KACF News
KACF completed the series of regional and statewide trainings for Kansas community foundations.
10/11/2010
Supported by the KACF GROW II Training and Technical Assistance Grant from the Kansas Health Foundation, representatives from 40 community foundations participated in the series of trainings, starting with the May session on Collaborations presented by the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group, followed by the Regional Training Sessions in El Dorado, Manhattan, and Scott City on Endowment Building & Leadership.
Two topics were featured at the day-long session. In the morning, Betty Johnson and Beth Shearer discussed building a team for fundraising for endowments, highlighting tactics for the challenges of operating and non-restricted endowments. In the afternoon, Lynette Lacy and other presenters from KLC provided an opportunity for participants to learn how community foundations can increase their effectiveness in their community leadership role. The training was based on the principles and competencies of the Kansas Leadership Center, designed to improve civic engagement across the state.
On August 10 board members and staff of community foundations
gathered in Wichita to learn about Building Unrestricted and Operational Endowments. Robust unrestricted and operational endowments are some of the hallmarks of successful foundations that are nimble and strong. However, they can be the hardest endowments to build. Janet Topolsky and John Molinaro of Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group presented a day-long session that focused on the practical details of building these endowments. They discussed leading strategies and included virtual presentations of creative examples from successful rural community foundations across the country. Participants left with an action plan detailing next steps for putting the ideas from the session to work.
The series was concluded by the September regional Trainings in
Andover, Manhattan, and Scott City featuring Financial Leadership
for Community Foundations. A daylong session led by two nationally respected community foundation practitioners, Wendy Horton (former director of CFI and primary author of the national Community Foundation Financial Administration course) and JT Mullen (Former VP of Cleveland Foundation) was targeted to Community Foundation Directors and Board members with responsibility for fiscal oversight. It addressed two key components of financial administration: leading the foundation to financial sustainability, and maintaining compliance with legal, regulatory, and accounting rules.
Financial Leadership section revolved around sustaining and evolving new ways to run the foundation business. The session included discussion of fee structures and budgets, new revenue streams, benchmarking, activity-based cost analysis, and forecasting. The section on maintaining compliance is critical to keep your foundation on the straight and narrow looked at a number of the new rules around donor advised funds filtered through UPMIFA, PPA, and use of the variance power.
PowerPoint presentations and video recording of the sessions are available for KACF members only. Please, contact Svetlana Hutfles at hutfles@kansascfs.org for details.
