Coordinated Assistance Network (CAN)

The intended solution is to provide cloud-based nonprofit technology that produces transformational resources for organizational infrastructure, enhance efforts to scale, and implement support to grow, develop and sustain. The proposed technology is known as The Coordinated Assistance Network or "CAN" and is found at CANportal.org. The CAN fully supports a culturally competent, sensitive, and inviting web presence and cloud-based resource. As an organization, The CAN balances the interests of multiple constituencies, including the voices of tomorrow, where we uphold the prevailing standard of our time: that our differences are a gateway to unity and collective impact.

The CAN human-centered design leverages technology to help nonprofits perform nearly every function of a day-to-day operation, creating a problem-solving process that empowers real people to create products and services tailored to their client's needs. Ultimately the portal streamlines their services to those who need them the most. The CAN also connects partner nonprofits to supportive CAN partner programs such as, credentialed mental health professionals, accredited financial coaches, housing agencies, employment programs and a myriad of other wrap-around service partners. The CAN has partner representation in every state in the U.S., serving all Truist locations.

In partnership with MIT & the Truist Foundation, the CAN will offer a total of 200 “Black Level” lifetime licenses to organizations with initiatives that support racially diverse and women-led solutions. In addition to the technology, each onboarded organization will receive 2 one-hour portal trainings and 2 one-hour DEI strategy sessions from CAN leadership.

It is no secret that many BIPOC-led firms do not have the support they need to start or grow their businesses.  Post COVID-19 national crisis, 150+ struggling organizations inquired to see if the portal was able to provide the infrastructure for their teams to work remotely during the lockdowns of 2020-21. At that time, CAN operated under the name of "The Yellow Ribbon Network (YRN) and was well known in the Veteran space as a program of VeteransPlus, the former name of the CAN.

Ultimately, many nonprofits opted out using the YRN, as the military references might have confused their applicants.  According to a study conducted by PBS, nearly 38% of nonprofits will close due to the financial strain and lack of preparation for remote management prior to the pandemic. Most vulnerable nonprofits had to reduce costs by furloughing workers.

People of color-led businesses and nonprofits need capital but infrastructure support, too. As technology moves at light speed and is central to every business plan going forward, nonprofits are requiring/seeking more funding for company assets, such as interacting with clients online, securely managing their own records, client documents, client files, migrating data to the cloud and modernizing existing daily workflows.  This is a burden to well funded nonprofits, and incredibly difficult particularly for underserved or underrepresented Minority Led Nonprofits (MLO's) of the BIPOC and Women Led nonprofit community and often results in a lack of access to resources, structural barriers, and proper infrastructure.  The window of opportunity is open now.

On July 15, 2020, the VeteransPlus leadership & Board of Directors met to discuss a formal name/brand change of the organization as a way to broaden the potential of the portal.  The change was to address Americas current climate of racial challenges, and as an organization, to become more inclusive of nonprofits and their clients. The proposal was approved and one month later, CAN became a presence as the country sought to heal and grow equitable positions for all nonprofits and families. Officially launching as CAN on June 1, 2021, the portal is answering the call for organizations that clearly have been underfunded and marginalized. The vast majority of nonprofits in America are in-fact, small businesses and need all the help they can get. The CAN strengthens security, creates collaborative opportunities, and brings efficiency to the forefront.  

During the first week of business as the CAN portal,  Onboarded totals were: 600+ accredited financial coaches, 80 mental-health counselors, 100 benefits counselors and 16 new nonprofit partners. The CAN now houses over 460 nonprofits, more than doubling in one year.  The CAN has tremendously improved coordination, collaboration, provided immediate infrastructure to withstand future lockdowns and afforded comprehensive technical support to each. Perhaps the most significant improvement for new partners, is the ability to report on programs and outcomes with dynamic analytics of the CAN, a feature smaller nonprofits are underfunded to perform, yet required in order to secure new funding.  Simply put, the CAN is an intersection of philanthropy, impact and measurement.

The CAN is a working advantage to nonprofits serving marginalized populations across the U.S., whom lack resources to perform, report and scale effective programs. Consequently, if those national and community based nonprofits do not adequately meet the needs of their applicants, often desperate people do desperate things to make ends meet.  The world has seen enough desperation in the last two years and with rising prices of nearly every product and service, the underserved benefit the most when nonprofits are strong.

