The TCFN plenary, as it was formerly known, will shift slightly to include a broader conversation about community philanthropy around the world.  The event, aptly entitled the Global Community Philanthropy Initiative, will take place in May 2011 in conjuction with the national conference of Community Foundations of Canada, the current TCFN host.   We encourage you to review the article available online here,  which comes to us from Barry Knight, who has been working with TCFN, GFCF, and WINGS-CF to gather collective thinking and input needed to direct this work.

 Global Community Philanthropy Initiative
A group of about 15 community foundation leaders from around the world will plan the GCPI event in May 2011, and it will begin by meeting in September to exchange ideas about the future of community philanthropy globally. Practitioners from the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF), the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network (TCFN) and WINGS-CF will consider how the work of community foundations can best be supported globally, especially how the core work of community foundations and their supporting networks in areas such as convening, peer learning, development of tools and resources, and granting can be joined up through existing global programs such as those represented by participants and perhaps others too. They will also provide some advice to Community Foundations of Canada on shaping an agenda for the CFC 2011 Conference.

CFC 2011 Conference – A World of Opportunity (May 12 – 14, 2011, Vancouver)
Leaders and practitioners from around the world are invited to submit session ideas for the gathering, which will be held May 12-14, 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The deadline for proposals is Friday, September 17. In mid-October CFC will respond to all ideas submitted, planning around 30 sessions, based on the proposals received. Details of the conference themes, a proposal form, and other information can all be found at

 http://www.cfc-conference.ca/conference_2011/resources/proposals.cfm

On a related note, the 2009 CFC Annual Report has been published, and can be downloaded here.   

Between 500 and 600 people, representing 86 countries, are expected to attend CIVICUS’ ninth global gathering, “World Assembly: Acting Together for a Just World,” which will be held Friday through Monday (Aug. 20-23) in Montreal, Canada. It will focus on topics related to economic and environmental justice. 

Read a news article posted to Mott.org highlighting this international event that is co-hosted by the Institut du Nouveau Monde in Montreal and CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.   

Watch a short video interview of CIVICUS’s general secretary, Ingrid Srinath, who recently visited Mott’s home office in Flint, Michigan.  Srinath discusses CIVICUS’ role as an international networker of individuals and organizations – all working at the local, national, regional and international levels to strengthen citizen action and civil society around the globe, especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens’ freedoms are threatened.  

TCFNers Monica Patten (President and CEO, Community Foundations of Canada) and Allyson Reaves (Program Manager, TCFN) along with Marissa Camacho (Executive Director, Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support) will share a presentation on Community Philanthropy as a Development Tool on Sunday, August 22, 2010.

The internship program at the Ottawa office of CFC aims to strengthen the work of community foundations in Canada and prepare internship participants to play a leadership role in community and non-profit (NGO) institutions at regional, national, and global levels. Involvement in this internship will also provide opportunities for networking with community foundations leaders, foundation researchers, and practitioners at all levels of community philanthropy. The internship participant will be highly engaged at various levels of CFC’s work, including community foundation leadership initiatives, current issues in community philanthropy, international networking among community foundations, and research in endowment building and investment alternatives. The internship participant will be involved with staff members who specialize in marketing, strategic planning, programming, administration, and research.

Candidate Eligibility
At the time of application, applicants must:

•Be enrolled in or graduated from a college or university level program
•Demonstrate excellence in writing and speaking skills
•Have substantial community service or experience in the non-profit sector
•Advanced multi-language skills and research experience are an advantage

Program Dates
Application deadline: September 24, 2010
Internship program – October 4, 2010 – December 10, 2010

Download the
Internship Application
Internship Description
Flyer

For more information, contact Allyson Reaves (areaves@cfc-fcc.ca).

Valmiera Area Community Foundation is one of six community foundations in Latvia. It has just been celebrating its fifth anniversary in fine style and to add to the celebrations, Ansis Berzins, its Executive Director (ansis.berzins@vnf.lv) has been named as Valmiera’s Citizen of the Year 2010 during the Valmiera City Festival. Every year around five people achieve this recognition.

Candidates are suggested by local people, and approved by the town council (local government). The award says that Ansis is recognized for unselfish work to benefit Valmiera’s people by organizing charitable campaigns and building social support programmes for the local community. Other citizens of the year were a doctor, a famous conductor and director of a choir, a leading entrepreneur and a nationally recognized actor. Ansis was taken by surprise to receive the honour – as he says, he has lived in this community only for eight years. His colleagues in the community foundation network are not at all surprised that he has been recognized in this way for all his commitment to the region and making the community foundation concept a reality. As well as his local work, he has been a leader in the development of the Community Foundation Movement in Latvia, the national association of community foundations, of which he is the Chair.

