Flathead Valley has about 500 nonprofits, expert says

Nonprofit organizations are a large part of the community in Columbia Falls and the Flathead Valley.

The organizations are vital to a “vibrant and successful” community because they provide services that don’t make business sense and that the government cannot provide, said Chany Ockert of Serving Flathead Nonprofits.

“It’s a wonderful part of our civic responsibility to serve on boards,” Ockert said last week at the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce lunch.

She recently completed a needs assessment on the nonprofit boards in the Flathead Valley. There are approximately 500 nonprofits headquartered in the valley. Churches account for 100 of them.

Ockert noticed several trends. At least three board members are required for each nonprofit. There is a trend toward smaller boards due to a limited number of people available to sit on a board, she said. Also, human resources are a challenge in any business, but is often an “area of neglect” for nonprofits.

Another challenge is a new overtime rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor last summer that would require overtime payment for salaried employees earning less than $50,440. Due to the nature of nonprofits, most executive directors work significantly more than 40 hours per week and make less than $50,000, Ockert said. Either they’ll have to work less or be paid more.

There’s recently been national critique of nonprofit executive leaders being paid excessive salaries, but she said this isn’t a problem in the Flathead.

“We rarely discuss what is too little,” Ockert said. It’s more often than not, difficult for them to make ends meet.

She said the good news is that there is lots of local support and education for nonprofits such as the Flathead Nonprofit Development Partnership, Flathead Valley Community College classes and Montana Nonprofit Association.

Nonprofits continue to open in the Flathead, providing more services, but creating more competition for volunteers and dollars. Rather than limiting the start of new nonprofits, she said there needs to be more partnership between the existing ones to prevent duplication of services. She had a customer who really wanted to start a nonprofit. 

But after talking in detail, the customer decided she actually wanted to start a program rather than a complete nonprofit with a high overhead cost. There also needs to be a local conversation on what generosity and philanthropy look like, Ockert said.

Also, there’s a time when a nonprofit is ready to close.

“There are some nonprofits that are no longer fulfilling their mission,” she said.

She laid out the signs to look for in a nonprofit that has a good return on investment: board members donate to the organization, are committed to the nonprofit within the community and are willing to raise funds.

She gave an example from the for-profit sector. 

It’s a red flag if a bank president doesn’t have an account at his own bank. The same is true of a nonprofit’s board.