With nearly 4,000 local affiliates as it celebrates its centennial, Boys and Girls Clubs of America still is learning how to keep everyone funded, happy and on the same page.

By Nicole Rollender

“I would say one of the most important things we’ve done is fix the relationship between the national office and local clubs,” Aschermann says. “Often franchise systems for nonprofits don’t work. But we’ve tried to figure out some things to make it work for us.”

For example, donors have always created an interesting problem for BGCA: Who owns them — the national organization or the individual clubs in the communities where donors live? Part of BGCA’s national strategy is to help its clubs raise awareness and funds in their communities, but Aschermann’s team had to figure out where to go from there.