Ansis says, “Sure, I feel very proud to be among them and to be recognized by my city. This is good inspiration and motivation to continue the community philanthropy challenge in Valmiera and Latvia. Meanwhile, the award was a wonderful gift to Valmiera Region Community Foundation for its fifth anniversary, celebrated on June 30 and throughout whole summer.”

June  2010 Peer Exchange in Milwaukee, USA

Download the newsletter here: TCFN Newsletter July 2010

In this issue: July 2010

TCFN Activities:
2010 Peer Exchanges
2010 Webinars
TCFN Plenary – Global Community Philanthropy Initiative

TCFN Particpants:
Valmiera Area Community Foundation, The Greater Milwaukee Foundation

Other Community Foundation News:
The Seattle Foundation

Events:
Council on Foundations: 210 Council on Foundations Fall Conference for Community Foundations: Powering Communities
13-15 Sept 2010 (Charlotte, USA)

WINGS: WINGSForum 2010 Innovation and Impact: The Role of Grantmaker Assocations in Changing Society
18-20 November 2010 (Lake Como, Italy)

Publications:
After the Flood: some options for foundations

Regional Focus: Australia

Other News:
The Philips Livable Cities Award
European Peer-2-Peer Community Foundation Network
Invitation to apply to become a Synergos Senior Fellow

Questions? Contact Allyson Reaves at areaves@cfc-fcc.ca

 The network is a bottom-up initiative, and will attempt to capitalize the expertise of already existing networks, which support community foundations, such as TCFN and WINGS-CF. Its main function will be to connect practitioners and disseminate local knowledge produced in the community foundation field. A special attention to the language gap will be paid in order to bring the non-English speaking community foundations to the opportunities offered by the already existing international networks.

The preparatory team presented the result of their 6-months work on developing a strategy for a European peer-driven network for community foundations, whose main purpose will be to facilitate the exchanges among CF practitioners on the grassroots level.

Download the full article –  European Peer to Peer Community Foundation Network (11).

 Over the past ten years in Australia, Federal Government support in the form of limited funds to assist the start up of community foundations has come from grants made by the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal. These grants are restricted to foundations in rural and regional areas and in the past two years, a new programme has been put into place, aimed at assisting with limited amounts of administration funding and tightly targeted. It includes an element of match funding over a three year period.

 In the past year, the Victorian State Government’s Department of Planning and Community Development has introduced a new initiative for community foundations. The Department recognises that community foundations enable local people with philanthropic interests to support local priorities and initiatives more easily and effectively than can government. One of the strengths of community foundations, their ability to establish a sustainable funding stream for the community which is independent of government funding, is understood. One of the Victorian Government’s Action Plans is to “Strengthen Community Organisations”. One part of this initiative is for grants to 12 community foundations in areas where there is the right mix of community interest and need. The funding investment is intended to boost the prosperity of communities and increase business and community involvement in community life. The funds invested can help create a sustainable base for activities and the intention is to invest this in areas where government has already supported community development programmes and where the groundwork for success is already in place.

 The programme works as follows: the Office for the Community Sector, in the Department of Planning and Community Development, will fund a community foundation with “challenge funding” of $100,000. Foundations have to raise a matching $100,000 through their own fundraising efforts in their communities as well as participate in governance and financial training. When the funds have been matched, there is the opportunity to receive further government funding of up to $200,000 to develop a Community Fund Pool. Income from this fund can be used to fund various programmes identified locally as priority needs.

 So far the Department has made grants, after independent assessment, to five community foundations – the Inner North (of Melbourne) Community Foundation, Bass Coast Community Foundation, Ballarat Foundation, South West (of Victoria) Community Foundation and the Bendigo and Central Victoria Community Foundation. Criteria for decision include:

(a) Community interest and need which includes the issues of place-based disadvantage and low socio-economic profile.
(b) Ability to build on existing government investment in an area.
(c) Evidence that the groundwork for success has been developed.

The Office for the Community Sector has recently gained approval for three further funds to be announced, with the remaining four to be funded in the 2010-11 financial year.

