By Susan Weidener
Inquirer Suburban Staff

LANSDALE - When Russell Johnson became executive director of the North Penn Community Health Foundation, he saw nonprofits doing good things.

But much, he said, was overshadowed by their fear of what the future might hold as they struggled with cutbacks in state and federal aid and shrinking private donations when the economy turned bad.

So he started a series of roundtable meetings that led to an innovative program called the North Penn Nonprofit Academy, which offers business workshops to nonprofits for free.

"I brought smart people from our community together, and we started asking the questions, what are you struggling with, what is difficult for you?"

A former corporate executive, Johnson was tapped to head the foundation, which was formed in 2002 after the sale of assets of the North Penn Hospital.

The foundation's mission is to improve the quality and availability of health and human services in the North Penn community. The foundation serves eastern Montgomery County and western Bucks County, a place where 9,000 people have no health insurance, he says.

Johnson, who earns $115,000 a year, said the foundation had $36 million in assets. So far, it has distributed 76 grants totaling $914,000, he said. Among them were: $28,600 to the Family Service Association of Bucks County; $4,000 to the Harleysville Senior Center; and $76,500 to the North Penn Visiting Nurse Association.

Johnson, 54, brought to the foundation his skills not just as a corporate executive but as a former social worker for Bucks County and a consultant for the Pew Charitable Trusts. Nonprofits, Johnson said, need to think how they can curtail the overlapping of their services and to do a better job of marketing.

"We need to be smart about how to use limited resources. That's why we need to be innovative," said Johnson, who lives in Lower Gwynedd.

While initial workshops at North Penn's Nonprofit Academy are for directors, the foundation hopes the academy can eventually entice board members and midlevel managers to participate.

Johnson said that top managers from 40 health-care and human-service agencies in the North Penn area are taking or have signed up for classes at the academy, which is funded by the foundation. Classes are held at DeSales University's Lansdale campus, and workshops emphasize solutions to problems confronting nonprofits and the consumers who navigate that world.

Terry Walton, chairman of the foundation's 14-member board and a Lansdale businessman, said the academy was unique to the region.

"There has been talk about starting something like this, but from the people [involved in health-care foundations] we've spoken to, no one has put it in practice," Walton said.

"We're always worried about fund-raising," said Robert Gallagher, chief executive officer of the North Penn YMCA, which serves 10,000 people. "The academy is a vehicle committed to helping nonprofits collaborate more. This is the first time there has been a forum for this."

As funding becomes tighter, nonprofits are forced to collaborate, said Jessica Hickman Schneider, program director for Compeer of Suburban Philadelphia, a group that matches community volunteers with those receiving mental-health treatment.

"They [donors] don't want to see duplication of services," said Schneider, who has a graduate degree in nonprofit management from Eastern University and is taking classes at the North Penn Nonprofit Academy.

"A lot of people see nonprofits as these kind-hearted organizations, but with no business skills. This [the academy] is a forum for us to talk about how we can work together."