What is the role of a community-based nonprofit in the fabric of a community? And how does that organization engage the community and cultivate strategic partnerships to further its mission?

As communities battle endless budget constraints and the need for facilities in all youth sports grows, the role of the leader of a sport within a community is also about being an advocate for that community, not just your own organization.

For our organization, we had come to a point where our community pools are very old, and we need newer and more facilities to survive. Simply asking the city to build a new pool for us was a nonstarter. What we learned and applied to achieve success was that becoming an active participant in the process and community is a must.

We did this through attending city council meetings, working with our membership to understand the importance of being a community leader, creating a mechanism to raise funds for the project, participating in community outreach sessions, and vesting our organization into matters that are important to the community.

Understanding the process and your commitment to it is not a sacrifice, but a necessity to making results happen.

Read the full article about community-based nonprofits by John Bitter at BoardSource.