$112,000 in Capacity Building Grants Awarded – The Center for Nonprofit Resources recently awarded over $112,000 in Capacity Building Grants to the following organizations:

• Adopt America - $10,000 to create a website that will improve external communication with potential adoptive families.
• Aurora Gonzalez Community and Family Resource Center - $1,569 to replace out of date staff computers and equipment.
• Aurora Project - $3,152 to attend the Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Ohio conference and to update personnel handbooks.
• Toledo-Lucas County CareNet - $20,000 to conduct a feasibility study that will result in a plan to raise ongoing operating support and to build an endowment for CareNet.
• Harbor House - $5,536 to replace outdated phones, computers and software.
• Kidney Foundation of Northwest Ohio - $10,000 to purchase software that will facilitate the assessment of their community programs.
• Leadership Toledo- $2,500 to fund an assessment of the Youth Leadership Toledo program, including survey design, delivery and evaluation.
• Mom’s House- $13,373 to fund donor management software and technical upgrades.
• Mountain Mentors- $4,800 to purchase a new laptop and needed software.
• Read For Literacy- $9,397 to create a website to facilitate an interactive dialogue between tutors and to expedite the recruitment of volunteers.
• Society of St. Vincent De Paul- $20,000 to purchase computers and necessary point of sale equipment to improve their abilities to streamline several financial procedures and inventory controls. Funds have also been awarded to fund the development of a volunteer program.
• Sophia Center- $11,200 to purchase upgraded computer equipment and for the relocation of equipment within the building to ensure all clients have access to the services they need. Funds have also been awarded to fund training and to send Board Members to the FSC conference.
• United Christian Fellowship at BGSU- $765 to purchase software that is compatible with the University and to develop a website that will help provide outreach to students.

The purpose of the grant is to focus on capacity building initiatives including organizational assessments and strategic planning, board and/or staff development, fund development planning, succession planning, external communications strategies, technology improvements, financial management systems, program evaluation and measurement, and human resource policies and procedures.  Applications for 2009 Capacity Building Grants will be out in January 2009. 

Grants Evaluation:  Funders Want Intraspection - By Judith Margolin - Evaluation has become a buzzword for today’s nonprofits, grantmakers, and government oversight agencies. There are a number of reasons for this, high on the list being attention by some members of Congress who are taking a careful look at nonprofit expenditures, including those of foundations, and the fact that investigative journalists have been focusing on the small number of nonprofits that take unfair advantage of their tax-exempt status. In the wake of the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, nonprofit board members have become increasingly aware of their personal liability as stewards of the public trust. What all this adds up to is growing pressure on those who run the nation’s nonprofits to justify their existence. One way to do this is by conducting evaluations of their activities to determine if they are having the desired impact. Click Here for full report
This article was reproduced with permission from the 8/21/08 issue of the NPtimes.

For more information about Evaluation attend our Measurement and Evaluation Workshops on November 6^th.