Breakfast Welcomes 32 Hampton Roads Nonprofit Leaders



Executives lead a variety of Hampton Roads organizations.

The Hampton Roads Community Foundation was happy to be part of the August 16, 2016 New Nonprofit CEO Welcome Breakfast held by 757 Nonprofit Collaborative in Norfolk. The Collaborative is a partnership of Tidewater Community College's Academy for Nonprofit Excellence and VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads. The Obici Healthcare Foundation helped sponsor the breakfast held at Dominion Enterprises headquarters.

Among the guests were 32 nonprofit executives, all of whom recently assumed significant roles in the Hampton Roads nonprofit sector. They are pictured above listed from left to right:

• Jenny Fertig, Healthy Chesapeake
• Hal Smith, Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula
• Edith White, HRCAP Inc.
• Sheri Klym, March of Dimes Hampton Roads
• Ed Collum, Opportunities for Change
• Betsy Roberts, Tidewater Youth Services
• Dr. Renee Felts, Paul D. Camp Community College Foundation
• Jim Spore, Reinvent Hampton Roads
• Kristen Carter, Children’s Harbor
• Lavora Moore, So-Etiquette Society
• Mary Kate Andris, YWCA of South Hampton Roads
• John Raniowski, Hero Kids Foundation
• Robin Gauthier, Samaritan House
• Tami Park Farinholt, Newport News Green Foundation
• Lisa Baehre, Sandler Center Foundation
• Chet Hart, Western Tidewater Free Clinic
• Major James Alison, The Salvation Army
• Melynda Ciccotti, Champions for Children: Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
• Richard Gillcrese, Barrett Transitional Home
• Mary Campana, Equi-Kids Therapeutic Riding Program
• Kodi Fleming, Communities in Schools
• Jennifer Priest, Norfolk Sister City Association
• Jane Glasgow, Early Care and Education Initiative of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation

Not pictured above: Ruth Jones Nichols, FoodBank of Southeaster Virginia and the Eastern Shore; Angela Kellam, The Planning Council, and Linda McAbee, Hampton Roads Hounds for Heroes

The 757 Nonprofit Partnership unites the unique purposes and missions of two leading organizations serving the nonprofit community:

• The Academy for Nonprofit Excellence which offers professional development programs focused on the latest trends and best practices for nonprofits
• VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads which connects businesses with opportunities to create a positive impact on our community, equips nonprofits with the resources they need to achieve their mission, and mobilizes volunteers to create change.

Nonprofit Resources: 6 Ways We Help Nonprofits Do Great Work

Since 1950, the Hampton Roads Community Foundation has partnered with area

The nonprofit academy is an award winner.

organizations to improve life in southeastern Virginia. Thanks to the generosity of numerous donors, we offer many ways to help nonprofits do their best work. Check out these six opportunities your organization can leverage to do great work:

1.       Talk with us: Make time to stop by on a Drop-in Day (usually the first Thursday of the month between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.). No appointments or formal agenda needed. Just come visit with a program officer to explore ideas and get feedback on possible grant requests.

a.       Upcoming dates: March 3, April 5, May 5

2.       Apply for a grant: Thanks to our generous donors, we offer a variety of competitive Community Grants to help you address community needs. Our grants provide options for seed and program funding as well as facilities improvement and an array of special-interest grants.

a.       Want more information? We’ve got online tutorials for registration and completing your application.

b.      Ready to Apply? You’ll need to login or register in our online application system.

3.       Explore ways to build your endowment: We manage more than 40 permanent endowments for area nonprofits and help them grow over time. Organizational fund holders receive annual distributions of unrestricted support to further their mission.

4.       Subscribe to receive more information: We offer a free monthly e-newsletter, the Grant Seekers Gazette, designed to keep area nonprofits in the know about grant opportunities, nonprofit classes, and timely news.

a.       Subscribe now!

5.       Check out our nonprofit resource kit: Our online toolkit features nearly 100 free resources designed to help nonprofits improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency from fund raising to board development and marketing.

6.       Attend an Academy for Nonprofit Excellence class: A nonprofit training program offered in partnership with Tidewater Community College, the classes are meant to improve skills, through one- and two-day classes.

a.       Register now!

Learn more about the great work of some of our local nonprofits who are putting our donors’ grants into action.  

New Year, New You: Time to Plan Your Professional Development for 2016

In 2016 there are great opportunities for nonprofit professionals in southeastern Virginia to

Nonprofit Academy students learn new skills.

learn new skills and broaden their horizons. The Academy for Nonprofit Excellence offers snort, focused courses led by experts who share the latest trends and best practices related to nonprofit staff members, board members and volunteers.

