The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in which the colors are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.
– American novelist Carson McCullers, born today in 1917
Happy day-after Valentine’s Day! We certainly heart our local nonprofits …
Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE)
SpeakeasyDC returns to Dance Place to celebrate Valentine’s Day though hilarious and moving true stories about romance, relationships, and sex. Nab “Sucker for Love” tickets right here; performances on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM.
We Are Family Senior Outreach Network (at Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge Street NW)
Volunteers will help assemble and deliver grocery bags to low-income seniors near North Capitol Street and Shaw on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Sign up here (scroll down a bit).
Constellation Theatre Company (at Source, 1835 14th Street NW)
Final weekend! Zorro, the masked avenger, is born when quiet, bookish Diego must find a way to fight corruption and injustice. Catch performances on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 2:00 PM.
Washington Bach Consort (at National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Avenue NW)
In honor of the 35th Season, and by popular demand, WBC presents “Bach for All Seasons,” all-Bach program built around the “Great Eighteen Chorales” on Sunday at 3:00 PM. Purchase tickets right here.
Google seems to be on the front lines of everything these days. This week, Google hosted a forum on “Getting Your Business Online” in DC — one in a series of small business growth workshops hosted by Google across the country. While the Catalogue and its member nonprofits are not strictly “small businesses”, the growth of small nonprofits mirrors that of small for-profits in many ways. We all struggle with building an online presence and continually spreading the word about our services. (Google also offers special products and services to nonprofits, many at a discount – something worth looking into!)
Catalogue staff attended the workshop on February 12th, and took away some great tips for making the most of our online presence:
- A variety of tools are available online for monitoring who visits your website, where they come from, and which pages they visit most often. While ‘web analytics’ may sound like an intimidating term, tools like Google Analytics and Google Webmaster can break the stats down into digestible nuggets of information that any business owner or nonprofit ED can understand.
- Even if you don’t buy into the Google suite of tools, Google Alerts can help you keep tabs on your unearned online presence. You can create an Alert (for free) that will notify you any time your nonprofit or business name appears on the web — a great way to keep tabs on potential PR hits and misses.
- Google AdWords is one tool that offers special deals for nonprofits — check out Google Grants to apply for free advertising through Google AdWords. If you’re approved, you can create a Google AdWords campaign for free and promote your organization in the ads that pop up at the top of search pages.
Again, whether Google is your online guru of choice or not, staying in tune with the latest trends in online business/nonprofit growth and promotion can have huge benefits for your organization. For more information on resources from Google, as well as registration information for the upcoming GYBO session in Falls Church, VA, check out www.gybo.com/washington-dc/.
DC, advocates at odds over homeless families; 900 people still in shelter (Washington Post): “This winter, the District’s shelter for homeless families at DC General Hospital is crammed full — 372 adults and nearly 600 children [...] City officials say that hard times and the lack of affordable housing in poor neighborhoods are to blame for the continuing crisis of family homelessnes.” Last year, the number of homeless families in the District jumped by 18 percent and advocates argue that DC “is not doing nearly enough to help the neediest residents find permanent housing at a time of budget surplus.” Learn more about Catalogue’s homelessness and housing nonprofits right here.
Class-Divided Cities: Washington, DC Edition (The Atlantic): “More than any other metro we’ve covered, greater Washington, DC is a creative class region [...] These are high-skilled, highly-educated, and high-paying positions where workers average $90,442 in wages and salaries, fourth highest in the nation [...] Still, the class divide in the region is pronounced. The creative class is concentrated in the center of the metro, as the map shows.” A map charting the geography of class in the region shows a concentration of the creative class to the west and service to the east, yet almost no clusters of working class residents, implying that “Greater Washington is a fully post-industrial region.” Explore the interactive maps right here.
Tech’s new entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy (USA Today): “The intersection of technology and philanthropy is creating “philanthrocapitalism,” borrowing ideas from venture capitalism to fund non-profits.” For example, “NFS , a model of Omidyars’ brand of philanthropy, is based loosely on a venture-capital firm’s approach. And it is quickly becoming a powerful agent for social change, as eBay was for commerce.” Says Suzanne DiBianca, the co-founder and president of the Salesforce.com Foundation, “Companies are beginning to understand their power in leveraging their assets to non-profits [...] It’s not just throwing a check over a wall.”
On Sunday, the Washington Post inquired: “Can nonprofit organizations boost a regional economy?”
The impact of a nonprofit is frequently gauged by the reach and effectiveness of its services. But beyond their power to help and support a community, can these organizations provide fuel to rev a regional economy?
In Montgomery County, at least, a new report concludes that nonprofit groups have indeed played an important role in boosting the labor market and the broader economy [...] The report shows that nonprofit workers in Montgomery comprise 10 percent of the county’s labor force and earned a collective $2.2 billion in wages in 2011.
Funded by Nonprofit Montgomery, an affiliate of the Nonprofit Roundtable, the study also “found that the county’s nonprofits have $4 billion in purchasing power” and that they showed considerable resilience during the recession, posting an increase in sector employees from 2007 to 2011 — a period during which the overall number of employees in the county dropped.
