Author: Sierra Bellows

After selling the tech business he’d built over 15 years, Eric Walter wanted to do something more rewarding. “More fulfilling spiritually,” he says. “Out from behind a desk and outside.”

His Chicago tech business, Gorilla, had Patagonia as a client. “Sustainability infused everything they do,” says Walter. “That changed something for me.” After considering a few different environmentally sustainable business ventures, Walter founded a food scrap-composting facility and compost-hauling business.

“I’d always been a recycler,” he says. “And I liked that composting physically turns waste into a cool end product.”

Black Bear Composting, which launched in 2011, remains the only local commercial composting business. Though the company partially closed in 2016, Walter brought it back from the brink of extinction by adjusting his business model and working with his clients to build a company that is sustainable, in all senses of the word.

The beginning

Although Walter had entrepreneurial experience, he was new to composting. He hired Craig Coker of Coker Composting and Consulting as a technical advisor, and Coker helped Walter figure out what kind of facility he wanted to open, and how much space it would need. They settled on “turned windrow composting,” which involves piling organic waste in long rows, which are turned to improve porosity and oxygen content as well as control moisture and temperature. The method is well-suited to large volumes of compost.

Coker also helped Walter navigate the permitting process at Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality. Walter met department officials to share the company’s intentions, operational plans, and approach. “Our regulators wanted to see composting facilities succeed,” says Walter. “Establishing a good working relationship is critical.”

Black Bear Composting would serve Charlottesville and the central Shenandoah Valley, which included four small cities with a combined population of about 150,000. The area also had a large potential market for the finished compost in agriculture and land development businesses.

Walter and Coker went looking for land on which to build the facility—30 to 40 acres with good buffers from neighboring properties. Walter met with economic development offices in several counties to introduce his business concept and get advice about appropriate locations. “The officials steered us clear of areas already intended for future development, shared their GIS resources for programmatic search, and even identified local businesses that might benefit from our services,” says Walter.

Many property owners were wary of having a composting facility nearby. So Walter went door-to-door with his plans and photographs of similar facilities to assuage neighbors’ concerns. Still, the first location Walter wanted to buy fell through after a public hearing.

It took a year for him to find the 47 acres in Crimora where he eventually established Black Bear. The land was zoned agricultural, but required a special-use permit because commercial composting is not listed as an approved agricultural activity. The permit mandated a public hearing; despite Walter’s outreach, many people raised objections to the facility. Walter feared the panel of elected supervisors would not allow him to buy the land.

Then a director from the regional Department of Environmental Quality stepped forward to speak at the hearing. He addressed the concerns that had been raised and explained that his office would closely regulate the operations of the facility. If anything went wrong, his office would deal with it, the regulator said. “Had it not been for our regulator foreseeing the need to speak at this meeting, Black Bear Composting would never have had the opportunity to start,” says Walter.

Black Bear Composting had to start small; the facility was only big enough to process 2,800 tons per year. (That’s a lot of weight, but it’s not that much for a commercial operation—a “medium-sized” facility often processes 10,000 tons per year.) The tractor did double-duty as a loader and pulled a windrow turner. Walter kept equipment to a minimum and bought secondhand when he could. 

Instead of buying a watertight truck specially designed for composting, he decided to use 65-gallon wheeled carts that could be driven around in a stake body truck.

Now Walter just needed to find clients who wanted their organic waste hauled away. Because there weren’t any other local commercial composters, he had to start from scratch.

In October 2011, Black Bear Composting officially opened, but it had no clients, no organic waste to work with, and no finished compost to sell. Luckily, Walter got an out-of-the-blue call from the University of Virginia, which became his first big client. The university’s sustainability efforts have been lauded in the past few years as exemplary among American universities, and far more ambitious than the city’s own sustainability efforts. In 2011, the Board of Visitors made a commitment to several environmental goals, including responsible waste management—it seems that the UVA Office of Sustainability was waiting for a business like Walter’s to open.

The breaking point

Four years later, Black Bear Composting’s clients included two state universities, a college, three public school systems, several private schools, three hospitals, several restaurants and corporate offices, a couple grocery stores, a few local festivals, and a national park. The company also had a residential compost collection program whose popularity was growing by word of mouth. Black Bear Composting had a great reputation, and the company’s finished compost—rich soil that is excellent for growing plants—always sold out. Small farmers, home gardeners, and natural turf and lawn professionals were big fans.

The facility had composted more than 7,900 tons of material since its inception. About 50,000 students at the schools that Black Bear Composting served had learned about the ecological benefits of composting through the company’s outreach.

“Sounds great, right?” says Walter.

In reality, revenues often didn’t cover the company’s capital and operating expenses. His business, Walter realized, was really two businesses: a composting facility and a hauler. The facility side wasn’t profitable. There wasn’t enough organic waste; they weren’t even at the 2,800 tons-per-year capacity that the land could handle.

