Grants to Increase Philanthropic Impact

Collaboration | Other Business Practices

Collaboration Grants:

Brit Tzedek v’Shalom merger into J Street
Lodestar provided the lead grant to facilitate a merger between Brit Tzedek v’Shalom (the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace), a grass-roots network of U.S. supporters of Middle East peace, and J Street Education Fund, a nonprofit devoted to promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The integration of Brit Tzedek into J Street provides J Street with a national network of locally-based chapters supporting a peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict, increasing the opportunity for J Street to be more strategic and effective in helping to facilitate support for peace. ($70,000)
http://www.jstreet.org

Merger of Two National Cancer Organizations
The Wellness Community and Gilda’s Club Worldwide, both leaders in the field of psychological and social support for cancer patients and their extended families and caregivers, decided to merge to become the largest independent network of cancer support providers. The new organization, called the Cancer Support Community, will oversee the blended network of more than 50 affiliate sites in major North American cities and many more off-site locations where services are provided. Lodestar, through our collaboration-funding partner, SeaChange Capital Partners, is providing a grant to facilitate the merger. ($100,000)
http://www.thewellnesscommunity.org

Phoenix Neighborhood Development Collaborative
The Phoenix Neighborhood Development Collaborative (PNDC) is a funder collaborative, created to focus the resources of government, nonprofits, individuals and philanthropy on difficult neighborhood problems. Lodestar joined the Arizona Community Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, St. Luke’s Health Initiative, and Valley of the Sun United Way in funding collaborative projects over a period of three years in two PNDC neighborhoods: Isaac Neighborhood (Golden Gate Community Center, lead agency); and Central City South (Phoenix Revitalization Corporation, lead agency). The Phoenix office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) coordinates the PNDC. ($60,000)
http://www.lisc.org/phoenix/partners/collaborative_11077.shtml

Merger of Two Organizations Serving Low-Income Families
UMOM New Day Centers provides emergency shelter and transitional housing services to low-income families; Helping Hands Housing Services provided permanent affordable housing to the same population. Realizing that the full range of housing services could be more efficiently and effectively deployed through one organization, Helping Hands was merged into New Day. The Lodestar Foundation provided financial support for legal expenses and public relations costs associated with the merger. ($18,000)
http://www.umom.org

One World Youth Project
One World Youth Project began in 2004 as a small project to connect two middle schools from different countries to solve common problems. By 2007, over 46 schools participated, reaching over 4,000 students and community members. Through an innovative collaboration with Georgetown University and School-2-School (a project of Millennium Promise and Columbia University’s Earth Institute), One World Youth Project is developing a model for scaling its program through university hubs and expanding its program to elementary schools. Lodestar’s grant supported the collaboration. ($23,200)
http://www.oneworldyouthproject.org

Merger between Link Media and YouthNoise
YouthNoise focused on empowering youth to have a voice on national and international issues through technology. Link Media runs a 24-hour television network is dedicated to providing Americans with global perspectives on news, events and culture. The two organizations determined that Link Media’s technology and news content could complement YouthNoise’s emphasis on activism, and that they could accomplish more together by encouraging youth civic engagement and community service through the integration of television, web and mobile technologies. Lodestar provided financial support for the merger of YouthNoise into Link Media. ($50,000)
http://www.youthnoise.com

Joint management between Two Global Youth Organizations
Both founded more than a decade ago by young people who wanted to be active world citizens, Global Youth Action Network (in New York City) and Taking IT Global (in Toronto, Canada) realized their organizations could be more effective by entering into a co-management agreement. By combining efforts, they expect to improve operational procedures and minimize costs, offer improved support and services to the global youth movement in a consolidated fashion, and strengthen its collective impact. ($2,500)
http://www.tigweb.org

Vermont Family Network Merger
Parent to Parent of Vermont (P2P) was a family support and advocacy organization with the mission to nurture and support families whose children have a chronic illness or disability, focusing on health information, medical education, and insurance support. Vermont Parent Information Center’s (VPIC) mission was to help ensure that parents of a child with a disability had a place to turn to when they needed information and support to advocate on behalf of their child’s education and quality of life. The two organizations merged to form the Vermont Family Network –- a one-stop shop for parents, families, children, and adults who have special needs to be effective advocates for their health, education, and well-being. The Lodestar Foundation provided a challenge grant to help fund the final integration expenses of the merger. ($7,000)
http://www.vermontfamilynetwork.org

