Philanthropy | Volunteerism | Public Service

Philanthropy Grants:

Joint Planning Grant to Expand Philanthropy in Former Soviet Union
     The Synergos Institute, with its expertise in expanding philanthropy around the world, wanted to create a culture of philanthropy in the former Soviet Union; the Eurasia Foundation has done extensive civic and economic development community work in the region. Pursuant to an invitation from Lodestar, Synergos and the Eurasia Foundation secured a planning grant that enabled both organizations to jointly assess the readiness of this region for philanthropic development. The grant led to a work plan, which can serve as the basis for an initial pilot project in the selected countries. ($13,614)

Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation
     Arizona State University (ASU) is America’s second largest university in terms of student enrollment. Its Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management is already functioning well as a local and national nonprofit resource, with over 1,000 students enrolled in its programs and hundreds of nonprofits taking advantage of its offerings. The center—part of an alliance between ASU, Indiana University, and Grand Valley State University in Michigan—has received support from numerous local and national business and nonprofit partners, including the Kellogg Foundation, which has made a significant investment in the growth of the Center. Research, education, nonprofit assistance and community programs, all managed through the center, bolster the nonprofit sector and allow for assessment and knowledge sharing in the community.
     Scattered resources in Arizona deal with various aspects of philanthropy, but currently there is no central location for philanthropy scholarship and education. Lodestar saw an opportunity to invest in the Center and transform it into the true community, local, and national resource that the sector demands. Newly named The Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation, the Center will have the means and vision to become the premier resource for community and sector collaboration with grantmakers and the public. Because of the Center’s already preeminent position in the industry, it has the tools to grow into a hub for research, scholarship and promotion of philanthropy nationwide, while catapulting Arizona into a leading role in the growth of philanthropy.
     Over the course of five years, the Center will use the grant to add four new faculty positions, as well as implement programs closely tied to Lodestar’s mission of promoting philanthropy and encouraging collaboration among nonprofits. ($5,000,000)
http://www.asu.edu/copp/nonprofit/

Establishment of Philanthropy-Building Organization in Phoenix
     The recent increase in wealth of young professionals and baby boomers has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in philanthropy. Social Venture Partners (“SVP”), a philanthropic giving circle with the dual mission of encouraging and teaching strategic philanthropy and supporting emerging non-profits, was initiated in Seattle in 1997. Lodestar founded the second SVP group, Social Venture Partners Arizona (“SVPAZ”) in 1999. SVPAZ partners pool their money to invest in innovative nonprofits and then actively nurture their investments by providing hands-on technical assistance, business expertise and strategic guidance. Since inception, SVPAZ has (1) invested more than $2.5 million in community nonprofits serving children and education, (2) contributed thousands of hours of professional services to its investees, (3) initiated a venture philanthropy program for teenagers, and (4) recruited and trained more than 300 financially successful individuals (SVPAZ partners) to become strategic philanthropists. Today there are over twenty SVP affiliates. ($420,000)
http://www.svpaz.org

Junior Achievement Philanthropy Shop
     Junior Achievement operates BizTown in many cities around the country. BizTown is a hands-on learning facility in the form of a staged mini-city (built inside of a large building) run by fifth grade students. Students take part in day-long sessions in which each student assumes the role of a business community member in operating a Biztown store and interacts with other student business community members. Recognizing the importance of teaching children to be philanthropic, the Phoenix-area Junior Achievement, in partnership with the Lodestar Foundation, has developed as a BizTown pilot program, The Philanthropy Shop. In the Philanthropy Shop, students play a game called The Giving Wheel whereby each spin of the wheel lands on a philanthropic activity that provides the student with a choice of contributing or volunteering for selected charity. Student Philanthropy Shop operators also solicit philanthropic donations (in Biztown money) from other Biztown businesses. If the pilot proves to be successful, it will serve as a model for incorporation in BizTowns around the country.
http://www.jaaz.org/

Building Philanthropy
     The Association of Small Foundations (ASF), the largest foundation support organization in the United States, provides programs and services to small-staff foundations across the country. As part of its continuing effort to refine programs, ASF wanted to evaluate the impact of its work on the sector. Lodestar provided a grant to support ASF’s evaluation efforts, which will enable ASF to become a more effective provider of philanthropic services. An important element of the grant is establishment of a peer-learning cohort, comprised of other similar philanthropic associations, which has the potential to lead to other collaborative work among the peers. ($25,000)
http://www.smallfoundations.org/

