80 Participants, 40 Organizations, and 6 Funders – Regional Nonprofit Event Increases Understanding About Grantmaking
For the past three years, I’ve been working as a Regional Organizer for WNC Nonprofit Pathways. Pathways is an organization, supported by a funders’ collaborative in Western North Carolina (WNC), designed to strengthen the nonprofit organizations that help our WNC community succeed. WNC is made up of 18 counties located in Western North Carolina. This region receives special attention because of the vast land area here and the diverse needs of these rural communities.
WNC Nonprofit Pathways offers broad programs across the region that include workshops and events to build skills. They even offer a Nonprofit Fundamentals Certificate program, which I highly recommend. WNC Nonprofit Pathways also provides organization assessments at little to no cost for WNC nonprofits that strengthen organizations through targeted consulting around the nonprofit lifecycle.
As a Regional Organizer, I work with nonprofits that serve Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey counties. These counties are commonly lumped together as the AMY region. We share a community college (Mayland) that specifically serves these counties. In the last three years, organizing has looked more like virtual connections than anything else. We have coordinated several virtual offerings:
· Building & Sustaining Partnerships and Alliances
· Diversity & Inclusion in Rural Counties
· Coffee Hours: Human Resources and Volunteer Management
· Organizational Planning Workshop
We also hosted a virtual Funders’ Summit in spring 2022. As you might imagine, I was super excited to offer the 2023 Funders' Summit in-person – hooray! And our participants showed up. We had 80+ participants, 40+ organizations, and 6 funders attend a 2-hour session to hear directly from funders who serve the AMY region. Funders included:
AMY Wellness Foundation - Welcome - AMY Wellness Foundation
Community Foundation of WNC - Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (cfwnc.org)
Dogwood Health Trust - Dogwood Health Trust
WNC Bridge Foundation - WNC Bridge Foundation – A Partnership For Health
Samuel L. Phillips Family Foundation - Samuel L. Phillips Family Foundation – Foundation Grants – Wells Fargo
Resourceful Communities – Grants & Resources Page
After enjoying a hearty lunch together, Jeannette Butterworth and I facilitated a funders’ panel where we asked some key questions:
1. We will send your information and website to registrants so they could understand your funding priorities, but can you take a moment to share your foundation’s process for determining those priorities and award amounts, as well as how regional or community issues play into that determination?
2. What funding changes have happened with your organization in the last 12 months?
3. What are the questions you are constantly being asked right now by potential and current grantees?
4. What are the questions that you wish potential and current grantees would ask you?
5. What trends are you seeing in the AMY region?
6. What is your organization doing to support living wages for the employees of nonprofits that you support?
7. Oftentimes we see opportunities for nonprofits to collaborate on a project. How do you suggest nonprofits approach a collaborative project and does your organization help facilitate collaborations among nonprofits?
Afterwards, audience members asked direct questions to funders. Some key topics were changing funding priorities after the COVID-19 pandemic, grant cycle changes, new funds available through the Inflation Reduction Act (link here), and the importance of reaching out to funders with any questions. Spoiler alert – funders aren’t that scary!
Some of the trends we are seeing in the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey region are increasing needs for workforce housing, mental health services for all ages, and childcare support. Funders provided these trends, and participants agreed in their session evaluations. Participants requested more sessions around mental health, health care access, and resource sharing.
When participants were asked about their understanding of WNC grantmaking before this session, participants on average ranked 6.2 on a range of 1 (non-extensive) to 10 (extensive). When asked the same question after the session, participants on average ranked 6.2 on a range of 1 (non-extensive) to 10 (extensive). That’s a 27% increase in understanding – yes!
If you represent a nonprofit that services these counties, then please plug into our network by subscribing to our AMY newsletter (sign-up link here). If you represent a nonprofit that is looking for similar services in your geographic area, connect with your state’s nonprofit association and/or email me for more ideas.