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This was Connecticut Nonprofits Week at the capitol. As WNPR’s Jeff Cohen reports, figuring out ways to save money in lean years is high on the agenda.
Ron Cretaro is the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Non-Profits, a group of more than 500 organizations – many of which provide health and human services to state residents. Together, they get more than a billion dollars a year in government contracts.
“We need to make sure that the funding that is there is protected and we need to find ways to stretch it a little bit further because we know there isn't going to be additional funding.”
So they’re looking for ways to get better at doing business with the state. That was the focus of a report released earlier this month by the Commission on Nonprofit Health and Human Services, and it's a goal of the administration of Governor Dannel Malloy. Cretaro says making things like contracting more efficient would go a long way.
“Just getting contracts to non-profits on time is crucial. It means that non-profits then don’t have to go out and obtain a line of credit to make payroll. There are instances when non-profit directors will put their payroll on their credit card, which shouldn’t have to happen.”
Maureen Pryce-Boreland is the executive director of Community Partners In Action -- an agency that provides services to people coming out of prison. Her organization has more than a dozen contracts with the state. That means more than a dozen separate processes that need renewal, amending, and paperwork each year. She says the state has gotten better at payment, but could get better on process.
“Every time a contract is created, we’re asked for the same piece of paper, and you wonder if it’s really a piece of paper that’s meaningful to the process or if it’s really done out of history and process."
Cretaro says improving that process would save taxpayers money.
“You’re paying a clinical person, a person delivering treatment or services directly, to spend a higher percentage of their time doing paperwork than serving clients or consumers.”
And, he says, serving clients and consumers should be the goal.
For WNPR, I’m Jeff Cohen.