Promotion of Planned Giving
     Relatively few people leave money to charity in their wills. A recent poll in Arizona found that only 8% of people who have wills include bequests to charity or other philanthropic purposes. Most nonprofits either have no planned giving program or lack the resources to maket it efficiently. Additionally, members of the public often do not have the knowledge required to include planned giving in their estate plans. Leave a Legacy Arizona (LALAZ), an initiative dedicated to increasing awareness of planned charitable giving, used grants from Lodestar to increase public knowledge of philanthropic planned giving, and to help nonprofits develop expertise in planned giving. Additional Lodestar grants supported an update of marketing materials for the initiative and an evaluation of LALAZ’s impact on the community, which showed an increase in planned giving after the establishment of Leave a Legacy. ($47,000)
http://www.lalaz.org/

Development of Community Online Nonprofit Agency Database
     Because many donors are not aware of the nonprofits operating in their community and nonprofits do not have adequate resources to promote their activities to the public, the Arizona Community Foundation (“ACF”) sought to create a virtual online marketplace for grantors and grantees, accompanied by a generic online grant application, to facilitate grantmaking. Lodestar provided one of the lead grants to develop the system software, which enabled nonprofits to (1) post organizational information on a website for viewing by funders and (2) apply for grants using the common grant application. The software was a huge success and other community foundations incorporated it into their operations; ACF subsequently sold the system to a for-profit entity that is marketing the product nationally. ($100,000)
http://www.azfoundation.org

Engagement of Youth in Philanthropy in Former Soviet Bloc Country
     For countries without a tradition of philanthropy, empowering young people to effect positive social change in their communities is a challenge. A multi-donor demonstration project in the former Soviet Union country of Azerbaijan is placing real-life opportunities for decision-making and resource allocation in the hands of young people throughout the country by (1) training groups of young people to identify pressing local issues and community change agents, manage a grantmaking process, and evaluate their grants; (2) providing the funds for grants to be made by the youth groups; and (3) linking the participants to other youth fund networks around the world to share lessons learned and develop additional capacity. Lodestar joined with the Eurasia Foundation, the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office to fund the original project that has now expanded into Armenia and Georgia. Current funding has been taken over by SIDA and USAID.  ($75,000) 
http://www.eurasia.org

Creation of Philanthropy Exhibit at Children’s Museum
     For a child, exposure to philanthropy generally depends upon whether the child’s family embraces philanthropy. Recognizing that it is beneficial to instill the practice and values of philanthropy at an early age, Lodestar is funding the creation of an exhibit dedicated to philanthropy at the children’s museum in Phoenix. The interactive exhibit will teach young children and their parents the benefits and satisfaction of philanthropy. ($250,000)
http://www.childrensmuseumofphoenix.org

Connecting Business and Social Entrepreneurs Worldwide
     Recognizing that social entrepreneurs often lack the business acumen of their for-profit business peers and that successful business professionals are often frustrated with traditional philanthropic options, Ashoka, the largest association of social entrepreneurs in the world, created the Ashoka Support Network (ASN). ASN matches Ashoka Fellows in one-to-one partnerships with successful small and medium-sized business entrepreneurs to engage a new generation of businesspeople in philanthropy, to leverage resources from the business community for social entrepreneurship, and to support the Fellows in a sustainable, mutually beneficial and systematic manner. ASN members commit to a three-year engagement, which includes a financial contribution (to Ashoka) and a donation of time to Ashoka Fellows, according to their interests and availability (ranging from problem-solving sessions to intensive mentoring). Lodestar funds will support fine-tuning the ASN model, testing it in Europe and then scaling the initiative globally.