The academy is a collaborative effort supported by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and Tidewater Community College, which work to keep quality high and costs low. The goal is for nonprofits to quickly gain knowledge that can be put to work immediately helping them accomplish their missions. As a bonus nonprofit professionals get to network with others their field. Students who take enough classes can earn a Certificate in Nonprofit Management. Be sure to take advantage of all the academy has to offer:

Course & Workshops –  one-day sessions generally run from 9 a.m. to3:30 p.m. and are held at TCC's Center for Workforce Solutions, 7000 College Drive, Suffolk, Virginia -- a location convenient for all of Hampton Roads.

·         Communication Planning: Creating Your Blueprint for Action – January 27

·         Customer Service & Marketing: The Secret to Distinguishing Your Brand – February 18

·         Marketing on a Nonprofit Budget – March 24

·         Using Infographics & Dashboards – April 7

·         Effectively Engaging and Managing Volunteers – April 14

·         Pass to Excellence: An Ethics andAccountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector – April 21

·         Navigating the Minefields of Nonprofit Law – April 28

·         Winning the Grant Writing Game: A Four-Part Series on Writing, Researching, Evaluating, and Reporting Grants – a four-art series offered on May 19, May 25, June 9, and June 16

Also offered are Do-It-Yourself DIY) Workshops – shorter, three-hour sessions each focus on a hands-on application. 

·         Constant Contact: The NEW Nuts and Bolts of Email for Today’s World – February 10

·         Constant Contact: The Email Subscriber’s Experience – February 17

·         Constant Contact: Beyond Email, How Best toManage Events, Volunteers, Surveys, and Donations – February 24

·         How to Keep More Donors and Lose Less Sleep – April 6

·         Fundraising Compliance: State and FederalRequirements – April 20

·         How to Start a Nonprofit – May 5

Start planning now for a productive 2016!

Dan Palotta: Messenger of Change

The community conversation was robust yesterday evening and this morning in Norfolk,Virginia.

You could see the ideas swirling as nonprofit heads, funders and board members from southeastern Virginia listened to Massachusetts author/nonprofit activist/Ted talk veteran Dan Pallotta. He spoke on January 29 to about 300 people brought together by the +Academy for Nonprofit Excellence at TCC.

The next morning at a +VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads breakfast Pallotta hit the high points  for about 130 business, nonprofit and funding leaders who then launched into a mini table-by-table visioning process. Cathy Lewis, host of WHRV's HearSay program, helped keep the discussion and ideas flowing as people talked about better collaboration on issues, fewer nonprofit events, clear messaging and a pipeline of board members open to new ways of running nonprofits.

Pallotta's mantra is that the best for-profit business are judged primarily on their impact, which often stems from investments made in their operations, staffing and marketing. He maintains that the traditional standard for measuring nonprofits is having low overhead, which often leads to low impact. Pallotta maintains that nonprofits are rewarded for "not paying anyone, not marketing, not taking risks and not spending money." He wonders how much more effective nonprofits could be in curing cancer and ending poverty if they were allowed to operate like businesses.

Pallotta helped launched the nonprofit +Charity Defense Council to help donors and funders think about what would happen if nonprofits had more tools, funding and incentives. Could they change the world for the better?

You can get a feel for Dan's ideas by watching his 2013 Ted Talk that has already had more than 3.4 million views.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. ) 

 

How Did Bobby Hill Nearly Double Rescue Squad Volunteers?

If you've ever met Bobby Hill of Virginia Beach, Virginia then you likely have heard him exclaim, "I have the best job in the world because I get to save lives every day."

Bobby is the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad Foundation's recruitment coordinator. He has been in that position since 2009 when he retired as chief magistrate in Virginia Beach. Although Hill had been a long-time rescue squad volunteer, he knew he needed more skills to successfully recruit for Virginia Beach's 10 all-volunteer rescue squads.

Bobby Hill loves his work.
 (photo by Glen McClure)

Bobby got the training he needed at the Academy for Nonprofit Excellence, which was started in 2005 by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. The academy operates in partnership with Tidewater Community College. It offers one- and two-day courses for nonprofit staff and board members in southeastern Virginia at a reasonable cost -- $60 and $85 each.

Since 2005 more than 1,140 people from nearly 450 different nonprofits have taken academy courses. And, more than 80 of them, including Bobby Hill, have earned Certificates in Nonprofit Management. Bobby took 19 classes in everyting from fundraising to social media and personnel management and quickly put his new skills to work. He continues to take classes today to keep his skills fresh and connect with other nonprofit people.

So, what happened at the rescue squads since Hill began working and taking classes?

The number of volunteers has nearly doubled, which is important since Virginia Beach is the largest city in the country to rely on an all-volunteer network of emergency health providers.  The Hampton Roads Community Foundation has put more than $1 million in grants from its unrestricted funds into the academy. The goal is to help area nonprofits to do their best work by investing in the people who make it happen.

Learn more about the nonprofit academy at academyfornonprofitexcellence.org, which recently announced its fall 2014 class schedule.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )