Kathleen Reardon, CEO, and Angelica Ladd, communications manager,

New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits

Kathleen Reardon

‘In New Hampshire, we really rely on our nonprofit sector for a wide array of services and programs. They’re really essential to our way of life.’ — Kathleen Reardon

Angelica Ladd

In late February, Kathleen Reardon, CEO of the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, gathered with the leaders of four Granite State nonprofits at the SEE Science Museum in Manchester to kick off the Nonprofits Get it Done campaign, a state and national effort to promote the importance of nonprofit organizations during a time of major funding cuts.

Reardon and Angelica Ladd, communications manager for the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, recently visited NH Business Review to talk about the campaign as well as the upcoming NH Gives online fundraising program on the “Down to Business” podcast with editors Amanda Andrews and Mike Cote. This story is adapted from the interview.

Q. What is the mission of the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits?

Reardon: Our mission is to strengthen and give voice to New Hampshire’s nonprofits through leadership, collaboration and education. We are a membership organization with nearly 900 members, the majority of whom are nonprofit organizations. But we also have for-profit businesses and individuals who share our belief that a strong and connected nonprofit sector is really vital to our state.

We provide educational programs, workshops and convenings for both nonprofit staff as well as nonprofit board members. Many people get involved with board service without really fully understanding what that entails. That’s a big area of focus as well as other management and leadership opportunities.

We advocate on behalf of the entire nonprofit sector for those issues that impact nonprofits’ ability to operate, things like charitable giving incentives, tax policy, the right of nonprofits to advocate and self-govern — issues that impact the sector as a whole and our ability to do our good work.

We also coordinate NH Gives, which is a 24-hour online day of giving, the state’s largest day of giving.

Q. Kathleen, you spearheaded New Hampshire Gives. What was the impetus for it?

Reardon: This is our 11th year. Fundraising is an important role for nonprofits to support their vital work, but also the center really looked at it as an opportunity to lift up and elevate the value of nonprofits to our communities and provide a visible way where people could see the impact of their giving.

Much of charitable giving is kind of private. With this 24 hours of online giving, you get to see how your gifts interact with others as well, so you’re part of something bigger. It elevates philanthropy in our state and helps people understand that even your $25 donation makes an impact.

Ladd: Over 10 years, we’ve raised over $22 million for nonprofits in the state, so it was a banner year last year, really a celebration.

(This year’s NH Gives is on June 9 and 10. Registration is open now for nonprofits at nhgives.org)

Q. Let’s talk about the Nonprofits Get it Done campaign and it importance.

Reardon: In New Hampshire, we really rely on our nonprofit sector for a wide array of services and programs. They’re really essential to our way of life. Everyone is impacted by a nonprofit whether you know it or not. There are many nonprofits who are quietly doing good work in our community, making our lives better and making our communities stronger.

Oftentimes that impact goes unnoticed. Part of what the Nonprofits Get it Done campaign will do is elevate that and help the public and our policymakers better understand the impact of nonprofits as an industry.

This is a time where nonprofit missions are under threat, so it’s an important time for us to really lift our collective voices as the sector. This is part of a national campaign by the National Council for Nonprofits which launched it, and we’re really digging deep into extending it here in New Hampshire as well.

Ladd: Candid.org just released a report that says just over 5% of Americans believe that they have been impacted by a nonprofit, which is one of those myths that we’d really like to bust, because if you bank at a credit union, if you go to a public park, if you go to walking trails, there’s just so many ways that nonprofits touch and benefit all of our lives. It was really important to us to call out the value of nonprofits here in our state while also sharing the larger story that nationwide nonprofits are impacting our lives as well.

Q. The calls to action include asking nonprofit leaders, staff and board members to promote the campaign.

Reardon: Nonprofits are one of the pillars of our democracy. We want to share those stories so that people understand that their communities are being held up by nonprofit employees, by nonprofit organizations like family resource centers and health centers.

Whether you’re providing health care, whether you’re providing arts and culture, whether you’re protecting our environment, whether you are providing educational services, all of the many types of services are an active way that nonprofits are responding to crises, responding to their neighbors and helping out.

Nonprofits are getting it done. It’s such a great unifying message for all of us to really convey how important they are to our lives.