Switching tracks | Jim Phipps leaves a law career to take charge of Portland nonprofit The Iris Network
As an attorney specializing in tax law for nonprofit organizations, Jim Phipps knows what it takes to chase down the funding and the people needed to keep nonprofits running. Phipps, a partner at Preti Flaherty in Portland, currently represents 500 nonprofit organizations in the state - from the small, such as Yarmouth's community music center, 317 Main Street Inc., to the large, including Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington.
But his experience has been limited to the "front end," as he says — developing contractual arrangements, for example, to lure physicians to rural hospitals. And though Phipps has enjoyed that work, "doing it from a private practice law standpoint is fairly far removed from making a real difference in the community," he says.
But on March 17, Phipps will leave behind his 21-year career with Preti to become the new president and CEO of The Iris Network, a nonprofit organization based in Portland that provides job training and rehabilitation services to people who are blind or visually impaired. He'll be taking his experience in the legal world into the nonprofit sector for a type of hands-on influence that's new to him. "It's an opportunity to do something that really directly benefits people," he says.
Phipps first joined the organization's board of directors in 1989, and had been chairman for a year when former president Adam Zayan resigned last September. Though he hadn't been planning a career change, he decided that, on the brink of turning 50, it was the right time to make the transition. Phipps accepted the position last month.
Phipps will not only bring legal experience to the position, but also life experience. He has been blind since birth and knows the difficulties faced by those with vision disabilities. "I think I tell the story of the agency pretty well — that it's possible for people who are blind to work in a competitive arena successfully," he says.
As head of The Iris Network, Phipps will be in charge of turning the nonprofit's latest strategic plan, adopted last month by the board, into an action plan. That plan includes securing the funding necessary to expand the reach of the organization's various programs, including its rehabilitation services, assisted living services and Maine Audio and Information Reading Services, or AIRS program, which broadcasts newspaper information in audio form on public broadcasting television channels and on its website.
The strategic plan also includes the development of The Iris Network's fledgling Access Technology program, which helps people decide which adaptive technology is best suited for their vision problem and trains them on its use. This technology includes speech synthesizers that allow the visually impaired to use computers, and lenses that project written materials onto a television screen.
Phipps will be putting his experience on nonprofit fundraising initiatives to work to boost the network's funding, half of which comes from the state's Department of Labor, and the other half through grants, private philanthropy and Medicare. Securing funding in a state with the most nonprofits per capita of any in the nation is difficult for any nonprofit, but made even more so for The Iris Network because "99.9% of the population doesn't need this service," Phipps says.
Meanwhile, The Iris Network's services will become more critical as Maine's population continues to age, Phipps says. He plans to beef up outreach efforts through its headquarters and six branch offices stretching from Saco to Houlton, so that those with diminished vision due to age can find ways to cope. "If you've depended on your eyes your whole life, you don't know how to do things any other way," he says.
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