What had gone wrong? Charlottesville produces an estimated 90,000 tons of food waste per year, according to a 2010 waste characterization report created with a GIS tool at Virginia Tech. (That’s enough organic material to fill Black Bear’s facility more than 32 times.) Instead of going to Walter’s facility, some of that food waste went to feedlots. Grain from local micro-breweries went to cattle feedlots. National supermarket chains had contracts with large-scale haulers that brought organics to feedlots.

More importantly, disposing of waste in landfills is cheap and easy in Virginia. Local landfills are accessible and charge between $45 and $65 per ton. Black Bear Composting couldn’t undercut landfill pricing. “Virginia is the second largest garbage importing state,” says Walter. “Landfills are big business here.”

Most significant of all, there was little political will to make commercial composting economically viable in Virginia. Though localities have targets for recycling, there are no consequences for failing to meet those targets. Unlike many neighboring states, Virginia doesn’t even ban disposing of yard trimmings in landfills.

In December 2016, Black Bear Composting’s facility stopped accepting new organic material. Walter planned to stay open to sell finished compost until Memorial Day or until it sold out, whichever came first.

Rebirth

Walter told his clients that he would keep the hauling side of the business open for as long as he could. But he’d have to bring their organic materials farther away, which would be more expensive, and they’d have to pay other facilities—which had higher fees—to take the materials.

“We were in limbo for a year,” says Walter. He kept hauling for his core clients and brought their materials to transfer points that eventually sent organic waste to facilities in Lynchburg and Waverly. “That experience taught us our true costs. And it also taught us that some of our clients were willing to pay those higher prices because they believed in composting.”

It was through Walter’s core clients that he was able to reopen. He had to raise his prices, but his clients stuck by him. “It’s a one-day-at-a-time process,” says Walter. “I’m doing everything I can to keep costs down, be more efficient. Automate and optimize where I can.” But in many ways, the composting business requires the human touch. Composting is very susceptible to contamination and machines can’t sort through organic material.

These days, Walter likes his daily work. “I’m never in an office. I don’t even have one,” he says. “I’m on the road or at our facility or testing products or taking samples to labs or helping manage the windrows.” Walter often drives a truck and goes on a collection route. He likes talking to clients.

And what do Walter’s clients think? Mike Keenan, who founded The Juice Laundry, met Walter at the C’ville Eco Fair in 2013, before Keenan opened his first retail location. Because Keenan knew that composting services were available, he planned ahead to make certain that his business would be as sustainable as possible. “In addition to bottling all of our juices in reusable glass bottles, we use only plant-based, compostable cups and bowls for 100 percent of our smoothies, soups, and acai bowls,” says Keenan. “Absolutely critical for businesses that purchase and use compostable materials is having an industrial compost facility like Black Bear that can actually compost all of these items.”

Keenan partly attributes The Juice Laundry’s ability to be zero-waste to Black Bear Composting.

The City Market has a composting booth that Laurie Miller staffs for Black Bear Composting. “People who visit the compost booth are excited that the city offers this service,” says Miller.

Black Bear Composting’s residential clients number around 300 in Charlottesville, Staunton, Albemarle, and Augusta. The company has four employees, including Walter. It has three trucks, though Walter is looking to buy a new one, an industrial-sized truck with a watertight tank uniquely designed for organic material.

“Because organic waste is water-based, a lot of it disappears as you process it,” Walter says. At the facility, every ton of food waste needs to be mixed with two tons of wood chips or leaves. “Half of it is water, so it goes up into the air as steam. By the end, you only have 40 percent of it left as finished compost.” In the beginning, Walter thought that it might make sense to take the organic material for free and just charge for the finished product. “But the more realistic business model is to make sure that you can cover your expenses by charging for removal and processing,” he says. “Sale of the finished compost is profit, hopefully.”

Walter is upbeat—a surprise, considering the challenges of the past few years. “I feel strangely liberated by the near-death experience of the business,” he says. “I spent years being afraid of what would happen to our employees if we went under. It’s not a high profit margin business and it’s never is going to be.” But he was able to carry on even when the worst happened. “There are no guarantees. We do a good job. Our clients are fantastic. That’s pretty much all I can ask for.”

Years ago, Cynthia Chiles’ mom made hand-lettered fliers to let people know when to come pick apples from the family’s orchards. She took out a classified ad when fruit was ripe.

When Chiles took up a leadership role at Crown Orchard 15 years ago, she still did the marketing herself. “I have a degree in marketing. And I love doing it,” she says. “But eventually, I didn’t have time for it.”

