Today we’d like to introduce you to Irene Barton.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
After working in commercial banking for 13 years, I left “Corporate America” when we welcomed our first child in 2000. I was very fortunate to be able to balance motherhood with part-time work and then started adding a lot of volunteering and community involvement. I discovered that I had a deep passion for making my corner of the world a better place, and most importantly – addressing issues of equity in education and healthcare for children. Over the past 14 years, I have held numerous volunteer leadership positions with Georgia PTA at the local, district and state levels and served on several nonprofit boards in a variety of positions, including as Board Chair.
In 2017, I became the part-time Resource Manager for the Cobb Collaborative where I focused on member recruitment, retention, communications, and resource development. That allowed me the opportunity to leverage the existing network I had built through my PTA service while meeting and engaging with many new faces and expanded sectors. It was my distinct honor to be named the Executive Director of the Collaborative in September 2018. Along with our Board, staff and partners, we work hard to improve outcomes for children and families in Cobb County.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nonprofit work is always challenging! While I bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to my role, I don’t have a formal nonprofit background. That can impact programming, development and governance. Luckily, I had sought out many capacity-building opportunities as a volunteer that benefited me. The Collaborative lost a significant source of revenue in 2019 which represented about 30% of our total budget, and I had to strategize how to replace that and remain relevant in the nonprofit landscape in Cobb. Our staff and board spent a lot of hours on strategic planning, reviewing data, meeting with stakeholders, evaluating our strengths and more.
The silver lining of that wake up call was that we were able to do the really deep exploration into what our organization wanted to be. A scary wake up call for sure! And then of course, 2020 came. One of the hallmarks of the Collaborative is that we serve as the nexus of cross-sector collaboration and provide opportunities for that to happen. Very hard to pull off during a pandemic! you just don’t get the same level of collaboration or feel that same level of partnership in virtual settings. The loss of casual networking, the normal chatter that occurs before meetings begin has an impact.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The Cobb Collaborative is the local Georgia Family Connection partner, a statewide network of organizations working to improve outcomes for children and families. The Collaborative accomplishes this work in Cobb County by engaging partnerships, facilitating collaborations, and providing resources for organizations addressing major issues in our community. The work covers a broad spectrum – including reading proficiency, homelessness, mental health and civic engagement – in order to holistically improve the livelihood of everyone in the Cobb County community. Partners working alongside the Collaborative include nonprofit organizations, local governments, businesses, faith-based organizations, educational institutions, professional organizations, civic associations and engaged citizens. With a more than 23-year history of local work, the Collaborative has a critical understanding of the specific needs of the community it serves.
While I am proud of many things that the Collaborative has accomplished, two main things stand out – diversifying and doubling our budget and overhauling our communications. We have a robust social media presence now. What sets us apart is our ability to leverage our partner network to amplify our work. It’s not the Collaborative alone doing the work; it is all of us working together to improve outcomes.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The nonprofit industry is always in flux, right? I sense there will be a continued “professionalism” of the industry. By that, I mean reliance on technology to further the missions. Already we see that Salesforce has a nonprofit module. There are other organizations that provide IT support, systems, etc. and those nonprofits that can harness that technology will thrive. There are a lot of nonprofits and I think we will see continued consolidation – whether that’s formal mergers or working collaboratively on projects.
Contact Info:
- Email: communications@cobbcollaborative.org
- Website: https://www.cobbcollaborative.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cobbcollaborative/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cobbcollaborative
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CobbCollaborate
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCSyO7ZcD2yR9WMVPDKgK7w
