Philanthropy Front and Center-Cleveland

Stimulus Dollars Awarded in Toledo to Help Nonprofits

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur announced (Oct. 20, 2009) more than $700,000 in federal funds coming to Toledo. Toledo Community Foundation (TCF) and United Way of Greater Toledo were awarded $500,000 and $202,762, respectively, to strengthen nonprofits in the community. These grants will be administered through the Center for Nonprofit Resources (The Center), a collaboration between Toledo Community Foundation, United Way of Greater Toledo, and the Community Partnership.

Although each grant will help nonprofits in Toledo develop stronger organizations as well as the ability to access federal dollars each organization will do it in slightly different ways.

More than $350,000 of TCF’s grant will be awarded to local nonprofits through a competitive application process. They will also offer trainings and workshops, while United Way will employ a consultant available to provide education and training to agencies on-site.

For example, last year the Frederick Douglass Community Association was in danger of closing. Through a consultant provided by The Center, they were able to conduct a search for a qualified director, revamp many of their policies and procedures, begin aligning their finances, and, more importantly, continue providing vital services in their local neighborhood.

Through these federal grants, Toledo Community Foundation and United Way expect more of these success stories to develop as small nonprofits and faith-based organizations get more and better help.

Watch! October is Funding for Arts Month

Free Events:

Wednesday, October 7:
Grantseeking Basics for Individuals in the Arts at our Cooperating Collection at the Akron-Summit County Public Library, 10:00am-12:00pm.
For you if you are an individual involved in the arts and looking for funding to complete a project, mount an exhibition, put on a performance, conduct research, or anything else arts-related.

Resource Market for the Creative Community, 4:00-6:00pm.
Attend our “trade fair” and meet “vendors” that offer resources and services for artists, writers, and others in the creative community. Don't miss it!

"I Got Funded" Artist Panel, 6:15-7:30pm.
Meet and learn from several artists who have applied for and received grants, fellowships, awards, and prizes.

Friday, October 9:
Coffee and Conversation with a Grantmaker, 9:30-10:45am.
Meet Lillian Kuri, Program Director for Architecture, Urban Design and Sustainable Development, The Cleveland Foundation.

Wednesday, October 21:
Fundraising for Arts and Culture Organizations in a Challenging Economy, 1:00-2:15pm.
Gain a basic overview of what you can do to survive, thrive, and succeed in sustaining your nonprofit during the current economic recession.

Fund Development Pulse Check: How Are Arts and Culture Organizations Doing? 2:30-3:30pm.
Learn about seeking financial support in today's economic environment from the experiences of leading development professionals from arts and culture organizations in Northeast Ohio.

Friday, October, 23:
Community Arts Organizations of the Future, 10:00am-12:00pm.
Explore today's pressing issues affecting community-based arts and culture organizations: funding, leadership capacity, community, and sustainability.

October 30:
Webinar! Funding Trends in Arts and Culture, 3:00-4:15pm.
Join us from the comfort of your own office and learn about funding trends and the outlook for arts and culture from national experts in the field.  

The Answer Desk Is Open. Ask Us!

Do you have questions about fundraising, nonprofit management, and related topics? We have answers and provide them fast. Our Ask Us service is available 24/7.

You can connect with a Foundation Center librarian and ask your question live, in real-time, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 9:30am to 8:00pm Eastern Time and Thursdays and Fridays from 9:30am to 4:30pm Eastern Time. Other times, you can ask by e-mail.

We've answered more than 90,000 questions since our start in 1998 and our fans regularly tell us what they think. So, if you have a question, join the growing number of satisfied customers who regularly Ask Us!

(This post is from Katie Artzner, the Foundation Center's online librarian.)

Final Report from the Alliance Conference: Starting Up and Keeping On

(This post is from David Holmes, training coordinator, Foundation Center-Cleveland.)

I'm back with my final report from the Alliance for Nonprofit Management's 10th annual conference in Dearborn, Michigan. The concluding sessions that I attended explored the need that nonprofit leaders have for education, putting some legs under the sustainability and effectiveness concepts brought out in the opening plenary session. 

Nancy Hall's session, from the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Associations, served as a sharp reminder of the challenges facing nonprofit start-ups. Ms.  Hall reported on an in-house study of new Maryland nonprofits, which found that 45% did not file a 990 within five years of their incorporation, an indication that they stayed small (with under $25,000 in assets, according to the old IRS rules) or that they simply did not function at all.  Ms. Hall's research also found that nonprofits joining the Maryland Association and participating in its educational offerings were more likely to grow in size over five years.  The lesson learned for nonprofit leaders is this: building knowledge about and implementing best practices in nonprofit management goes hand in hand with sustainability. 

Through a case study illustration of the Children's Trust of Miami-Dade County (Florida), the last session I attended explored how difficult sustainability can be. The Trust is a tax-funded grantmaking institution targeting children's programs.  Its "Starter Grants" program, designed to help fledgling organizations receive and manage their first grant funds, required all recipients to attend a series of capacity-building programs.  And while the program had numerous successes, it also revealed some challenges.  For example, many of the grantees had too few staff members to run programs in addition to running the administrative functions of the organization.  One session attendee suggested fiscal sponsorship as a possible "fix" for small nonprofits in this situation (see earlier post.)  Other Trust grantees simply had more to learn than a few capacity-building sessions could teach, prompting the Trust to provide them with hands-on, on-call support.  Overall, many of the problems encountered by the grantees stemmed from too little pre-grant preparation (especially in budgeting and finance)and a general lack of knowledge about how successful nonprofits work.

What this and many other sessions at the conference illustrate is that capacity-building can't be viewed as an "add-on" to providing direct service, something nonprofits organizations thrive at.  Having adequate capacity to manage a nonprofit organization effectively is an absolute necessity, one of the key ingredients required for organizations that want to thrive and grow over time.

--David Holmes

Reporting Live from the Alliance Conference, Keys for Nonprofit Excellence

(This post is from David Holmes, regional training coordinator, Foundation Center-Cleveland.)

Hello from Dearborn, Michigan! I'm attending the tenth annual conference of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, Keys for Nonprofit Excellence. This is my first experience attending the annual conference, and so far I'm struck by the great cameraderie among the attendees--lots of hugs!--and also the great concern being expressed about the future of the nonprofit sector. 

The theme of the introductory plenary panel presentation (7/9/08) was "The Evolution of the Nonprofit Sector." Jeanne Bell from CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, Ann Mosle from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Robert S. Collier from the Council of Michigan Foundations, discussed the many challenges they see currently facing nonprofits--the economy, the incipient retirement of a generation of nonprofit leaders, and the lack of focus on long-term sustainability.

The panelists emphasized the importance for nonprofits on becoming "learning organizations," consistently improving accountability, board training, best practices, and their own ability to adapt to change. Peggy Morrison Outon, of the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management, commented that the most successful nonprofits are those "with a yearning to improve."

All of the panelists underlined the need for long-term capacity-building efforts. Mr. Collier noted that more and more grantmakers understand the value of making investments in ensuring that organizations have the resources needed to function effectively, and suggested that nonprofits integrate capacity building activities into their requests to funders. He also praised funder-implemented capacity-building projects such as the Kellogg Action Lab.

I expect to hear a lot more about capacity-building in the next few days. More to come...

--David Holmes