Common Good Funds 2012: December 8, 2011

At The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, we believe that one of the best ways to improve our community is by strengthening nonprofits doing smart, innovative work in our region. We want to share with grantees and nonprofits in the region some new changes to our largest competitive grant program, our Common Good Funds.

This year marked year three of our focus on providing nonprofits with general operating support and resources for nonprofit effectiveness. From 2009-2010, we awarded 61 grants totaling more than $3.94 million through the Common Good Funds to strengthen nonprofits in the 23-county region. During our first grant cycle of 2011, we awarded $770,000 to 10 organizations. We have learned these nonprofits were able to hire new staff, reduce debt, develop new programs and stabilize operations, and that our unrestricted grant funds supported those outcomes. We are excited to continue general operating support into 2012.

Starting next year, we will move from two grant cycles to one grant cycle for the Common Good Funds. The amount of dollars we distribute, as well as the number of grants, will remain the same as previous years. Program eligibility will not change. Next year we estimate that we will grant between $1.2 million and $1.5 million to 25-30 nonprofit organizations. The deadline to submit a letter of intent will be May 1, 2012; grants will be awarded in October.

The decision to move to one grant cycle for the Common Good Funds has been made in order to increase our ability to work more effectively and more efficiently. This includes allowing us more time to review applications and to learn more about nonprofits — their work, challenges and success — and to work with organizations to answer their questions and further support their efforts. The switch to one grant cycle will also allow nonprofits more time (four weeks versus two weeks) to compete for dollars, should they be chosen to submit a final application. In addition, we are considering increasing the number of nonprofits invited to submit final applications.

We know the change to one grant cycle for our Common Good Funds will affect annual planning for nonprofits. Therefore, we will offer multiple opportunities to help organizations understand the new timeline and process. We will host an in-person orientation session as well as several online sessions. In addition, detailed information including Frequently Asked Questions will be available on our website. All website materials will be posted in mid-February. The first set of orientation sessions for the Common Good Funds program will occur in early to mid March.

Next year, we will continue providing resources for nonprofit effectiveness. Through our Nonprofit Scholarships Program, nonprofits who have received a grant within the last seven years (from any of our competitive grantmaking programs) can apply for funding to support the cost of attendance to workshops, trainings and conferences of their choice. We will also continue to offer scholarships for participation in classes through our partnerships with the Foundation Center – Atlanta and Georgia Center for Nonprofits.

The Nonprofit Toolbox program will continue to provide tools to strengthen the management, governance and operations of nonprofit organizations. These awards are custom-designed packages of management consulting to assist you in various areas including strategic planning, financial management, resource development, marketing planning, organizational collaboration and evaluation. Unlike the Nonprofit Scholarship program, nonprofits need not be past grantees in order to take advantage of this support opportunity.

At The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, one of our key roles is to help support and strengthen nonprofits and their ability to make an impact on critical issues in our region. We remain open to hearing from nonprofits — their ideas and feedback on how we can further support the sector. We look forward to continuing this work.