Nonprofit organizations in Wisconsin are working together to save money and to share ideas in a challenging economy.

The Wisconsin Nonprofits Association is the brainchild of JoAnn Stormer, executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program, and Heidi Fisher, director of annual giving and major gifts for the UW-Eau Claire Foundation. A similar effort was tried in the early 1990s but failed.

The WNPA, which is marking its one-year anniversary, has more than 150 members who pay $75 annually for a variety of benefits.

"We can get a discounts on directors' and officers' insurance, and for some that might be as much $200 off their current price," Stormer said. "We have an agreement with Staples for discounts on office supplies and we have access to other discounted services as well."

In addition to cost sharing, the WNPA also provides public policy advocacy and education, helps create visibility for the nonprofit sector and facilitates collaboration among nonprofits, Stormer said.

Q: How did the WNPA come about?

A: There have been nonprofit leaders and folks who are on these nonprofit boards and they knew of my own experience of being involved in the nonprofit sector for 25 years. And we would talk about where we would find resources (for those who are starting a nonprofit, are joining a board or other issues) and there wasn't any in Wisconsin. There are some in other states. There was an attempt in the early 1990s but that fell through. So I started doing research and started calling people who had been involved in the effort in the early 1990s. I ended up doing 50 interviews.

Q: What was the reaction?

A: What I heard from people was that the funding was very minimal and computers for nonprofits weren't as prevalent in the early 1990s as they are today. People weren't e-mail accessible. So they would mail out information to people but the cost of that was so intense. There are 33,000 (registered) nonprofits in the state, as a whole. So it's big. And with e-mail, we're finding a lot more success because it's a lot more accessible. And we can provide a lot of resources on the Web.

Q: What kind of support did you get from the National Council of Nonprofit Associations?

A: They put me on their Web site as the connection for Wisconsin and we began making pitches to foundations saying we think this can go in Wisconsin. We were one of 10 states that didn't have a state association and then we began making pitches. We told them that we thought it was time for a state association in Wisconsin. We think we can make a difference learning from the failures from before, but we wanted to do a feasibility study to find out if it could really work.

Q: What did the study entail?

A: We did 11 focus groups around the state. We did a survey that UW-Milwaukee helped us out with and we ended up with over 1,000 non-profit leaders responding to us. We asked them about their challenges and needs and if there was a state association that could respond to those, would they be interested in joining. We had about 79 percent of the people say yes, in some manner, some being really excited and others who wanted to make sure it was worth their funds.

Q: So what has been the result?

A: In November (2007), we opened it up and we have 151 members at this point. Our biggest market is going to be the charitable nonprofits. And I suspect that we're going to see that grow. Watching other state associations, we're probably right on target.

Q: What is the WRLP?

A: It started 25 years ago (and is part of UW-Extension) in response to the thought that there were not enough leaders in rural Wisconsin. There actually may be enough leaders but not an opportunity for training for them. If you lived in an urban setting, you had the universities at your door, but if you lived in smaller, rural communities maybe you just didn't have that same access. There are now 38 of these around the world. Seven countries have this same program model as well as 30 states (not including Wisconsin).

Q: What is the leadership training like?

A: The model consists, for us, of eight (three-day) in-state seminars that are on issues and we move them all over the state on purpose so people get exposure to different people and resources all over the state. People who come to this program are already leaders. They've already sort of tested the waters with their leadership and they want to get better at doing public leadership kind of roles. They want to broaden their knowledge about issues. They want to network and expand their network so their knowledge and their network are both local and global.

Q: What's the success rate?

A: About 69 percent of our alumni go on to elected office, local or state. So we have folks who are on school boards, county boards, mayors and state legislators. About 84 percent go to do things in their communities like foundation boards, hospital boards or have started non-profits. A little more than 50 percent do things in their profession.

JoANN STORMER

Age: 52

Education: Edgewood College

Grew up in: Rockford, Ill.

Family: Husband, Steve Stormer, and a grown daughter

Positions: Executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program and interim director of the Wisconsin Nonprofits Association, both at 610 Langdon St.

Founded: WRLP in 1983 and WNPA in 2007

Budgets: WRLP, $350,000 per year and WNPA $150,000 per year

Employees: four full time and one part time in the WRLP; six part time in the WNPA

Web sites: www.uwex.edu/ces/wrlp
and www.wisconsinnonprofits.org