Volume 2, #3: Fall 2003
In this issue:
Helping Community Foundations Map Family Economic Success
A two-day peer-exchange workshop, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and co-organized by the Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth (CCFY) and the Rural Development Philanthropy Learning Network (RDPLN), was held on October 24-25 in Baltimore, MD.
The workshop introduced a new Thinking and Action Framework designed to help community foundations address family poverty in deeper ways, with greater impact. RDP Learning Network members will be familiar with the approach—it delves into what community foundations can do to address the “Strengthening Families” topic introduced in Building Rural Livelihood—A Thinking and Action Framework for Designing RDP Program and Grantmaking Efforts.
For half a decade, the Casey Foundation and its partners have been refining a “framework” to enable local leaders to grasp different approaches to helping families and devise strategies that will prove most appropriate to their neighborhoods, communities and cultures. The new Thinking and Action Framework is a tailored version of the Family Economic Success (FES) approach, prepared especially for community foundations—rural, suburban and urban—that seek to advance the economic security of low-income families.
In many struggling areas of our country, community foundations—and their donors—are poised to play critical roles in addressing and creating opportunities for poor families. This Framework will help you map a course to more effective program and grantmaking efforts in your region, using and leveraging your foundation’s resources to help families. Each successive step will help your board and staff gather information and understand the context for your own unique FES effort. The steps are:
- Step 1: Think Family Economic Success. What is Family Economic Success? How would we know Family Economic Success when we see it?
- Step 2: Start the FES Program Road Map. With that in mind, what do we know about how our community foundation’s motivation, restrictions, rationale and resources will shape our efforts to advance Family Economic Success where we live?
- Step 3: Do Your FES Diagnostic. What specifically do you know about low-income and struggling families in the neighborhoods and communities where you now plan to undertake your FES work? What FES outcomes and indicators are the biggest gaps, represent the most critical issues to address where those families live? Who is doing what in those communities to advance FES?
- Step 4: Complete the FES Program Design Road Map.
Get more information on the new Thinking and Action Framework for Family Economic Success.
See presentations and other materials related to this workshop.
Around the Learning Network: Member News
Point Coupée, LA, Stirs Up A Recipe for Rural Philanthropy
Take 3 parts local passion, 2 parts local leadership, 1 part Philanthropy Index, 1 part TA from community foundation & nonprofit association and mix well...
Rich in historical and genealogical fervor, agricultural wealth (sugar cane and pecans) and recreational opportunities, Point Coupée Parish, Louisiana, also faces all-too-familiar rural concerns: 20% poverty rate, below-average per capita income, 4 of every 5 residents with less than eighth-grade reading ability.
Point Coupée is located in the heart of Creole French plantation country, about 40 miles northwest of Baton Rouge. With a population of about 23,000, Point Coupée is 37% African American and 61% white. With a history of racial and power inequities, Point Coupée has struggled to forge inclusive, grassroots change.
Beginning in 1995 with the creation of the Helping Other People Everyday Ministry (HOPE), a group of local ministers, social service providers and community leaders set about to change this history through homegrown solutions and inclusive process. A 1997 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant fortified the group’s resolve to counter Point Coupée’s historical legacy with diverse, inclusive and participatory approaches to community development. By fall 2000, HOPE’s board of directors had engaged a parishwide community visioning process. The process resulted in five priority areas and six self-selected action teams that would drive Point Coupée’s vision of success.
Meanwhile, this grassroots effort caught the attention of the Louisiana Association of Nonprofits (LANP) and its New Ventures in Philanthropy initiative. New Ventures brought LANP into contact with the Southern Philanthropy Consortium (SPC). And, LANP, in turn, brought SPC into timely and fortuitous contact with Point Coupée. SPC was on the lookout for a rural, diverse, grassroots community where it might test its newest tool: The Philanthropy Index. Point Coupée, with its many challenges and burgeoning renaissance, fit the bill!
The Philanthropy Index is a step-by-step process for measuring a rural community's potential for philanthropy. It uses "hard" data, compiled from national sources like the IRS and Census Bureau, to objectively measure the financial wealth that exists in a community. It also poses a number of subjective questions to help community leaders measure levels of involvement from individuals and businesses to determine the likelihood that a community can engage in creating a charitable fund.
