So much good work is being done all around us, every day. Armed with an unending commitment to their missions, nonprofits focus all their efforts on trying to do more, help more and serve more.

We asked 12 nonprofit leaders to join us for a candid conversation about their work, the challenges they face and what keeps them moving forward.

Participants:

John Bertagnolli, DO Chief Medical Officer, Samaritan

Mike O’Malley Executive Director, Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge

Mark Boyd President/CEO, Goodwill Industries of Southern New Jersey & Philadelphia

Carrie Kitchen-Santiago President/CEO, Cathedral Kitchen

Eileen Wirth President/CEO, MEND

Kristen Farry Exec. VP OF Policy and Strategy, Woods System of Care

Pamela Brant President, Symphony in C

Jane Asselta President/CEO, Food Bank of South Jersey

Jon Katz President/CEO, Bestwork Industries for the Blind

Denise Soto Chief Development & Communications Officer, Oaks Integrated Care

Karen Lindgren, PhD Exec VP & Chief Clinical Officer, Bancroft

Bernadette Shanahan CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Camden County

The community’s changing needs

Everything has become much more complex. Young people are facing challenges with mental and emotional health, social isolation, food insecurity and digital safety. Sometimes we help them navigate a world that can be overwhelming, even for adults. Those complexities have changed the work we do. Our mission has stayed the same. Things just got more complex around it.
Bernadette Shanahan

The federal government used to make up over 60% of the food we received. That’s now down to about 13%. But the need didn’t go down. Right now in South Jersey, one in nine individuals – that’s one in six kids – are food insecure. Every month we serve 150,000 people. At the height of the pandemic, we were serving about 95,000 people. We’re relying on retail partners and donors to fill the gap that used to be covered by that federal program.
Jane Asselta

The needs have become more complex and interconnected. We’re seeing the effects of the housing crisis, food insecurity, substance use, mental health challenges and workforce shortages all intersect. We also have to respond to changes in the public funding environment – Medicaid and other government funding is critical to the human services system. Policy and funding changes can have a direct impact on the people we serve.
Denise Soto

Not only have the needs of the folks we serve changed, but we’re trying to find new ways to meet those needs and deliver services. Nonprofits may not be at the forefront of technology innovation, but we need that. We are partnering with St. Joseph’s University to look at if we can utilize AI robotics to deliver services to individuals with autism, to see if that could be something that supports what our staff does.
Karen Lindgren, PhD

The funding environment has changed significantly. With reductions and changes in federal support, competition for philanthropic dollars has increased considerably. We’ve seen some corporate funders reduce or discontinue their support of the arts to direct resources towards critical needs in the community, such as housing and food insecurity. We certainly understand the importance of addressing those needs, but the shift creates an increasingly challenging environment for arts organizations.
Pamela Brant

What I see is how people are being squeezed by inflation, and that is both my employees and the people I serve, the people who are shopping in our stores and the people who donate. It’s a challenge. We’re going to get through it, but right now, it seems pretty rough.
Mark Boyd

In 2022, the number of meals we were giving out reached a new high in our now 50-year history. And that demand has continued to go up every year since. The cost of living has gone up, and wages aren’t keeping up with inflation, so we’re seeing more people in need. But we are committed to meeting whatever demand comes in.
Carrie Kitchen-Santiago

The needs have changed because of the increase in population in South Jersey. There’s so much building going on in various counties, like Gloucester County. We are expanding to that area because of the increased needs there. We’ve been involved with the community for 45 years now, and our programs are expanding because of the increased footprint of the South Jersey population.
John Bertagnolli, DO

Previously, we were just a manufacturing facility that provided employment opportunities to the blind and visually impaired community. Now we’ve transitioned to become what’s known as a full-service social enterprise. With the launching of our blindness and low-vision services center, we provide screenings, exams, assistive technology and rehabilitative services.
Jon Katz

A special project going on right now

Our new Center for Health, Wellness and Nutrition connects neighbors to services that address the broader challenges they face. We have classes on how to prepare healthy meals with fresh ingredients. We have programs that help seniors stay active and build strength. We’re seeing a shift from “Here’s a box of food” to “Here’s what your body needs.” We think that’s the future of how food banks will operate.
Jane Asselta

