Development Planning Speaker Session

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Creating a comprehensive development plan is perhaps not the first item of business for a new Executive Director or Development Director when starting out in the nonprofit world. But this month’s BAH Nonprofit Conference on Fundraising Development stressed the importance of having a thought-out, written-down development plan as a priority for successful, supportive and effective development programming. Keynote speaker Barbara Ciconte outlined many of the key steps to creating an “effective” (and perhaps more importantly, realistic) development plan, as well as the bigger picture items to consider from an organizational standpoint. Ultimately, “development” is about more than just raising money — it involves creating authentic connections with others who believe in and commit to your organization’s mission.

Ciconte discussed many important features of a development plan, including these key elements:
– Detailed goals for each development activity
– Specific strategies for achieving those goals
– An action plan, with a timetable for each strategy and benchmarks along the way
– Clear assignments for staff and other involved individuals
– Marketing and communications needs for development strategies
– Budget for fundraising (it’s true; you usually have to spend money to make money!)

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From the Field: Thrive DC

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator
& Sherika Brooks, Executive Assistant

This Saturday, the Catalogue team in DC (Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator, and Sherika Brooks, Executive Assistant) spent the afternoon volunteering at Day of Nurture, an event organized by In One Day and supported by Catalogue nonprofit Thrive DC. For the second month in a row, Day of Nurture has provided meals to the homeless in Franklin Square, as well as information about services that Thrive DC offers for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Along with a great crew of volunteers from MeetUp.com and DC Volunteers, Sherika and I pitched in to provide a healthy meal of donated food, drinks, and even popsicles to a group of over 100 individuals who either spend time in the park regularly or were informed about the event during canvassing the week before. Both Sherika and I felt lucky to experience the work of a Catalogue nonprofit first hand, and look forward to spending more time volunteering with Catalogue nonprofits over the coming months.

Thankfully for In One Day, Washington DC is one city that still allows the provision of outdoor public meals for the homeless at a time when many cities are pushing to ban the practice. The Huffington Post recently wrote about the city of Philadelphia’s ban on feeding the homeless outdoors, following the lead of other major cities including Atlanta, San Diego and Los Angeles. Over 50 cities across the country have enacted anti-camping or anti-food-sharing laws. Public officials who support this legislation argue that the laws prevent the spread of illness, direct the homeless to other services, and protect local parks from damage. However, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty reports that the same cities that have enacted such laws “have recently seen an increase in overall homelessness and family homelessness.” We hope that DC continues to allow direct service and meal provision to individuals experiencing homelessness throughout the city and hope to contribute further to efforts such as Day of Nurture in the future!

For more information about additional Catalogue nonprofits offering services to Greater Washington’s homeless population, check out Catalogue’s Human Services nonprofits here.

Summer Hunger

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

“Summertime, and the living is easy.” But not for everyone. For many children across the country, summer is a time when free or reduced school meals stop and kids struggle to maintain consistent nourishment. According to Share Our Strength, although more than 21 million US students receive free or reduced lunches at school, only 3 million kids receive free meals during the summer. National organizations like Share Our Strength, which is committed to eradicating childhood hunger in America, and Feeding America, a national food bank network, coordinate programs across the country to mitigate child hunger and provide summer meals.

Nationwide, DC stands out in terms of the services that it provides to low-income students during summer vacation. The Washington Post published an article this week, detailing programs offered by several District offices that address both the lack of affordable meals and educational programming that many students face in the summer. The DC Public Library, DDC Hunger Solutions, and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) have teamed up to “sponsor free meals at 11 public libraries this summer to encourage reading.” Thanks to programs like these, the Food and Research Action Center (FRAC) “ranks the District as the top jurisdiction in the country for serving summer meals to low income children, with the city reaching 73.5 percent of those eligible for such meals.”

