Non-profit organizations around the country are under stress.

The cuts to their funding from the federal government.

But the community needs they try to meet are more pressing than ever the difficult job of running a nonprofit often means there isn't always time to collaborate with other groups.

The new networking organization, Chicago nonprofit Connect aims to help local organizations to break out of their silos and find ways to make the work they do more effective and sustainable.

Nic Bloomberg has the story.

>> What do you think about that comforter?

>> On a recent morning at digs with dignity workers were combing through their 10,000 Square-foot warehouse of donated items getting ready to help families exiting homelessness, furnish and decorate their new space.

Oftentimes we come into our families, homes and they're sleeping on the floor.

They maybe have one bad one air mattress that the whole family is sleeping on and >> and that's about it.

>> Dick's with Dignity Partners with social service agencies meeting with their clients to learn what they need and what they want.

>> The best thing for us to hear is oh, my gosh, you listen to me.

You're asking what color I liked.

And that's the color that splashed over my apartment and, you know, my kid loves Spiderman and you delivered.

done.

>> It's not just collaborating with social service agencies in the past digs with Dignity has partnered with organizations with similar missions like the Chicago Furniture Bank on volunteer exchanges are swapping needed items to be able to come together and unite as nonprofits inside of, you know, competing against each other because we're not out here to do that.

>> Those sorts of collaboration among nonprofits may sound like a natural fit, but there isn't always a formal way to make them happen.

We're all doing super important work and a lot of us are like structure time strapped for resources and maybe we just don't have the the time or ability to connect with other people.

Josie Flanagan's Day job is with the Honeycomb project which connects families with volunteer opportunities.

Earlier this year, she put that networking mindset to use by co-founding Chicago, nonprofit Connect bringing together people from an array of organizations online and in person to share expertise and learn how they might work together, shouting at their events at their organization.

What sort of fundraising platform or research platform to do.

They use collaboration between organizations getting to know each other.

we've been hearing again and again from folks in this network is to really appreciate the positivity because there's so much doom and gloom these days.

And this is a space where we can kind of take the time to come together and work through these problems collectively.

Kristina Lowenstein is co-founder and executive director of the Honeycomb Project which hosted a recent breakfast event we have been working with, you know, now 50 different organizations across the city on a regular basis.

And so for us to be some part of facilitating deeper connection between all of these great organizations.

think it's so important this feels like a Chicago fire moment to me.

>> Longtime nonprofit leader Brooke McKean says moments of crisis create an opportunity for organizations to rethink how they operate.

>> Incentivizing collaboration rather than competing for limited resources or duplicating efforts.

>> They're focused on serving their mission and the people that they serve as a part of that mission and meeting the needs and funders and plan to And when you're on this hamster wheel of the starvation, Tyco, you have time to look up and think, oh, maybe we should work together on this.

I see some really positive relationships forming already.

So I would love to see this become something that's long-term unsustainable.

>> For Chicago tonight, I'm Nick Lumber.

>> Since launching earlier this year, Chicago nonprofit connects says it now has hundreds of members across