Making Your Nonprofit Stronger and More Efficient

Guest blog by: Jeff Caponigro, Executive Vice President-Corporate Communications and Chief Marketing Officer, Trion Solutions

Nonprofits are under excruciating pressure these days to maintain and grow programs, bolster fundraising and drive revenue, and attract and retain talent.

Doing so is never easy during the best of economic and market conditions, but it is especially difficult with a continued pandemic hangover, inflation and rising costs, a volatile stock market and a headstrong, less-loyal workforce filled with those who would prefer to work remotely, in some other sector or not at all.

Where does nonprofit leadership turn? Since the fog of this environment has long lingered, many nonprofits already have made significant adjustments to keep the vessel afloat and be able to navigate future rough waters in the months and years ahead.

It may be little solace to nonprofits but, of course, they are not alone. Many businesses and individuals, nervous about economic conditions and other factors, have adjusted spending, reduced budgets and slowed down decision making.

This has led nonprofits and others to prune, pinch and innovate like never before. Lowest-hanging fruit already may have been picked and branches pruned, and other areas previously considered sacrosanct now might be considered.

In recent weeks, the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants and the Birmingham-Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce requested a trio of us to conduct sessions about whether improvements and efficiencies can be obtained by looking at the HR function. We were asked to conduct tutorial-like sessions on the topic of “Achieving Efficiencies: Is it the right time to consider a PEO?” Both groups showed significant interest in the PEO model.

As you may know if you have seen Trion’s television commercials, Trion is itself a Professional Employer Organization. But, for both those sessions, we took off our “selling-Trion” hats and worked to educate attendees about PEOs in general.

What is a PEO? It stands for Professional Employer Organization. A PEO provides integrated HR services, including payroll, tax filing, benefits, workers’ compensation, workplace safety and HR counsel and administration. PEOs relieve the stress and burden of managing these items alone, so for instance, nonprofits can remain focused on their core mission.

A PEO also helps mitigate risk, stabilize costs and -- because it can help provide Fortune 500-level benefits for employees -- help attract and retain top talent.

According to the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, more than 170,000 businesses, employing four-million people with a total payroll of $250 billion, use a PEO today.

The value proposition of a PEO for a smaller organization is to avoid needing to build an HR department beyond an individual assigned to more strategic HR functions like recruiting, training and enforcing policies. For a large organization, the PEO is used as an extension of the existing HR staff – managing the “backroom” functions such as payroll, benefits, workers’ compensation, regulatory compliance and other areas, while internal HR leadership remain in strategic mode.

How do you choose the right PEO for your nonprofit?

You would choose one like any other potential strategic partner: What is its experience and expertise? Has it been “vetted” by third-party sources? Has it worked successfully in the past with an organization like yours? What is its service model? Does it seem to be friendly and flexible? Is it providing you with sound advice that is in your best interest? Have you met its leadership members with encouragement to contact them when needed?

For more information about PEOs, visit the website of the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations at www.napeo.org.

And, if you would like to learn more for your nonprofit -- or are part of an industry group that might want a similar tutorial about PEOs -- please reach out to me at jeff@trionworks.com.

Jeff Caponigro is Executive Vice President-Corporate Communications and Chief Marketing Officer for Trion Solutions (www.relyontrion.com). He has counseled many nonprofits during his 40+ years in reputation management and branding. He is a former Chairman of the Board at Central Michigan University and Metropolitan Affairs Coalition. He is the author of THE CRISIS COUNSELOR: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing a Business Crisis (McGraw Hill/Contemporary Books), which is published in five languages. He has been inducted into the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows, PRSA Detroit’s Hall of Fame and Central Michigan University’s Journalism Hall of Fame.