Several Catalogue for Philanthropy nonprofits are also part of the movement, providing additional services to students over the summer. One such organization is a new 2012-13 Catalogue nonprofit, Horizons Greater Washington, which focuses on “mitigating the summer decline in students’ academic achievement” by offering summer programs to boost interest in learning and improve children’s scholastic achievement during the entire year. Higher Achievement’s programming includes a Summer Academy for students to keep up their coursework; and Horton’s Kids “provides literacy programming to prevent the ‘summer slide’ and to prepare children for the coming school year.”

Does your nonprofit or foundation support additional summer programming for kids to provide for their nutritional and/or educational needs? Share your comments and experiences with us!

Impact Investing

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

This week, the Nonprofit Quarterly published an article about the Council on Foundations’ new CEO, Vikki Spruill, and her official introduction to the organization. NPQ’s Rick Cohen discusses a few key points of Spruill’s statement, including her “upbeat perspective on the societal significance of philanthropic innovation” and the need for philanthropy to assess its own value in the large society. However, Cohen also points out that “she and her colleagues have to remember that the vehicle for the delivery of philanthropy’s collective value is the nonprofit sector.”

How do the philanthropy and nonprofit sectors work collaboratively to achieve the goals mentioned by Spruill, and act as “investors, innovators, leaders, and partners” in society? As a bridge between these communities, the Catalogue for Philanthropy aims to increase the connections between (primarily) individual philanthropists in the Washington area and the regional nonprofits that most need their support. We use the moniker Catalogue for Philanthropy, but our main ‘clients’ are nonprofits. We recognize that small nonprofits in the area often do the most innovative, important, and thankless work, and yet also have a difficult time connecting with individuals who share their vision.

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In The Community Minutes …

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Each month, WAMU features one or more local nonprofits in a segment called “Community Minute.” This month, two Catalogue for Philanthropy charities are featured on the radio and online: City Kids Wilderness Project and Man Can Stop Rape. While we always enjoy reading about our nonprofits in the Catalogue, hearing directly from staff members on the radio brings their stories to life in a new way.

City Kids Wilderness Project offers experiential learning programs for inner-city youth, utilizing the outdoors and a natural environment as a classroom for academic, recreational and life skills. Development Associate Mike Macrina shares the story of a City Kids alumnus who is now a freshman at West Virginia University, and will be working in Alaska with the National Outdoor Leadership School this summer — and attempting the first all-African American summit of the highest peak in North America.

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Volunteer Engagement Report

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

This spring, the and Volunteer Frontier published the Volunteer Engagement Stars Report, which examined the ways in which nine nonprofits make the most of their volunteer resources. The Catalogue for Philanthropy provided the primary source for selecting nonprofits for the report, and we were excited to learn more about the ways in which this group of nonprofits “utilizes volunteers in dynamic ways and returns dramatic results.”

The agencies featured in Volunteer Engagement Stars represent a fair cross section of nonprofits, serving unique client bases under diverse budgets (from $500,000 to over $24 million). The techniques they used to engage volunteers also vary — from Arlington Free Clinic, who benefits from the pro bono services of trained medical professionals, to Little Lights Urban Ministries, whose volunteers provide tutoring and other youth programming.

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Catalogue: By The Numbers

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

The Catalogue for Philanthropy is excited to celebrate its tenth year of publication this year with the 2012/13 Catalogue. The following figures give a snapshot of the Catalogue, its applications, and community of nonprofits since the first Catalogue was published in 2003. We are also extremely proud to announce that as of this month, the Catalogue for Philanthropy has helped raise over $18 million for our nonprofits during the past 10 years!

In the past ten years …
– Over 2000 applications have been submitted for the Catalogue for Philanthropy, including 788 applications from new nonprofits and 360 applications to be re-listed in the Catalogue.
The Catalogue has maintained around a 30% acceptance rate since 2004.
– 480 unique organizations have been featured in the Catalogue since 2003 — over 500 including the Class of 2012/13. About 50% of Catalogue nonprofits are featured more than once.
– Of the 71 nonprofits featured in the first Catalogue in 2003, 32 nonprofits are still active members of the Catalogue network and have been relisted multiple times.

