a lot of people don’t even know that these. Opportunities are available, um, to families. And I think if we find organizations that really can hone in [00:06:00] on one thing really well and do that thing really well, and another organization focus in on another solution, um, we’re just really setting ourselves up for success across the board.

Um, instead of kind of replicating. And I don’t like the competition over collaboration or collaboration over competition. I feel like. That’s the missing component of it is actually celebrating each other’s work and directing people to that other organization instead of like keeping it for yourselves.

We’re really trying to make a difference across the board and for that to work successfully. What you’re doing makes a lot of sense to me, so thanks. Thank you for doing that. Oh, well, thank you. Um, what’s one of the challenges or shifts you’re currently navigating in the organization or like in the sector with this broader concept?

Yeah, so I, I mean the, the reality is um, the dollars have gotten harder. Um, and, you know, uh, so we’re, we’re based in the [00:07:00] US and, um. It’s not a secret that, um, our current political climate has, uh, has absolutely changed and challenged the, um, the nonprofit sector at large, uh, across a variety of, of social issues.

Um, but human service and um, social impact issues are particularly taken a hit and that has created a ripple effect globally. So, um, I’m based in Maryland. And we have right now 68 organizations in our collaborative. Um, but we have a, a large contingency in Maryland, though we’re in 16 states right now in five countries.

And you see this ramification of, of what’s really, um, you know, being driven by a lot of the, um, the actions of the US government having a ripple effect across the globe. And, and that’s. Cutting back on funding, cutting back on resources to make [00:08:00] really critical impacts in communities everywhere. Um, and, and this is where, you know, there’s a trickle down effect because mm-hmm.

Uh, coming from a, you know, a, a tier one research university, what, uh, what I was accustomed to was accessing a lot of federal research dollars and. Part of the, the impetus when we, uh, when my, my colleague and I left Johns Hopkins and we started this nonprofit, we were thinking, how do we help community-based organizations access the same type of dollars that, um, you know, a, a larger nonprofit, a larger university like Johns Hopkins is able to, and that was right at the beginning of the Trump administration without any sort of.

Inclination that things were changed the way that they did. Um, and so the federal dollars, a lot of those grant dollars just went away. And I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve never seen the landscape be the [00:09:00] way it is. And, and so sometimes, uh, I’ll run into people and say, well, okay, the federal dollars aren’t there, so just, just change your, your, your funding model.

And, and that’s an over simplistic. Perspective without realizing that those funding federal dollars when they dry up, that has a ramification. And then on state dollars and local community dollars, it obviously has implications on international dollars and then that creates more competition at the philanthropic level.

So you now see bigger. Organizations that normally would not have pushed into other sources of funding competing there. And that’s crowding out those smaller community based organizations. It is really created this scarcity model. Um, ironically, uh, it’s actually driven greater demand for what we do. As more organizations are seeing, we can work better together, we can create [00:10:00] more efficiencies and economies of scale.

By collaborating. Um, we can look for, uh, funders that are actually, you know, invested in what we can do by braiding our services. By, uh, compounding our capacity is, is the term that we use. And, and so that’s been an upside to this, but no doubt it, it is really hard to find the, you know, the infusion of resources right now.

Yeah, that’s totally fair. I was going to to say like your services and the, just the importance of collaboration has just become even more important. Um, they’re so. I think we have to think about what we can manage as nonprofits, um, and what we do well again, like if that’s, if we can do that one thing well and then support the other organizations across the board and present as one solution, I do think [00:11:00] that is going to be a path forward for a lot of smaller organizations.

And we’ve had in the nonprofit hive community, um, we have a. We’re in 90 countries and we are starting to hear in multiple countries the impact of the funding cuts that have taken place in the States and how it’s rolling out. They didn’t see it right away, but it’s now definitely impacting, um, their efforts, their initiatives, um, the funding that they were seeing through other organizations.

Um. Yeah, it’s unfortunate, but it is the reality that we’re currently in, so we need to come up with solutions that help answer those problems because I don’t think the need is going to go away. Um, but so we have to be innovative and think differently about what, what the solutions might be. Uh, absolutely Nicole, and, and, and I think, you know, what you’re also seeing is as those funding cuts happen, the need is actually increasing, right?

Yeah. We’re, we’re seeing more. Poverty. We’re seeing more people in [00:12:00] crisis. We’re seeing greater mental health, uh, concerns. And so you’ve got this horrific catch 22, greater demand for the services. While at the same time, you know the resources that would normally be there to help support the solutions are, are being taken away.

