The social sector is vital to our nation’s health, but the public doesn’t fully understand or appreciate its value. A recent report on Americans’ perceptions of the nonprofit sector—one component of the social sector—revealed only 5 percent of the country believes they or their immediate families have received nonprofit services during the past year, and only 14 percent have a great deal of confidence in nonprofits’ ability to solve societal or global problems. Recent Urban Institute and George Mason University research underscores the social sector’s value.

If communicating the importance of the overall nonprofit sector is a challenge, making clear the importance of the social sector’s support system—the social sector infrastructure—is an even greater one. But doing so is vital to securing the funding necessary for its success.

To explore how social sector infrastructure organizations can overcome these communication and funding challenges, I interviewed three leading figures in the sector: Tony Bowen, vice president of the Trustees’ Philanthropy Fund at Fidelity Charitable (New Venture Fund supported this project, made possible by nine donors, including the Fidelity Charitable Trustees’ Initiative); Rahsaan Harris, CEO of Citizens Committee for New York City; and Pier Rogers, director of the Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management at North Park University.

Why it’s difficult to communicate the value of social sector infrastructure

The interviewees identified four barriers to greater support:

1. How people discuss social sector infrastructure is not compelling. Harris explains, “First and foremost, language is a problem. Defining the term ‘social sector infrastructure’ is difficult when you’re entering into a conversation, and it’s not necessarily compelling.” Bowen agrees, “I think [social sector infrastructure] is a fairly wonky term. Board members are not going to recognize what it is. They’re not going to resonate with it.”
2. Some infrastructure services have a free-rider problem. These services function as a public good, where multiple people can use them, and they’re difficult, if not impossible, to prevent people from using, even if they’re not paying. Bowen argues, “Many support organizations are having to use their general support funding they get from foundations to pay for all the things that get free-rider access, such as trends data, advocacy efforts, charity ratings, new tools, webinars, and research reports. The fact that there are only about a dozen national foundations that have money put aside for infrastructure, despite decades of pushing for this funding and having this conversation, tells you that our status quo is broken.”
3. It’s hard to see the impact of infrastructure services. Bowen explains, “Oftentimes you can’t see the result of the work itself. If you’re a foundation supporting nonprofit-serving infrastructure, you don’t actually see what it’s like to get that professional development or be in that relationship or go through that learning journey. We continue to look at better ways to reflect that impact.” Similarly, Harris says, “When you give to the infrastructure, you don’t necessarily feel that you’re supporting leaders in a way that you can measure.”
4. The social sector is misunderstood. Rogers argues that though people understand the resources and infrastructure required to run a business, when it comes to social sector organizations, “the assumption is that those organizations are supposed to run themselves.” They are not supposed to need infrastructure services.

How to more effectively communicate its value

Four solutions could help social sector infrastructure organizations better communicate the infrastructure’s benefits:

1. Describe the social sector infrastructure using impact-oriented language. Don’t lean too heavily on the term itself. Harris urges, “Tell me what you’re changing. Tell me what you’re impacting.” Similarly, Bowen says, “We have to talk about infrastructure in terms of what’s happening as a result of it. How were nonprofits able to access more than $50B in federal pandemic relief to meet increased demand in our communities and keep their doors open? Because social sector infrastructure organizations advocated for the funding and taught nonprofits how to apply.”
2. Present the counterfactual; describe what the social sector would look like if the infrastructure did not exist. Bowen asks, “What wouldn’t we have access to? Because if you’re going to solve the free-rider problem, you have to get to what you’re going to lose if you don’t contribute.” Likewise, Harris outlines, “If you painted a world where the infrastructure wasn’t there, then folks wouldn’t take it for granted the same way when you have bad pipes, you don’t take clean water for granted.”
3. Explain how the social sector infrastructure advances equity and other important issues. Harris says, “If you can marry the social sector infrastructure to an equity conversation, you may get a different response. We’ve got to make our issues more life and death relevant. If you find things that are compelling, folks might step up a little bit.”
4. Engage in more marketing and storytelling. Bowen encourages infrastructure organizations to emphasize the “evidence that shows you’re successful at helping nonprofits or donors” and include testimonials on their websites, and he urges funders “to provide support for gathering the evidence that shows these organizations are adding value and making an impact.” Rogers explains, “The nonprofit sector has been reluctant to look at the marketing aspect. I can remember when it was a bad word to talk about marketing. People figured everyone does good, and folks are supposed to just get it. But you have to make it compelling, so people don’t want to walk away. Ask marketing folks for ideas. You have to start with the story.” Harris agrees, “People’s attention spans are so short. Communicating in this world, you can’t bore them. You constantly have to keep reasserting your relevance.” Rogers adds, “And you have to come at it from multiple perspectives to think about what’s going to engage the people you’re trying to target.”

Evidence shows how important the social sector infrastructure is to the functioning of our society. Social sector infrastructure organizations must learn to better communicate the infrastructure’s benefits to secure the funding it needs to thrive.