With the holidays approaching, many area nonprofits are heading into their busiest season for donations and service projects. 

Especially with tough economic times and pinched donation levels, nonprofits are increasingly looking at making sure they are running themselves with best business practices.

Organization directors of several Wilmington-based nonprofits said keys to organizational stability and growth include a range of issues such as board maturity and involvement, success in strategic planning and collaboration with related nonprofits.

One in particular is Good Shepherd Center in Wilmington. Now celebrating its 30th year, Good Shepherd serves the hungry and homeless in the area.

With the help of local, donated food, Good Shepherd’s soup kitchen provides hundreds of men, women and children with food each day. Through its day shelter, the group serves more than 900 individuals at the same time offering employment resources and health screenings.

“Some of our volunteers have been coming every week for 20 years, all because the mission of Good Shepherd spoke to them,” executive director Katrina Knight said.

The nonprofit also relies on in-kind donors and community support.

During the winter months, Good Shepherd receives the majority of its donations for the entire year.

“Holiday contributions are our bread and butter for the year. The danger is that people think we do not need donations throughout the other part of the year,” Knight said.

Thanksgiving and Christmas means a stockpiling of resources for Good Shepherd because summer months are lean as far as contributions are concerned. 

“We encourage donors to raise the bar and to realize that charity isn’t just a bed and doesn’t stop at just making a sandwich,” Knight said. “It must go farther to ensure that children and families be able to live at home.” 

One major partnership that has changed and expanded Good Shepherd is its collaboration with New Hanover County’s health department. With the agency’s help, Good Shepherd now has an on-site medical clinic that provides its patrons with medical care.

This partnership “fills a void” and expands services that Good Shepherd otherwise would not have been able to provide. 

At Wilmington Health Access for Teens (WHAT), the leadership team recognizes the importance of setting strategy that is adaptive and agile in the fluid environment, said Jill Boesel, the nonprofit’s development and outcomes director.

As a relatively small nonprofit health care organization with just more than 30 on staff, WHAT is continually mindful of the ever-

evolving health care environment.

Officials said WHAT is focusing on cultivating a learning environment, strengthening its collaborative work with others locally and statewide – all the while applying evidence-based practices.

Another factor contributing to stability is community support. This helps to ensure that WHAT and its partners optimize finite state resources within the community while supporting long-term sustainability, officials said.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have established and maintained strong partnerships with both private and public funders in and outside of our community,” Boesel said.

Not all Wilmington nonprofits are experiencing the same hardships this fundraising and giving season.

Smart Start of New Hanover County, a nonprofit focused on early childhood development, receives and oversees state Smart Start funding, which buffers it slightly from the funding push during the holiday giving season.

But the group does use the winter to focus donor attention to its spring fundraiser. Instability is seen more in the spring as it relates to state funding for educational efforts.

As both the grantor and the grantee, Smart Start experiences both sides of the funding spectrum.

Group officials said they are aware that the winter is a big fundraising time for many nonprofits and try not to compete with potential grantees.

Executive director Janet Nelson also said the group leadership focuses on having a strong understanding of financial responsibility and stewardship of public and private funding.

Their plan is to have internal controls for fiscal management, making sure to keep in-depth data statistics to drive programming and strategic planning.

Collaborations and strong partnership are what keeps Smart Start thriving. This is a common theme among local organizations that serve as grantor for many nonprofits.

For example, United Way of the Cape Fear Area organizes its big fundraising term in the fall for similar reasons. They avoid competing with their grantee organizations and instead decide to use the winter to spread awareness about services.

This mission is to push philanthropy and giving by leading by example. Another organization that strives to not compete with, but uplift local nonprofits is United Way of Wilmington. United Way is fully aware that the holidays are a time when many charitable organizations are vying for donations. 

President Christopher Nelson states that the scarcity of donations during the holidays is a misconception and do not reflect donor behavior. 

“National statistics show that those with lower income and less resources give more in harsh economic times because

they are closer to the situation and have either been there or know someone who has,” he said.

Another multipurpose organization that serves as the builder, lender and bank for housing development projects is Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity.

Kitty Yerkes, Habitat’s local development director, said the fundraising approach at the nonprofit is multi-pronged: tapping into events, grants, individual donations and fundraising.

Habitat for Humanity practices a sustainable business model in which mortgages are paid to Habitat to leverage more funds for building more houses. 

A strong board and active strategic planning is Habitat’s plan for stability, Yerkes said. One advantage Habitat has is its retail operation ReStore, which generates funds year-round instead of in short pushes. The ReStore outlets – there are three in the Wilmington area – allow Habitat to provide household items below market price and recycle used items to resale.

Plans are to launch a fundraiser next year centered on the ReStore that opened in 2012 in Ogden. 

Habitat officials hope that the ReStore will attract potential new donors and collaborative partners.

“Once people actually see the work being done and the housing being built, they are hooked,” Yerkes said. “Habitat focuses on the experience because the more lives they touch, the more people will want to give.”

Smart giving

Get the best bang for your charitable donation buck by following these guidelines provided by the state attorney general’s office:

Decide what charities you want to support and contact them directly; don’t go through a telemarketer, which often takes a big chunk of your donation.

Give to charities you know and whose operations you trust.

Check out national charities at give.org to see if national charities meet the standards set by the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance and charitywatch.org for ratings of charities by the American Institute of Philanthropy. Other good sources of information are guidestar.org and charitynavigator.org. Many charities that solicit in North Carolina are required by law to register with the N.C. Secretary of State. To check, call (888) 830-4989 or go to secretary.state.nc.us/csl/Search.aspx.

Ask for written information. A legitimate charity will give you materials that tell you the charity’s mission and what your donation will help them do.

Check to see if your donation is tax deductible. Not all contributions to nonprofits are tax deductible, and some gifts that appear to be for charity actually benefit for-profit companies.  

Pay by credit card or check. For security and tax record purposes, it’s best to pay by credit card. If you pay by check, make it out to the charity itself, not the fundraiser. 

Know the law. There’s no legal minimum amount that a professional fundraiser has to give to the charity on whose behalf it raises money or that a charity has to use for actual good works as opposed to other expenses. But professional fundraisers do have to report the percentage of money they raise that goes to charity, and charities have to report what they spend on charitable works versus expenses on their 990 tax form. You can get this information from the N.C. secretary of state’s office.