Learning Community funds available for Elementary Learning Programs in Douglas and Sarpy Counties.  Please see the website for details.

The TFS mini-grant program is administered by PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. (Prevention Resources and Information on Drug Education), through funding made available as a result of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. For more information or to request an application, contact Mary Crosby at (402) 397-3309 or email mcrosby@pride.org.

In 2012 the Kiwanis Club of Omaha, Inc. Foundation will distribute $15,000 to nonprofit, youth serving organizations through its YCPO grant program. We invite you to consider submitting an application to help fund one of your youth oriented services. All applications must be submitted via e-mail in a single Word or PDF (preferred) file sent to Sara Woods at t his address: swoods@unomaha.edu.  The 2012 YCPO Grant Packet, which contains additional information, required forms, and content guidelines, is now available as a Word document online.

Learn more about the history of its evolution from graduate school thesis to community obsession and the resulting comprehensive community effort addressing transit, affordable housing, urban blight and decay, historic preservation, parks, community health, and economic development — all while continuing to listen and respond to the needs and interests of individual neighborhoods.

And if you happen to be in Atlanta and want a great way to explore the neighborhoods and get a real sense of history, this tour is 3 hours worth your while.

Nebraska nonprofit organizations striving to address critical community needs or wishing to make a significant local or state impact may now submit funding ideas to WIN. For information and to submit an online letter of inquiry for consideration, go to WIN.

ServeNebraska is accepting nominations to honor excellent community service by adult, youth and groups throughout Nebraska. Honorees will be recognized at a luncheon held in conjunction with the Governor’s Conference on Rural Development on April 18, 2012 in North Platte. Details including award categories, the nomination form and instructions, and past honorees are available online.

In Forbes’ “A Simple Plan for Satisfying Charitable Giving,” author Tom Davison outlines the benefits of creating a charitable giving plan, such as clarity around charitable goals, better assessment of nonprofit agencies’ effectiveness toward those goals, and the rationale to say no to solicitations that do not meet those goals.

At the Omaha Community Foundation, we use a variety of tools and workshops with interested donors to define values and areas of interest. This information is refined into a mission statement. With couples or even larger groups of people who give together, our staff can help find commonalities to create a mission statement that encompasses the interests of each member.

From there, we identify nonprofit organizations whose work corresponds with your mission statement. By defining the changes you want to see in our community, it is easier to find the nonprofits that are achieving those results. If you are thinking about how much to give away annually, how to structure a multi-year grant, or how to leverage a matching gift, we can help you with those considerations too.

As always, our role is to provide resources and ideas—how much to recommend to whom and when remains up to you. A little planning now can set you on a path to more fulfilling charitable giving in 2012 and beyond.

Typically, donors contact the staff member who helped open the charitable giving account—Hillary Nather-Detisch, Meghan Sodoro, Sara Boyd, or Mike Leighton – with their request. These Donor Accounts team members serve as donors’ primary contacts for any questions, from a question about online account access to how to donate complicated assets.

The Donor Accounts staff then forwards philanthropic service requests to me. They tend to fall into three broad areas:

1. Information about a specific nonprofit agency. How strong is the board? How is it faring in this economy? It looks efficient on paper, but is it effective in addressing its mission?

2. Information about an issue. Are there gaps in how nonprofits can address this issue? How are government and the nonprofit sectors working together?

3. Information on giving effectively. How can a donor help nonprofits leverage more funding? How could a grant for capacity building help?

We draw from a variety of sources and methods to do this research for our donors. We tap into the expertise of our staff and colleagues at other foundations, both local and national; our site visit notes; database of OCF grant applications; and publicly-available sources of financial data. We contact agencies for up-to-date information. Depending on the question, we may contact city officials, track down local newspaper articles, or research philanthropic journals. For the sake of privacy, we do all of this without divulging the donor’s name.

The usual product is a written report, and we welcome follow-up questions and further conversations about donors’ goals for charitable giving. Always, the decision of recommending a grant—how much, to whom, when (or not)—is up to the donor. Our role is to give our donors objective information they need to feel confident in their charitable giving decisions.

OCF donors should not hesitate about coming to us for information that would help make charitable giving more meaningful to them. If you have any concerns about the process before getting started, let us know. Our goal is to help you define and achieve your charitable goals.

A nonprofit board serves an important role for the organization. Board members are ultimately responsible for the legal, fiduciary duty and best interest of the charity – and since it is a tax-exempt entity, the public. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Before you Join that Board details the expectations of current board service and the reasons why many board members are sticking with one or two organizations at a maximum.

The article states that gone are the days that community members sat on multiple boards and were only expected to attend a gala and bring a friend. Board members today are expected to sit on at least one (and usually more) committee’s, solicit their circle of influence for gifts, assist with implementing strategic plans and visions, perform executive director reviews and much more. Basically, it can become a second full-time job – especially for volunteers who assume leadership positions.

I have had the privilege of serving on local nonprofit boards for the past ten years – in a variety of capacity from a small, all volunteer run organization to one with a multi-million dollar budget. But ultimately, my job seemed the same: to raise money for the organization, to talk to my circle of influence about the organization, to support the organization personally, to assist with some element of growth (a special event, reviewing and drafting bylaws, assisting with the strategic plan, etc…) and/or strategic initiative, to be present at meetings and to be supportive. But I buy-in to my expectations every time – because I believe in the mission and I want to see the organization grow. I also appreciate that each organization who has asked me to join their board believes enough in me and my skill set that I will ultimately make a positive impact on the organization .

Ultimately, to me, the success of the board is really dependent on two things. First, that the volunteer board leadership is an exemplary role model and holds their peers accountable. And second, that the executive director is assisting in managing the board and their needs. It only works harmoniously when both pieces are in alignment. This alignment is what builds capacity in the organization – this is one factor that truly affects change. And while the Wall Street Journal article is quick to point out that serving on a board could be an honor or pain, I have never found anything less than pure satisfaction as an end result of my service.

• In 2010, the Fund for Omaha, OCF’s major discretionary grant program, started inviting proposals for nonprofit agencies’ “greatest need,” be that capacity building, general operating, or programming. The breakdown of grants made since then is roughly a third in each category. Successful capacity building proposals to the Fund for Omaha tend to outline clearly how the investment in technology, personnel, or other capacity building will lead to increased effectiveness and efficiencies.

• The Nonprofit Capacity Building Initiative, now in its second pilot year, brings together groups of agencies to address both organizational and individual leadership capacity. This work has highlighted the importance of strong strategic planning and vision at both the staff and board leadership levels.

It can take a great deal of trust to make an unrestricted grant. One thing we have observed from the Fund for Omaha grants is that the committee has been comfortable making general operating grants to organizations that received a Fund for Omaha grant in the fairly recent past.  There was a level of familiarity with the organization and they had had a chance to review an evaluation report.

Making such an investment can send a donor into unfamiliar territory. Unlike program grants, investments in overhead are harder to evaluate in terms of outcomes. They may not produce immediate or even measurable results. Further, a certain level of organizational capacity is necessary for an agency to be able to take advantage of investments—a new donor database will do no good if there is not a skilled staff member with enough time to use it. It may not make sense for every grant to be unrestricted, but it is an exceptionally helpful way to support your most trusted charities.