The Community Foundation is exploring how it can help strengthen local charities in ways that go beyond traditional grantmaking. As an initial step, we hosted a conversation that we called our “Charity Check-In.”
Checking In With Charities
In January of 2023, we convened a group of local charity leaders to consider the following question:
How is your organization doing?
Through a series of facilitated exercises and peer to peer conversations, the group identified a number of areas where their organizations could be strengthened, and how the Foundation might help in that work.
The following is the Summary of Activities from the Charity Check-In:
We see the Charity Check-In as the beginning of a ongoing conversation, and we’ll continue to look for ways to engage with charities in support of their development.
Charity Development Fund
The Charity Development Fund was set up to provide opportunities for support beyond our grantmaking activities. The work of this Fund will be done in close consultations with local charities – from meetings, interviews, conversations, and the Charity Check-In event.
Activities supported by the Charity Development Fund so far include:
- Charity/Non-profit Social – In October of 2023, we hosted a casual gathering of sector employees and volunteers.
- Grant Writing Workshops – We hosted grant writing workshops in Summerland, Oliver, Keremeos and Princeton, as part of the delivery of our 2024 Foundation grant cycle.
If you’re interested in helping support local charities and non-profits in their evolution, visit the Charity Development Fund page to donate or to learn more.
Organizational Development Resources
As an initial response to some of the organizational challenges identified by charities at the Check-In, we’ll be building a self-serve resource list on this page. The list will start small, and evolve as we identify more resources we want charities to know about.
If your charity has successfully used a resource and you think it should be included here, please contact Kevin Ronaghan, Grants and Community Initiatives, at grants@cfso.net.
Leadership Development Opportunities
Thriving Non-Profits: This peer learning program helps charity and non-profit leaders learn new strategies that can help build financial resilience and achieve greater community impact. They offer cohort-based and self-paced online learning opportunities.
Innoweave (NEW!): According to their website, Innoweave “help[s] social purpose leaders to clarify their organization’s outcomes and obtain the support they need to become capable of achieving those outcomes. We do this through a series of educational coaching streams built around social innovation approaches.” Innoweave’s current funding round has just been launched; expressions of interest are due by April 26, 2024. Visit their website to learn more.
Impact & Leadership Development Program: provides coaching and support to BC Interior-based social purpose organizations seeking to deepen community impact and strengthen financial sustainability. The program is offered by our friends at Purppl.
Grant Proposal Writing
Learn more about the Community Foundation’s own Grant Writing Workshops here.
Do Gooders (NEW!): This local organization offers free grant resources and hosts a list of upcoming funding opportunities.
The Alberta Community Development Unit (see our Governance section below) offers a four part series of pre-recorded videos entitled “Grant-Writing 101.”
Governance
Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) Canada has an extensive collection of publications dealing with governance of not-for-profit organizations. You can find them on their website.
Board Voice offers a robust collection of links to resources on a wide variety of board and governance topics, including strategic planning, succession planning, financial statements and risk management.
The Board Development Program of the Alberta Community Development Unit offers online webinars. They focus on strengthening the governance of Alberta non-profits, but much of the information presented is applicable across jurisdictions.
Strategic Planning
La Piana Consulting (US) offers a robust framework for strategic planning in their book, “The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution.” A downloadable package of their strategy development tools is available at the bottom of the linked page. (Please note that these tools are meant to be used in conjunction with the book.)
Technology Support
TechSoup Canada: provides free (or almost free!) software to charities and non-profits from companies like Microsoft and Adobe through their Technology Donations Program.
TechSoup (US) offers a Digital Assessment Tool to help charities determine their technology needs and find the right resources to meet them.
Impact Measurement
Purppl’s blog post (Five essential practices of good impact measurement) provides a good starting point on the topic of impact measurement. For a deeper dive, explore the Common Approach to Impact Measurement.