Five years ago, Chiles approached The Ivy Group to work with her and her family business. “When we first met Cynthia, she had a vision of where she wanted the marketing to go and how the business could grow,” says Pam Fitzgerald, managing director of The Ivy Group. “Together, we envisioned a real partnership where we were all committed to the process.”

The first step was for The Ivy Group to learn about Crown Orchard. “We needed to understand what the business was like day-to-day to know its marketing needs. Only then could we create a strategy,” says Fitzgerald.

The marketing strategy would be based on a brand narrative, which Fitzgerald says is a promise to the customer of a certain kind of experience. “For a brand narrative to be successful, it must be authentic,” she says. “The stories we tell about a business and the lived experience of the customer have got to match. It’s a living, evolving story. When someone goes to one of the orchards, they create a memory of the experience, which becomes part of the brand narrative.”

The Crown Orchard brand narrative arose from “looking around the orchards and seeing what memories are being made today, as well as the story of the Chiles family,” says Fitzgerald. “We didn’t have to romanticize the story because it already had everything it needed. Five generations. The best memories of your childhood or of the childhood you wished you had.”

Fitzgerald, along with Franziska “Siska” Matiuk, Ivy Group brand and web manager, and Julia Prince, digital and content manager, oversaw a brand refresh that created a new look and feel for the brand. Working with Chiles, they decided what images best represented the Crown Orchard experience.

“We wanted images that evoked those peak moments that you remember forever,” says Matiuk. “The first bite of a fresh cider donut. Sitting on a picnic blanket watching the sun set over the mountains. Carrying a toddler on piggyback through the peach trees.” The Ivy Group team created a visual design program that would be consistent across media. They overhauled the website to make it interactive, responsive, and user-friendly.

Family is at the core of the orchard experience, so The Ivy Group team has kept the Chiles family front and center. Cynthia is the voice of the orchards on radio, Henry Chiles—as “Farmer Henry”—stars in video content, and Lizzy Chiles, one of the youngest members of the family and a millennial, is The Ivy Group’s marketing partner.

As part of developing their strategy, the Ivy Group team conducted customer research. “We needed to figure out who customers were and what they liked,” says Matiuk. “We segmented the customer base and did a personas exercise where we created abstract ‘customers’ to represent the different kinds of people who come to the orchards.” Parents bring their children, of course, but young professionals come, too. Students visit on dates. And empty nesters come to enjoy the view with a glass of wine. In other words, people experience the orchards in many different ways.

Personas have invented back-stories, day-to-day lives, preferences, and opinions that allow the creative team to imagine what experiences would appeal to them.

“In the office, we’d talk about what kind of concert ‘Barbara,’ the empty nester, would enjoy. Or we’d ask what ‘Tyler,’ the young professional, cares about,” says Prince.

The Ivy Group gathered data for two years. The research confirmed many of Cynthia Chiles’ ideas about who her customers were. “It was fascinating to see the personas come to life and to have analytics to confirm that we are moving in the right direction,” says Chiles.

Chiles says that working successfully with an agency requires building a relationship of trust. Fitzgerald agrees.

“The agency-client relationship often starts small,” says Fitzgerald. “It’s like a courtship in the beginning, testing things out, learning about each other. Later, it’s more like a marriage; there is give and take. We can pick up the slack when needed. The relationship grows with you.”

For instance, Chiles isn’t a “big social media person,” she says. Instead, the team at Ivy Group keeps up with the online platforms so that Chiles can keep up with the changes at the orchards. But the relationship is close; Chiles talks or emails with the Ivy team almost every day.

“Ultimately, what we are doing is framing the saga of Cynthia and her family,” says Fitzgerald, “a great story that was always there.”

Greater productivity is good for business. What if the materials that comprised your products could be used—and reused—more productively over their entire life cycles? No matter what your business makes, you have potential to get more value out of your materials.

Charlottesville-based nonprofit GreenBlue can help. Its mission is to foster “a resilient system of commerce based on the principles of sustainable materials management.” Sustainable materials management is a new way of thinking about how society uses resources and provides new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve natural resources and reduce costs.

At GreenBlue, Charlotte Dreizen manages the Composting Collaborative, which brings together businesses, composters and policymakers to generate solutions to composting challenges. Kelly Cramer manages How2Recycle, the first and only comprehensive recycling labeling system for packaging in the U.S. C-BIZ spoke with Dreizen and Cramer about how local businesses could benefit from their programs.

Composting Collaborative

What does it do?

Charlotte Dreizen: It unites composters, consumer-facing businesses and policymakers to share best practices, resources and generate innovative solutions to shared challenges. It’s a great opportunity for Charlottesville businesses to plug into the national conversation around food waste and composting.

Who is it for?

