Managing an Endowment in a Low Interest Rate Environment

GCRI’s sister organization in Massachusetts, Associated Grant Makers (AGM) recently partnered with Fiduciary Trust on a survey of endowments and foundations to understand how leaders are operating in a low-interest rate environment.  Check out the resulting report outlining findings about fundraising, investing, grant-making, spending and board governance.

GCRI Members Help Children Get Ready for School

A number of GCRI members, including Amica Insurance, BankRI, Cox Communications, CVS Health, Neighborhood Health Plan of RI, Pawtucket Credit Union, Sodexo, and United Way of Rhode Island are making sure that Rhode Island schoolchildren have all the supplies they need to start the new school year.  The Back to School Celebration, which will be held at 12 locations on Saturday, August 19, will provide free school supplies, food, entertainment, activities and educational information and resources for children and their families.

Locations

Visit Hasbro Summer Learning Sites

Hasbro and United Way invite GCRI members to see the dynamic learning that takes place when schools are closed for the summer through the Hasbro Summer Learning Initiative (HSLI).  Site visits are available at 14 sites across the state, from July 12-August 15.

Each program offers a six-week, service learning-oriented, experiential curriculum that is designed and delivered via a collaboration of school-day and community-based educators. The programs are working to narrow the achievement gap – half of which studies attribute to unequal access to summer learning. More than 1,100 Rhode Island youth will benefit from the initiative this summer, and the goal is to provide this opportunity to thousands more.

The visits to these sites allow guests to witness the progress being made to combat summer learning loss. Visits last one hour.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Joseph Morra at joseph.morra@uwri.org.

More information on HSLI

 

World Refugee Day Webinar

The Forum is co-sponsoring a webinar with Grantmakers Concerned for Refugees and Immigrants for World Refugee Day, Innovative Solutions and Holistic Approaches to Refugees and Asylum, on Tuesday, June 20th at 2:00 – 3:00 pm.

More than 60 million individuals have been forced from home around the world, among them nearly 20 million refugees. Across the globe, already limited resources—both public and private—are now stretched thinner than ever. In this environment, many organizations and funders are reconsidering old practices, searching for holistic models, and innovating to address the unprecedented needs and opportunities of displaced persons. Many seek to empower refugees and develop programs that not only holistically address needs, but are also refugee-led. In the United States, where needs range from middle-class, college-educated Syrian refugees to impoverished Central American women and children seeking asylum out of fear of gangs, diverse approaches are needed.

This call, held in honor of World Refugee Day, will explore several innovative models during this era of the global refugee crisis. Join to hear from leading figures in the field about the potential and lessons learned of their approaches.

New Nonprofit Reporting Webinar Offered on June 20

The Forum is partnering with Mission Measurement to offer a webinar, Common Outcomes: How To Standardize Nonprofit Reporting  on Tuesday, June 20th 1:00-2:00  pm EST. Public companies issue only one 10-K to all of their investors. So why do nonprofits have to report differently to every different funder? This webinar explores the challenges in grant reporting, impact measurement and standardizing data in the sector. In particular, we will discuss how foundations (and CTOs) are solving these problems using new evidence-based tools and taxonomies. You will hear from Jason Saul CEO of Mission Measurement about the ground-breaking work of the Impact Genome Project®.

Boston Area Summer Conferences

Boston will play host to two valuable conferences this summer:

Grantmakers in Health Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy

June 21-23
This is a tremendous opportunity to engage with peers, colleagues, experts and innovative practitioners working in health philanthropy today.

Community Foundation Bootcamp

August 29-30
Presented by the Forum in partnership with Associated Grant Makers, the two-day Community Foundation Boot Camp program offers a comprehensive overview of the structure and operations of a community foundation. The program is an ideal in-depth introduction to community foundations for new community foundation staff, community foundation board members, or more experienced community foundation staff looking for a good refresher. Training is provided by Indiana Philanthropy Alliance.

Nominations for Nonprofit Leadership Award

Gifford Foundation Invites Nominations for 2017 Kathy Goldfarb-Findling Leadership Award

 

Do you have a community partner who goes above and beyond in engaging others to address community challenges?

The Gifford Foundation has invited invitations for the 2017 Kathy Goldfarb-Findling Leadership Award, a cash prize for a nonprofit professional whose leadership style is nimble and creative, encourages lifelong learning, embraces leaps of faith and does not fear failure, works “with” not “for,” fully engages in collaborative approaches, and at all times believes passionately in the power of change and personal growth. The award can be used for professional development opportunities, personal needs, or just to allow the nominee to recharge his/her batteries. The only restriction is that the funds may not redirected to the nominee’s organization.  The Gifford Foundation is accepting nominations for the 2017 Kathy Goldfarb-Findling Leadership Award, which recognizes a nonprofit professional who best exemplifies the foundation’s former executive director’s approach to leadership.

All nonprofit professionals are eligible to be nominated.  See the Gifford Foundation website for complete program guidelines and nomination instructions.

Link to Complete RFP

The Power of Participation: Building Democracy Now — Livestream Philanthropy New York

 

Join Philanthropy New York, GCRI’s sister organization, for a variety of civic engagement speakers on Friday, June 16.

Schedule:

9:00-10:00am     Opening Panel: Voter Engagement, Access and Community Organizing for Action

10:00-10:45am   PHIL Talks

Three fascinating, inspiring leaders on the work that drives them:

11:15am-12:30pm  The Power of Participation: Democracy Building Now

 

Watch Live

Tweet your questions and comments using @PhilanthropyNY and #PhilTV

 

 

 

GCRI Members Add Efforts to United Way’s Children’s Book Drive and Day of Action

Each spring, GCRI member United Way of Rhode Island collects new and gently used children’s books to distribute to children statewide through Books are Wings and summer learning programs.  This year, six other GCRI members served as book drive collection sites, and five other members sent volunteers as part of the 130-volunteer effort to sort the almost 40,000 books collected.  United Way sends its thanks to Bank of America, Bank Newport, Citizens Bank, Coastway Community Bank, CVS Health and Hasbro for serving as collection sites, and to Citizens Bank, Coastway Community Bank, CVS Health, Neighborhood Health Plan and Pawtucket Credit Union for sending volunteers to the Day of Action.

Strengthening the Youth Sector: Lessons for Funders, Leaders, and Boards Webinar

Strengthening the Youth Sector: Lessons for Funders, Leaders, and Boards  Webinar

Thursday, June 22nd, 12:00-1:00 PM ET

Funders Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP), a sister organization in the Forum, will be hosting a webinar based on the Youth Engagement Fund’s new report, Strengthening the Youth Sector: Lessons for Funders, Leaders, and Boards. This report was produced with input from over 40 executive directors, staff and board members leading youth-oriented civic engagement organizations to help us better understand how we can better support the development and retention of excellent leaders in this sector of work.

Register