A traditional non-profit in a given community is doing its best to serve people with limited available resources. These groups do amazing work to forward their missions. But to make more meaningful progress on bigger, more complex issues, they need access to shared data and the complementary strengths that a coordinated, combined effort can offer.

Complex problems need collaborative solutions

Most of the social problems affecting Nebraska’s children are systemic, with multiple dimensions and interwoven causes. No matter how well a traditional non-profit organization functions, it’s simply not possible for any one entity to independently tackle issues like poverty, child abuse and neglect, mental health, homelessness and foster care/child welfare.

Engaging the community to effect change

Our approach engages all of the important players, including nontraditional stakeholders and disenfranchised voices in a community. We mobilize them toward one common goal, centralize coordination of their efforts and help secure the funding required to move the needle on complex social issues facing the community’s children. The result of these efforts is a community-based organization that supports, strengthens and amplifies the efforts of all contributing parties.

“To expect real change without this infrastructure is akin to planting a field and expecting it to grow without water and sunlight. Nebraska Children and Families Foundation is unique because they objectively provide support for collaborative work, while ensuring that authentic voices of vulnerable children and families are consistently heard.”

Kristin Williams, The Sherwood Foundation