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By Joe Boland

Nonprofits increasingly are modeling their practices after for-profits. This helps fundraisers professionalize their organizations and hold themselves fiscally accountable.

One fundraiser who's seen this evolution take place and even helped it along is Ben Vitale, who was recently named president of The Climate Trust, a Portland, Ore.-based nonprofit promoting climate change solutions. Vitale has  a background in both nonprofits and for-profits — Vcapital, Motorola and Conservation Inter- national — which he's used to form innovative programs in his career.

FundRaising Success spoke with Vitale about how the for-profit world can offer valuable insights for nonprofits and how his dual background helps him in his goals at The Climate Trust.

FundRaising Success: Coming from a for-profit business background, what steered you toward nonprofit work?

Ben Vitale: What led me here was really the mission aspect of the environmental community and the vision of a business model convergence when you look at what's going on in the nonprofit sector and the for-profit sector with regard to the environment. I wanted to be involved and help move those new combined business models forward that take the best of the nonprofit world and the best of the for-profit world and try to solve environmental problems.

FS: How has your background in the for-profit world helped you at the nonprofits you've worked at?

BV: The first is you have quantifiable result orientation in the private sector. That leads to clear goals in the nonprofit side. Applying that private-sector regimen and planning really professionalizes work in the nonprofit sector more.

That tighter focus adds more of a professional management approach. If you look over the past 10 years, nonprofits — especially large nonprofits — need to be managed more professionally and have transparency aspects that the private sector is required to in reporting.

FS: What innovations did you use to increase funding at Conservational International?

BV: The biggest aspect that I brought to Conservation International was in the carbon-financing area. [The Climate Trust purchases exclusive rights to metric tons of carbon dioxide that are reduced as a result of new projects that reduce energy usage, process carbon emissions, or sequester carbon in forests and soils. In order to fund a project, we must determine that carbon financing is essential to a project's implementation. By making a project financially viable, we claim credit for generated offsets, which would not have occurred without carbon financing.]

There are two different kinds of revenue streams that nonprofits can have: philanthropic donations and earned- revenue sources. We raised tens of millions of dollars from voluntary and the compliance carbon market to accomplish environmental goals. We reforested thousands of hectors. We protected hundreds of thousands of hectors, which was the goal of the organization, and protecting biodiversity was a key part of that. In some cases, those projects couldn't be funded purely with carbon financing, but carbon financing was a critical element. So we really successfully blended for-profit and nonprofit business models by leveraging money from these emerging carbon markets.

I think that aspect is really here to stay, especially amplified when you have a financial crisis and foundation revenue is lower because foundations' endowments are lower and smaller individual donors are certainly impacted by the financial crisis. What you have to do is not become solely dependent on that earned revenue because you can lose track of your mission, and you have to make sure that all of these projects that you undertake are key components of the mission. Balancing the philanthropic sources of revenue with earned sources of revenue is really critical.

FS: How would you describe your fundraising philosophy?

BV: I would describe it twofold. Be very clear about the mission with our key prospective funders, and then how we take that mission and move it to action. That's critical because the action is what ties into results. So it's all about mission to action and results.

Secondly, how do the deliverables that result from that overlap with the interests and shared vision with your target prospects? Above all, I think it's easy to focus in on what are we going to accomplish this year, next year with this particular grant or with this particular earned revenue, this particular contract. But always including an element of innovation is really important as well. Not just the blocking and tackling of what we're going to do day in and day out. What is the aspirational component or the innovative component of each proposal, and how does that inspire not only donors and employees but inspire others to act? That leverage component of our action is really critical to nonprofits, and it's something special that we need to really cherish.

FS: What do funders offer beyond mere dollars?

BV: I think it's twofold. Certainly, funders provide funding, and that's key. But having shared goals is really important. So understanding where they are looking to invest and how we're helping them meet those goals that they have is critical. In addition to just providing funding, donors, especially major donors and foundations and corporate foundations included, can really help overcome obstacles. … By putting that money in, it makes a statement. And making that statement, they can open doors to other donors. They can have an impact on policy in how they allocate their funds. They can have tangible impacts in cities and rural communities. They can help overcome obstacles beyond just providing funding. That shared-goal aspect is really important, and funders enable our mission. They can provide somewhat of a safety net for risk taking. Obviously each nonprofit is doing something new and moving their mission forward, but there's some risks involved in it. Donors are really helping us take those risks.

FS: What advice would you give other nonprofits looking to expand their support and funding?

BV: I'd encourage others to be optimistic even in these tough times. An honest review of where the situation is at and reviewing the fit with prospective donors given their situation — they're also in this financial crisis — so recognizing what some of their new limitations are, even if they have the desire to fund at a higher level but only have the capability in the shorter term for smaller funding. I think things will loosen up over time; be optimistic that we're getting closer to that point.

Be very clear about your niche and your competitive position vis-à-vis other NGOs or even the for-profit organizations that may do work in a similar space. Focus on the fundraising basics, but look to broaden revenue streams beyond current partners. We're looking at our current partners and funders and how we can work with them more and access more revenue streams working with them. That's a key component moving forward.

Joe Boland is copy editor and staff writer for the Target Marketing Group at FS' parent company, NAPCO. Reach him at jboland@napco.com