Currently Samaritan is expanding our palliative medicine program, which involves taking care of patients with long-term chronic illnesses who are not quite ready for hospice. We take care of their symptoms. We take care of their pain. We take care of their stress levels and also assist with their families.
John Bertagnolli, DO

The most exciting news is we’ve launched our blindness and low vision services center, which has four components: adult vision screenings, low-vision exams with low-vision providers, an assistive technology center and blindness and low vision rehabilitation services.
Jon Katz

We are certainly proud of the professional concerts we present, but our mission extends far beyond the concert hall through the Camden Music Project. We provide instrumental instruction in the Camden schools and in community settings, and we also offer a youth orchestra, summer camp and early childhood education programs.
Pamela Brant

We are embarking on a new, bold, visionary strategic plan that looks at how we can best adapt our services to support the growing needs of our community. We are embracing technology and expanding access to services. Bancroft has been around for 143+ years. We started with one school and one mission, and we continue to live that exact mission.
Karen Lindgren, PhD

The most exciting thing we have going on is our adult alternative high school, which we call the Helms Academy. We crossed over 550 graduates in that program, and the ages of students range from late teens to 80. When somebody in their 70s or 80s gets their high school diploma, I ask “Why now?” And it’s always the same answer: “I promised my mother.” So they got to a certain age and decided they were going to fulfill that promise. I love that story, and it’s happened many times.
Mark Boyd

The Boys and Girls Club is building a foundation for young people. Some learn how to swim, discover STEM and STEAM, develop leadership skills, maybe even meet their mentor. We help them learn how to navigate the digital world safely, participate in workforce readiness and development. On a more basic level, they can simply find a place here where they feel like they belong.
Bernadette Shanahan

The Woods System of Care operates in every county in New Jersey, and I think a lot of people know the names of our organizations: Woods Services, Legacy, Archway, Allies. But they may not realize we have healthcare services that are open to the public. You don’t need to have a loved one already in our care to go to our outpatient behavioral and primary clinic in Hamilton in the RWJBarnabas Hospital.
Kristen Farry

A lot of people know us for our meals, but we provide a 15-week vocational training program to prepare people for the culinary field. They get a certification as a manager in Serve Safe. We train about 60 adults a year.
Carrie Kitchen-Santiago

We’re trying to create a larger home. There is a very significant shortage of affordable rental housing, which is what we do at MEND, but we’d like to have a three-bedroom, even four-bedroom affordable home. The target occupancy would be a minimum six-person household, and the rent would be restricted to about $2,000 per month. Right now, the median one-bedroom rent in New Jersey is $2,000/month.
Eileen Wirth

A lot of people know about the work we do with the wildlife rehabilitation hospital and taking in nearly 8,000 sick, injured and orphaned wild animals every year. But beyond that, we are fielding basically double that amount in phone calls helping the public with various human-wildlife interactions. We’ve already fielded 14,000 phone calls this year. And we’re happy to do it. We want folks to call us, so we can be that resource for them.
Mike O’Malley

What people may not know about running a nonprofit

I think a lot of folks don’t realize that nonprofits operate in ways that are very similar to a for-profit business. We try to communicate with people that making a restricted gift to something that’s directly related to program delivery, like orphaned baby mammal formula, is obviously critically important. But we also have to pay the electric bill.
Mike O’Malley

When most people hear food bank, they often picture a food pantry, but a food bank is much different. We’re the broad scale operations behind the scenes sourcing food and warehousing food at tremendous scales. I think last year we did about 25 million pounds of food, and then we distributed that through a network of some 300 community partners – those are your food pantries.
Jane Asselta

There is a standard perception that nonprofits are small and nimble. Our nonprofit is quite large across our network. We’re about a $500 million organization, so we have many of the capabilities of a large healthcare system or a large business, and we’re able to be fairly sophisticated with that.
Kristen Farry

Nonprofits need all the same things that for-profits need. The main difference is that for nonprofits, mission comes first. We want people to understand that nonprofits are a vital part of the community, and we need the community to support us in our mission.
Karen Lindgren, PhD

People may not understand that while we do have a steady income stream of rents, wages don’t keep up with the cost of inflation. We limit how much we raise rents, so we sometimes have a gap. Thankfully, we have some reserves we’re able to tap into when we have a couple of months where we’re a little tight cash-wise, and we also do fundraising to help cover that gap.
Eileen Wirth

