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CAPACITY BUILDING Capacity building involves strengthening nonprofit organizations
so they can better achieve their missions. Types
of capacity building include: These services can enhance nonprofit functioning
in many areas, such as administration, finance, human resources,
technology and facility management.
Publications How Charities Can Weather the Bad Economy is a transcript made from a Chronicle of Philanthropy interview with Dan Cardinali, president of Communities in Schools; Rick Dunham, a fund-raising consultant with Dunham and Company in Addison, Tex., and Clara Miller, president and CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund in New York. Among other topics they cover these questions: What can your organization do to state its case to donors and supporters during anxious times? How have groups weathered previous uncertainty? And how can you stretch your resources to meet your mission when money gets tight? Click here to access the transcript. How to Increase Office Productivity Using Free Software is an eight-part series that covers everything nonprofits need to know about moving from costly desktop office software to Google's free online office tools suite. This series offers tutorials for getting started with Google – using and configuring Google Mail (Gmail); Google Calendar; and Google Docs, including the spreadsheet and presentation functions – as well as a host of other free applications that increase productivity. To read these articles, click here. Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter? presents findings of a survey by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations of executives and staff members of both nonprofits and foundations. Foundations in the study that have staff and board members with nonprofit experience were significantly more likely than those without any such experience to engage in grantee-friendly practices. Access the full report or a summary here. A Public Policy Primer: How To Get Off the Sidelines and Into the Game is intended to demystify policymaking and provide the average person with the guidelines, insights, and a “know-how recipe” to be able to help shape local, state and national policy decisions. Written by David C. Hollister, former mayor of Lansing, MI, the book uses his personal experience to illustrate key elements of effective (or ineffective) policymaking. Published by the Institute for Educational Leadership and the Michigan Education Policy Fellowship Program, a PDF is available for free downloading here. Turn Reluctant Board Members into Enthusiastic Fundraisers is aimed specifically at nonprofit board members who are reluctant to ask for money for their organizations. The report offers 10 steps to maximize a board’s fundraising potential. It also discusses how to shift the focus away from the “ask” to building and keeping relationships, and explains how to make fundraising more comfortable and enjoyable. Cost for an immediate PDF download of the report is $99. To order, click here.
Events Developing a Powerful Needs Statement Cynthia Adams, CEO of GrantStation, is offering a webinar on how to create a persuasive need statement for your organization. This 90-minute webinar is designed for both seasoned grant writers and those with little or no experience. You will learn how to "paint a picture" so that grantmakers understand the extent of the problem or need faced by your community. In addition, the webinar will include advice on how to gather facts and statistics from the Internet in order to bolster your need statement. This webinar is scheduled for Tuesday March 17, 2009, at 2 p.m. EST. The registration fee is $89 per person. For more information, or to register, visit their website.
Other Resources H & R Block Company’s Affiliate Program allows nonprofits to earn money by referring customers to H&R Block. As Block’s affiliate, an H&R Block-approved link to hrblock.com is placed onto the affiliate’s own website. When users click on the link or banner and purchase online or software tax solutions the affiliate makes money. H & R Block handles the transaction, processing and customer service. They track all sales through a neutral third party and make online reporting available to the affiliate so it can always know how much is being earned. H & R Block mails a check for every calendar month in which the cumulative commissions total at least $25. For more details and/or to fill in an application click here. Nonprofit Advisory Council is a consortium of business professionals who work with the nonprofit industry in Southern California by providing resources that address the challenges facing the leadership of today’s nonprofit organizations. The Council presents educational forums to nonprofit professionals that are designed to provide timely information, access to Council board members, and an opportunity for networking with peers and colleagues. For more information visit their website or contact Adam Jones.
