From
The Boston Globe. In the picture, Kim Johnson has a job in the Bountiful Pantry part of Work Inc.
QUINCY, Mass. - Jim Cassetta was worried about the economy long before the financial earthquakes of this past fall.
The president of Work Inc., a Quincy-based nonprofit that helps the disabled find jobs, knew that when hard times hit, his agency would suffer cuts in state grants and other revenue sources. Seeking some measure of financial protection back in 2004, he took a novel path: His nonprofit bought a for-profit company.
The purchase of Facilities Management & Maintenance, or FM&M, is paying dividends now. Profits from the "green" cleaning company have helped partially offset $1 million in state cuts in the Work Inc. $25 million budget.
After expenses, the company's revenues provide between 3 and 5 percent of the nonprofit agency's budget, according to Cassetta.
It's an example of what is becoming known as "social entrepreneurism," where an entity uses entrepreneurial principles to create social change. In a time of financial turmoil, it's increasingly being seen as a creative way for nonprofits to help stabilize their finances.
"I did this offensive move to lessen dependence on public money," said Cassetta.
The unionized company is trying to break into the Greater Boston market, said Cassetta, who has started pitching the company to local property managers.
It's a tough target because the market is dominated by a few large cleaning companies. The agency's pitch is simple: FM&M is locally owned; all the revenue is pumped back into the local economy; and all the company's profits go to providing jobs for disabled people.
The goal is also to get disabled clients working for the cleaning company. At this point, the 125-person company has hardly any disabled people working for it because most of its contracts are in outlying suburbs such as Wrentham, which is too far for a disabled person who might live in Quincy to get to work. The company wants jobs closer to Boston.
The company is not looking for handouts, said Al Fava Jr., a Work Inc. assistant vice president and a consultant to FM&M, just an opportunity to show how good, conscientious, and hard-working disabled workers are.
"We have problems with guys showing up on their days off because they want to make sure the building looks good," said Fava.
The mission of Work Inc. is as simple as its name - get jobs for its clients, who have mental and/or physical disabilities. The agency, which is holding a fund-raiser in Dorchester tonight, provides jobs, either in the community through contracts it has with the federal government and private companies, or in-house. It also offers training, such as in cleaning techniques.
The nonprofit, founded in 1965, sees jobs as essential to improving the lives of its clients. Jobs provide socialization and bring the clients into the community, and the agency assesses what the clients want to do and what they can do, in order to find them a job.
Some are trained and work in the community. Some stay and work at the nonprofit's Quincy headquarters. Some have their own apartments, while others live in group homes. Almost all are subsidized by government money, such as Social Security Disability Insurance. About one in six eventually is weaned from subsidies and becomes a taxpayer.
"They have the same dreams and hopes as everyone else," said development officer Jimmy Cawley. "They'd like to buy a car and, ideally, a house."
Work Inc. also has facilities in Leominster and New Bedford. The agency describes itself as the largest employer of the disabled in New England, serving more than 1,000 clients a day. It has 371 employees.
The financial crisis has hit it as hard as other nonprofits. In the fall, the loss in state funding resulted in 33 layoffs, the first since the 1980s.
That's a shame, said Cawley, because the agency's programs cost taxpayers less than $12 a day per client, while the cost of keeping a disabled person in a psychiatric hospital or a day program can cost hundreds a day. It's also tough for the agency workers who have lost their jobs, because people in the field don't go into it for the money, but to help out, he said.
The agency's headquarters are in North Quincy, but they plan to move this fall to a new building in Dorchester. The current facility is a warren of rooms stitched together in old manufacturing buildings, with crumbling walls and leaky ceilings.
There's not enough room for clients, product, and staff, agency officials complain.
Clients are busy working in different areas, some for the federal government, some for private companies. In the "plastic room," clients make intravenous bags for the Veterans Affairs Administration. Elsewhere, others weigh and box various kinds of nails for a nail company, while some assemble lanyards, the special rope used for holding sidearms, for the Army.
A big, growing contract is with a company called Bountiful Pantry, which makes dry soup mixes that are sold in stores such as Whole Foods and Wilson Farms. More than 20 clients are busy measuring and pouring ingredients into plastic bags.
The workers need more room, and the building on Freeport Street in Dorchester should provide that. The new address has triple the space, at about 130,000 square feet, and, even better, it will be stripped down and rebuilt, with all new furnishings.
There will be more room for supplies, for training, and even for the minibuses that pick up and drop off clients. The agency also plans to rent space to other nonprofits.
From The Boston Globe. In the picture, Kim Johnson has a job in the Bountiful Pantry part of Work Inc.