I think most people think nonprofits are just about good intentions and donating stuff. But all the not-so-fun, behind-the-scenes work makes this engine run. And when you’re working with children, we can’t cut corners. We can’t deliver services effectively and safely without having the people to do so. And that takes more than good intentions and donated stuff. It takes funding.
Bernadette Shanahan

How donors have changed

People have contributed billions of dollars to donor advised funds. According to the Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative, there is $326 billion nationwide in those funds. So that’s making us work with donors to find out: Do you have a donor advised fund, and would you like to invest in the mission of Symphony in C?
Pamela Brant

The conversation about Medicaid changes and policy issues are helping raise awareness that healthcare organizations and nonprofits that are dependent on Medicaid funding need help. The change I see is more awareness that we need any help we can get, and we appreciate it greatly.
Kristen Farry

Donors want to understand their impact, and they don’t just want to receive an annual report. They want to hear stories, see outcomes and understand the challenges facing the communities they care about. For nonprofits, that means fundraising has to be about a lot more than just making an ask. It’s about building trust and demonstrating that we are good stewards of the resources they entrust us with.
Denise Soto

We see a lot of people selling their items on things like Facebook Marketplace. That’s a challenge for us. We’re also seeing more for-profit competition than we’ve ever seen before. Some private equity-funded and Wall Street-funded firms compete directly with Goodwill. Goodwill is a not-for-profit. Some people on social media try to claim we’re not, which is exceptionally frustrating. But if you want to help your community, donate to Goodwill. If you want to help Wall Street, donate to our for-profit competitors.
Mark Boyd

We get large grants and donations primarily to buy equipment for our manufacturing operation. We bought an automated folding machine, and that machine has technology that allows us to have people who are blind perform those operations. So instead of automation replacing jobs, we’ve created jobs for people who are blind. Donors want to see that for a substantial investment they’ve helped create jobs for people who are blind.
Jon Katz

More people are aware of food insecurity, so we’ve obtained some new supporters, which is great, but we are finding that a large share of the total amount raised is from a smaller share of very wealthy people. That does make you susceptible to what happens if you lose a donor. When the percentage of people who give goes down, that is a concern.
Carrie Kitchen-Santiago

How they measure success

Pounds of food distributed is a key data point. Last year was almost 25 million pounds, but that’s not the whole story. We look at nutritional quality and whether neighbors get items that support their health, and also whether people feel respected when they access our support. Success is a neighbor getting what they need with dignity when and where they need it.
Jane Asselta

There are obviously quantitative ways, like concert attendance and ticket sales. But the most meaningful measures are harder to capture in numbers: A young musician who performs with Symphony in C wins a position with a major orchestra. A Camden student begins with us in elementary school, continues through our programs, and then comes back to teach in our summer camp. I actually tear up when I see them because their lives are so different because we had an impact.
Pamela Brant

Success ultimately comes down to whether we are improving people’s quality of life. Of course, we measure outcomes: the number of people served, housing stability, access to food and other measurable indicators. But it’s also important to see if someone is feeling hopeful, or a family has been able to stay together. Has a person in recovery found a path forward? Those individual outcomes are what make the numbers meaningful.
Denise Soto

For the mission side, we look at number of graduates, people who are enrolled, and how we are meeting the needs of the people who enrolled in our program. For example, at the Helms Academy, we’ve expanded the offerings to include English as a second language programming and a citizenship program to help people pass the citizenship test. Those are two cool additions that meet the needs of the community. That’s how I measure success.
Mark Boyd

I think a lot of folks would assume we measure our success with data from the wildlife hospital, but there are a lot more layers to our success. We also measure our success by the stability of the organization overall. I like to lay my head down at night and know that whether I retire to Tahiti tomorrow or not, Cedar Run will be here for decades to come and be able to fulfill this mission.
Mike O’Malley

Success to me is when a young person comes and says, “You made a difference in my life.” Yes, I look at the numbers and the data. But I always appreciate more when I hear someone say we made a difference in their life.
Bernadette Shanahan

Our success is measured by our employment growth of blind and visually impaired individuals, and by the number of visually impaired individuals we serve. We have more than doubled our blind employment in a little over five years. We also offer opportunities for promotion within the business. In fact, our satellites are currently led by people who are blind and visually impaired. We’re very proud of that.
Jon Katz

