The Business Side of Nonprofit Management Running a nonprofit requires the mindset of a business manager in combination with the passion of a mission. This is Public Health Management Corporation’s constant approach. With funds granted to us from individuals, corporations, foundations and government, we provide jobs and invest in services to improve our communities and grow our regional economy. Affiliation: spreading the value
What does “good business” mean?
At Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), we put significant effort toward ensuring that we apply the right resources at the right levels to the right areas of our business, so we do it well and economically. We bring this excellence in management services to other nonprofits in the region by providing human resources, financial management, information systems, training, communications and other capabilities. By spreading these functions across all of our subsidiary nonprofits—called PHMC affiliates—we spread out the costs of running well for all of us. Collectively, we operate at an overhead rate of less than 7%, compared with a typical nonprofit administrative rate of over 15%. And we find countless programmatic opportunities to join forces and strengthen the value of our mission-critical work.
Running PHMC as a good nonprofit business requires common sense, relentless focus and hard work. We consolidate what we can to free up resources for the specialized work of serving the community. PHMC began serving as the parent company to subsidiary nonprofits more than 20 years ago. Each has come to us facing challenges that we have overcome together, and each has grown significantly since the affiliation. A successful affiliate model is, quite simply, a highly effective business model particularly well targeted to the nonprofit sector. It offers a viable option to organizations hungry for a structure that will keep the business healthy so they can continue engaging in effective and critical service delivery.
For more information on PHMC’s business model, contact: Amy Friedlander, Vice President of Management Services, at 215.985.2512 or amyf@phmc.org.
Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that builds healthier communities through partnerships with government, foundations, businesses and other community-based organizations. If fulfills its mission to improve the health of the community by providing outreach, health promotion, education, research, planning, technical assistance and direct services. Established in 1972, today PHMC has 1400 employees and serves 87,000 clients annually in 70 locations through more than 250 programs, making it one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation.
PHMC.ORG
260 South Broad Street | Philadelphia, PA 19102 | 215.985.2500 PHONE | 215.985.2550 FAX