Every month, LinkedIn for Nonprofits highlights four of the amazing nonprofit organizations that partner with us to hire incredible talent, build brand awareness, enhance their fundraising strategies, and develop their teams’ skills. Their stories inspire us every day—and we hope you’ll find them inspiring, too.

This month, the organizations we’re featuring support the LGBT community, fund disease research, provide long-term solutions to homelessness, and promote music, news, and culture. Learn more about their missions and programs below, and follow them on social media for updates about their work.

Finding Exceptional Nonprofit TalenttWorking Toward the Prevention of Homelessness: Colorado Coalition for the Homeless
 

Founded in 1984, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is dedicated to the prevention of homelessness, working collaboratively to provide lasting solutions for those who are currently facing or at risk of experiencing it. The organization’s areas of expertise include housing, support services, advocacy, and healthcare, the latter of which has been a core priority in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Coalition already operated five Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) across the Denver metropolitan area, including the Stout Street Health Center, which provides medical, behavioral health, substance use treatment, dental, vision, and pharmacy services to over 15,000 adults and children every year. But as a result of the ongoing pandemic, the organization has drastically expanded its operations to alleviate the burden on local hospitals—creating respite sites for those awaiting testing or results and proactively delivering preventative care for at-risk individuals.

“We’ve acquired motels to do on-site screening, triage, and COVID-19 testing, in addition to integrated healthcare services,” explains Isaiah Weatherspoon, Talent Acquisition and Compensation Manager at the Coalition. “As of right now, we have triaged more than 2,770 individuals.”

To support these efforts, the Coalition had to rapidly recruit over 70 temporary employees, with a focus on healthcare and support services positions. With a two-person recruiting team, this was a major challenge—but not an insurmountable one. 

“LinkedIn has been great,” Isaiah says. “It’s a really revolutionary way of reaching out to candidates outside of your traditional sourcing strategies. Being able to not only highlight your organization’s brand through your LinkedIn Page but also reach out to passive candidates has been a game-changer.” 

Visit Colorado Coalition for the Homeless’s website for more information, and follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. 

Getting the Word Out About a Great Mission
Supporting Those Impacted by Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Crohn's & Colitis Foundation
 

Since 1967, Crohn's & Colitis Foundation has funded research into potential treatments and cures for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, known collectively as inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. The organization also puts out an annual report, hosts conferences for medical professionals, and provides programs and support to improve the quality of life of children and adults affected by these diseases. 

One way the Foundation delivers its mission is by providing IBD education to patients and caregivers. At the outset of the current pandemic, its top priority was providing the most accurate and up-to-date information it could about how COVID-19 impacts IBD. Working closely with its education support teams, the Foundation created a robust COVID-19 information page on its website, which it continues to update as new research emerges. 

“We’ve continually done our research and consulted with our networks to provide the information that’s most valuable to our community,” says Jack Matarasso, Vice President of Digital Marketing at Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. “We didn’t want to just take general information from the CDC and put it on our website. We made it applicable to IBD patients and caregivers.”

While the Foundation has used LinkedIn for some time, it has leaned on LinkedIn Marketing Solutions even more in recent months to disseminate vital information about COVID-19. Beyond reaching corporate partners and sponsors, the team is also able to use the platform to speak to those impacted by IBD. 

“We continually provide webinars and have information we like to share,” says Jack. “We’re using LinkedIn to generate awareness and engagement from the community about what we’re doing.”

Visit Crohn's & Colitis Foundation’s website for more information, and follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. 

Meeting Essential Fundraising Goals
Delivering Meaningful News, Music, and Cultural Experiences: Colorado Public Radio

Colorado Public Radio (CPR) is a public media organization providing news and music on the radio, original journalism online, and engaging podcasts and events. Aiming to inform, inspire, and entertain Coloradans through the power of the human voice in all its forms, CPR meets people where they are, whether that’s online, on their phone, in their car, or via their smart speaker at home. 

CPR has always worked hard to maintain strong, mutually beneficial relationships with the local businesses and cultural organizations that support it. But since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of those organizations have been forced to suspend or scale back their operations.

“The arts and culture community is facing difficult challenges right now,” says Cynthia Railsback, Director of Corporate Support at CPR. “Nearly every venue is completely shut down, so that part of our support disappeared in March. The restaurant community has also had their struggles: they’re operating at about 50% capacity now, so they don’t have much in the way of marketing dollars.”

Quickly realizing they needed to identify new sources of support, Cynthia and her team adopted LinkedIn Sales Navigator. They had found moderate success with the solution in the past, but by investing in licenses for the entire team and working closely with their LinkedIn Relationship Manager, they were able to hit the ground running—maintaining relationships with previous sponsors while performing strategic outreach.

“Within the first 90 days, one of our reps closed a deal that covered not only the entire cost of the licenses for our team for the year, but left us an additional $5,000 to invest in CPR’s news and music services,” Cynthia says. “We’re having conversations with people we haven’t had before.”

Visit Colorado Public Radio’s website for more information, and follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

Prioritizing Learning and Development
Connecting the LGBT Community with the Resources They Need: SF LGBT Center
 

Opened in 2002, the SF LGBT Center is a hub where LGBT individuals and allies in San Francisco and the Bay Area can find information, community, and resources. In addition to offering a range of direct services—including a youth drop-in space and a cyber center that gives people access to computers and printers—the organization operates a robust Information & Referral program to connect people with the support they need.

When shelter-in-place orders went into effect in San Francisco in March, the Center was able to move about 80% of its programming online. While making the shift to remote work was a challenge for the team, it leaned on LinkedIn for support. 

“Many of our staff have been using LinkedIn Learning to do some continuing education,” says Danielle Siragusa, Director of Development at the Center. “Especially our frontline providers.”

The Center is increasingly getting back to 100% capacity, re-opening its iconic purple building in San Francisco (with appropriate pandemic safety precautions in place) to ensure that anyone who needs a direct service is still able to access it. This has been especially important when it comes to providing support for small businesses and those concerned about employment, housing, and food security.

“We don’t have the data yet, at least in the U.S., to know how COVID-19 has impacted the queer community,” says Danielle “We know how it’s impacted BIPOC communities, and obviously there’s intersectionality. But pandemic diseases are not new to the queer community, and our team has been really great about continuing to support the community where it’s most needed.”

Visit the SF LGBT Center’s website for more information, and follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

Special thanks to all our featured nonprofits for sharing their stories with us—and for the amazing work they do in our communities. To learn more about how LinkedIn for Nonprofits can help your organization, visit our website.