There are a couple ways that MEND measures success. Of course, providing safe homes and affordable rents. But one of the greatest successes we celebrate is when our residents move out. I know that that may sound counterintuitive, but they move out because they are able to save money and buy a home. It is the best story of success, and we actually had a couple of people move out this year.
Eileen Wirth

We measure success in the satisfaction of our clients and being able to empower them to live the fullest life possible. Many of our clients lived in hospital settings for long periods of time because there were no providers who thought they could accommodate their complexity. So it’s a success when we’re able to move someone into their own home, where they’re able to live an everyday, normal life to their fullest potential.
Kristen Farry

Collaborating with other nonprofits

We get to exchange ideas with other nonprofits. We’re in a non-threatening mode with them. There’s not a competition because we’re all for the people. We’re not-for-profit, we share ideas. We’re patient-centered.
John Bertagnolli, DO

We couldn’t run our program without the community college system. We dual enroll a student in the Helms Academy and community college. We work with the student on their adult basic ed, so they can matriculate into college-level classwork. When they get their GED, and they continue taking college classes, they’re halfway to their associate’s degree. And no student has ever been charged for this.
Mark Boyd

We know that no one organization can address the complexity of challenges facing our communities. Collaboration allows us to leverage our resources and share expertise and reach people who might not otherwise be reached. Most important, it creates a stronger safety net for the people we serve.
Denise Soto

The Food Bank of South Jersey is part of Feeding America Network, which means we work collaboratively with our fellow state food banks. Locally, we’ve built and nurtured relationships with organizations, elected officials, county governments and programs that address the root causes of hunger. No single organization can meet the need. We’re not in this fight alone.
Jane Asselta

I am the president of the New Jersey Association for Wildlife Rehabilitators, and through that organization, we collaborate with other wildlife rehabilitators on different cases. And our director of education just finished her term as the president of the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education. It has really proven to be useful to make those connections to expand the impact we have.
Mike O’Malley

What gives them optimism for the future

My answer is going to shock you. It’s our young people. They’re resilient, they’re funny, they’re creative, they’re curious, they’re capable. You would be amazed at how smart they are. Our future is going to be wonderful in the hands of these young people.
Bernadette Shanahan

I think it’s the young people – to see how accomplished they feel at the end of a concert when they’ve performed a challenging repertoire. It makes me optimistic for our organization and for the work we do and the impact we’re having in our community.
Pamela Brant

I’m really optimistic. We’re continuing to expand across the state. With the launching and growth of our blindness and low vision services center, we are providing services to an underserved community in South Jersey. It all just gives me a great deal of hope and optimism for the future. And another thing that lets me sleep at night is our long-term financial sustainability. It’s very good, so that makes me feel good.
Jon Katz

I’m very optimistic about the way Bancroft values both business and quality outcomes. They are truly equal. And that partnership is focused on building a solid, robust continuum of care. What gives me a lot of optimism is not only my organization’s, but our partner organizations’ willingness to find solutions that could really impact people’s lives.
Karen Lindgren, PhD

Our optimism lies in the fact that we are extending our footprint. We have extended into Gloucester County. We are extending more into Atlantic County, and we’ll be going further into Ocean County. I think the growth is very optimistic for Samaritan.
John Bertagnolli, DO

The affordable housing crisis is not going away anytime soon, so the need for what we do is going to continue well into the future. Hopefully, we will have families able to buy that first home and move on so we can offer an opportunity for a new family to move in and keep that cycle going.
Eileen Wirth

People give me the most optimism. Our employees come to work every day because they believe that people’s lives can change. And I’m encouraged that there are so many businesses, foundations, donors, volunteers and community leaders who want to be a part of the solution.
Denise Soto

What gives me the most optimism is our preparedness, our mutual marching together towards our goal. Even as we’re presented with more challenges, we rise to meet them. We have a lot of internal working groups making sure our employees understand what they need to communicate to the people we serve.
Kristen Farry

We’re getting better at helping people become more stable. The culinary arts training program is transformational. Somebody might come in and not have a purpose or a sense of community, and they leave ready to work and more confident. That can make them and their families independent. That’s why I do this work, and it’s very rewarding to see that.
Carrie Kitchen-Santiago