This is a very germane topic and question, but the CAN leadership has always believed, when nonprofits are strong, the people they serve are positively impacted the most. The CAN provides digital technology to protect and advance the fundamental rights of all people, particularly historically underrepresented people. It emphasizes the benefits of technology and minimizes the risks, while keeping its focus on more effective ways to identify gaps and opportunities. The CAN is a wide portfolio of support initiatives that connect low-to moderate income communities to jobs, education, housing and a more economically secure and equitable future. 

A few quick stats of those served by the CAN partners: 94% low-to-moderate income, 52% receive disability income, median applicant age is 36, 51% rent - 24% own - 14% homeless or at-risk, 11% unidentified living conditions, 71% employed - 22% unemployed, 11% college educated or above, 17% require caregiver support.

If the question relates to nonprofits, the CAN is building a diverse set of service providers who collectively contribute valuable thoughts, practices, and perspectives to shape public policy.  

A few quick stats of CAN partner nonprofits: 2,000+ community service providers, nearly 500 non-profit partner organizations located in every state, U.S. territories, and 7 countries. The CAN adds new non-profits each week and will go international by the 2nd quarter of 2023.

The CAN partner nonprofits are located in every state, U.S. territories, and 7 countries.

Existing nonprofits:

The CAN's model has always been to help nonprofits grow and sustain their business models through the use of relevant technology. 100% of the partner nonprofits using CAN technology were established prior to engaging the portal. The system acts as an accelerator by offering a range of supportive services.

"Each nonprofit is unique.  Key questions may help guide decision makers begin making hard choices during these tough times.  We are far from returning to ‘normal’.  It will take years. "  -National Association of Nonprofit Organizations & Executives (NANOE)

New nonprofits:

If you've never launched a business or nonprofit before, you may not know the ins and outs of getting it off the ground. Within the next 12-months, the CAN will develop a comprehensive nonprofit incubator engine to assist new nonprofit businesses with the information and resources to initiate, obtain and grow their company. 

The CAN "Theory of Change" is where collaboration is a necessity to strengthen the efficiencies and effectiveness to organize resources and generate a better impact for a better world. The more nonprofits who use CAN as a daily workplace, the more programs and services will be available to those who require aid and assistance in a central location.  While this is a monumental challenge, the biggest question to assistance seekers remains.... Where do I start to look for help?  Not Google, we must do better.

According to the Philanthropy News Digest at Candid.org (May 2022), "Society places the burden of success on entrepreneurs of color while often ignoring the systems that continue to cause them to fail disproportionately. There is a drive within our communities to create opportunity, but strong headwinds stifle growth. There are differences among starting, starting well, and scaling a business. To be impactful, people of color-led enterprises need both capital and infrastructure support. We need more programs that help people of color see a path to launching and sustaining a business or nonprofit. Business ownership and nonprofit leadership among people of color should not be out of reach; we just need more (ways) making what is a dream for many a reality."

The CAN is a portal of infrastructure to meet the demands of the changing world and to make other people’s lives better. We are figuring out a way to do that.

The IRS suggests that there are 1.8 million nonprofits in the United States. The CAN currently is home to 2,000+ community service providers, nearly 500 non-profit partner organizations located in every state, U.S. territories, and 7 countries.  

The CAN is also home to more than 550,000 clients or "applicants".

The current partner goal of the CAN is to add 250 more nonprofit partners by the end of 2023, 1,000 by 2025 and 5,000 by 2030.

It is reasonable to estimate the CAN could house more than 1 million clients by the close of 2023, 2.5 million by 2025 and 10 million by 2030.

The CAN empowers service providers to deliver sound remedies no matter the applicants social, economic, demographic or geographic differences. The CAN strengthens leadership networks that equip leaders committed to fair equity with tools to advance the health, education and the economic well-being of all children, families, and communities. Stakeholders to the CAN include foundations, corporations, key community constituents, and the strategy is influenced collectively by the leadership of nonprofit partners. 

