Here for Good: Community Foundations and the Challenges of the 21st Century

Here for Good: Community Foundations and the Challenges of the 21st Century
Author: Terry Mazany
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2013-08-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0765642581

The origins of this book stem from conversations among the leadership of community foundations about the challenges they must overcome in order to make such "foundational" contributions to their communities. As community foundations enter the second century of their existence (the first foundation was formed in Cleveland in 1914), the need for knowledge and best practices has never been greater. This book, with expert authors representing the best and the brightest of experts in this important field, fills that need.

Community Foundations as Community Leaders

Community Foundations as Community Leaders
Author: Colton C. Strawser
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-09-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Community foundations claim to play an integral role in fostering philanthropy at a community level all across the United States. Community foundations have three distinct operational roles, including asset building, grantmaking, and community leadership. While asset building and grantmaking have methods available to quantify and measure their impact, community leadership has remained an elusive concept for community foundations for many years. This study investigates the idea of community leadership in the context of 81 community foundations based in California. The first part develops a conceptual framework of community leadership based on existing studies and practical guidelines, including the use of civic leadership, collective leadership, and community engagement. The framework provides an opportunity to apply leadership at the institutional level and assists in examining nonprofit organizations as the unit of analysis. The second part compares community foundations' purpose statements and mission statements across organizations and across time. The findings indicate the overall operating framework for community foundations has remained consistent; however, the stakeholders and goals of community foundations have appeared to change from being community focused to donor focus. The data indicate that the community leadership role has increased over the years but appears to have been primarily adopted by older community foundations versus the majority of community foundations founded after 1990—after the formal establishment of community leadership as a best practice with the field in 1990. The third part of the study reports on interviews with community foundation leaders regarding their perceptions of different leadership tactics, community initiatives, and grantmaking programs. The evidence from the interviews indicated that leaders practicing community leadership, in line with the conceptual framework and definition, are reporting an increase in community awareness, the number of active donors, and ultimately increases in funds raised and available for community investment.

Here for Good: Community Foundations and the Challenges of the 21st Century

Here for Good: Community Foundations and the Challenges of the 21st Century
Author: Terry Mazany
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2014-12-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317468767

Community foundations bring together the resources of individuals, families, and businesses to support effective nonprofits in their communities. Over the years, foundations have come to engage community problem-solving through more than just grant-making. They have added a rich array of other activities, including programs of community capacity building, active modes of advocacy, and centres for meeting. In 2011, the 700+ institutions in the United States gave an estimated $4.2 billion to a variety of nonprofit activities in fields that included the arts and education, health and human services, the environment, and disaster relief. The origins of this book stem from conversations among the leadership of community foundations about the challenges they must overcome in order to make such "foundational" contributions to their communities. As community foundations enter the second century of their existence (the first foundation was formed in Cleveland in 1914), the need for knowledge and best practices has never been greater. This book, with expert authors representing the best and the brightest in this important field, fills that need.

An Agile Servant

An Agile Servant
Author: Richard Magat
Publisher:
Total Pages: 390
Release: 1989
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Commissioned under the Community Leadership Subcommittee of the Council on Foundations, the publication includes chapers on leadership, standards, donors, creating capital and collaboration. Also profiles sixteen U.S. community foundations in case studies which show how critical issues are handled in community foundations today.

The Organizational and Relational Changes of Community Foundations Substantially Engaged in Community Leadership

The Organizational and Relational Changes of Community Foundations Substantially Engaged in Community Leadership
Author: Katherine Szczerbacki
Publisher:
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2018
Genre: Charities
ISBN:

Community foundations’ engagement in community leadership (i.e., activities that extend beyond grantmaking and donor services) is a much-discussed and increasingly widespread philanthropic social change strategy. Infrastructure and consulting groups provide prescriptive tools to help community foundations implement leadership – most notably the National Task Force on Community Leadership’s Framework for Community Leadership by a Community Foundation. However, few researchers have investigated leadership-related changes to organizational structures and practices or explored relational changes between the foundations and community stakeholders.

