5 PM CST
Does your board and staff reflect your community? What do people in your community need versus what do your donors want? How are you listening to community members? How are you stewarding gifts? What kinds of grantmaking support do you provide? Who does it serve?
The National Standards for Community Foundations by the Council on Foundations provide ways for community foundations to go above and beyond for their communities. Its guidelines focus on mission-structure-governance, resource development, stewardship and accountability, grantmaking, and donor relations and engagement.
These standards aren’t required, but they do provide ways for community foundations to think about how to best serve their communities.
3 PM CST – Rethinking volunteerism by conducting “civic matchmaking”
We’re learning about a program called “Give 5” in Springfield, Missouri. This program, run by United Way of the Ozarks, “matches” Baby Boomer retirees with nonprofits and fosters opportunities to volunteer. Ten thousands Boomers retire every day. Every day, for the next 19 years! That’s a huge pool of talent, knowledge, and resources available for nonprofits, especially as Boomers want to give back to their communities.
In addition, Boomers can beat social isolationism and meet other people interested in the same activities.
A huge transfer of wealth (about $30 trillion) will also take place in the next decades.
How can nonprofits recruit volunteers and potential donors in order to facilitate volunteerism and encourage planned giving?
Engaging with all generations is so important – as you’re engaging millennial donors, think of how to continually engage with retirees and encourage volunteering as a way to better your community.
1 PM CST – Leadership and Equity
How would you describe your assets? Use the acronym SMIRF to define and explore all of your assets, and build trust in your community.
Social capital
Moral capital
Intellectual capital
Reputational capital
Financial capital
How are you utilizing this capital creatively? How can you use it to help you grow?
I think this could work in multiple facets of philanthropy. How are traditional nonprofits, foundations, informal philanthropic networks, etc. using all of their capital to deploy resources and partner with other organizations? How are you using it to engage with different stakeholder voices in your work? How can you embed it into the culture of your organization?
10 AM CST – Impact Investing
We just finished a session on impact investing for community foundations, with several examples of community foundations on different points in their journeys. Aubrey Abbott Patterson, CEO and President of Hutchinson Community Foundation and master’s degree alumna discussed Hutchinson CF’s approach to impact investing.
Definite emphasis on working with donors and partners to determine the best path to invest in economic development. How can community foundations work with other nonprofits, government, community development financial institutions, businesses, etc. in working in impact investing?
There are also different forms of impact investing, and not every form works for every community. Which one works for your community?
8 AM CST
Hello from the National Conference for Growing Community Foundations in Wichita, Kansas! I’ll be “blogging live” today from this conference, updating this post every so hours with insights, thoughts, reflections, questions, etc. I’m hoping to learn more about community foundations and community philanthropy as a whole, while also sharing insights that can be helpful for people working across the philanthropic sector in various capacities.
Check out our Twitter page @IUPhilanthropy for updates to this page, and to follow me throughout the day. I’m so excited to share what I learn!
Leave a Reply