Monday, June 29, 2009

Taproot Foundation makes grants of high-quality, professional consulting services, called Service Grants

http://www.taprootfoundation.org/npo/

Service Grants Program

Unlike traditional foundations that make cash grants, the Taproot Foundation makes grants of high-quality, professional consulting services, called Service Grants. 

Through our Service Grants, we are working to provide high-potential nonprofit organizations with the tools and services necessary to maximize the impact of their critical work in the community. We believe that the right capacity-building Service Grant, at the right time, can greatly enhance the ability of an organization to serve its constituents. 

Each Service Grant is executed by a team of professionals who volunteer their time and expertise to help the community. Unlike a lot of pro bono work, we guarantee these professionals will deliver high-quality services, customized to meet specific objectives.

Why Apply for a Service Grant?
  • Get tangible tools that will make a meaningful impact on your nonprofit's ability to accomplish its mission
  • Receive professional services that rival those of consulting firms, where you could expect to pay $30,000 or more for each project
  • Maximize your limited time and resources thinking through the tough issues on the project, while we handle the recruitment, screening and management of the pro bono consulting team.

Get Started

Grant Deadlines
We review grant applications quarterly. Applications are due according the following deadlines:
  • September 1st We will give special consideration to early applications for September and strongly encourage non-profits to apply during the month of August.
  • December 1st
  • March 1st
  • June 1st

Friday, June 12, 2009

US DOL/ETA Advisories - Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number/Central Contractor Registration (CCR) Mandatory Requirement for Federal Grant Sub-recipients under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009


Directive:
TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT GUIDANCE LETTER NO. 29-08

Subject:
Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number/Central Contractor Registration (CCR) Mandatory Requirement for Federal Grant Sub-recipients under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Purpose:
To inform the workforce system of the mandatory requirement for sub-recipients, i.e., any first-tier subcontract or sub-award funded in whole or in part under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), to obtain a DUNS numberwww.dnb.com. Any such sub-recipient must also establish and maintain active and current profiles in the CCR at www.ccr.gov.

To:
STATE WORKFORCE AGENCIES
STATE WORKFORCE LIAISONS
STATE WORKFORCE ADMINISTRATORS
STATE AND LOCAL WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARDS

From:
DOUGLAS F. SMALL
Deputy Assistant Secretary

Date:
June 10, 2009

Expiration Date:
Continuing


Rescissions:
    None

Contact:  Questions regarding this issuance should be directed to the appropriate Employment and Training Administration regional office.

Text:
To preserve the formatting of this document, it has been converted to PDF (Portable Document Format) to retain its original layout.


View the Complete Document  

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Nonprofits / For-profits Partnerships


Non-profits and for-profits can achieve significant results together that are often impossible alone. And partnerships between the two can be smooth and mutually beneficial. Our experience has shown that they are a great tool for Social Entrepreneurship as long as the benefits to both are clearly understood and all obligations are adhered to. 

The benefits to for-profits organizations can range from added publicity to access to new, hard-to-reach, markets. Social benefit ventures can gain tools, resources and even skilled management assistance.  

In my own case, a partnership between my non-profit advocacy website and a for-profit video website gave me online video editing tools, bandwidth and server storage I could have never afforded. The FPO (a start-up) got tens of thousands of new members, and my site was able to achieve its social objective.

How should you proceed if you work for a social benefit venture?

•    Approach the FPO with a partnership arrangement that offers 
tangible benefits (not just "good PR"), i.e., 100,000 new web visitors or advertising in your newsletter. 

•    Ask the FPO to provide you with services or products that are part of its normal business.
Resist the impulse to ask for cash – that is charity, not a partnership.

•   
 Involve technical staff early in the discussions to ensure that operational problems are taken care of in the agreement, rather than fought over later.

•    Write a 
Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and send it back and forth for editing and changes. Make it as detailed as the project calls for.  And remember, it is not the final agreement that is important, it is the communication process that creates it.

•    Make sure that 
all stakeholders in both organizations sign off on the MOA –anyone who will be involved or impacted. Make sure you deal with non-stakeholders who may have negative opinions, so they don't sabotage the agreement.

•    
Stay involved and keep the relationships strong. Don't sign the MOA and then turn it over to staff to execute. Stay in touch with the project and the leadership of the for-profit organization – you may want to work with them again.

I love to work with start-ups. New companies are often easier to deal with than large established firms. They are hungry, open to new ideas, and have yet to grow a bureaucracy that throws up roadblocks to partnerships. And start-ups often have new tools and products that entrepreneurial NPOs can put to use quickly to gain publicity and new grants.


Ten Characteristics of Successful Social Entrepreneurs

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS do social and environmental entrepreneurs share? 

Capturing the common characteristics of such extraordinary, diverse people is tough, but here are some especially noteworthy qualities. 

Among other things, these entrepreneurs: 

•    Try to shrug off the constraints of ideology or discipline 
•    Identify and apply practical solutions to social problems, combining innovation, resourcefulness, and opportunity 
•    Innovate by finding a new product, a new service, or a new approach to a social problem 
•    Focus—first and foremost—on social value creation and, in that spirit, are willing to share their innovations and insights for others to replicate 
•    Jump in before ensuring they are fully resourced 
•    Have an unwavering belief in everyone's innate capacity, often regardless of education, to contribute meaningfully to economic and social development 
•    Show a dogged determination that pushes them to take risks that others wouldn't dare 
•    Balance their passion for change with a zeal to measure and monitor their impact 
•    Have a great deal to teach change makers in other sectors 
•    Display a healthy impatience (e.g., they don't do well in bureaucracies, which can raise succession issues as their organizations grow—and almost inevitably become more bureaucratic) 

But as interest grows in trying to solve the world's great social, environmental, and governance challenges, the definitions —and the boundaries between fields— blur. In the process, the field of social entrepreneurship has become "a truly immense tent into which all manner of socially beneficial activities may fit," as two board members of the Skoll Foundation —Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management, and Sally Osberg, the foundation's president and CEO— put it.

One result, inevitably, is 
confusion

So, they argue, the real measure of social entrepreneurship should be "
direct action that generates a paradigm shift in the way a societal need is met." What such people do, in effect, is to identify and attack an "unsatisfactory equilibrium." Their endeavors are transformative, not palliative, with the power to catalyze and shape the future.


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