About 20 Point Coupée residents attended that first meeting with the tool’s designers to discuss The Philanthropy Indexand Point Coupée. From the beginning, organizers held firm on one crucial decision: Anyone and everyone interested in building philanthropy in Point Coupée would be included in the process. Excited by the concept and intrigued to learn just what Point Coupée’s philanthropic potential might be, a group of community leaders sat down to complete the “Local Knowledge” component of the Index. Scoring 130 (out of a possible 100!) points on the “test,” Point Coupée received a jolt of “can-do-ism” and a $100 gift from a board member to launch The Point Coupée Enrichment Fund, established to enhance the quality of life for all Point Coupée Parish residents. A month after launching the fund in March 2003, the group had raised over $100,000.
After lengthy discussions and negotiations, a final ingredient was added when the Fund’s board agreed to “park” the fund with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF). The agreement: The local board raises the funds and determines priorities and awards, while BRAF handles financial and administrative duties. Key to the board’s decision to include BRAF in the process was BRAF’s commitment to the local, grassroots elements of this fund. As the Enrichment Fund’s board repeats again and again: The number of gifts to the fund is far more important than the size of the gift.
Perhaps founding organizer of the Point Coupée Enrichment Fund Gail Hurst says it best: “The concept before was: You have to be rich to give. Now the idea is that the Enrichment Fund is something that you can choose to do—and that anyone and everyone can do it. Everybody now has the feeling ‘We can put in.’ Now, people think of a philanthropist as a giving person.”
To learn about The Philanthropy Index, contact Alan McGregor at alan@srdi.org or visit www.philanthropyindex.org. To learn more about the Point Coupée Enrichment Fund, contact Joanna Wurtele, founding organizer, Point Coupée Enrichment Fund, at jwramsey27@aol.com or Sonjah S. McKnight, Asset Development of BRAF at sonjahm@braf.org.
Greater Rustenburg (South Africa) Community Foundation Moves Toward Historic Agreement
The Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation (GRCF), located in the North West Province of South Africa, is on the verge of an agreement with the region’s mining industry to coordinate and advise local grantmaking for several leading mines. Executive Director Christine Delport reports that the three largest mines currently award approximately 50 million rand (or $7M in US dollars). “But, [GRCF] is not geared for that yet—so we hope to be able to help them spend about 10 million rand (or $1.5M in US dollars) during the financial year.”
Because GRCF is a young foundation, founded in 1998, and a small grantmaker in comparison to the mining industry, critical questions regarding autonomy and community representation have arisen with this new opportunity. Key among these are: How do we build trust in the community without being perceived as simply serving mining industry’s agenda? And, on the other hand: How can we serve the mining industry in ways that enhance their social investment and keep them at the table?.
Delport is cautiously optimistic: “Fortunately, we have reached a stage in this process where there is total trust between the mining houses and GRCF and we are now ‘talking’ to each other and... identifying joint initiatives to sponsor—to begin with, only a few—to allow us all to learn lessons... and develop a set of best practices.”
Delport is joined in her optimism by Pierre Lourens, CEO of the Implats Community Development Trust—the charitable arm of Implats Platinum. At the Southern African Grantmakers Associations Annual Conference two weeks ago, Lourens demonstrated the vision of community philanthropy it shares with GRCF: “The money that Implats has injected into the GRCF over the years can rightfully be considered a good investment. It will still take years to change the Rustenburg community from a recipient of funds to a contributor. However, the process has started and endowment is growing steadily. Hopefully, the trend of establishing community foundations throughout South Africa will elevate this vehicle to the level that it has reached in developed countries.” To learn more about the Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation or to offer her some advice, email Christine Delport at christine@grcf.co.za.
Southern Illinois Community Foundation Cultivates Regional RDP
Years of hard work and steady, start-up progress began to pay off in May of this year when the Southern Illinois Community Foundation (SICF) qualified for a long-term capacity building initiative. Established in 2000, SICF has recently reached $250,000 in assets. As the only community foundation serving its rural region, SICF is uniquely positioned to assist donors and generate programs to serve the region.
Last spring, SICF was selected to participate in Grand Victoria Foundation’s Communityworks initiative. The initiative is a 5-year, $12 million partnership with Illinois community foundations aimed at improving the quality of life for Illinois residents. Based on a belief that when communities work well, citizens enjoy a strong economy and healthy environment, the Elgin, Illinois-based Grand Victoria Foundation envisions helping community foundations address three main issues: workforce development, land use and protection, and child care.