And to your point, um. Nothing is in isolation. So we might say, oh, that’s happening in the us but it has trickle effects everywhere. Big thing that we’re trying to help, you know, the, the organizations that we work with. And, and then actually this has been a, a, a real tangible benefit from, uh, the conversations that, that I’ve had through my relationship with The Hive has been, um, helping to get organizations to diversify.

Their funding, um, to think about, okay, how do we move away from what historically would’ve been just grant funds and or, um, you know, uh, traditional contracts, things [00:13:00] like that. And think about where can we collaborate to make fee for service trainings or fee for service, direct delivery interventions, and.

You know, compete, if you will, in spaces that we wouldn’t have historically. But because we’re working together, we’re building an infrastructure that supports that, meeting the needs of the community, and then bringing in these new alternative revenue streams that are helping to support the, you know, survival of, of these nonprofits.

For sure. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So with the nonprofit hive, um, I’m curious how have conversations or connections through the nonprofit Hive helped shape your worker perspective? Is there a person or an idea that stuck with you from some of these conversations? Yeah, no, absolutely. For sure. So, uh, and I mean one, you know, I mentioned we’re in five countries.

That is a direct, uh, a direct result of, of the Hive and the nonprofit Hive has [00:14:00] opened up our access to having conversations with people in, in places that we normally wouldn’t, you know, be able to, to connect with. And, and so those, um, those ideas have sparked and, and, and spurred. Follow ups to, to lead to, for example, um, youth and transformation.

Uh, a group that’s doing fantastic work in South Africa, joining our collaborative that we just normally wouldn’t have intersected with. And our, our sort of core model is, um, we want to empower, uh, local led, community-based, place-based, you know, transformation, but we can learn from each other no matter where we’re at.

And, and we see that power of. You know, across our, our 68 organizations, being able to share resources, share knowledge, um, and, and that sort of global community is powerful and that empowers then. Each organization, whether you’re in South Africa, whether you’re in California, whether you’re in Toronto, [00:15:00] to be able to then take those relationships, take those, those knowledge and, and, and resources and implement in your local community and through the nonprofit hive, you know, we’re having these really powerful one-on-one conversations and meeting.

People that are, you know, in the website development space, meeting people that are, have been potential funders, meeting, um, people like, uh, peer Minds that are in New York City that are, that’s not only Najee, there is, is doing fantastic work specifically as a nonprofit, but as a connector of nonprofits.

So we’re getting these really powerful one-on-one conversations. That you all facilitate, that leads to then these powerful community conversations that we’re bringing together. And, and so it’s been a really, um, symbiotic, powerful symbiotic relationship between, you know, kind of the two models. That’s amazing.

I like, that’s again, one of the things that light me up is hearing those connections and the importance of community, [00:16:00] the, the changes that can be made when we listen to other people’s perspectives and hear their insights and learn from each other. Um, I think that is going to be what moves us. Through a lot of these challenging times, um, is relying on your community even more and being open to build your community.

So I love how you framed all of those components and the importance of continuing those conversations. To wrap it up, I’m curious, do you have one insight resource or is there a mindset that’s helped you recently and that might help others in our community too? Yeah, so, so I, I would. Suggest that you know, when, when you’re getting into these troubled times, and there is definitely, you know, a sense of, of scarcity that you resist the natural urge to kind of shelter.

Um, it’s, it’s totally understandable [00:17:00] and, and people, uh, your instinct would be. Wow, I, you know, there, there’s finite resources. I am going to, I’m gonna take mine first before I think about collaboration, before I think about reaching out and, and sharing with others. And that’s, uh, you know, uh, uh, it goes back to our reptilian brains and it’s a primal, uh, survival urge.

But the reality is if you do that, you might hold onto that, that little bit of resources for. A hot second, but then they’re gonna be gone and everybody’s gonna be starving. If you resist that urge and you work together through these troubled times, you’re going to get more. That’s the only way out of this, is to be able to work together, to stretch what we have, to be able to create more powerful advocacy, more powerful.

Uh, [00:18:00] implementation models that are able to scale and survive through that collective strength. Um, and, and so my biggest piece of advice, what I say to, to our, our members, what I talk about in these one-on-one conversations I have with my, my Hive colleagues and, and what I say in my own sort of advocacy outreach, is we need to resist the urge to withdraw and lean in.

To community, especially in times like these. I love that. That is such a beautiful way to wrap this conversation up. Thank you so much for joining us, Chris. I’d love to hear, uh, where’s the best place people can reach you or find you? Yeah, so, uh, you can always find us, uh, at our website, which is uh, www.cimpactnow.org.

Amazing. Thank you again, and I hope you continue joining us on the nonprofit. Hi. Thanks everyone. [00:19:00] Thank you. Bye-Bye.