Facilitating Collaboration between Phoenix-Area Museums
Lodestar provided financial support for a consultant to facilitate a collaboration process between The Arizona Science Center and Children’s Museum of Phoenix (an initial participant, the Desert Botanical Garden, dropped out early in the process) to explore ways to increase the value they can provide to each museum’s individual audience and to collectively better serve the greater Phoenix community. As a result of the project, the museums are planning joint programming activities. ($49,300)
http://www.azscience.org and http://www.childrensmuseumofphoenix.org

A Multi-Sector Collaborative to Prevent Obesity
The Maricopa Council on Youth Sports and Physical Activity ("MCYSPA") is a coalition of community partners formed coordinate the efforts of programs that address physical inactivity and poor nutrition to prevent obesity and related health disparities. This collaborative includes leaders from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, with representatives from state and local governments, major corporations, health industry, professional sports charities, and private foundations. Lodestar issued a challenge grant to help fund the Healthy Food Mapping Project, an on-line map of the "food landscape" showing every entity in Maricopa County that addresses issues surrounding hunger and nutrition (including food banks, government programs, food distribution programs and other nutrition/food resources). Compiling all this data on one map offers an objective perspective for all funders and service providers to gauge service gaps and duplications and assess community impact. ($23,000)
http://www.mcyspa.org

Capacity-Building of International Philanthropy-Building Network
Although like-minded nonprofits may recognize the value of creating an umbrella organization to help sustain and support their common activities, they often don’t have the resources to enable the entity to be effective. Social Venture Partners International was formed to brand, support, expand and enhance the work of the individual Social Venture Partner (“SVP”) groups around the world. Lodestar funds have supported annual SVP conferences and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the SVP model, the results of which are being used by the SVP network members to increase effectiveness and demonstrate the impact of the model on their respective communities. ($60,000)
http://www.svpinternational.org

Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the developing world producing agricultural, textile and handicraft goods in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner have had difficulty attaining the financing necessary to bring their products to market despite a growing global demand. The Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST) was formed by a group of sustainable trade lenders to improve the delivery of finance and financial management tools to these SMEs. Through the development of joint projects, advocacy, interorganizational cooperation, and increased transparency, FAST works around the world to broaden producer access to credit and related financial risk management tools. FAST members include financial institutions committed to sustainable production as well as producers. Because the input from producer members is so important to the success of the alliance, FAST decided to waive membership fees for the smallest SMEs in the first year. Lodestar provided general operating funds to support membership development of the alliance in its first year. ($75,000)
http://www.fastinternational.org

Infant Toddler Mental Health Coalition Support
The Infant Toddler Mental Health Coalition (ITMHC), a professional organization comprised of individuals working in the youth mental health profession, recognized there were no reliable standards for infant and family service providers in Arizona. ITMHC developed an endorsement program, adapted from a Michigan competency-based system, which will serve as verification that a mental health professional has attained a specified level of functioning and understanding. The ultimate goal of the endorsement program is to elevate the quality of practitioners in the state. Lodestar's funds enabled the organization to purchase the initial license and to fund participants in the first year of the program who will then become endorsers themselves. The endorsement program has already generated a coalition among all participating states as well as partnerships with other child-serving agencies.
http://www.itmhca.org

Arts Promotion Collaboration
Many arts organizations in the Phoenix area lack sufficient marketing funds. A new nonprofit, Alliance for Audience, was formed to provide marketing services to a collaboration of arts groups. A Lodestar grant helped meet a community challenge grant to provide operating support to Alliance for Audience to build capacity in the organization so that it could be self-sustaining. Lodestar’s grant supported Alliance for Audience’s efforts to enhance its website, ShowUp.com; and design and implement a marketing plan. ($50,000)
http://www.showup.com