Better Together

Better Together
Author: Robert D. Putnam
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2009-12-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1439106886

In his acclaimed bestselling book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert Putnam described a thirty-year decline in America's social institutions. The book ended with the hope that new forms of social connection might be invented in order to revive our communities. In Better Together, Putnam and longtime civic activist Lewis Feldstein describe some of the diverse locations and most compelling ways in which civic renewal is taking place today. In response to civic crises and local problems, they say, hardworking, committed people are reweaving the social fabric all across America, often in innovative ways that may turn out to be appropriate for the twenty-first century. Better Together is a book of stories about people who are building communities to solve specific problems. The examples Putnam and Feldstein describe span the country from big cities such as Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago to the Los Angeles suburbs, small Mississippi and Wisconsin towns, and quiet rural areas. The projects range from the strictly local to that of the men and women of UPS, who cover the nation. Bowling Alone looked at America from a broad and general perspective. Better Together takes us into Catherine Flannery's Roxbury, Massachusetts, living room, a UPS loading dock in Greensboro, North Carolina, a Philadelphia classroom, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, naval shipyard, and a Bay Area Web site. We meet activists driven by their visions, each of whom has chosen to succeed by building community: Mexican Americans in the Rio Grande Valley who want paved roads, running water, and decent schools; Harvard University clerical workers searching for respect and improved working conditions; Waupun, Wisconsin, schoolchildren organizing to improve safety at a local railroad crossing; and merchants in Tupelo, Mississippi, joining with farmers to improve their economic status. As the stories in Better Together demonstrate, bringing people together by building on personal relationships remains one of the most effective strategies to enhance America's social health.

From Grantmaker to Leader

From Grantmaker to Leader
Author: Frank L. Ellsworth
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2002-12-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0471449458

FROM GRANTMAKER TO LEADER The past one hundred years has borne witness to an extraordinaryrevolution in the constitution and activities of philanthropicfoundations. The evolution of the governance of foundations-fromfounder to family to professionals to institutions-has necessarilyaltered the role that foundations play within a society. Ascommunity foundations, for example, strengthen the essentialcommunal fabric and help all organizations gain a financialfoothold, they find themselves at times in conflict with commercialgift funds, whose transactional nature between the donor and theorganization stimulates philanthropy in a wholly different fashion.From Grantmaker to Leader: Emerging Strategies for 21st CenturyFoundations takes stock of this shifting landscape, presenting boldleadership strategies for directing philanthropic organizationsinto the unchartered waters of the future. Seasoned foundation executives Frank Ellsworth and Joseph Lumardaassemble an all-star roster of insider contributors, dividing theirtrenchant study into three sections. "From Carnegie to Gates: TheChanging Faces and Needs of Philanthropy" examines the history offamily and community foundations and how the turmoil of the "NewEconomy" will affect these organizations in the future. SectionTwo, "The Foundation's New Reach: The Emerging Role of Leader,Communicator, and Facilitator of Change" addresses the criticalresponsibility of effectively articulating a foundation's message,showing how messages can successfully penetrate the media. Finally,the third section "Building the Foundation Board of the 21stCentury: Diversity and Strategic Planning" analyzes all aspects offoundation boards of directors, including their makeup,responsibilities, backgrounds, necessary diversity, and the role ofboards in foundation planning. Throughout all three sections, FromGrantmaker to Leader tackles all the critical issues facingphilanthropic foundations today, such as: * Transfer of wealth * Legislative concerns * IRS audits * The role of foundations in public policy issues, such as campaignspending * Accountability * Planned giving * Assessment of the effectiveness of giving * Socially responsible investment and social return oninvestment Even as the very nature of foundations has changed, a fundamentalquestion remains: will philanthropies play a more pervasive role insociety's future or will their influence forever remain elitist andselective? Writing directly for trustees, practitioners, foundationCEOs and CFOs, and every philanthropic professional, Ellsworth andLumarda make the convincing case that foundations matter more thanever, offering proven strategies for philanthropic success. FRANK L. ELLSWORTH is a vice president at Capital Research andManagement Company, where he oversees and coordinates programs andservices to endowments in Los Angeles. JOSEPH LUMARDA is the Executive Vice President of External Affairsfor the California Community Foundation in Los Angeles.

Here for Good: Community Foundations and the Challenges of the 21st Century

Here for Good: Community Foundations and the Challenges of the 21st Century
Author: Terry Mazany
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2014-12-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317468775

Community foundations bring together the resources of individuals, families, and businesses to support effective nonprofits in their communities. Over the years, foundations have come to engage community problem-solving through more than just grant-making. They have added a rich array of other activities, including programs of community capacity building, active modes of advocacy, and centres for meeting. In 2011, the 700+ institutions in the United States gave an estimated $4.2 billion to a variety of nonprofit activities in fields that included the arts and education, health and human services, the environment, and disaster relief. The origins of this book stem from conversations among the leadership of community foundations about the challenges they must overcome in order to make such "foundational" contributions to their communities. As community foundations enter the second century of their existence (the first foundation was formed in Cleveland in 1914), the need for knowledge and best practices has never been greater. This book, with expert authors representing the best and the brightest in this important field, fills that need.