We just received notice about a handy web-based resource guide to help East Bay nonprofits and faith-based organizations search for federal stimulus funding. The “First Stop Guide to Stimulus Funds” features a number of tools, including a way to search for funds by topic such as child care, education, health, and housing. It provides a list of funds available, organized by topic, including what they can be used for, who is eligible to apply for them, and how to apply. And it includes additional sources of information on the many government agencies from which stimulus money is distributed. The guide is a joint project of the East Bay Community Foundation and the Office of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland). Take a look at it. It's helpful for any organization wondering about stimulus funds.
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« May 2009 | Main | July 2009 »
June 2009
June 29, 2009
June 24, 2009
New Director of Education at the Stuart Foundation Announced
The Stuart Foundation announced today that Greg John will join the Foundation as Director of Education. Greg brings to the Foundation more than two decades of service in public education. Greg has most recently served as principal and instructional leader in two Bay Area schools, most recently as Principal for John Muir Elementary School in the Berkeley Unified School District. In this leadership position, Greg's worked to shape and sustain a team charged with designing, aligning, and implementing a focused effort to close the achievement gap and improve academic performance for every child. As Principal for Treasure Island School in the San Francisco Unified School District, he worked closely with the central office to transition the school as part of the district's Dream School Initative.
Greg's experience in public education also includes classroom teaching, coaching and program development for a county office of education, and leadership in school-based restructuring. Greg began as a high school teacher in 1984, where he realized that strategic changes to the educational system could yield vastly improved results for children, educators, parents, and the community at large. In 1997, Greg brought his experience as a classroom teacher and a reform coordinator to the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative where he served as Director of the School to Career Initiative. He worked with numerous high schools, district offices, foundations, and county offices to implement innovative reform plans.
Greg earned a Masters Degree in English from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from University of California, Santa Barbara. He also serves as board president for a local conservation foundation.
New Study Examines Funding for Women and Girls and the Importance of Women's Funds
Accelerating Change for Women and Girls: The Role of Women's Funds, a study published jointly by the Foundation Center and the Women's Funding Network, examines institutional giving to projects targeting women and girls and explores the growing influence of women's funds in the philanthropic landscape.
According to the report, which draws on the Foundation Center's grants data, fiscal summaries, and survey research, the rate of foundation giving for women and girls has grown faster than foundation giving in all areas. The role of women’s funds has also gained in significance in recent years, both in terms of actual grantmaking and in terms of bringing attention to “…the catalytic power of investing in women and in women-led solutions” (Highlights, p. 2).
"Women are a rising force in philanthropy," said Christine Grumm, president and CEO of the Women's Funding Network. "This report demonstrates the power women-led solutions have in creating sustainable change in communities."
In conjunction with the release of the new study, Josie Atienza, assistant director of research at the Foundation Center, and Grumm presented report highlights to a group of more than 60 grantmakers and nonprofit organizations. Other speakers were Bradford K. Smith, president of the Foundation Center; Larry McGill, senior vice president for research; Ana Oliveira, president and chief executive officer of the New York Women's Foundation; and Merble Reagon, executive director of the Women’s Center for Education and Career Advancement.
For a free executive summary of Accelerating Change for Women and Girls: The Role of Women's Funds and information on ordering the full report, visit the Gain Knowledge area of the Foundation Center's web site.
June 22, 2009
New Funding Guide for Preserving Historical, Cultural Collections
Working in collaboration, the Foundation Center and the Library of Congress have just released the second edition of Foundation Grants for Preservation in Libraries, Archives, and Museums [PDF]. This publication, issued as a PDF file, includes over 1,900 grants awarded by close to 500 foundations to public, academic, research, school, and special libraries, as well as to archives and museums, for work in conservation and preservation.
Deanna Marcum, associate librarian of Library Services at the Library of Congress said, “We are currently developing new initiatives to help libraries, archives, and museums care for our country's vulnerable cultural patrimony, including modern media during challenging times. We are delighted to partner on this Guide, which will lead people to funding sources that can support their preservation efforts."
Foundation Grants for Preservation in Libraries, Archives, and Museums is available for free download at the Library of Congress web site, http://www.loc.gov/preserv/foundtn-grants.html.
June 18, 2009
Listen! Bruno Manno Discusses Annie E. Casey Foundation's Investments in Education
Bruno Manno, Ph.D., senior associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, discusses the key role that schools play in advancing the foundation's efforts to improve outcomes for families and children. As the lead in the foundation's education portfolio, Dr. Manno shares information about the foundation's experiences investing in programs that give low-income parents the opportunity to send their children to high quality schools and to get services that strengthen their community-school connections. Listen!
June is Funding for Education Month at the Foundation Center. Check out our Focus on Funding for Education page for more podcasts, news, and resources.
June 17, 2009
Re-Cap--Relationship Building: What We Can Learn from Alumni Groups
Last Friday I attended "Relationship Building: What We Can Learn from Alumni Groups." Co-sponsored by Development Executives Roundtable (DER) and the Foundation Center in San Francisco, three panelists from Bay Area educational institutions talked about how they cultivated longtime donors through relationship building with program alumni. The insights they shared could apply to many nonprofits seeking to build a stronger funding base and support, especially those with alumni groups or memberships.
Moderated by Kelli Nakayama, a DER board member and grants manager for Children’s Hospital and Research Center Foundation, the panelists represented a diversity of Bay Area organizations:
- Sue Merrill, Annual Giving Manager, University of California San Francisco (UCSF) - a large public educational and research institution
- June Thompson, Executive Director of California Association of Student Councils (CASC) - a student-led nonprofit for youth leadership training with a staff of two
- Patricia Cavagnaro, Director of Development, Immaculate Conception Academy - a 126-year old Catholic high school for girls in the Mission District of San Francisco
10 Tips for Building Relationships
- Give program alumni, members and other supporters (volunteers, donors) multiple ways to get together because they will want to meet each other and see each other.
- Send a regular e-newsletter and ask your constituents what articles they want.
- Tell potential donors where their dollars will go. What will their contributions support? Be specific.
- Ask beneficiaries of your programs or services to write thank you letters to donors, telling them how their support made a difference in their lives
- Give beneficiaries multiple ways to "give back." If you maintain relationships with beneficiaries, such as program alumni, oftentimes they will want to give back in the future.
- Acknowledge donors to thank them for their generosity. Donor walls are a great way to do that. You can also think of creative ways to build and expand the wall over time (Immaculate Conception Academy came up with an innovative and creative solution).
- Explore social media as part of your communications strategy, especially if you are building connections among supporters.
- Manage donor/volunteer/alumni information effectively with constituent databases (Idealware article).
- Use tools to capture best practices and manage institutional knowledge, especially if your organization relies on a large number of volunteers, peer-to-peer training or high turnover. CASC set up a wiki to support their elaborate transition process for volunteers. For help with wikis, Idealware published a how-to article called "Using Wikis for Internal Documentation."
- Thank and acknowledge. Thank and acknowledge.
Posted by Christine Sculati, Nonprofit Consultant