Businesses that handle large amounts of compostable material—food, yard trimmings, paper and compostable packaging, for example—would likely benefit the most, whether a fine dining establishment, grocery store, coffee shop, catering businesses or a manufacturer of food products.

But almost all businesses have food or other compostable materials. Office buildings have left over food waste from employees’ lunches, as do event spaces, construction sites, university campuses, airports, public parks and most other public and private spaces.

For small businesses in a dense area, such as Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, one has the opportunity to partner with neighboring businesses to share a composting bin if one generates less material than what may warrant individual pick-up.

Who’s doing it already?

Our 57 current members represent a range of stakeholders, from small, local Virginia nonprofits to companies with national operations, city and state agencies across the county, and small and large-scale composters.

Woodard Properties in Charlottesville composts at their office. Roots Natural Kitchen diverts pre-consumer kitchen waste to animal feed at local farms. And, of course, all Charlottesville residents are able to drop-off their own food waste at the City Market and at McIntire Recycling Center.

How2Recycle

What does it do?

Kelly Cramer: The How2Recycle label is an on-package, standardized recycling label that can be applied to any product or any packaging material. It tells people exactly how to recycle all parts of the packaging.

Consumer feedback tells us that the How2Recycle label is changing people’s recycling behavior, and refining their recycling knowledge. Our data suggests that 85 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a product that features a recycling label. Companies can demonstrate their commitment to environmental sustainability with a How2Recycle label.

Who is it for?

If you are headquartered in Charlottesville—for example a brewery, or a gym with your own branded bottled water—get in touch with us! We’ll analyze your packaging and determine the right recycling label for your product. Other good fits include vineyards, juice and snack companies, co-ops, bakeries, local restaurants with their own branded packaging, or shops with their own branded paper or plastic bags.

Any company with consumer-facing packaging is eligible to join How2Recycle. For an annual fee, companies receive custom recyclability assessments for their packaging, recommendations for how to make packaging more recyclable (if appropriate) and How2Recycle labels for an unlimited number and variety of packages.

We can give small, local businesses a discounted rate. We want to support local business to build the How2Recycle movement in our home community.

Who’s doing it already?

The program has about 100 corporate members that represent more than 700 brands, including Amazon, Target, Nestle, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Hasbro, the Kellogg Company, Walmart, Unilever, Clorox, Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo, SC Johnson and Walgreens.

At the Chancellor Street Preschool Co-operative, the business manager is a parent. The person who refills the supplies and maintenance closet with soap and toilet paper is also a parent. Parents administrate admissions and provide diversity outreach. Parents set the tuition, design the schedule and make strategic decisions about the school’s future.

“Every job is filled by a parent of one of the 30 children who attends the school. We have only three paid staff members: the teachers,” says Heather Swindler, a teacher whose two children are alumni. “Every parent has two jobs. They serve as a teaching assistance in the classroom a day or two each month, and they do an administrative or practical job for the school.”

Since 1972, the school has operated as an incorporated co-operative. It has a board of directors headed by two parent co-chairs who are elected by fellow parents each spring. “The flavor of the school can really change from year to year depending on who the parents are. Each kid is here for just two or three years. Each group of parents bring their own expertise and knowledge with them,” says Swindler.

“Parents bring fresh ideas, while teachers have institutional memory,” Swindler adds. Indeed, the school has a very high retention rate for teachers. “We’ve seen which ideas have worked out and which haven’t in the past. Yet I’m continually impressed by the innovative ideas that parents bring.”

For membership in the co-op, current families are given priority and then applications are considered in the order they are received, starting in October. The school has a nondiscriminatory policy and provides a few small scholarships based on financial need.

The curriculum of the school is play-based to encourage self-directed learning. The school rents its location in the education wing of St. Paul’s Memorial Church, but is unaffiliated with the church.

Tuition rates at the school are comparatively low. “Quality education is often expensive,” says Swindler. “Here parents don’t just contribute money, like they do in a regular private school, they also contribute their time, labor and expertise.” Swindler says that mothers and fathers are equally present at the school.

National data on how preschools and daycares spend their funding suggests that at an average childcare center serving preschool-aged children, 13 percent of funding is spent on classroom materials and food, 16 percent on administration costs, 14 percent on the preschool space and 56 percent on salaries and benefits for employees. A co-op distributes funding differently—and can charge less tuition—because of the labor of parents.

The one downside of the co-operative model is that not every parent has the capacity to contribute time and labor to a school, according to Swindler. “Also, we are a half-day school, so we don’t meet the needs of families with two parents who work full-time and don’t have any flexibility.”

On the flip side, Swindler says that parents who have decided to leave the workforce or work less while their children are young often benefit a lot from the community of the school. “If you are someone who had a high-powered job and you find yourself listening to baby talk all day and telling your child where not to put their fingers, the school is an opportunity to use your job skills again and connect with adults around an intellectual challenge,” she says.