Similarly, the study revealed that local nonprofits can fuel economic recovery indirectly as well. For example, adult literacy services enable residents to “qualify for a job, fill out an application or even simply navigate the bus system, all of which can boost one’s chances of earning wages.” And arts and culture nonprofits can direct consumers to nearby restaurants, retail stores, and even parking garages.
What are the other key byproducts of a healthy nonprofit sector? Share your thoughts with us.
“A book is a wonderful present. Though it may grow worn, it will never grow old.”
“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”
– American writer and editor Jane Yolen, born today in 1939
Spend an hour or two with a Catalogue nonprofit, such as …
Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE)
Join the Dance Place Step Team for Step It Up DC on Friday at 8:00 PM — special step workshops and an informal performance, open to all ages. Buy tickets right here.
We Are Family Senior Outreach Network (474 Ridge Street NW)
Volunteers will receive a brief orientation and then go out in pairs or groups to visit isolated, low-income seniors in their homes on Saturday at 10:00 AM. Sign up this way!
Joy of Motion Dance Center (Jack Guidone Theater @ 5207 Wisconsin Avenue NW)
Youth Dance Project introduces creative and exciting new works from the region’s choreographers under the age of 18 this coming Saturday at 8:00 PM. Nab your tickets here.
Coming Soon:
Audubon Naturalist Society (Dolley Madison Library, 1244 Oak Ridge Ave, McLean, VA)
Kevin Ambrose, photographer and blogger for the Capital Weather Gang, will discuss “Washington’s Winters” at an ANS Members’ Meeting on Tuesday at 7:00 PM. RSVP to shsprenke@gmail.com.
Iona Senior Services (4125 Albemarle Street NW)
Join Executive Director Sally White for a cup of coffee, thought-provoking conversation, and a tour of Iona’s Breckinridge Buildling on Wednesday at 9:00 AM.
We are officially half way through the application window for the 2013 Catalogue for Philanthropy! Over the past few weeks, the Catalogue has partnered with the accounting firm (and Catalogue supporter) Raffa to offer financial workshops on the financial supplement part of our application. The workshops covered the details of the financial supplement and offered suggestions on how to best present financial information, especially for small nonprofits with unique financial pictures. Representatives from over 100 nonprofits attended the workshops, held on January 29th and February 6th, and took away helpful tips on issues ranging from reporting on in-kind donations and services, allocating costs between fundraising and programming, and correctly calculating administrative costs.
The Catalogue for Philanthropy’s review process differs from many other reviews through watchdog sites and others, in that we consider a nuanced view of each application, in both the programmatic and financial review. As Tom Raffa, CEO of Raffa and Catalogue Board Member, pointed out during the workshops, our review is meant to not only select “some of the best” small nonprofits in DC, but also help those still growing to become stronger and more sustainable through our feedback. We encourage all applicants to include additional information when appropriate to explain “red flags” — high ratios of G&A, fundraising, or salaries to total expenses, or a high percentage of revenue coming from government grants.
Even if you missed the workshop, the Catalogue’s APPLY website includes plenty of information about the financial (and narrative) application — and feel free to reach out to us (info@cfp-dc.org) with questions. Remember, applications are due on Monday, February 25th…and we can still use your help in spreading the word!
In speech, DC mayor pledges investment in affordable housing, other city programs (Washington Post): “A ‘prosperity dividend’ from the District’s continued economic growth should be used to make investments in key city government programs, Mayor Vincent C. Gray said in his annual State of the District address Tuesday.” In the third year of his term, Gray has his first opportunity to “pursue significant new spending — starting with a $100 million commitment to affordable housing.” Additionally, the mayor’s upcoming budget proposal “will include a $15 million ‘investment fund’ for city nonprofits. The fund would make competitive grants to groups involved in arts, job training, the environment, health and other areas.”
A Million Strong: Helping Them Through (New York Times: Education): “As often as not, they float in and out of college like nomads, juggling deployments, families and jobs. If they are in service, they take classes at night or on weekends, studying between combat patrols and 12-hour duty schedules [...] Some have physical injuries or mental health issues that can strain their ability to study.” Thus the questions arise: are veterans given the information that they need to make the best enrollment decisions, and then provided with the resources to complete the degree requirements? To answer them, federal agencies are “creating new metrics that reflect military and veteran students’ tendencies to attend multiple colleges and to take more than four to six years to graduate.”
Three Key Takeaways from Nielsen’s 2012 Social Media Report (Nonprofit Quarterly): “Social media is here to stay, and even as others catch up, Facebook remains miles ahead of the pack [...] If you want to go where the growth is, go mobile. Mobile technology really took root in 2012 with a whopping 120 percent increase in mobile app usage.” And of those surveyed, more than 50% shared their positive and negative reactions about brands over social media — implying that organizations that are not on Facebook or Twitter “could be missing out on helping your stakeholders understand or resolve issues or concerns.”
From “In first annual report, Raise DC offers snapshot of DC youth” (Washington Post – Feb. 3):
Only four in 10 third-graders in the District can read proficiently, and only about four out of 10 young adults in the city have a full-time job.
Those sobering statistics are part of a snapshot of DC youths to be released Monday by Raise DC, a coalition of public, private and nonprofit groups Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) convened last year with the aim of improving the lives of the District?s neediest residents from birth through age 24.