Catalyst

100 Women Strong Invests to End Domestic Violence

mycfcf — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 22:33:39 +0000

The problem of domestic violence is not new, but there is a new approach to raising awareness about the issue, which can often go undetected until it is too late. It’s called Project Courage and is led by Harbor House of Central Florida. This program will help individuals, friends, family and communities to Recognize what abuse is, Respond to the abuse and the abuser and know where to Refer survivors of abuse for help. It will educate communities how to be safer.

The initiative is a collaborative that brings various stakeholders together to provide services that are in high demand in some of Central Florida’s communities. Some of these families or communities may not be able to have the finances to access some of assistance these organizations provide but through this pilot project many of these organizations are collaborating and bringing services to those that need it most.

Project Courage launched last week in the Pine Castle <http://healthystate.org/archives/1353> community. The innovative program was made possible with $110,000 grant from 100 Women Strong, a giving circle at the Center for Women’s Philanthropy at the Community Foundation of Central Florida, made up of philanthropic-minded women who saw an opportunity to make an impact. 100 Women Strong used an approach to grant-making called a “portfolio” grant, whereby they identified a problem to solve and then looked at what organizations and populations could provide a solution. Members of the 100 Women Strong Grant Committee spent almost a year working with Harbor House on this partnership grant. Harbor House has dozens of partners in this project and is creating a model to be used in other communities.

The Community Foundation uses portfolio grant making strategies across the region and this year launched a new resource to assist donors, philanthropists, private foundations, and other grantmaking organizations to identify organizations doing work in the community. The Community Foundation Knowledge Base puts information about hundreds of Central Florida nonprofits in one place. The Community Foundation uses it to identify the nonprofits working in areas and develop grantmaking portfolios. You can use it to understand how nonprofits operate and verify their transparency.

To learn more about Harbor House and Project Courage, visit the knowledge base at www.mycfcf.org <http://www.mycfcf.org>

Safer Schools

mycfcf — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:50:37 +0000

It’s hard not to be affected by the stories that have appeared in the headlines lately about bullying. October marks National Bullying Prevention Month and the spotlight is much needed on the problem that affects schools and college campuses alike.

The Community Foundation of Central Florida recently made a $75,900 grant to Holocaust Memorial Research & Education Center for an innovative anti-bullying program called “Make My School A Bully-Free Zone”. We found this program to be worthy of supporting because of its scope and collaborative nature. It will bring together volunteers, students, and parents as well as teachers, school administrators and local government. Stakeholders will spread the message that telling a bully to “stop it” and telling the victim to “toughen up” is ineffective. Instead, the message will be that “standing up” and “speaking out” will make a difference in our communities.

Bringing this issue to the forefront of our community is sure to have an impact because it gets people talking about behavior that is happening, many times out of the sight of parents and educators.

For more information about the Community Foundation, visit www.cfcf.org <http://www.cfcf.org> . To learn more about our grant-making process, see our press release <http://mycfcf.org/page16638.cfm> .
Zoila Marcia – Grants Manager

Strategic Giving – Data or Information

mycfcf — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 22:24:22 +0000

We work with a lot of donors and philanthropists across the region and we’ve had an impressive response to our new online knowledge base. Over the last several years, I’ve seen those who give begin to ask more sophisticated questions about how nonprofits operate and whether their gifts are “making a difference.” On the other side of the fence, our grantmaking has been focused on building the capacity of nonprofits to be able to do the work they do to improve the quality of life in Central Florida. What has been missing on both sides of this equation is information – not data – information that helps donors and philanthropists know what they are investing in and information that helps us know where grant money is most needed.

The Community Foundation responded to this need with a unique tool that allows access to a portrait of almost every nonprofit in Central Florida. This initiative has two sides – on one side we made a grant to allow every nonprofit to participate in a process of building a portrait (which the Foundation vets for transparency and checks to verify answers to the questions before publishing the portrait in the online knowledge base). On the other side, donors, philanthropists, and other grantmakers have access to these portraits for free. Donors can make gifts to a nonprofit without any charge to the nonprofit, fund holders at the Community Foundation can recommend a grant to the organization right from the portrait, and everybody can look at the transparency of the nonprofits in which they have an interest.

The successful launch of this tool has provided more transparency and built the capacity of hundreds of nonprofits across the region through the process of building the portrait. Grantmakers have adopted it for their due diligence, corporations are using it for research of board positions for employees, and donors are checking up on their favorite nonprofits before making credit card gifts. But the most valuable component of the knowledge base is information – not data.

The argument by scholars and researchers that donors want data to make more strategic decisions seems to miss the point of philanthropy. Lets be honest, data is always good to rationalize a gift given, but is rarely the reason for the gift. Many of us make gifts to organizations because we love what they do or how they do it – even if they aren’t the most effective or efficient. However, once we know the weak points, we can sometimes help.

So, whether you are looking more closely at your charitable giving and trying to make better decisions or want to understand better how your favorite nonprofit operates, information can make you a more strategic donor and provide a better giving experience.

If you love a nonprofit – large or small – that isn’t in the knowledge base, tell them about it and let the Community Foundation know. We’ll include them in the grant and help them establish a portrait in the knowledge base. The most important thing you can do as a donor is demand transparency. The most important thing nonprofits can do for their communities is be transparent.

Mark Brewer