Collaboration of NGOs Supporting Third-World Independent News Media Agencies
Although there are approximately 400 nongovernmental organizations working to support independent print, broadcast and internet media in the third world, there had never been a substantive opportunity to share information and resources, either informally or through a cooperative association. Lodestar provided an initial seed grant of $50,000 for an international planning session to convene a global forum of these NGOs to collaborate on projects, coordinate policies, share best practices and strengthen the sector overall. That planning session sparked the desire to cause systemic change in the sector, from endeavoring to eliminate wasteful competition and duplication, to developing meaningful collaboration. Following the success of the planning session, Lodestar provided the initial seed implementation grant of $100,000 (which led to approximately $1,500,000 more in grants from other foundations) for the first collaborative conference of independent media support NGOs from around the world, the First Global Forum for Media Development. The conference, which was held in Amman, Jordan in October of 2005, brought together approximately 500 participants representing 180 media support organizations from 104 countries. Since then, the participants have formed regional collaboratives around the world and have held another world conference. ($200,000)
http://gfmd.info

Support of Conference Convening International Foundation Professionals
Foundation professionals have relatively few opportunities to discuss with each other their accumulated experience and expertise. The Senior Fellows program of The Synergos Institute identifies talented foundation leaders from vanguard philanthropic institutions worldwide and links them to a global learning and service network, with the goal of strengthening foundations in the developing world. Fellows serve as peer consultants to other foundations around the world; their work produces knowledge on trends and innovative models, which Synergos distributes to a wide audience. A Lodestar grant, which helped underwrite an annual meeting of the Senior Fellows, also supported the development of a marketing plan to promote the Senior Fellows program to the foundation community. ($75,000)
http://www.synergos.org/programs/fellows.htm

Collaboration of Nonprofits Serving the Homeless
Homeless individuals in the Phoenix metro area were required to travel in different directions using public transportation to receive the various services necessary to help them re-enter mainstream society. As a result, many either never sought the services or only received partial and insufficient care. Lodestar provided the lead private sector grant for the new Human Services Campus, the product of a major $26,000,000 public/private collaboration to co-locate Maricopa County’s major homeless-serving agencies onto one campus. The heart of the campus is a jointly-administered assessment facility, the Lodestar Day Resource Center, where clients have access to a dozen agencies providing critical services such as health and dental care, employment, substance abuse treatment, food, shelter, clothes, and even court proceedings. The campus has exceeded all expectations, in terms of usage by the homeless, effectiveness in the delivery of services and cost-savings. The Campus has become a national model for other communities throughout the nation. ($3,000,000)
http://www.hscampus.org

Collaboration of Adoption and Foster Care Agencies
Although at least a dozen adoption and foster care agencies in the metropolitan Phoenix area handle special needs children, there was no central place where adoptive and foster parents could find post-adoption support, information and services. One of the agencies, Aid to Adoption of Special Kids (“AASK”), proposed the creation of an agency-independent resource center and public/private collaboration dedicated to connecting adoptive, foster care, kinship and guardianship families to resources, support, education and each other. This led to the creation of The Lodestar Family Connections Center, which is housed at AASK but governed by a board comprised of representatives from many adoption and post-adoption agencies. The Center houses numerous private, government and educational resources for adoptive parents, saving them countless hours and providing critical information for their families. The Center, which is located in central Phoenix, has proven to be so successful that two satellite centers are planned for the east and west portions of the metropolitan area. ($1,000,000)
http://www.familyconnectionscenter.org

Collaboration of Nonprofits Serving Off-Reservation Native Americans
Native Americans living in the Phoenix metropolitan area historically have been served by separate independent nonprofits; little progress was being made in addressing critical health and social issues facing that population. A group of five agencies serving off-reservation Native Americans in the metropolitan Phoenix area formed a new nonprofit corporation, United Native Development Corporation (“UNDC”), to focus on three specific issue areas: senior housing, student housing, and workforce development. Lodestar’s capacity building grant of $100,000, which provided seed money for the project, led to the receipt of additional operating funds for UNDC which, in turn, enabled UNDC to plan a senior housing project that received $4.4 million for development. More importantly, the original collaboration served as a catalyst for ongoing collaboration among the agencies on a variety of issues of mutual importance. Three of the agencies later formed a limited liability company to jointly purchase an 85,000 square foot office building for more than $7 million (totally financed by no-interest loans and grants). The facility is considered the “geographic center” for the area’s Native Americans, operating as a business, cultural and service center for that population. Not only are a variety of Native American businesses and nonprofits co-locating in the building, several of the nonprofits have formed a management services organization to combine administrative functions, creating yet another level of collaboration. In 2006, the project received a Community Revitalization Award, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. ($100,000)
http://www.nativeconnections.org

