Philanthropy Front and Center-Cleveland

Get Involved in Global Entrepreneurship Week

The Burton D. Morgan Foundation has created a blog for sharing your stories during Global Entrepreneurship Week (November 16-22, 2009,) an initiative across six continents to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. 

To celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, The Burton D. Morgan Foundation has launched a blog for individuals to post stories of the growing culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in Northeast Ohio.  Please click on the link to visit the blog and share how an entrepreneurship event, connection, activity or achievement has inspired you to strive for new heights in your life, education or career.  Your stories will be posted and shared with the ever-widening network of people throughout the region who view entrepreneurship as a pathway to greater freedom and economic recovery!  Please feel free to share this message with others in your network who may have a story to tell. Share your story here>>

Listen! Brad Whitehead Discusses Philanthropy's Role in Economic Competitiveness

Brad Whitehead discusses economic development grantmaking and shares information about Cleveland's Fund For Our Economic Future, where Mr. Whitehead serves as president. A philanthropic collaboration of more than 70 foundations and agencies, the Fund has taken on activities aimed at increasing economic competitiveness across a 16-county area. Mr. Whitehead provides insights from the Northeast Ohio experience that may be useful to other philanthropic communities that may be grappling with how to leverage finite resources in response to significantly altered economic landscapes. Listen>>

Find other Foundation Center podcasts here. You can also subscribe to Foundation Center podcasts on iTunes or get the RSS feed here.

From The Answer Desk: What is Microfinance?

A: According to a Forbes article on the World's Top Microfinance Institutions, private investor microfinance funding totaled $2 billion in 2006. So what is microfinance and who benefits? MIX Market, a web-based information portal that disseminates information on public and private funds that invest in microfinance globally, introduces the idea of microfinance in these terms:

"To most, microfinance means providing very poor families with very small loans (microcredit) to help them engage in productive activities or grow their tiny businesses. Over time, microfinance has come to include a broader range of services (credit, savings, insurance, etc.) as we have come to realize that the poor and the very poor who lack access to traditional formal financial institutions require a variety of financial products."

In case anyone wonders whether microfinance is a profitable venture, the Capco Institute reported in the Journal of Financial Transformation that of a sample group of about 700 microfinance institutions (MFIs), the top 176 MFIs experienced a return on equity (RoE) of 17.2%. But what of the effects of the global financial crisis? A new surveyby the UK-based Centre for the Study of Financial Information reports that while the sector itself has a growing client base, microlending may be faced with its first major "stress test", tackling the immediate concerns of liquidity shortages, bad loans and credit risk.

In the US, microlending seemed to be making an upswing in the midst of the recession among small business entrepreneurs, according to a February MSNBC article. One of the major global microlending institutions, Kiva, recently launched Online Microfinance in the US, which enables individual lenders to make small loans to US-based entrepreneurs.

Other major players in the arena, both nationally and internationally, include ACCION and The Grameen Foundation, both of which provide stories and updates on their websites of ongoing microlending projects and opportunities around the globe. 

Do you have a question? Ask Us!

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

News Round Up: Community Foundation of Mahoning Valley, Kresge Foundation, Fund for Our Economic Future

The Business Journal Daily reports (July 1, 2009) that the Community Foundation of Mahoning Valley (OH) has met the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations [PDF] approved by the Council on Foundations and adopted by the community foundation field in late 2000.  

“This is critically important to our donors," says Patricia Brozik, president of the Community Foundation of Mahoning Valley. "When people make a charitable bequest, establish a fund or set up an annuity, they are putting their trust in us. They are counting on us to manage the investment wisely, honor their charitable wishes and, in some cases, provide lifetime income to a loved one. The National Standards confirmation says our house is in order.”

Crain's Cleveland Business reports (July 2, 2009) that MetroHealth has met the fundraising challenge[PDF] issued by the Kresge Foundation and has been awarded $1 million to complete its Senior Health & Wellness Center at MetroHealth's Brooklyn Campus.

Fund for Our Economic Future announced (June 9, 2009) that it will continue its collaboration to support regional economic competitiveness into a third phase to start in February 2010 and end in February 2013. Fund Chairman David Abbott, also executive director of the George Gund Foundation,acknowledged that because of the global financial crisis, the Fund anticipates having fewer resources in the next three years than were available during each of its first two phases.

Listen to This! The Economic Downturn, Entrepreneurship, and Foundation Giving for Economic Development

Deborah Hoover, president of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation discusses the foundation's mission to support the free enterprise system through philanthropic investments in entrepreneurship and shares information about how this type of giving is contributing to a renewed economy in Northeast Ohio, while pointing to support of entrepreneurship as one way that foundations might participate directly in an economic turnaround. Listen!

