NEWS

HIV/AIDS in the African Communities Report: A Funders Response

Over the last couple of years, local foundations began receiving requests from new, grassroots organizations for funds to educate their African-born immigrant and refugee constituencies about HIV/AIDS prevention. Program officers from the Otto Bremer Foundation and The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation recognized that their lack of experience in funding HIV/AIDS prevention and in working with African cultures would affect their ability to craft effective funding recommendations. They convened representatives of five community organizations in April 2005; meetings and discussion grew in size and scope over five months, with 23 people eventually participating in a taskforce. The work of the taskforce led to a report, summarized here, presenting background information, findings, and recommendations for Minnesota funders.

Organizational Effectiveness Evaluation

In 2004, the Foundation asked Showalter & Company to evaluate the impact of its previous grants made to 33 nonprofits to enhance their effectiveness and to increase our understanding of this area going forward. Attached is a report summary of the evaluation findings, lessons learned, and the Foundation's commitment to continue supporting this type of funding.

Resources & Information on Organizational Effectiveness

To supplement the Foundation's 2004 Organizational Effectiveness Evaluation report, we've prepared the attached list of resources and information that we believe may be of interest to nonprofit organizations and funders in their own work to enhance effectiveness.

Commitment to Constituents Project

In 2003, the Foundation formed a collaboration with the former Wilder Center for Communities to explore how nonprofits were responding to the challenges of decreased public and private funding resources and engaging the voice of their clients in planning for future organizational and service changes. Attached is an executive summary about this project, reflections from the clients, agency board and staff leadership and consultants who were involved at each of the three nonprofit organizations, and considerations for future planning.