Management Services Collaboration Among Youth-Serving Nonprofits
Several small youth-serving nonprofits were concerned that high operating costs made it difficult to provide adequate services to their clients. In 2003, with technical and financial support from Lodestar, they formed Partnership for Adolescent Resources through Training, Networking, Education, Referrals and Support (PARTNERS), an innovative management services organization. Each constituent agency leased a portion of PARTNERS, and PARTNERS became the management and administration through which the combined agencies leased and shared office space and certain administrative functions. Lodestar’s grant subsidized rent charges for the joint-usage space. ($60,000)

Data Collection Collaboration Among Agencies Serving the Homeless
In order to comply with a federal mandate to collect certain data about homeless individuals, a Homeless Management Information System (“HMIS”) was initiated in Maricopa County. For three years, Lodestar provided the lead private sector grant to secure more than $1,000,000 of federal funding for the project. Although the original purpose of HMIS was to relay unduplicated data to the federal government, the participating agencies are using the nationally-honored system to more effectively deliver services by sharing information and tracking clients. ($146,000)
http://www.cir.org/hmis

Collaboration of Nonprofits to Address Healthcare Issues in South Phoenix
Two chronic medical problems, diabetes and heart disease, impact a high percentage of south Phoenix residents. A dozen agencies working in the area joined together to form the South Central Phoenix Health Coalition to coordinate and integrate efforts to address these problems. A multi-year grant from Lodestar supported the salary of the Coalition coordinator. In addition to increasing effectiveness through the Coalition, the participating agencies developed collaborations in other service areas as a result of membership in the Coalition.($40,000)

Camp Collaboration for Special Needs Children
Every summer, many Arizona nonprofits dealing with special needs children have had to compete to reserve week-long sessions at mountain camps to provide a camp experience for their clients; very rarely were the camps able to adequately accommodate the often complex physical, medical and developmental challenges of these campers. A number of these nonprofits collaborated to form a new nonprofit to acquire Whispering Hope Ranch, a facility that has been designed to accommodate a diverse population of children with special needs. Lodestar made a matching grant to generate funds to furnish the camp facilities. ($50,000)
http://www.whisperinghoperanch.org

Capacity-Building of Nonprofit Associations
Nonprofits working in the same area often are inefficient because they duplicate efforts and lack sufficient individual resources to make a significant community impact. Even when they come together in an informal or formal association to tackle issues jointly, their efforts may not be effective because agency budgetary and time constraints work against strengthening the collaborative effort. Lodestar has provided funds to a number of nonprofit associations and collaborations for collaboration coordinators, for consultants to help develop strategic plans for collaborations, and for various collaboration projects. For example, Lodestar provided funds to the Coalition Against Domestic Violence to develop standardized software for the participating nonprofits ($29,000); over a period of four years, Lodestar funds helped build a collaboration among numerous nonprofits, government agencies and individuals dealing with osteoporosis prevention, education and treatment. ($44,500) http://www.fitbones.org; three planning grants from Lodestar enabled a coalition of breast cancer groups decide to develop a common community website. ($11,500)

Establishment of Convening Fund for State Strategic Plan
As a young, growing state, Arizona has the opportunity and challenge to create a statewide vision and strategic plan which both the public and private sectors can use as a guide for the allocation of resources and infrastructure development. A nonprofit organization, The Center for the Future of Arizona, was formed to shepherd the strategic planning process for the state. Lodestar provided funds for polling and convening citizen groups from around the state to discuss issues of importance to Arizona’s future. ($50,000)
http://www.arizonafuture.org

