Wyclef Jean’s charity—a cautionary tale about the importance of nonprofit transparency

By Collin Lessing, JVA Consulting

One thing I’ve always appreciated about Wyclef Jean—along with his music—is that he uses his fame to raise awareness for his home country of Haiti.

In 2005, Wyclef used his resources as a music star to create Yéle Haiti Foundation (Yéle). The organization offers programs in education, sports, the arts and the environment—all aimed at contributing to Haiti’s long-term progress. Yéle also operates social service programs including food distribution and mobilizing emergency relief.

The Community First Foundation makes nonprofits pass muster

By Ashley Kasprzak, JVA Consulting

Muster is a funny word. Say it 10 times fast and you may want a sandwich with mustard. OK, that digression was just too tempting because I am writing this at lunchtime.

I have to use the word “muster” when writing about Community First Foundation because their GivingFirst.org program incorporates a high level of inspection and makes groups pass muster before they can participate, and I think that’s great. GivingFirst participants must share information that demonstrates their governing and operational practices as well as program models and impacts.

Steel from World Trade Center coming to Denver

By Ashley Kasprzak and Lisa Cirincione, JVA Consulting

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has approved a request from the Mizel Museum to acquire steel from the World Trade Center site. Recycled steel from the Twin Towers has been most notably used in the USS New York, a Navy ship built partially from 7.5 tons of steel originally in the Twin Towers.

The connection between the Mizel Museum and steel from the World Trade Center may not be obvious, yet there is a clear link. The Mizel Museum has the mission to present the continuum of the Jewish people within a multicultural context through the arts and has intentionally expanded its focus areas to include education about cultural diversity and the results of cultural intolerance, of which the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is a prime example. Central to its programs is the message that violence committed against one group of people is violence against all (www.mizelmuseum.org). The educational programming that the Mizel Museum provides educates people of all races and cultures about how we are all similar.

Platte County School District and Anti-Defamation League clash over equality

Last week, the Board of Education for Wyoming’s Platte County School District decided that two district schools could not display banners earned through participation in the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate program because the banners contained the name of the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Colorado, one of the program sponsors. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) stopped the program in the district and submitted a letter to the district’s board asking for the banner to be reinstated.

In the letter to Platte County School Board members, ADL Mountain States Regional Director Bruce H. DeBoskey said, “The No Place for Hate program is designed to teach young people the values of respect and inclusion for everyone in the school community, and we cannot continue to offer the program in your District if you will not permit the display of a banner (hard-earned by many dedicated students, teachers, and community members) that includes the words “gay and lesbian.”

Grantwriting tips from JVA Consulting staff and peer grant reviewers

It’s JVA grantmaking time for the Colorado Compassion Initiative. Our teams of volunteer peer reviewers, as well as our staff, have been thoroughly reviewing grant applications from nonprofit organizations from across the state.

We know how busy you are, and finding time to write solid proposals can be challenging. But if you are going to go for it, put forth your best!

Here are some tips that we would like to share with you so you can make sure that your grant applications are the strongest possible in this tough economy:

• Match your budgets to the program description. Many of the budgets we reviewed were only vaguely aligned with the grant request.
• Be careful with cut-and-paste proposals. Like many funders, JVA is using the Colorado Common Grant Application. But using a common form doesn’t mean that you don’t have to customize to the funder’s interests.
• Do show in-kind, but be careful to show what is in-kind, maybe in a separate column in the budget. Some applications were almost thrown out for being over the threshold budget when a careful reviewer discovered that the total budget amount included in-kind.
• You’ve heard this from JVA before (and frequently): make sure all board members are contributing financially to your organization. One of our reviewers identified as a “big problem” that “not all board members contribute!”
• Add more measures of success besides client self-report of satisfaction. Funders are looking for outcomes—tell us how  you measure success!
• Know what is out there and build on local contacts. Many groups seem unaware of other organizations doing similar work in their communities.
• Tell a story. Bring the conditions in your community to life!
• Talk about your constituency and its needs, not your needs for funding.
• Make it clear how our investment plus your effort will equal changed conditions. There are a lot of amazing programs out there, and we are in awe of what people are trying to accomplish with little. But it is not always clear what is needed and what will make a difference. The easier you can make it on reviewers to figure this out, the more likely your grant application will end up in the “yes” column!

MORE TIPS…

Fill out all the forms!

Add the numbers in budgets…

What do the Tiger Woods headlines mean for nonprofits?

To preface, this is not a story about Tiger Woods. This is a story about the impact  the recent series of events regarding Tiger Woods have on Nonprofit Street.

Back in 1996, when Woods’ pro golf career began to take off, he and his father, Earl Woods, founded the Tiger Woods Foundation (TWF). TWF held its first youth golf instructional in March 1997. Since then, TWF has attracted powerful corporate sponsors, including AT&T, Chevron and Bank of America, and some of the world’s top musical artists have performed at the annual Tiger Jam benefit concert. Over the years, Woods’ dominance on the golf course, combined with his marketable persona, have translated into more than $30 million raised in support of grants, scholarships and the Tiger Woods Learning Center.

Nonprofit has different perspective on double bottom line thanks to volunteers

by Ashley Kasprzak, JVA Consulting

I was recently talking with a group of successful consultants working with all types of nonprofit organizations. We all agreed that a major perk of consulting is the great variety in our jobs. I will add that an even better perk is meeting forward-thinking people who are doing valuable work in their communities. Another way our JVA team thinks about it is like this: We work with people who believe they can change the world.

One example is Dale Dowling, who leads Faith Community Service Fund in Greeley, Colorado. Dale says this about his organization:  “We have two bottom lines: the outcomes with our client families and the outcomes with our volunteers.”

Tough times won’t keep Summit Cancer Solutions down

Littleton, Colorado-based nonprofit Summit Cancer Solutions has offered cancer-specific exercise programs to cancer patients and survivors for the last eight years. Like so many other nonprofit organizations in recent months, Summit Cancer Solutions’ funding sources are strained due to the current economic condition.

“We unexpectedly lost half of our funding in November when the state canceled (some of) its grants due to the fiscal emergency,” executive director Therese Thompson said. “Fortunately, with the help of the Colorado Compassion Initiative (CCI), we have strengthened Summit’s organizational capacity the past two years and now have the ‘luxury’ of time to think about how best to operate in terms of sustainability.”

Why the Census counts

By Julia Alvarez, JVA research associate

On January 8, the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships hosted a workshop entitled, “Why the Census Counts: Nonprofits and the U.S. Census,” to educate and inform members of the nonprofit community about the importance of the upcoming 2010 Census and the myriad ways it will affect the sector and the population as a whole. Speakers from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, The Denver Foundation, the Colorado Nonprofit Association and Nonprofits Count joined presenters from other notable nonprofits in the metro area to share their knowledge with participants.

Why I believe John Hickenlooper would be the best Colorado governor for nonprofits…

Wendy Silveira-Steinway, JVA’s recruitment/staff development manager, shares her thoughts on why John Hickenlooper as Colorado governor would be good for Nonprofit Street.

For the last 25 years, I have been involved in the nonprofit sector. Whether as a board member, a program manager, a director or a hiring manager for an upstart nonprofit, I believe I have a thorough understanding of what it takes to make a nonprofit successful and who the best players are to accomplish just that.