FOTH Stipend Applications due Friday, December 16th

Stipends will once again be available to attend Foundations on the Hill (FOTH) in 2012. Foundations on the Hill is an annual event co-sponsored by the Council on Foundations and the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers for grantmaking and regional association representatives to meet with their members of Congress to promote the important role philanthropy plays in serving the public good. The upcoming FOTH will take place on March 21-22 and includes training sessions and meetings with members of Congress.

Each stipend will cover up to $1,200 in travel and hotel costs associated with attending Foundations on the Hill. Registration fees will also be waived for all stipend recipients. A stipend recipient’s regional association will also receive a $300 award to continue public policy and advocacy efforts in the state.

New Look for LearnPhilanthropy

Earlier this fall, LearnPhilanthropy (LP) conducted 22 hands-on user tests of the LearnPhilanthropy prototype with staff, donors, and trustees from a variety of different types of grantmaking and philanthropy support organizations. These tests have helped LearnPhilanthropy to identify eight priorities for site improvement:

1. Redesign the front page so that it’s inviting, active, compelling, and clear.
2. Further develop LP’s search function – make it easier to find and more highly functional
3. Improve initial search screen
4. Populate and format the resource landing pages
5. Improve the log-in/register page
6. Build out the individual profile functionality
7. Add and build more interactive elements
8. Test initial value-added content, like collections of resources, Q&A, etc.

2010 Regional Association Characteristics Data Now Available

The 2010 data collected from this year’s Regional Association Characteristics Survey is now available for members! For the first time this report includes data analysis and comparison between 2010 data and data collected in previous years. The Regional Association Characteristics Survey is an annual benchmarking tool for the regional association network on topics like membership, finances, programming, services, and governance.

We’d like to thank the 32 regional associations who updated their information to include 2010 data. This is a comprehensive and time intensive survey to complete and we appreciate the time and effort it takes to provide this information each year.

The Forum and the Council on Foundations are also excited to provide the first ever brief on the organizational and management trends of Affinity Groups and Regional Associations, available at the link above. The study uses data from both the 2010 Affinity Group Management Survey and the 2010 Regional Association Characteristics Survey to compare the similarities and differences of operations and organizational trends among these two very distinct groups of organizations. The Council has also provided access to the Summary Report for the 2010 Affinity Group Management Survey.

Engagement Snapshot: Philanthropy New York – A Strategic Approach

Guest Post by Beeta Jahedi, Assistant Manager, Professional Education, Philanthropy New York and Robert Hyfler, EngAGEment Initiative Program Consultant, Philanthropy New York

It was with great enthusiasm that Philanthropy New York signed on to the EngAGEment initiative and the funding partnership with Grantmakers In Aging. Philanthropy New York and our local co-funders, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, quickly developed a senior staff working group to develop our local approach to the challenge of increasing foundation funding in age-related issues. A three-pronged strategy emerged:

• Encourage our 280 grantmaking member organizations and their 2500 individual staff members and trustees to look carefully at age-related issues through the prism of their existing areas of focus and then integrate age-related concerns into their current mix of priorities.
• Connect age-related concerns to Philanthropy New York’s own central focus on policy. To reinforce this priority, a close working and advisory relationship was forged with the New York Academy of Medicine and the city’s “Age Friendly NYC” initiative.
• Increase the footprint of age-related issues within the institutional fabric of Philanthropy New York.