Will new leader run Urban League like a business?

By Timothy Pratt

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The local Urban League’s new interim leader has no experience managing a nonprofit organization, which raises a question that analysts of social services agencies have been asking for several decades: Can — and should — those agencies be run like businesses?

The answer is particularly important in the case of the Urban League because the $4.5 million organization is tasked with helping combat the effects of double-digit unemployment rates, which are pushing more people into poverty.

The choice of architect Clifton A. Marshall as interim president and CEO appears aimed, at least in part, at setting the organization’s finances straight. Marshall will serve for up to six months while the Las Vegas Clark County Urban League completes a national search for a permanent replacement to recently resigned President Ray Clarke, spokeswoman Debra Nelson said.

She forwarded a statement from Board Chairman Steven Brooks saying Marshall “is not a stranger to public service,” adding that he “currently serves” on the boards of Habitat for Humanity and the Community Development Programs Center of Nevada. However, officials of each organization told the Sun the architect had left its board some time ago. (When asked about the discrepancy, Nelson said it was her error.)

Brooks’ statement also underscored Marshall’s “keen business acumen” and the fact that he “understands the nuances of business.”

And state official Mary Liveratti, who attends Urban League board meetings to help monitor $2.8 million in federal pass-through funds, said choosing the architect might result in “somebody looking at the financials ... who could approach the job in a businesslike manner.”

The organization certainly needs tighter financial controls as it acquires money for helping people with everything from starting businesses to getting off the streets. The county and city have found fault with the Urban League’s handling of grants, and potential funding sources have held back other grants.

So, careful accounting and internal controls is one way managing grants aimed at helping the poor is similar to managing a business.

The two also have at least one other thing in common, said Tom Pollak, senior researcher at the Washington-based Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute: being connected helps.

“Politics matter — and having someone who is connected to local leadership is important ... to managing partnerships and obtaining funding,” Pollak said.

Board chairman Brooks’ statement notes that Marshall “understands government processes and methodologies,” adding that he serves on the Clark County Planning Commission. Since 2002 the architect also has landed at least $800,000 in federal contracts. So he knows people in government.

But Pollak also pointed out differences between the business and nonprofit worlds, starting with the relationship between the organization and the public.

“In exchange for a tax-exempt status, nonprofit organizations have the obligation to maintain transparency and accountability with the public more than the private sector,” he said.

In the past year the local Urban League has gone through at least three public relations people, each with a differing strategy for communicating to the public. It behooves Marshall to set a straight course for this important part of the organization’s work.

Pollak said one potential pitfall awaits private sector managers who migrate to social service organizations: “Their expectation of compensation doesn’t always square with the nonprofit world.” That means pay and perks. Nelson wouldn’t provide the terms of Marshall’s contract.

Finally, as to the organization’s mission, Pollak pointed out that “it is harder to measure outcomes with services than if you’re manufacturing widgets” — or designing buildings.

And measurable outcomes — results — are what the valley desperately needs right now from the Urban League.