Domestic Violence Merger
Brewster Center Domestic Violence Services and Tucson Centers for Women and Children were two of the largest organizations in Tucson serving abused women and children. The organizations had similar missions and provided some of the same services, but neither organization had the full program of services their clients needed, so clients of one organization often had to utilize the other organization's services as well. In 2008, the organizations merged and became Emerge! Center Against Domestic Violence. Now victims of domestic violence in Tucson will only have to travel to one location and fill out one set of paperwork, thus eliminating duplication of services and wasteful spending, and increasing direct services to program participants. Lodestar provided funds to support the integration of the newly formed organization. ($10,000)
http://www.tucsoncenters.com

Merger of Two Regional Planned Parenthood Organizations
Vast population growth and increasing cultural diversity led to operational and programmatic inefficiencies for Planned Parenthood of Central and Northern Arizona (PPCNA) and Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona (PPSA), both providers of medical services and educational programs. They faced challenges from outdated information systems, coupled with geographic sprawl throughout Arizona. After examining their internal structures, the two organizations decided to merge, forming one single organizational entity, Planned Parenthood Arizona (PPAZ), with localized service centers. Lodestar’s grant for systems integration allowed PPAZ to share databases internally and have one joint website to serve patients more efficiently regardless of the health center they use. ($50,000)
http://www.ppaz.org

Merger of Child-Serving Agency and Family Community Center
Golden Gate, a long-standing community center in west Phoenix with a full complement of services to families (ranging from a Head-Start program to after-school activities and sports to senior citizen meals and programs) was suffering from decreasing funding and at risk of closing. Arizona’s Children Association, which had been seeking to expand its ability to impact children by focusing on the whole family structure, was able to accomplish its goal while, at the same time, preserving Golden Gate’s programs by merging with Golden Gate. Lodestar underwrote the costs of merging Golden Gate into Arizona’s Children Association. ($35,000)
http://www.arizonaschildren.org

Acquisition of Female Ex-convict Support Agency Program by Women’s Job Training Agency
Women Living Free, a newly-formed agency providing women leaving the Arizona prison system with tools and support to break the recidivism cycle, was having difficulty developing the infrastructure to survive as an independent agency. Arizona Women’s Education and Employment, Inc., a well-established women’s job-training organization that had been providing program support to Women Living Free, absorbed the Women Living Free program, with Lodestar underwriting the acquisition costs and the subsequent dissolution of Women Living Free. ($13,000)
http://www.awee.org

Merger of Infant Brain Development Agency and Child-Serving Nonprofit
New Directions Institute for Infant Brain Development (“NDI”) was founded in 1998 in response to neuroscientific research demonstrating that the birth to 3 year period is critically important for preparing children for later learning and school success. Based upon the success of its education and training initiatives, the demand for NDI services far exceeded its ability to provide them and the NDI board determined that a merger with a large, strong, stable agency with a complementary mission was the solution. Arizona’s Children Association, which provides a full complement of children’s services, had a strategic plan goal of increasing focus on prevention and a merger with NDI would strongly support this goal. Lodestar funded the costs of the merger. ($30,000)
http://www.arizonaschildren.org

Other Business Practices:

Portfolio Management Tool for Social Investors
Lodestar, along with the Skoll, Kellogg and Rockefeller Foundations and Google.org, provided seed money to Acumen Fund to develop the Pulse platform, a portfolio management tool for the sector that allows individual social investors to track performance against targets on financial, operational, social and environmental metrics. Beyond providing a more effective means of tracking performance data, Pulse has helped small and growing businesses (“SGBs”) manage their business by identifying inefficiencies and reallocating resources to maximize impact. ($100,000)
http://www.acumenfund.org/investments/investment-performance.html

Dissolution of Volunteer Center
The Volunteer Center of Maricopa County, which had supported volunteerism in the Valley since 1962, became unsure of its role in the community with the emergence of organizations with similar missions. A Lodestar a grant enabled the Center’s board of Directors to use a consultant to examine the Center’s most efficient course of action for the future. At the end of the study, the board concluded that promotion of volunteerism and coordination of volunteer services within the community could be accomplished effectively by other community organizations, and the Center dissolved. Lodestar is providing additional financial support for the relocation of volunteer-based services to other nonprofits. ($3,500)