The key question:
What management, structural and governance (MSG) challenges and options face statewide and regional community foundations that seek to more fully serve their rural areas?
Don't miss:
Covering Rural Territory: A Thinking and Action Framework—an online guide for thinking creatively about how to better serve the rural territory within your service area.Overview: What is M-S-G?
Community foundations that successfully engage in RDP must rely on active and diverse participation and governance, skilled and professional staff, meaningful relationships with constituents and stakeholders, and shrewd local knowledge to broker community resources, challenges and leadership.
The three underlying support systems that will either bolster or weaken a community foundation's service to rural areas are:
- M: Organizational MANAGEMENT capacities. What are the skills, knowledge, savvy, mental models, values, cultural norms, relationships, and financial resources the organization's staff will use to perform its work—and how are these capacities informed by rural experience and knowledge?
- S: Service delivery STRUCTURE(s). What mechanisms (e.g., advisory committees, affiliates, or satellite offices) can be employed to identify and engage donors, grantees, community leaders, volunteers in community foundation functions—from donor development to grantmaking to community leadership? What is your message to rural communities and how will you motivate and involve rural stakeholders?
- G: GOVERNANCE. What is the role and composition of the foundation's board of directors and top managers—i.e., the policymakers, visionaries and community "face"? How is this role embodied in policies, by-laws and board practices?
Related resources
- Thinking/Action Framework—Covering Rural Territory: A Framework of Rural Service Structures for Community Foundations is a guide for community foundations that want to think creatively about how to better serve their rural territory. It describes six possible coverage structures and the characteristics, pros and cons of each.
- Case stories—Brief sketches of community foundations that exemplify each of the six coverage structures.
- Workshops on management, structure and governance—Notices of upcoming events and "workshop in a webpage" archives of past workshops.
- Other resources—Presentations, articles, and other materials on rural fund management, structure and governance that we thought might prove useful to you.
Rural Development Philanthropy Learning Learning Network
The Aspen Institute
One Dupont Circle NW
Suite 700Washington DC 20036
Ph. 202.736.5804Fx. 202.293.0525
rdpinfo@aspencsg.orgwww.aspencsg.org/rdp