Stage 1:  Introduce the Index

Using a map that identifies counties (or parishes) and most of the incorporated towns in your area, spend some time reviewing the geography for which you propose to build a Philanthropy Index. In most cases, you probably will simply ask for information about a single county or parish or several that are tied to each other by economic or other conditions.  Then fill out the order form that accompanies this Guidebook.  The Southern Philanthropy Consortium will provide you with a Philanthropy Potential Data Report that includes data about 12 indicators for the area you have identified.

Those bringing the Index into a community should familiarize themselves with all the Index tools:  Guidebook, Workbook and Data Report.  It can also be useful to have background information on philanthropy and community development.

The resources listed here are primarily websites that give an overview of current activities in philanthropy and community development.   There are also sections that will guide you to Philanthropy Glossaries and Philanthropy Demographics.

 

            Core Resources in Philanthropy

Southeastern Council of Foundations (SECF)
www.secf.org

The Southeastern Council of Foundations is a 355-member association of grantmakers in 12 Southeastern states.

Besides their own excellent webpages, the SECF maintains an outstanding Resource page with excellent links to philanthropy and nonprofit websites:  http://www.secf.org/Links.asp.

The Southeastern Toolkit for Giving: Creating a Community for Philanthropy is a hands-on resource prepared by SECF to help professional advisors, potential donors and foundation staff explore charitable giving options. The Toolkit includes: 10 questions every donor should ask before giving; ideas on what, where and how much to give; profiles of donors who discuss their choices; additional resources throughout the Southeast for more information about giving options; and, much more.  Discounts for bulk orders of 25 copies or more.  Members: $6 each ($5.50 bulk); Non-Members: $10 each ($9 bulk).  Order from the SECF website at:  http://www.secf.org/publications.asp

Southern Rural Development Initiative (SRDI)
http://www.srdi.org/index.htm 

The Southern Rural Development Initiative is a 28-member collaborative of community-based development organizations that builds rural development capacity and capital across the South.

SRDI Savvy Links:  “No long laundry list of links here. These are the "gems" of the World Wide Web as selected by SRDI staff -- for the broader SRDI community. We not only point you to a site but tell you why we like it.”  http://www.srdi.org/links1715/links.htm

Foundation for the Mid South
http://www.fndmidsouth.org/home.asp

“The Foundation for the Mid South is a regional development foundation serving Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi that brings people together, strengthens communities, and multiplies resources.  Since 1989, the Foundation has helped to attract more than $150 million in new resources for the Mid South and has awarded grants to more than 300 nonprofit organizations.”

New Ventures
www.rag.org

New Ventures is a program of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers to fund and support creative efforts to build new permanent philanthropic assets.  The program has supported a number of efforts to build philanthropy in communities of color and rural communities, including the Philanthropy Index itself.

Aspen Institute—Community Strategies Group (CSG)
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/Programt3.asp?i=59

The Community Strategies Group (CSG) structures and contributes to focused learning that supports the innovation of organizations and funders working to achieve more widely shared and lasting prosperity in communities. CSG helps organize peer exchange and critical examination opportunities for rural practitioners who undertake groundbreaking initiatives or who face decision making junctures in policy and program review.

The website links to a list of online publications.  Especially useful as an in-depth complement to the assets-inventory process described in the Philanthropy Index Guidebook is CSG’s Measuring Community Capacity Building: A Workbook-in-Progress for Rural Communities (1996).  “ ‘Community capacity’ is the foundation for sustainable, long-term growth. It is the combined influence of a community's commitment, resources and skills that can be deployed to build on community strengths and to address problems and opportunities. This book is for leaders and citizens who want to improve the ability of individuals, organizations, businesses and government in their community to come together, learn, and implement a development agenda. The book answers: What is capacity? Why should we care? How do we know it when we see it? How do we celebrate it? Included are dozens of actual measures to gauge progress.”  Out-of-print, but available to download free at:  www.aspeninstitute.org/bookdetails.asp?i=59&d=60.

The Rural Development Philanthropy (RDP) Learning Network is a diverse group of community foundations and philanthropic organizations engaged in learning together to develop locally controlled endowments, programs and grantmaking
efforts to improve rural economies and community vitality.  With support
from Learning Network members, the Ford Foundation, the Annie E. Casey
Foundation and others, the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group (CSG)
manages the Network.  Offering customized peer-learning assistance to
groups, to individual foundations and at national and regional convenings,
CSG collects and disseminates RDP tools, stories and strategic lessons to
the community foundation and community development fields. http://www.aspencsg.org/rdp.