News Round Up: Minority Business Accelerator; JumpStart

The involvement of Northeast Ohio's philanthropic and nonprofit communities in economic development continues to make the news:

• With a goal of assisting 10 companies in 2008, a recent article in the Plain Dealer explores the work to-date of the Minority Business Accelerator 2.5+, a $1 million project seeded by the Fund for Our Economic Future, which aims to expand minority-owned businesses in Northeast Ohio with sales of at least $2.5 million. During its first 6 months, the Accelerator has registered 30 companies and has 2 deals underway.


• JumpStart Inc., another economic development group supported by foundations and the Fund for Our Economic Future, garnered some nice ink in the New York Times recently. Praising JumpStart's approach, Robert Litan, director of research for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, said “The traditional model for helping relatively depressed areas of the country is smokestack chasing, where a city provides incentives to attract companies or to keep them from leaving,” he said. “But the problem with that approach is that it is very expensive and it is a zero sum game from the point of the country as a whole, because if I attract a company to my city, then I win, but the city where the company used to be from loses.” If a city can successfully spawn more businesses locally, Mr. Litan said, then they are more likely to stay at home.

If you are wondering about the impact of efforts like these and others on moving the dial of Northeast Ohio's economy, check out the the Dashboard of Economic Indicators and read some good news posted at Advance Northeast Ohio about $1.5 million heading our way from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Watch This! Coffee and Conversation with a Grantmaker: Jennifer Thomas, Civic Innovation Lab

View the recording of our Coffee and Conversation with a Grantmaker program, presented May 30, 2008, featuring Jennifer Thomas, director of the Civic Innovation Lab, discussing how the lab supports and funds social enterprise in Greater Cleveland.

News Round Up: Burton D. Morgan Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, Akron Community Foundation

News about foundations and the organizations they fund crosses the desks at the Foundation Center on a regular basis. Here's another installment in a series of posts featuring a summary of the latest information and news.

Crain's Cleveland Business reports that the Burton D. Morgan Foundation awarded $1.2 million in grants in June, nearly half aimed at youth entrepreneurship education. The largest grant ($250,000) was awarded to BioEnterprise, a nonprofit that identifies, evaluates and accelerates the most promising bioscience ventures in Northeast Ohio. Other grants included $50,000 to the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy to support planning for a demonstration and training center to help farm entrepreneurs; $30,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland to support Money Matters: Make it Count, a financial literacy program; and $75,000 to Westside Industrial Retention and Expansion Network (WIRE-net) to support the Great Lakes Wind Network, which is working to develop a wind-industry supply chain for Ohio.

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The Ohio State University announced having received grants totaling $1.465 million from Nationwide Foundation to provide support to Columbus City Schools from the College of Education and Human Ecology and to support key University diversity programs. Support for the Columbus City Schools includes the development of the Knowledge Bank, a database of proven tools and techniques for use by teachers and administrators in addition to support for evaluating the effectiveness of Project Mentor, a program that is a partnership between Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio and the Columbus City Schools, which matches adult mentors with students. Diversity initiatives supported include the Critical Difference for Women Scholarship Fund, the Office of Minority Affairs President and Provost's Diversity Lecture and Cultural Arts Series, and the Multicultural Center's Nationwide Diversity Leadership Transcript Program.

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Akron Community Foundation announced that it is accepting requests for funding programs that will reduce the local stray cat population. The Animal Welfare Fund of Akron Community Foundation was established in 2007 through an anonymous gift to reduce the overpopulation and suffering of Summit County’s untamed stray or feral cats. In August, it will award grants totaling $10,000 to $15,000 to one or more nonprofits working toward this mission.

Watch This: Spotlight on Economic Development Grantmaking in Ohio

You can now view the recording of our live March 14, 2008 webinar, Spotlight on Economic Development Grantmaking in Ohio. The webinar features findings from our report of the same name along with three foundation representatives discussing their stake in economic development in Ohio: Robert Jaquay, George Gund Foundation; Randell McShepard, Fund for Our Economic Future; and Jan C. Van Ness, Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

Philanthropy Front and Center Poll -- Results

Here are the results from our recent (Jan-March 2008) poll:

To improve the economy, what fields should foundations make grants to?

• Industrial development -- 25%
• Urban development -- 18.8%
• Business promotion and development -- 12.5%
• Small business development -- 12.5%
• Employment training and service -- 6.3%
• Other -- 12.5%
• Rural development -- 6.3%
• Tourism and convention bureaus -- 6.3%

Comments? 

Find out what fields foundations actually supported in Ohio. Read our report.