Disability Cooperative

In 2001 collaboration was the buzzword on the street and Peter Druckers’ book, Meeting the Collaboration Challenge, became the latest nonprofit must-read. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal was printing a J.E. Edwards advertisement featuring a businessman with a picket sign that screamed: “Collaborate or Die.”

It seems like others were figuring out what some in the disability community had learned years earlier – partnerships and collaborations result in policy achievements, cost savings, new solutions to old problems, and innovations in thinking. They provide excellent opportunities for growth and better outcomes for communities.

Birth of the Cooperative

The birth of the Tennessee Disability Coalition in 1984 was the beginning of one successful collaboration. The birth of the Disability Cooperative in 1996 established a different kind of collaboration that allowed three small groups to more directly share and build resources to support their mutual efforts to improve disability policy in Tennessee.

At that time the Tennessee Disability Coalition, the Center for Independent Living of Middle Tennessee, and the Statewide Independent Living Council were all looking for new office space. Yet, none could afford the cost of dedicated administrative assistance, secretarial or bookkeeping help or the costs of additional space for a conference room to host community groups.

So together the organizations approached the HCA Foundation (now the Frist Foundation) about funding a proposal to establish the office cooperative. The selling points included:

• The synergy of deliberate and strategic coordination among a related group of nonprofits results in better social outcomes than nonprofits could achieve in isolation from one another.

• Financial savings that result from reduced overhead and duplication of efforts among similar organizations so more funding could go into programming.

The grant was approved and the three organizations moved in together. They were able to pull resources to share administrative staff, office machines, and a conference room. Shortly afterward the Coop was joined by the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee which gained room and support for a part-time parent staffer and volunteers.

The Cooperative Today

More than ten years later (2008) the Coop has grown and moved into a new home in East Nashville.  

In the years leading up to and following the move, the Coop was joined by staff from Support and Training for Exceptional Parents (STEP), the Tennessee Mental Health Consumers’ Association (TMHCA) and the Brain Injury Association of Tennessee (BIAT).

In our current location, coop organizations share access to a large and a small conference room, two kitchens for staff lunch and meeting preparation (upstairs & downstairs), and many common areas that facilitate conversation and collaboration.  They also share the benefit of a common reception area for greeting visitors and copy/mail rooms.

In the end, nonprofits are all about connecting with people. Nonprofit groups live or die based on their ability to communicate complex issues to large audiences, engage supporters in their cause, and foster collaboration within and across organizations.

Collaboration can be challenging, time-consuming and frustrating – and it requires skills that may not be in the toolbox of nonprofit executives and staff. However, we have also discovered that by pulling our unique resources together under one roof we can pave the way for greater cooperation and better outcomes for those we serve.