When Robin Hood decides to fund an organization, we know it’s one of the best in the city. But it often needs more than just funding. Besides providing extraordinary services to people in poverty, the leaders of these nonprofits must manage complex organizations. They need a committed board, a transparent accounting system, a motivated staff. They have to manage logistics, overhead, and office arrangements. Occasionally, they need a good lawyer.

That's where Robin Hood's Management Assistance Team steps up to the plate. Our job is to augment and protect donors' investments in these life-saving organizations. How? Sometimes, our internal consulting staff lends expertise directly to a nonprofit; other times, we recruit the best-in-class providers of professional services for our grant recipients. Like helping a new agency recruit and hire the staff to expand services. Or getting an accountant to streamline an organization’s financial reporting system. Or getting a consulting firm to design an effective website to take the message to new donors. Each year, our staff and corporate partners provide professional services to Robin Hood grant recipients worth more than $3 million.

Robin Hood listens to what our nonprofit partners need, evaluates their experiences and responds to new issues. In 2000, they asked for our help in finding a solution to what we call the “organizational digital divide.” The lack of access to computer resources applies not only to poor individuals, but also to nonprofit organizations that serve those in poverty. To meet this need, we helped start and fund NPower NY, a nonprofit dedicated to providing technology assistance and consulting services to New York’s nonprofits (including our grant recipients). In 2001 (their first year of operations), NPower NY helped nonprofits obtain over $250,000 worth of new hardware to replace what was lost in the attacks of September 11th.

And in 2003, when it became clear that inadequate facilities are one of the biggest barriers to our groups operating at their full potential, we created our Capital Initiative. We hired an in-house real estate expert to consult with our groups, help manage projects, and bring in the right professionals for the job. With the help of the initiative, our groups have negotiated better leases, transformed their current spaces or moved to bigger ones, and broken ground on new buildings. These capital improvements equate to more people served and a higher return on our funding investment.

Among the services Management Assistance provides are:

	•	Strategic and Operational Planning
	•	Board Recruitment and Development
	•	Fund Development and Implementation
	•	Fiscal Management and Accounting
	•	Legal and Human Resource Expertise
	•	Real Estate and Capital Project Assistance
	•	Technology Planning and Implementation
	•	Research and information on “best practices” in nonprofits

If you are interested in your firm providing pro bono services to help New York’s best nonprofits fight poverty, email us at corporateinvolvement@robinhood.org.