YOUTH SERVICES NEWS - Resources for Youth-Serving Agencies in Los Angeles County Publications Blazing the Trail: A New Direction for Youth Development and Youth Leadership is a report from a national Youth Development and Leadership Summit sponsored by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth. It focuses on actions that need to be taken to improve policy and practice in the youth development and leadership field, and to ensure that youth with disabilities (including those with mental health needs), are included in opportunities available to all youth. The report details a dialogue that took place among youth, state and federal policy makers, and community, state, and federal organization leaders. It cites priority action steps identified by the participants. Obtain a copy here. Keep In Touch: Young People Offer Advice on Staying Connected and Living Independently offers practical advice to youth, coming from their peers who have been through the experience of establishing their independence. It is published by the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth. Obtain a copy here. Preparing All Youth for Academic and Career Readiness: Implications for High School Policy and Practice is a paper from the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth that identifies the challenges in practice and policy for successful post-school outcomes. It offers recommendations on how states, local school districts and individual high schools can prepare all youth, including youth with disabilities, with academic and career readiness skills. Based on two symposia and a year-long research effort, this paper identifies five broad policy and practice areas: (1) Instruction, Curriculum and Structure; (2) Assessment Practices; (3) Graduation Requirements; (4) Community and Family Connections; and (5) Data Quality Challenges. The paper suggests that by addressing these areas, a range of high school policy makers at the national, state, and local levels can improve their approaches for meeting the multiple and complex challenges of all their students. Obtain a copy here. Take the Lead: Inspirational Young People Tell their Stories is an inspirational account of young people’s stories of personal success in their own words. It is offered by the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth. Obtain a copy here. Time Spent Online Important for Teen Development is a study supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s $50-million digital media and learning initiative. It explores how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. Results show that teens using digital media develop important social and technical skills online – often in ways adults do not understand or value. Mizuko Ito at the University of California Irvine led a research team of 28 on this study, interviewing more than 80 young people and their parents, both one-on-one and in focus groups. They also spent over 5,000 hours observing teens on social networking sites and conducted diary studies about teens’ use of digital media. Click here to access the study.
Events
Other Resources Find Youth Info is a website that offers Federally-developed interactive tools and other resources to help community organizations and partnerships in efforts to support youth. Included are tools and resources to help form effective partnerships, assess community assets, understand risk factors and protective factors, generate maps of local and Federal resources, and search for evidence-based youth programs. There is also access to a list of announcements and events. Visit their website for more information. Innovating Worthy Projects Foundation provides support for quality special-needs children's programs throughout the United States. The Foundation's focus is on nonprofit organizations dedicated to developing innovative programs, disseminating ideas, or providing direct care or services for children with special needs, acute illnesses, or chronic disabilities. Grant requests of up to $5,000 are considered. Preference is given to small organizations that might not otherwise be helped. Requests are accepted from January 1 through August 31 of each year. Visit the Foundation's website for application guidelines.
REFERRAL RESOURCES Capacity-building services are available from various organizations and individuals throughout Los Angeles County. Some are offered on a fee-for-service basis. Other services are offered at reduced cost or free of charge to nonprofits (often because they are underwritten by a third party), or are offered directly by a funder (foundation, business, individual donor, religious institution or government agency) that pays for them. One critical step for any youth-serving nonprofit wishing to build its capacity is identifying the right resources. A referral resource for this purpose is: Los Angeles County Now in its fifth (2008) edition, the Resource Directory for Nonprofit Capacity Building in Los Angeles County describes a number of resources youth-serving nonprofits may find useful in meeting their capacity building needs. To download a free copy of this Directory, click HERE.
ASSESSMENT RESOURCES To build capacity, nonprofits first need to do a careful needs assessment, looking at the organization as a living system and figuring out a strategy for how to strengthen it. Basic questions about capacity building, which any nonprofit might use to start a discussion among staff or board, are the following: 1. What kinds of needs for improvement do we
have at the present time? Specific subject areas in which capacity building may be needed
include:
To download a PDF of this tool, click HERE Other Assessment Tools
NOTE: Appearance of activities, publications or organizations in these website listings does not constitute any type of endorsement from the Dwight Stuart Youth Foundation. These listings are provided solely for informational purposes. |
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