Community Economic Development Projects

Welcome back!

Our team is currently interviewing organizations to apply for Community Economic Development Grants.

The purpose of the grant program is to promote and support projects that address economic self-sufficiency for low-income persons and distressed communities by awarding funds to CDCs to create employment and business development opportunities.

Contact us immediately to schedule your time to conceptualize a project. Your ideas matter here! Please leave a comment.

FY 2008 CCF Funding

Welcome back!

This was posted on the ACF Compassion Capital Fund website today, January 29, 2008

For the 2008 grant cycle, Congress did not provide funding for new Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) grant awards. Unfortunately, this means that there will be no funding opportunities for the CCF Demonstration program, the CCF Targeted Capacity Building program, or the CCF Communities Empowering Youth program this year. Funding for future grant cycles will be determined, as always, by future congressional appropriations.

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By the Numbers

Welcome back! How would you adjust your fundraising efforts if you knew this?

• 3% of the nonprofit sector's total annual income is from private, community and corporate foundations and supporting public charities, such as the United Way.
• The growth of giving by individuall donors in the past 30 years, as a percentage of adjusted gross income is 0%.
• 219% is the overall increase in commercial activity as a revenue generator for nonprofits from 1982 to 2002.
• 60% of the nonprofit sector's total annual income is generated from fees and payments made directly in exchange for services rendered.
  

Cited from various sources by Fieldstone Alliance, St, Paul, MN.
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A 3 hour version of the Good Governance is Leadership Excellence Workshop

3-hour version
Introductory Workshop on the
Policy Governance® Model
By Glen Peterson, Capacity Partnership Group

Thursday, January 17, 2008
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (Half Day)

A new standard for leadership and accountability for boards of directors for organizations large and small

The one-day workshop is intended to transform the way you understand and practice the governing board job and the board-management relationship.

• The board is not just another group of volunteers that are to managed by the staff. They have a unique value that, as a group, brought to the organization ensures that it accomplishes what it should and avoids unacceptable means.
• Of the elements of the management of enterprise, none is less studies and less developed than the governing board. Because governance has rarely been the subject of rational design, boards persistently fall into trivia, CEO-centrism, meddling in—or conversely, rubber stamping—management’s work, and other failings. They do so even when composed of intelligent, experienced, caring members. Governing boards have relied on the patchwork, inadequate job design we have all inherited.
• The problem is chronic, pervasive, and long standing. Public and nonprofit boards, frequently in the absence of a market judgment, fail to govern what results are worth what cost. Corporate boards are prone to over-identify with management, seeing themselves more as advisors than commanders, allow unconscionable executive compensation and questionable practices. Even as the practices of management have made great strides in sophistication, governance remains in sad disrepair. These conditions are true worldwide.
• The message in today’s workshop is not intended for boards in trouble, though they can benefit. It is intended for boards that want to reach for a new level of excellence. Our topic is not how your board can solve the problems that keep it from the ideal. It is the ideal itself that is flawed. No less than a true paradigm shift is required to set us on a more powerful, more sensible, more responsible track.
• Today we will question many of your cherished beliefs about boards and chief executives. Financial oversight, committee work, policymaking, planning, accountability, monitoring, board-staff relationships and other important aspects of organization will acquire refreshingly new meaning.
• Consider this an adventure in exploring an old topic with new eyes. Welcome to Policy Governance®, a new design for accountable leadership of governing boards.

Registration Must Be Made in Advance by Mail or Fax.
Seminar space is limited and registration will be determined on a first-come, first-served basis. Seminar fees are based on an organization's annual budget.
Registration Information is here.

The Center for Nonprofit Management offices are at the California Endowment's Center for Healthy Communities. Their new address is:

1000 N. Alameda Street
Suite 250
Los Angeles, CA 90012
ph: 213-687-9511


Policy Governance® is the registered trademark of John Carver, www.carvergovernance.com.

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Governance Workshop at the Center for Nonprofit Management in Los Angeles

Welcome back!

Greetings and Happy New Year! I hope you are looking forward to a great year in 2008. [Please forward to your network or within your organization as you think appropriate or helpful.]

I will be presenting an introductory workshop on Policy Governance® at the Southern California Center for Nonprofit Management January 17, 2008, 2 pm – 5 pm.

Leadership Excellence—Good Governance is my usual workshop title:

How can you attract and retain good board members? Give them the right job and the right tools. Governance is the highest level of organizational leadership. The job of governance needs to emphasize values, vision, empowerment of both board and staff, and the strategic ability to lead leaders. Workshop participants (board members and staff leaders) will (1) gain appreciation of leadership through governance, (2) define roles of management and board distinct from one another, (3) identify the unique job outputs of the board, (4) avoid meddling and “rubber-stamping.”

More information and registration can be found here.

It would be great to hear from you. Registration for the workshop must go through the Center for Nonprofit Management.

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New Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations

Welcome back!

Beginning in 2008, small tax-exempt organizations that previously were not required to file returns may be required to file an annual electronic notice, Form 990-N, Electronic Notice (e-Postcard) for Tax-Exempt Organizations not Required To File Form 990 or 990-EZ. This filing requirement applies to tax periods beginning after December 31, 2006. Organizations that do not file the notice will lose their tax-exempt status.

Click here to read more from the IRS website on this topic. Your ideas matter here! Please leave a comment.

Dr. Carver, is the board's job a simple one?

Welcome back! [Originally posted 2005]

". . .we all know that simple and easy are not the same thing. Many things are simple in their expression, yet difficult to achieve. Pilot, we want the plane on the runway with the rubber parts down. Surgeon, we want a working kidney. Explorer, we want a new route to China. Researcher, we want a cure for cancer. We want the homeless in housing. We want the hungry well-fed. We want world peace. We want a person on the moon who returns safely to earth. We want a chicken in every pot.

"Those aims are simply expressed, but by no means easy. Simplicity does not enable us to expect effortlessness. And difficulty in no way detracts from importance."

From a speech given at the 2nd Annual Conference, "Good Governance in Action", of the International Policy Governance Association, June 3, 2005.

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Good Governance is Good Leadership

Welcome back. [Originally posted 2005 on Policy Governance blog]

Some board members have told me that it is major work just to keep up with the work of the staff. This statement assumes that board work is one step up from management and it is the boards job to keep up with staff. Of course, the board should make every effort to remain informed about the work of the staff, the outcomes of the organization's efforts, and that unacceptable means are avoided. This is a result of the monitoring function.

The more important leadership role of the board is to be explicit about what the organizations should accomplish, for whom and at what relative value. This is accomplished through writing appropriate ends policy. And, they do this on behalf of the moral ownership. A board that takes this visionary leadership role and then empowers the executive director (CEO) through delegation makes excellence in leadership the output of its work.

The board's work is one step down from ownership. Who is the ownership of your organization?

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Value of Volunteer Time

Welcome! Independent Sector continues to publish the value for 2006 as the most recent with the promise of the 2007 value coming in spring 2008.

The dollar value of volunteer time for 2006 is estimated at $18.77.

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