Specifically, the White Paper "the Sea of Goodwill" written by Col David Sutherland of the Dixon Center, has provided guiding principles. The CAN was designed to answer the statement:

“There’s a lot of change going on…how we touch people throughout our country, that are out there in what I call this sea of goodwill, who want to help our people and their families…we have got to figure out a way to do that.” – Admiral Michael Mullen, United States Navy

The CAN believes people have the inherent capacity to solve their own problems when working with local community led organizations, after all, they know the realities facing their neighbors.  Where case coordination is critical, they possess the knowledge and experience to address gaps in education, health, and the economy, and how success should be defined. The CAN is dedicated to inclusivity and maximizing the capability of underserved communities through scaling impactful programs. CAN partner nonprofits are created and driven by leadership which live in the community they serve.

The CAN is a trusted resource. Prior to building the technology known as CAN today, the organization conducted outreach on a range of services, including financial education, housing counseling and employment initiatives. The organization was approved by the IRS in 2009 and served more than 1,000,000 individuals and families by 2018.  The organization was runner up for the 2014 Classy Awards.

While nonprofit partners enjoy autonomy of their work, funder relationships and other proprietary information, the CAN has a robust partner engagement program, where collaboration is encouraged.  As previously mentioned, the CAN continues to build technology based on the needs and recommendations of its partners.  Recommendations not only assist the organizations proposing the technology advancements, but others who will realize the added benefit. 

The CAN routinely holds conferences with partners to discuss challenges they face in their communities and opportunities to overcome through collaboration, engagement and technology.

By the summer of 2023, the CAN will establish a "Change-Maker Advisory Board" consisting of nonprofit leaders, foundation representatives and both local and national government entities, in order to discuss the CAN's transformational potential to span across a range of challenges faced by small nonprofit businesses.  The CAN service delivery data can be extracted and analyzed for individual nonprofits or aggregated across the entire platform to demonstrate impacts and opportunities to scale meaningful programs by replicating them in similar communities.

The current partner goal of the CAN is to add 250 more nonprofit partners by the end of 2023, 1,000 by 2025 and 5,000 by 2030.

It is reasonable to estimate the CAN could house more than 1 million clients by the close of 2023, 2.5 million by 2025 and 10 million by 2030.

The CAN portal was first online in 2011 and after proving the concept of its value, the leadership team slowly expanded to include key employees to facilitate and strengthen critical components of the system.  Together the CAN brings together a team that consists of a WestPoint graduate as the CAN project manager, a former President of Clearwater Chamber of Commerce, Dept Of Veterans Affairs communications director, a 20-year Veteran of corporate marketing, a law clerk, an award-winning financial coach and director, a decorated DEI strategist, and an experienced Chamber business relationship manager. The team is well-rounded with expertise in nearly every facet of business to continue the trajectory that has seen measurable growth since the CAN transition. 

By working with the MIT Solve team and the Truist Foundation team in the following areas, the CAN leadership team will gain valuable expertise and insight to growing the portal to meet the demands of our changing world.

• A comprehensive needs assessment to determine what resources and support are most appropriate to accelerate their impact.
• Access to a network of resource partners, mentors, and coaches across industries and sectors. 
• Learning and development modules aimed at refining business model, theory of change, and plans for scaling. 
• Invitation to participate in Solve’s annual flagship Solve at MIT event held in May each year. 
• A monitoring and evaluation track to support finalist teams in building their impact measurement practice. 
• A peer-to-peer network to build a community of practice with dedicated spaces to convene throughout the duration of the support program. 
• “Solveathon” workshop focused on refining the finalist solutions and pitch consultation to help finalists prepare for the event. 
• Wraparound services including an invitation to a two-day Truist Leadership Institute Retreat in 2023.

The CAN seeks to strengthen its position within the community based nonprofits at a faster pace and require an additional trainer / demonstration and support personnel position to not overextend the current staff.

The CAN would like to enhance collaboration and sharing of external resources between all partners in communities of practice and elevate community priorities to inform long-term strategies being developed by county and municipal governments.

The CAN would like to further its partnership reach by continuously engaging the following community partners.

Minority Led Organizations - Strengthen the story telling and collective impacts to shape public policy.

BIPOC - Strengthen the story telling and collective impacts to shape public policy.

Women Led Organizations - 

K-12 Educational Institutions - Create DEI interactive videos and educational quizzes that result in credits.

Higher Education Institutions - Create DEI interactive videos and educational quizzes that result in credits toward graduation and future employment.

Municipalities - Create relationships to bolster their involvement and understanding of the nonprofit impact solutions.

Non-Profit Support Resources - Create the first ever starting point for non-traditional wrap-around supportive services