In 2012 …

– 204 total applications were reviewed by the Catalogue?s team of over 100 reviewers.
– 74 nonprofits were accepted into the print catalogue — 31 are new to Catalogue and 43 are relisted organizations. 11 organizations will be re-featured online.
– This year, 42% of nonprofits in the print catalogue are new, which is on par with past years. The odds have increased slightly in favor of re-lists over time. With so many quality organizations featured in the past 10 years, it’s hard to turn them down for a second or third feature!
– Of the 31 new nonprofits this year, 12 organizations had applied for the first time, but 14 organizations had applied unsuccessfully in the past before their acceptance this year — some as many as 4 or 5 times! 5 other nonprofits were previously featured in the Catalogue before 2008.
– 7 nonprofits have grown beyond the Catalogue’s budget threshold of $3 million and will also be re-featured online.

To learn more about the 2012/13 Catalogue nonprofits, check out the list here, and stay tuned for our updated website coming this fall!

The Importance of a Story

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Sometimes, words on a page just aren’t enough. The Catalogue for Philanthropy exists to make connections between caring citizens and worthy community causes, and generally relies on the words and images of our print catalogue and website to accomplish that mission. However, sometimes even the most moving words and images don’t make the same impact as a face-to-face interaction. Yesterday, the staff of Catalogue’s Corporate Portal Partner Anybill had the opportunity to meet with a Catalogue nonprofit leader from the Dance Institute of Washington and hear about the organization’s work in person.

As the Catalogue continues to roll out the Corporate Portal (a work-place giving tool featuring the Catalogue’s community of “One of the Best” nonprofits), we’re planning speaking events with our nonprofits leaders to build excitement and energy around giving through the Portal. Anybill employees participated in our first Brown Bag Lunch event, which featured the Dance Institute’s Founder and Artistic Director Fabian Barnes. Hearing Fabian’s words about the impact of dance on his own life, as well as the lives of his students, made an impression on the staff of Anybill. Fabian’s own journey — “I went from being at-risk to being on the great stages of the world” — shows the positive impact that engagement in the arts can have on youth, and the importance of continuing to support arts programs for students.

The Corporate Portal and associated programming allows both companies and nonprofits to create more meaningful connections, benefiting both sides. Companies can identify a common cause around which to unite and support — increasing employee engagement and satisfaction. Nonprofits benefit from that support and the opportunity to develop a wider network of supporters — volunteers, board members or donors. We look forward to seeing the partnership between Anybill and DIW grow during the coming months!

The Catalogue encourages all nonprofits to take note of the impact of personal interactions with donors and other stakeholders — seek out those opportunities and take advantage of them to the max, reflecting about the best way to share your organization’s story and establish an emotional connection with your audience, whether one person or a hundred people.

Communities of Excellence

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Marie LeBlanc

By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator

Last Thursday night, I sat in the back of a packed room at the Washington Post and listened to five nonprofits tell stories — stories about their successes, their challenges, but mostly their creativity in the field of nonprofit management. Last Thursday, May 24, one of those nonprofits received the Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management, but it felt to me like all five had accomplished a great deal and were ‘winners’ for their constituencies.

The is a program of the , and selects one leader in the field every year to be recognized for their exemplary management. This year’s finalists represented a range of nonprofit work in DC — from Bread for the City and Community of Hope, who offer a variety of services to thousands of low-income clients, to Young Playwrights? Theatre and Imagination Stage, who teach life lessons through creativity for young artists, and Byte Back, who provides crucial computer and job training.

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Catalogue Blog

Author Archives: Marie LeBlanc

Development Planning Speaker Session

From the Field: Thrive DC

Summer Hunger

Impact Investing

In The Community Minutes …

Volunteer Engagement Report

Catalogue: By The Numbers

The Importance of a Story

Communities of Excellence