The Collaboration Prize

I stumbled upon an interesting contest today – The Collaboration Prize: 

The Collaboration Prize recognizes collaborations among two or more nonprofit organizations that each would otherwise provide the same or similar programs or services and compete for clients, financial resources and staff.

What is the prize?  $250,000 for the winning collaborators to share and spend on any charitable purpose!  This is the first year of the Prize, but it will be an annual event from this year forward.  Nominees must have begun the collaboration at least 18 months prior to nomination (but no more than 8 years prior), and they must be registered as a 501(c)(3) in the United States (either individually or as a team).

Who will you nominate?

Chronicle of Philanthropy Discussions

The Chronicle of Philanthropy frequently hosts live, open forum chats with expert guests on hot topics in the philanthropy and nonprofit world.  You can access the transcripts of past discussions here, or you can tune in to forthcoming discussions by accessing the Live Discussions page during the chat you are interested in.  You can ask questions and get answers in real time.  How cool is that?!

There is a transcript of yesterday’s discussion with Seth Godin, Marketing Nonprofit Causes, that everyone involved with a nonprofit should read.  Seth Godin is a marketing genius!  There is also a Future for Religious Charities discussion that could be helpful for a lot of our local nonprofits – I think faith-based organizations have been the most frequent users of our Grant Resource Center.

The Catalog of Nonprofit Literature

The Foundation Center’s Catalog of Nonprofit Literature is a searchable, online bibliography that contains approximately 27,000 citations to philanthropy and nonprofit related literature.  As noted in the Contents and Scope page, the Catalog has evolved from an annually printed book to an on-line database: 

“In 1997, in lieu of printing a ninth volume, the Center released the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature, a comprehensive searchable database that includes all the citations that would have appeared in print in the ninth volume and also cumulates the citations from the eight preceding volumes. This was the first database the Foundation Center put on the Internet, and the first time this valuable research tool was available in a searchable, user-friendly format to those seeking information on the literature of philanthropy.

…. During 2001, in a collaboration with the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature has been further enhanced by an initiative to add links to the full-texts of selected journal articles. At this time, Grassroots Fundraising Journal, NonProfit Times, Nonprofit Quarterly, Contributions, and Stanford Social Innovation Review have pioneered in this major step forward. We will be adding new journals to the full-text project on a regular basis.”

If you find an article of interest in the Catalog but there is not yet a link to the article’s full-text, you have two options.  First, check the Periodicals page and click through to the publication’s website and see if the full text of the article is available there.  If not, you will have to actually visit one of the Foundation Center’s five main libraries and read the article there.  Not a convenient option, I know, since the five libraries are in NYC, Washington DC, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Atlanta, but it’s an option nonetheless.

The Periodicals page is a valuable resource in and of itself, containing links to 84 websites of nonprofit and philanthropy related periodicals.

Grant Announcements

UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation Grants to Children

UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation has announced new grants available for children to help pay for medical expenses not covered by their parents’ commercial health care plan.  The grant money can be used to cover critical treatment or continuing care services like speech therapy, physical therapy, and prescriptions, as well as medical equipment like wheelchairs, orthodontics, and eyeglasses.  To be eligible for the awards of up to $5,000, children must be under 16, reside in the United States, and receive coverage from a commercial health plan.  Grants will not be given to children covered by state or federally subsidized health insurance programs.  Families apply individually, not through any intermediary nonprofit.

 

Home Depot Housing Impact Grants

The Home Depot Housing Impact Grants are awarded to tax-exempt organizations in order to rebuild apartments or houses using environmentally friendly practices.  Emphasis is on increasing energy and water efficiency, improving indoor air quality, reducing maintenance costs, and creating an end product that is affordable for individuals or families earning 80 percent or less than the area’s median income.  Awards range from $500 to $3,000 each, and there is an on-line eligibility quiz that must be completed before submitting the entire application.  Applications are accepted May 1 through June 15, 2008, from August 1 through September 15, 2008, and from November 1 through December 15, 2008.

Book: Foundation Fundamentals

After writing my last post, I discovered something interesting.  The Guide to Funding Research course I mentioned is an abbreviated version of a core Foundation Center book that we have here in our collection, Foundation Fundamentals: A Guide for Grantseekers.  If you take the on-line course and want some more information, check out the book.  It goes into a lot more detail than the course, and would be particularly helpful to someone who is new to foundation giving.

The eighth edition of Foundation Fundamentals is a reference book and does not circulate, but the seventh edition can be checked out with a Franklin library card, or any other library’s card that has an Access sticker.