Both parents and children benefit from having parents in the classroom. “As a parent, I got to see how my kids were at school,” says Swindler. “How they played with other kids. How they dealt with new tasks and challenges. It was a gift to be able to know the at-school version of my kids.”

Refugees flee violence and persecution to rebuild their lives—and careers—in new places, and over the years, the Charlottesville area has been the initial home for more than 3,500 refugees from 32 countries. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps them integrate into the workforce by partnering with local businesses.

Design Electric, a 250-person company that builds commercial, residential and industrial electric systems, and the Omni Charlottesville Hotel both have long histories with the IRC.

Casey Carwile, personnel director at Design Electric, says that workers who were recent refugees in 2000 still work at the firm and most work as electricians or electrician helpers. “There are inspirational stories,” says Carwile. “Two brothers from Russia came to work for us and both finished the entire electrician apprenticeship program in four years. Now they are lead men on a $14 million project at the university.” Recently, a third brother has come to Charlottesville and joined Design Electric as a pre-apprentice.

Carwile says the decision to hire refugees is a practical one. “We need to get our work done, so we need qualified, hard-working people. People from different countries and different backgrounds, we all work together.” Carwile says Design Electric has hired about 30 people through the IRC.

Language can be a barrier to employment and education for recent refugees, and Design Electric works with the IRC to provide language classes with an emphasis on the English required for electrician training.

Patti Shifflette, human resources director with the Omni Charlottesville Hotel, says that in the last 20 years, the Omni has hired hundreds of refugees. The practice has helped the hotel maintain staffing levels in a city with very low unemployment. But Shifflette feels the greatest benefit has been the creation of a diverse workforce. “Diversity is a strength that positively impacts our culture in the workplace and brings a high level of respect amongst all members of our staff. Our guests appreciate being able to meet and converse with staff who come from all areas of the world,” says Shifflette. “Refugees bring with them a strong desire to work and make a new home for their families, which brings to Omni a strong work-ethic and desire to succeed.”

Newly hired refugees tend to have entry-level positions, and the hotel often pairs a new refugee with another employee who speaks the same language. Initial job training is designed to be accessible even for those who do not have strong English language skills. As an employee’s language skills improve, she has the opportunity to move into positions suited to her individual strengths and skills that “offer higher compensation and growth potential,” says Shifflette.

To some extent, economic growth relies on population growth and the related increase in labor. Refugees and immigrants contribute significantly to the American economy. According to the Economic Policy Institute, first-generation immigrants are 13 percent of the U.S. population, but comprise 16 percent of the labor force and 18 percent of small business owners. Refugees and immigrants also bring diverse skills that help businesses gain flexibility in a fast-changing global economy.

The benefits of working alongside refugees can also be more personal. “When one of our refugee employees becomes a U.S. citizen, it’s one of the proudest moments, and that feeling of pride and excitement spreads throughout the hotel,” says Shifflette. “Being born and raised in the U.S., it has made me realize what many of us take for granted.”

Cristine Nardi asks us to imagine Charlottesville without the nonprofit sector. No Paramount Theater or Discovery Museum on the Downtown Mall. No WNRN to listen to in the car. No Thomas Jefferson Foundation to open the doors of Monticello. No Jefferson School to preserve the legacy of the African-American community. No University of Virginia or UVA Health System.

“The nonprofits in our community reveal what we really care about and believe in in Charlottesville,” Nardi says. “They are the embodiment of our values. It is often said that more people volunteer than vote. It’s off-the-couch, into-the-community engagement. I would go so far as to say that the work that nonprofits do is one of the key factors in what makes us a unique community.”

Nardi, the executive director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, is an inspiring advocate for the nonprofit sector, which she describes as “the third leg of the stool” of the economy. “You’ve got the private sector, the public sector and the nonprofit sector. The nonprofit sector does what the public sector can’t do and what the private sector won’t do, or what it isn’t really designed to do.”

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What is a nonprofit? 

According to the Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s “Starting a Nonprofit” toolkit:

“A nonprofit organization is one that exists for the public good, rather than to benefit individual owners. Any generated income or property owned by a nonprofit, whether profit or not, is used to support the mission of the organization.

Nonprofit organizations can be unincorporated associations, but in Virginia most take the legal form of non-stock corporations. As a non-stock corporation, the nonprofit is a separate entity from its members so it can own its own property and bank account and offer limited liability for its members. It is run by a board of directors and owned by the public, not by its founder(s).”

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Nonprofits improve the quality of life for everyone in Charlottesville, from kids who learn to cook meals at the PB&J Fund to women who receive counseling at the Women’s Initiative to art-lovers who attend the Charlottesville Ballet. “It’s important to realize that we all have a role in the nonprofit sector here,” says Nardi. “We all benefit from the services nonprofits provide and many of us contribute to the work being done as volunteers, board members and financial supporters.”