In Phase I, each participating foundation will receive some general operating support as well as $50,000 for a 2-1 challenge grant to establish a Communityworks endowment supporting Grand Victoria’s three issue areas. Phase II will provide additional operating support and an additional dollar-for-dollar challenge grant for the Communityworks endowment. Grand Victoria Foundation selected 18 community foundations for the initiative based upon each foundation’s interest in the target issue areas and an eagerness to work in partnership to effect change.
Meanwhile, SICF is also a co-applicant with The Southern Illinois University Office of Economic and Regional Development and the Senator Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for funding from the Kellogg Foundation. If funded, SICF and their partners will lead a unified effort to build regional leadership as well as asset and equity capacity for the southernmost counties of Illinois. As SICF President Maggie Flanagan says: “We are talking doubly rural here!”
SICF’s efforts exemplify RDP: private philanthropy, regional nonprofits and a regional community foundation working together toward shared rural goals. Again, Maggie Flanagan: “This is a significant partnership. We are very excited and as you can imagine [the initiative] is just the boost we needed! ...[we] believe that SICF is positioned for significant growth during these next crucial years.” Stay tuned for updates from SICF or contact Maggie Flanagan at info@sicf.org .
Start Talkin' RDP! The Talkin' RDP! Listserv aims to deepen peer connections and spread useful information throughout the Rural Development Philanthropy Learning Network... without waiting for in-person meetings, travel and telephone costs. Use Talkin' RDP! to:
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News YOU Can Use:
Info and resources in the world of RDP
Aspen’s Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program (NSPP) Forum Discusses Provocative Article: When published in the Harvard Business Review last May, "The Nonprofit Sector's $100 Billion Opportunity," co-authored by former Senator Bill Bradley, Paul Jansen and Les Silverman of McKinsey & Company's Institute on the Nonprofit Sector, made quite a splash. NSPP held a forum last summer using the article as a point of entry into a number of nonprofit management issues. Review an account of the proceedings.- New Tool Helps Community-Based Organizations Measure Impact: It's called You Get What You Measure and it aims to help a community or organization develop capacity to decide “where it is and...focus energy on actions that will take it where it wants to go.” Learn more.
- Nebraska Affiliate Funds Offer Advice on Tapping into Alumni Networks: The Nebraska Community Foundation’s newsletter, Update, highlights strategies employed by its many rural affiliates to raise and award funds and to build stronger rural communities. Recently, a brief article offered advice on tapping into rural alumni giving. Read more.
- Kansas City Fed Conference Focuses on Rural Entrepreneurs: Rural community developers often cite entrepreneurship as key to rural success. The conference offered presentations and discussions on the pros and cons of entrepreneurship programs.
- New Book Offers Insight Into Rural Reality: Rural Communities: Legacy and Change, by authors Cornelia Butler Flora, Jan L. Flora, with Susan Fey, focuses on challenges facing rural America and offers communities and students a framework for understanding rural society based on the concepts and explanations of social science. Issues covered include racial and cultural diversity; governmental, economic, and social resources; and how communities organize for action and change. "This book paints an illuminating picture of the complexity that is rural America today. Its rich case studies and excellent theoretical context provide a highly readable examination of the issues confronting 20 percent of America's people and 80 percent of its geography."—Karl N. Stauber, President of the Northwest Area Foundation, St. Paul, MN, and former Under Secretary, USDA. Order book.
Do you have news (aha!) or success (yippee!) you'd like to share with your RDP Learning Network peers? Don't be shy! Send it to either rdpinfo@aspencsg.org or jt@aspeninstitute.org. |
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Membership in the Learning Network is free and open to any organization or individual committed to advancing innovative strategies aimed at improving RDP practice and outcomes.
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Rural Development Philanthropy is the process and practice of creating and strengthening locally controlled endowment, grantmaking and community programs to improve rural livelihoods, economies and community vitality.
The RDP Learning Network is a diverse group of community foundations and philanthropic organizations learning from one another innovative strategies to improve RDP practice and outcomes.
With support from its philanthropic partners, The Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group (CSG) manages the Network and collects and disseminates RDP tools, stories and strategies to the community foundation and community development fields.
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Zest is produced and published for the Rural Development Philanthropy Learning Network (RDPLN) and its friends by The Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group (CSG).
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Look for our next issue in Winter 2004!