 There are already results to show for the investment: Bass Coast and South West Community Foundations have already matched their funds while Inner North and Ballarat are progressing well against their target. (Bendigo’s grant was only announced quite recently.)

 The way in which the decisions to fund are taken, has made for a successful and well received programme. Andrew says, “It is giving a very strong impetus for the foundations involved in developing their local community funding as well as lifting their community profiles. The important component of the programme is ensuring that community foundations have to be active in local community fund development and they cannot rely on a stream of government funding which could sap independent development activity.”

Community Foundations of Canada has just launched our Call for Proposals for CFC 2011 Conference – A World of Opportunity being held May 12-14, 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

I’m writing to you to ask for your help in spreading the word to community philanthropy practitioners in your area and throughout your own networks. Our conference is expected to attract participants from around the world and we want to encourage session ideas from as far afield as possible.  Submissions are due by Friday, September 17.  Everything that you need can be found on our conference website at www.cfc-conference.ca.  And please feel free to forward the email blast (below) to your networks.

Because I know how busy we all are, I’m attaching some sample newsletter text, which you could use for your next newsletter, as well as potential Facebook and Twitter posts to make things as easy as possible. 

Thank-you for helping to get the word out about our conference – and for helping us attract great learning opportunities for you and your colleagues. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Jane Humphries,
Conference Director

Jane Humphries, MM
Vice-President, Organization and Professional Development | Vice-présidente, Organisation et développement professionnel
T 519.725.3353 C 519.860.2664
11th Floor, 20 Erb Street West, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 1T2
www.cfc-fcc.ca

 UPCOMING TCFN EVENT:  Host:  Greater Milwaukee Foundation
Date: June 23-25, 2010
Topic:  Community Foundations Supporting Collaborations and Partnerships

__________________________________________________________

Download the newsletter here: TCFN Newsletter June 2010

As we look forward to a full and valuable season of upcoming TCFN activities, we also have some exciting news and updates to share with you.  First we have a thought provoking article about the future of global community philanthropy, posted here, followed by a message from CFC’s Board Chair about Monica Patten in the newsletter. 

In this issue: June 2010
TCFN Participants:
The  Scottish Community Foundation, European Peer to Peer Network, The Greater Milwaukee  Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Other Community Foundation News:
The Dalia Association
The Calgary Foundation
The Philadelphia Foundation
The International Society for Third Sector Research

Events:
WINGS: WINGSForum 2010
18-20 November 2010 (Lake Como, Italy)

Council on Foundations: Fall Conference for Community Foundations
13 – 15 September, 2010 (Charlotte, USA)

Publications:
US – Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership

Other News:
New research center on Philanthropy
A Special Message from CFC Chair Faye Wightman

Questions? Contact Allyson Reaves at areaves@cfc-fcc.ca

 Conversations have begun among the three main international organizations that support the development of community foundations to coordinate their work so that they offer a more effective service to the field.  The Global Fund for Community Foundations, the Transatlantic Community Foundation Network, and WINGS-CF are exploring how to deliver a seamless service to their constituencies.

 The three organizations have analyzed the factors that have produced the successful development of community foundations over the past twenty years. They have concluded that six types of service have been essential:

• Money: the provision of funding to support start up, early-stage, and innovative practice; as well as a channel for access and referral to funding sources
• Peer learning: sharing of learning between community foundations
• Technical assistance: expert help on issues relating to the running of community foundations
• Legitimisation: the processes by which new and emerging organisations are given credibility by their peers
• Convening: bringing people together to share information, particularly the engaging of non-community foundation and actors
• Research, information, and publications: the development of the public knowledge base of the field

 At present each of the three organizations performs some of these services. However, it has become clear that what really matters for community foundations is the interaction between the different services.  Hence the need to join them up.

 The three organizations also plan to work on a business case for community foundations. This will be valuable for all relevant organisations in the field, and help to establish the field as an important ingredient in the programs of official development agencies. Despite the growth in community foundations across the world in the past two decades, the idea of community philanthropy is still not well understood in development circles. A business case would open the door to more recognition and more money for the field as a whole. A series of research studies are already underway to support this effort.

 As the discussions proceed, the three organizations are looking to enter into a more formal relationship as time unfolds.

 We would like you to participate in these discussions. As a first step in this process, please contact our consultant, Barry Knight, who is helping us with this process. Write to him at barryknight@cranehouse.eu and he will be in touch with you to discuss these developments and how you can contribute to this process.