But how do nonprofits fit into the business community? How do they contribute to the economic success of a city?

Nationally, the nonprofit sector contributed $878 billion to the economy in 2012, or about 5.4 percent of GDP. According to a study by Americans for the Arts, the nonprofit arts and culture industry alone generates $166.3 billion in economic activity every year: $63.8 billion in spending by organizations and an additional $102.5 billion in event-related spending by their audiences.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nonprofit sector employs about 11.4 million people. That’s 10.2 percent of the American workforce. And most nonprofits, like most businesses, are small: 82.5 percent have annual revenue of under $1 million.

A study from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies states that, “America’s nonprofit sector employs the third largest workforce of any of the 18 industries into which statistical authorities divide the American economy. What is more, it is adding employment at a rate that exceeds that of the country’s business sector. Yet, due to the way national economic data are kept, these facts are unknown to most policymakers—as well as to most leaders in the nonprofit sector itself.”

Behind the numbers

Many people assume that nonprofits are funded mostly by charitable giving. But fees for service account for almost half of nonprofit revenues. (In this sense, they are not unlike other kinds of businesses.) According to 2015 numbers from the National Council of Nonprofits, fees for service provide 47.5 percent of funding for nonprofits nationally, while government grants and contracts account for 32.5 percent, individual giving 7.8 percent, payouts from investments 4.8 percent, grants from foundations 3 percent, bequests 1.5 percent and grants from corporations 1 percent.

It’s difficult to measure the economic impact of the nonprofit sector in Charlottesville. There is economic activity itself, but there are also social benefits that have economic consequences. For example, an appointment at the Charlottesville Free Clinic prevents a costly visit to the ER. How do we qualify that very real but tricky to enumerate value?

The nonprofit sector’s contribution to employment in Charlottesville is enormous, due in large part to the university and the health system. According to a database compiled by the JHCCSS, nonprofits employ about 4,000 people in Albemarle and 3,900 in Charlottesville.

In 2011, the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study found that the arts and culture industry in Charlottesville and Albemarle, which is largely but not exclusively nonprofit, generated $114.4 million in annual economic activity. As well, it resulted in $31.2 million in household income for local residents, $9.2 million in local and state government revenues and 1,921 equivalent full-time jobs.

To better understand the economic role of nonprofits, the Community Investment Collaborative provides a useful and concrete example of how an organization raises money and how that money benefits the economic life of the city. Founded six years ago, CIC helps under-resourced entrepreneurs start and grow small businesses by providing workshops, mentorship and microloans.

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A seat at the table

We spoke with Aleen Carey, board chair of City Schoolyard Garden, to get an inside look at what it’s really like being on the board of a nonprofit.

What does a board chair at a nonprofit do? 

There are different types of boards, some are more hands-on and others function more as governing bodies. When I joined CSG, we were a small volunteer organization and did not have a huge staff, so board members literally got our hands dirty to help keep the gardens and the organization growing.  

As we’ve grown in scope and budget, we’ve added staff and our board has become more concentrated on governance. We focus on the strategy for CSG as a whole. The executive director manages the staff and the day-to-day execution of all of our programs and outreach. It’s a huge job! Board members fill in anywhere the staff needs our support to pull off events and engage with the students that we serve.

As the chair, I prepare an agenda for and lead our bi-monthly board meetings. I also sit on the executive committee with the chairs of our individual committees, which include philanthropy, governance and finance. I collaborate constantly with the executive director to ensure she has everything she needs to be effective.

I also volunteer my time with the kids in the garden. I am not a green thumb, but it’s fun to interact with the students. We work to offer the kids positive experiences growing their own food, learning about the land and becoming strong leaders, but when I spend time with them, I’m the one who learns. 

Why do you do it? 

When I retired from the classroom five years ago, a friend suggested I join the CSG board to maintain the positive relationships with students that had made my teaching career so fulfilling. 

I’m so very proud of what this organization has done and what it means for our students and their families. Students learn about plants, agriculture and food, but they also gain valuable knowledge about themselves and their place in their community. I’ve helped first-graders plant peas each spring as the slaves did at Monticello. I’ve been led on intricate garden tours by fourth-graders who know every inch of plot they planted. I’ve observed, in absolute awe, as middle and high school students address the Charlottesville School Board. Those are just a few of the moments that have filled my heart over the years.

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Thirty-five percent of CIC’s operating budget comes from individuals, 22 percent from local and regional foundations, 21 percent from corporate support from area banks and businesses, 16 percent from local and state government and 6 percent from earned revenue.

Since its founding, the CIC has worked with 278 entrepreneurs who developed 267 businesses, of which 155 were startups and 112 were existing businesses. These businesses have created 131 new full-time equivalent jobs, 120 of which still exist. CIC has made 42 microloans totaling approximately $380,000.

“CIC businesses have generated nearly $6.5 million in wages from new jobs created, a return of investment of $4.84 for every dollar CIC has spent,” says Executive Director Stephen Davis. “This is just the economic impact from wages. We conservatively estimate that new businesses have generated over $15 million in economic activity since CIC launched.”

Davis says that the impact of CIC goes beyond the hard numbers. “I would say our impact is in helping individuals build stronger businesses, and thus livelihoods for their families,” says Davis. “We have individuals from different educational, socioeconomic and racial backgrounds working together to pursue their dreams. While we hope their businesses are successful, the impact of these relationships from different parts of our community and region far outlast and outweigh anything we could measure.”

The Albemarle Housing Improvement Program is a nonprofit that delivers critical home services, from emergency repairs to major housing rehabilitations, to individuals and families in Charlottesville and Albemarle who don’t have the resources to do them on their own.

“In fiscal year 2017, AHIP reinvested $1,579,209 in local business through the purchase of goods and services,” says AHIP Executive Director Jennifer Jacobs. “Most of this, about 70 percent, were local supply houses and subcontractors. Most of the funds we raise go right back out into the community in the forms of goods and services that transform into home repairs for our neighbors.” AHIP has 30 employees, which includes three construction crews who in 2017 helped 266 people in 123 households.

Though nonprofits that provide social services often have a more difficult task in quantifying their economic contribution, their work often saves a significant amount of public money while helping build a more productive workforce, both now and in the future.

Piedmont CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) provides trained volunteers and professional staff who advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children and youth. “Research shows that kids with CASA volunteers spend less time in foster care, which saves local, state and federal dollars,” says Piedmont CASA President Alicia Lenahan. “Research also shows that a meaningful relationship with at least one supportive adult can make the difference in the life of a victimized child. That can help break the cycle of abuse and neglect.”

Making connections

The CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals that sets the standard for professional excellence and credentials, is a not-for-profit organization that started in Charlottesville 50 years ago as a two-person office in Monroe Hall. Now, it employs 600 people and has eight offices around the globe, though it is headquartered here in a former Martha Jefferson Hospital building. In 2016, the CFA Institute generated $261 million in the region.

The CFA Institute has launched strategic partnerships with local nonprofits including the Senior Center, Habitat for Humanity and Charlottesville High School, to help improve the financial health of the community. It also works with the Center for Nonprofit Excellence to promote financial best practices to help nonprofits grow and be more financially stable.

Tech Dynamism is a local technology consulting firm that often provides services for nonprofits. “Our company was founded to serve the communities we live in. Our work with nonprofits aligns with that mission,” says Dave Alley, manager of business development at Tech Dynamism. The company worked to develop the N2Work tool, which helps job seekers find employers and the resources they need to successfully find and maintain employment, with the Charlottesville Works Initiative and Piedmont Virginia Community College. “N2Work is a mobile-friendly platform enabling employers to create job postings and peers to guide job seekers through a dynamic assessment linking job seekers with resource providers,” says Alley. Helping people find, and keep, jobs helps the economy grow. “A rising tide does truly lift all boats,” says Alley.

In an article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Sean Stannard-Stockton argues that nonprofits diversify the economy in important ways. During the last recession, when private companies were cutting jobs, nonprofits actually increased employment. Nonprofit employment is often counter cyclical to the for-profit sector because when the economy is up, for-profit business is up, but when the economy is down, there is more unemployment and more community need to which nonprofits must respond.

Stannard-Stockton suggests that there is only one meaningful difference between for-profit businesses and nonprofits. “When a nonprofit operates, it creates financial value in a very similar way [to a for-profit company],” he writes. “It also employs people and acquires goods and services from other companies. This financial value adds to economic growth and advances standards of living in an identical manner to for-profit activity. The only significant difference is that nonprofits reinvest all of their financial surplus back into their organizations.” Whereas for-profit businesses give some of the surplus to owners or investors.

Nardi sees another difference. “It’s a difference of mission,” she says. “One is motivated primarily by profit and the other is motivated by social good.”

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Making an impact

The exact number of nonprofits in Charlottesville is hard to pin down. The CNE has 257 members, but not every area nonprofit chooses to be a member. Some are big. Some are small. They serve different demographics and many kinds of needs. Their funding models vary, as do their economic impact. Here are 10 that reflect the diversity of nonprofits in our town.

On Our Own Charlottesville

What does it do? 

