George Gund

A year ago, the worst financial crisis in half a century compelled The George Gund Foundation, like others, to make some tough decisions in order to deal with a sharp decline in the value of our invested assets. We cut our operating budget and trimmed our grantmaking while focusing more resources on effective collaborations and on public policy advocacy. Fortunately, as the year progressed our assets began to rebound. While the portfolio-and hence our grantmaking — has not returned to its pre-recession level, the trend is encouraging. We face 2010 with greater optimism and also with a continued commitment to fiscal prudence, effective collaborations and policy work.

The reaction to our first online annual report was positive, and we saved thousands of dollars by forgoing the traditional printed version. So, we will once again report to our grantees and others in an online publication that will continue to feature a photographic essay, this year focused on Cleveland’s lakefront.

Another operational change affects our proposal deadlines and grant decision schedule. Beginning this year, we will have three rounds of grant awards instead of four. This is not a financial decision; we will award the same amount of dollars that we would have under our four-round schedule. Rather, as many of you know, eight of our 10 trustees live far from our Cleveland office and in order to maximize the effectiveness of their engagement and to accommodate the many demands on their schedules, our Board of Trustees will meet three times per year. This obviously affects the deadlines for submitting grant requests. Below is the meeting schedule and proposal deadline schedule for 2010:

Winter-Spring meeting

Proposal deadline: November 15, 2009
Trustees Meeting: February 25

Summer meeting

Proposal deadline: March 15
Trustees Meeting: July 1

Fall meeting

Proposal deadline: July 15
Trustees Meeting: November 4

In future years, the proposal deadlines will remain the same and Trustee meeting dates will be approximately the same.

We recognize that this will create some concern for grantees who have been accustomed to working with us on a different calendar, and we encourage you to contact any of the Foundation’s program staff with your questions and to bring to our attention any particular issues this switch raises. We will work with you to ease the transition to the new schedule.

Finally, although the financial crisis has eased, economic distress remains all too prevalent. Consequently, we will continue to emphasize collaborations — among grantmakers and grantees — in order to stretch scarce dollars and to make more effective decisions. Sharing power, decision-making and day-to-day work is difficult — especially for foundations that are accustomed to exercising unilateral authority. But we as grantmakers cannot honestly demand collaboration among nonprofit organizations without forcing ourselves to adhere to the same discipline that comes from working in a partnership. So, we will seek such collaborations for ourselves and among those who do the work that we care about. Naturally, this prompts us to maintain an emphasis on public policy advocacy. Not only is this work essential to attacking root causes of many fundamental problems, it also generates tremendous leverage for our grant dollars. And building effective public policies always involves the hard work of finding common ground among diverse viewpoints, which is the very essence of collaboration.

David T. Abbott
Executive Director

The German Marshall Fund is accepting application from government and nonprofit leaders to spend two to six months in Europe researching innovative approaches to urban/regional challenges as part of its Comparative Domestic Policy program.

Applications are due March 15 and should focus on issues related to urban sustainability, education and workforce development, affordable housing/cost of living and combating social exclusion. Fellows will be based in Turin, Italy but must travel to two other cities or regions during the fellowship.

Additional information on the program and application requirements is available at http://gmfus.org/template/page.cfm?page_id=212.

Positively Cleveland has released a new promotional video, with a sound track by rapper Q-Nice, to attract visitors to Greater Cleveland.

The Aids Task Force of Greater Cleveland has distributed re-usable canvas grocery bags to food pantry clients, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District has adopted an anti-idling policy for school buses and Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity has expanded its Re-Store which diverts more than 500 tons of construction material from landfills each year while providing the public with low-cost materials for home renovation and repair.

These are just a few of the projects that have been reported in the climate change statements that have been required of all George Gund Foundation grant applicants since September 2007.

“Our intent was to raise awareness about this important issue and help people understand that each one of us has a responsibility to help ameliorate the impact of climate change,” said David Abbott, the Foundation’s executive director. “We are pleased to report that our grantees have been thoughtful, pro-active and entrepreneurial in finding ways to reduce their personal and organizational carbon footprints.”

He said many organizations have instituted recycling programs, eliminated the use of disposable plates and cups, mandated double-sided printing, installed energy-saving light bulbs and started purchasing green office supplies.

The Foundation, which completed the Entrepreneurs for Sustainability’s Sustainability Implementation Training Program, also is continuing to monitor its own progress on internal goals.

 “Climate change is a very serious problem that impacts all of us, and we see implementation of our internal green team’s recommendations as a way both to decrease our carbon footprint and also to set an example for our grantees,” said Abbott.

He said the Foundation also will begin highlighting, on its website and in its e-newsletter, grantees that have made significant strides in going green.

The George Gund Foundation’s first on-line, interactive annual report, which like its print predecessors features a photo essay focused on a priority issue for the Foundation, is now available on the Foundation’s website.

Sage Sohier’s photographs provide a glimpse into the lives of preschoolers who benefit from the work of Invest in Children, Cuyahoga County’s public-private early childhood partnership. The 2008 annual report also features letters from the Foundationís board president and executive director addressing the Foundationís response to the nation’s financial downturn-a response that includes forgoing a printed report this year in order to redirect dollars to grantmaking.

The report also includes guidelines and procedures for applying for grants, a financial statement and a list of grants made during 2008. Northeast Ohio residents have the opportunity to vote on who will receive as much as $300,000 in funding for projects to accelerate government collaboration and efficiency in the region.

Northeast Ohio residents have the opportunity to vote on who will receive as much as $300,000 in funding for projects to accelerate government collaboration and efficiency in the region.

The EfficientGovNow program, sponsored by the Fund for Our Economic Future in an effort to strengthen the economic competitiveness of Northeast Ohio, will fund three collaborative government projects selected from nine finalists. Residents of Northeast Ohio may vote in one of three ways — online at www.EfficientGovNow.org, by calling 1–877–771–5206 or with a mail-in ballot included in brochures at libraries throughout Northeast Ohio. Voting ends July 31.

The Foundation Center has collected an extensive array of resources on how nonprofits may be able to access stimulus package funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The Center’s new MapShot: Best ARRA Funding Resources by State provides a state-by-state display of funding opportunities and other pertinent information.

Also informative is the Center’s PhilanTopic blog post, What Do Nonprofits Need to Know About the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?.

MapShot: Best ARRA Funding Resources by State is available at the Center’s Focus on the Economic Crisis web page, which offers a variety of resources to help nonprofits and foundations deal with the challenges of the unstable economy.