Of particular interest is their Building Engines for Rural Endowment:  An RPD Thinking and Action Framework.  “This Framework is a guide to help people who lead community foundations think about and act strategically to build more and better permanently endowed assets focused on vitalizing and sustaining rural areas, rural issues, and rural populations. It does so in hopes of advancing Rural Development Philanthropy—the process and practice of creating and strengthening locally controlled endowment, grantmaking and community programs to improve rural livelihoods, economies and community vitality.”  Downloadable for free at: http://www.aspencsg.org/rdp/framesets/boonies.html.

Council on Foundations
http://www.cof.org  

The Council on Foundations is a nonprofit membership association of grantmaking foundations and corporations. COF is a major source for educational materials about philanthropy. Each year, it sponsors a number of conferences on philanthropy.

Foundation News and Commentary
www.foundationnews.org. 

The on-line and print journal of the Council on Foundations.

Chronicle of Philanthropy
www.philanthropy.org. 

A bi-weekly newspaper about grantmaking, fund raising and non-profits. A major source of philanthropic news. Included is a large listing of jobs in the non-profit sector.

Foundation Center
www.fdncenter.org. 

The Foundation Center is the major information source about foundations. They publish annual guides to foundations and have a number of resources available on the Internet, including a grants index and listserv. They also have collections at libraries across the South.

MDC, Inc.
http://www.mdcinc.org/ 

“MDC’s mission is to advance the South through strategies that expand opportunity, reduce poverty, and build inclusive communities.  We analyze trends to identify challenges that impede progress for the South and its people, and we address those challenges from multiple angles.  Our core strategies include developing responsive public policies; demonstrating effective programs; building institutional and community capacity for progress; and informing the public dialog.”

Note especially two papers available for download at their website:  “The Building Blocks of Community Development” and “Leadership for Change”.

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
http://www.ncrp.org. 

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy is committed to making philanthropy more responsive to socially. economically and politically disenfranchised people, and to the dynamic needs of increasingly diverse communities nationwide. Links collection: http://www.ncrp.ora/interest/links.htm.

Philanthropy Journal Online
www.pj.org. 

Sign up and the Philanthropy Journal will send weekly headlines from the world of philanthropy. Their online weekly newspaper is free and a great way to keep up with trends and news.

Progressive Publications
www.progressivepubs.com. 

This site has a useful index of progressive foundations listed by issues funded.

            Philanthropy Terms

The Giving Forum maintains an excellent concise glossary of common terms at:
http://www.givingforum.org/giving/glossary.html

The Council on Foundations provides a more extensive glossary at:  http://www.cof.org/Content/General/Display.cfm?contentID=120&. 

            Philanthropy Demographics

FC Stats is “a free online resource that provides users with ready access to a wealth of statistical data on U.S. private and community foundations and their funding patterns. FC Stats currently offers over 1,700 data tables available only from the Foundation Center.”  It includes: growth trends, foundation assets by state, foundations assets by foundation type, and grantmaking statistics: http://fdncenter.org/fc_stats/index.html. 

The National Center for Charitable Statistics is “the national repository of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States. Its mission is to develop and disseminate high quality data on nonprofit organizations and their activities for use in research on the relationships between the nonprofit sector, government, the commercial sector, and the broader civil society.”  http://nccs.urban.org/.  Of particular interest are the state-by-state profiles of individual charitable contributions.  They also provide links to other sites with statistical information on charitable giving and nonprofits. 

GIVING USA provides the latest facts and figures on philanthropic giving including:   sources of funding (individuals, corporations, foundations), recipients (analysis of nine fields of giving), and an overview of the year's giving trends (shown by recipient organization type, and by funding sources).  It is available for purchase from American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel at:  http://www.aafrc.org/giving/index.html. 

"Portrait of the Rural South" on the SRDI website gives maps of foundation assets and grants in the South by County:  http://www.srdi.org/information1714/information.htm. 

"Building Community Development Assets for the Rural South" provides fuller development of SRDI’s analysis.  This report “outlines those counties considered persistently poor and then maps the grants and assets channeled to those areas. What emerges is a picture that shows the lack of concentrated funds being used to address the serious shortfalls in the persistently poor counties. We find most of the foundation grants and assets are in urban areas, while rural Southern areas are in desperate need of attention.”  Available as free download at: http://www.srdi.org/newsletter1710/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=31148.