On Our Own offers free peer support services and evidence-based therapeutic intervention for persons with mental health challenges and/or substance use disorders. “Our mission is to provide mutual support, self-help, advocacy, education, information and referral services,” says Executive Director Erin Tucker. 

How about money? 

Staff and volunteers see 30 to 50 people per day, six days a week. “Our services are free to our members, which is helpful so that folks can access mental health services quickly,” says Tucker. 

Charlottesville Community Bikes

What does it do? 

A nonprofit bicycle shop that works to promote environmentally sound transportation, recycle bicycles and make cycling accessible. Programs include open shop time—when people can fix their own bikes with help from experts—bicycle maintenance and repair classes, a kids’ bike rodeo and adult education. 

How about money? 

“Between adults and kids, we give away over 150 bikes per year,” says Executive Director Melissa Wender. The nonprofit relies on donations—sometimes money, other times used bikes and bike parts. 

City of Promise

What does it do? 

Serving Westhaven, 10th & Page and Starr Hill neighborhoods, City of Promise focuses on the potential of each individual it serves and works to provide support so that potential can be realized, despite obstacles. 

How about money? 

The organization serves 175 to 300 children and young people each year. “We rely upon individual donations and foundation grants to fund our programs, says Executive Director Denise Johnson. “Most of this support is local, but after August 12, City of Promise received donations from across the state and around the country.”

Wild Virginia 

What does it do? 

Works to empower citizens to take action to protect Virginia’s wild forests and waters. The George Washington National Forest is a source of water to both the James and Potomac rivers. 

How about money? 

278 volunteers and 503 members. “We fundraise by signing up paid members and are grateful for ongoing grant support,” says Executive Director Misty Boos. “Also, each spring we host the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, three nights of inspiring environmental films.”

African American Teaching Fellows

What does it do? 

Committed to recruiting, supporting, developing and retaining African-American teachers in local schools, AATF currently has 14 teachers in schools in Charlottesville City and Albemarle County, and a total of 21 teachers statewide,” says Executive Director Tamara Dias. 

How about money?  

“Research indicates that it costs about $20,000 to hire a new teacher due to teacher turnover in public schools. The 21 educators that we have statewide correlate to a savings of more than $400,000,” says Dias.

The Emergency Food Network

What does it do? 

Provides food for three days of balanced meals, once a month, to individuals and families in Charlottesville and Albemarle. “Each month, we supply food to 116 seniors, 732 adults and 681 children, on average,” says Office Manager Cari Brown.

How about money? 

EFN is an all-volunteer organization, with no government or commercial support. This independence has allowed EFN to provide assistance with no questions asked other than place of residence—no income limitations, no work or reference requirements. 

Charlottesville Free Clinic

What does it do? 

Through a strong network of volunteer providers, the CFC provides physical, mental and oral health care to uninsured members of the community who would otherwise have no access to care. 

How about money? 

In 2017, the CFC saw 2,913 patients for 9,608 visits. The CFC used the skills of 673 volunteers to make this possible. More than $3 million in prescription medications were distributed at no cost to patients. The value of donated professional medical care is significant—close to $400,000 each year.

Allegheny Mountain Institute

What does it do?

Cultivate healthy communities through food and education. “The newly launched AMI Farm at Augusta Health is a joint venture of AMI and Augusta Health to raise awareness about the importance of healthy eating and sustainable growing practices,” says Executive Director Sue Erhardt.

How about money? 

Supported by a variety of sources, including grants, foundation support, fundraisers and produce sales. “We offer most of our workshops and community classes at no charge,” says Erhardt. “AMI purchases from many suppliers in the region to buy garden supplies, compost, animal feeds, equipment and more.”

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Blue Ridge

What does it do? 

Create and support positive, long-term mentoring relationships for youth facing adversity. Participants are between the ages of 6 and 18 and services are free. More than 70 percent of kids in the program say they have increased educational expectations, and a reduction in attitudes toward risky behavior such as smoking, drinking, and truancy.

What about money?

Each year, an average of 250 volunteers work one-on-one with a young person. “Each mentor commits to spending at least one hour a week, for a minimum of a year, with their Little,” says Executive Director Athena Gould. “That’s 91,250 hours of time invested in those that need us the most.”

Georgia’s Healing House  

What does it do? 

Provide a safe, therapeutic and structured home for women in the early stages of recovery from alcohol and drug addiction and mental health challenges. The 12-bed residence offers women support, accountability, mentoring and transitional services toward independent living. Since it opened in 2015, 79 women have been served. 

How about money? 

Many of the women served have been incarcerated or homeless. “The cost of residential substance abuse treatment typically averages between $400-500 per day,” says Heather Kellams, who does fundraising, community relations and programming. “The cost of being housed in the Albemarle County Regional Jail is $87.17 per day. Our cost is approximately $35 per day, which is cost effective for our community.”

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