Growing up, Bill Dwyer didn’t know much about people with disabilities. He didn’t really know anyone, and no one in his family has a disability.
So Dwyer didn’t have much experience dealing with people with disabilities.
He does now.
Dwyer, the president and CEO of Illinois-based Helping Hand, has spent 11 of his 20 years running nonprofit organizations working with the disabled.
Since 2017, he’s been the leader of Helping Hand, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to transforming the lives of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
He’s gained tons of experience since then, and is comfortable in that environment now. But it hasn’t always been that way,
“This was all new to me when I came into the field and I was scared,” Dwyer admitted. “They look different. They sound different. Sometimes they smell different.
“They get in your space and they can make you feel uncomfortable,” he added. “I think … that’s why we avoid them. We think ‘I don’t want to break them. I don’t want to do something wrong.’
The key, Dwyer said, is to move slowly, to “know what you can handle.”
Dwyer sat down to talk about Helping Hand, how running a nonprofit compares to any other business, and other business issues during the most recent episode of “CEO Thought Leadership Series on LinkedIn Live,” the discussion series hosted by the National Association for Business Resources.
Produced in conjunction with the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For and Corp! Magazine, the series is hosted by NABR CEO Jennifer Kluge and features business leaders from around the country.
Jennifer Kluge: Give us a 30-second overview of what Helping Hand does.
Bill Dwyer: We work with adults and children with intellectual disabilities (such as) Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism. We help transform their lives through genuine care and education. We do it either through residential in the community where our adults are living all around Illinois, and we have a day program which is more of an educational center for adults.
We have a school for children from 3 years old all the way to 22 years old with severe disabilities, a clinic which is rare for Illinois. A lot of agencies don’t have clinics because there’s not much funding for it. That’s speech, physical therapy, mental health, behavioral therapy. And then we help people get placed into jobs and find careers.
Kluge: Can you share some stories of success with the individuals that you help?
Dwyer: I love telling the stories and that’s who we are, you know, our mission and vision and is what we’re founded on. And one of the stories I have is an adult and we’ll call him John. John is about 40, 50 years old and has never had a job. He does the best he can to get a career. And we are always helping teach him how to do things, not get angry or follow directions.
We found a company that repairs wheelchairs and refurbishes them and it’s his perfect job. He came to our board meeting after he got the job, new haircut, new clothes, all clean-shaven … with his head high. You can see the purpose that he needed by having a job.
We have a lot of those stories. I’m lucky enough where when I’m frustrated in my job, I just go hang out with every one of our students and clients and they remind me why I’m here.
Kluge: For people like me who are not in this world at all, how can we participate in interacting with people with learning disabilities or mental disabilities?
Dwyer: I’m grateful you asked that question, because that is perhaps what’s going to change the world. People with intellectual disabilities are ready to be in the community. They’re ready to be there. It’s the rest of us who don’t know what to do. And so learning the very simplest is “Hi, hello.” You know, just go up to them and let them know they exist.
(For instance) I guarantee you they like football or they like the Detroit Lions. So just saying, “hey, you see that game?” You’ll be surprised how many stats they know, all the information. They know you may have a wonderful conversation with them about that or at the very simple they’re just going to say thank you. So that’s a beginning place.
Kluge: Thank you so much for that wisdom. I think we can all use that. I think society as a whole is so quick to judge and so quick to be in a place of fear, then in a place of acceptance. All wise words. And we appreciate the insight.
Dwyer: That’s how we should talk to our staff, you know, don’t talk down. Just talk.
Kluge: I think a lot of people know that nonprofits are businesses, too. Sometimes they think nonprofits are easier to run than a for-profit. I would challenge that quite a bit myself.
Dwyer: And I’ve done both. And I would, too.
Kluge: They’re pretty hefty budget, $20 million and you lead your team just like any other business. Give us a feel for the issues that you are facing now as a CEO and some thoughts around those as far as your greatest challenges right now.
Dwyer: So the first part about a nonprofit is I look at them as wide and shallow, where for-profits are narrow and deep. We don’t have a lot of funds to do what we need to do in the funds that we can get run out sometimes, but we’re still held to—we get audited probably about six times a year on all different things and that we’re still held to provide top quality with less money.
And I think that’s part of the hardest part is even when I talk to my board, you know, they’ll say, well, raise the price. Yeah, I can’t raise the price because the state tells me what I can charge. And I can’t charge more because it’s against the law to do that. Well, then pay your employees less. I can’t do that.
The state tells me how much I’m supposed to pay my employees, so I have to pay them that those whole things of supply and demand and our economy works doesn’t always work in nonprofits. That part is the hardest to make ends meet. Running like a business. I’ve removed that from my vocabulary. I used to say that a long time ago is, you know, we run like a business nonprofit.
So it’s difficult to manage growth when you’ve got to constantly draw money back into the system.
Kluge: Is your funding mostly individuals or in corporate? I know you have government funding, as well.\
Dwyer: We’re a pretty diverse organization and it’s by design because when something runs out, I don’t want to have to pivot so quickly. COVID didn’t bother us. We were able to keep doing what we’re doing because we have a lot of different revenue streams. So grant writing, federal grants, state grants, local grants, what’s called major gifts are people who are donating $10,000, sometimes $5,000, if it’s a reoccurring gift.
And then you have just contributions where some people are donating $50, $10. We have 60% of our employees donate back to our organization. That is individuals that are making $8 – $16 an hour and they’re donating back because they care about what we do.
Kluge: Obviously, you have a strong mission.
Dwyer: So we have about 250 employees and as I said, multiple locations. I get asked a lot, how did you make this or how can you help us make our culture this way nonstop, consistent, whatever you choose, that that’s that’s the number one thing. There is nothing magical. It is hard work.
Kluge: What are some of the most monumental moments that you had and what did you learn from them?
Dwyer: There are so many along the way. It’s those moments that you’re going, ‘I’m done. I don’t know how to do this. I can’t get through this.’ And then you get through it. And that’s a stepping stone.