Volunteerism:

Online Volunteer Opportunities Information
     Arizona State University initiated a website several years ago to promote community volunteer opportunities to its university constituency. With the demise of the Volunteer Center of Maricopa County (serving the greater Phoenix area), there was no comprehensive listing of volunteer opportunities for the greater Phoenix area. Arizona State University decided to partner with VolunteerMatch.org, a search engine and nationwide database of volunteer opportunities to create Volunteer Information and Referral Services, “VIRS,” the most comprehensive volunteer website in the Phoenix area. As a result, prospective volunteers can access Phoenix-area volunteer opportunities through the VIRS site or through VolunteerMatch.org. A Lodestar Foundation grant supported the partnership between the two volunteer websites. ($13,700)
http://volunteer.asu.edu

National Neighborhood Day
     Disconnected neighbors and a lack of community participation characterize many American neighborhoods. Lodestar awarded several capacity-building grants to National Neighborhood Day, an organization promoting an annual day of celebration in municipalities around the country to bring neighbors, government agencies and local nonprofits together to build community spirit in an effort to increase civic action and responsibility. The number of cities adopting National Neighborhood Day, which is the third Sunday of September, continues to grow each year. ($28,000)
http://www.neighborhoodday.org

Matching Grant to Support Volunteer Service
     American Jewish World Service, an international development organization serving the developing world regardless of race, religion or culture, wanted to expand its Volunteer Corps program, which places Jewish professionals on volunteer assignments with local NGOs in developing countries. Lodestar matched an AJWS challenge grant which enabled the promotion of the Volunteer Corps program in Arizona and the placement of several Arizona-based volunteers around the world. ($30,000)
http://www.ajws.org/

Capacity-building of Volunteer Organizations
     Nonprofit volunteer placement organizations often lack adequate infrastructure to maximize effectiveness. Lodestar has made several strategic grants to build capacity in these organizations. For example, through a Lodestar matching grant, Make a Difference, an Arizona nonprofit that focuses on placing corporate employees in volunteer projects, was able to purchase sophisticated volunteer-management software (using Lodestar’s grant as the basis for its first fundraising appeal); a second grant supported five Americorps members building capacity at its headquarters for three years. ($25,000, $108,000) Lodestar has also provided the sole support for several volunteer center activities around Arizona, such as providing seed money to start a volunteer center in Pinal County and providing funds for a proposed satellite volunteer center in Pima County. ($20,000, $8,400)

Promotion of Volunteerism Through Advertising Campaigns
     Volunteerism is promoted in the press primarily through occasional articles about outstanding volunteers and public service announcements that air at off-peak times. Recognizing that professionally designed advertising and prominent ad placement have the potential to increase volunteerism in a community, Lodestar entered into two media collaborations to promote volunteerism. Lodestar and The Phoenix Business Journal co-sponsored a two-year print ad campaign in which the recipients of a high-profile local "unsung hero" volunteer award, the Hon Kachina Award, were profiled and readers were urged to contact various volunteer placement nonprofits; the nonprofits tracked responses, and results showed a spike in the number of calls received by the nonprofits after each ad ran. ($60,000) Lodestar also supports other aspects of the Hon Kachina awards. ($70,000)
     Lodestar, Cox Communications and Clear Channel Communications have joined forces in an effort to enlist more male “Big Brothers” to mentor young boys. During the fall football season in 2006 and 2007, the three entities underwrote an intensive TV and radio ad campaign promoting the "Big Brothers" concept. With initial results indicating that men have been responding to this campaign, the foal is to replicate the ad campaign in other communities. ($50,000) Beyond that, Lodestar has also supported "Big Brothers" in other aspects of their organization. ($65,000)

Public Service:

Promotion of Organ Donation
     Nationwide, there is a tremendous shortage of donor organs available for transplantation; many prospective donors and their families are not adequately informed about organ donation and therefore are reluctant to support organ donation. Recognizing that organ donation is perhaps the ultimate philanthropic gift, Lodestar provided the lead grant to the Arizona Kidney Foundation to produce a video promoting organ donation by addressing common myths and concerns about the subject. The video was shown on television and distributed nationally; it has been used by numerous groups advocating organ donation. ($25,000)

Training Seminar for Volunteers Serving on Nonprofit Boards
     The community volunteers who comprise nonprofit boards have few, if any, options for learning how to serve as board members. As a consequence, they are not effective stewards of either the public trust or the organization they represent, and the nonprofits are not well-governed. Lodestar, in conjunction with Arizona State University’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management, conducted a board-training workshop for board members and executive directors to educate both staff and volunteers about the duties and responsibilities of board service. As a result of that one session, the workshop became a standard part of the Center’s training curriculum. ($5000)
http://www.asu.edu/copp/nonprofit

Youth Leadership/Social Responsibility Program in India
     Youth generally lack the skills and desire to take positive social action in their communities. The Making Changemakers program of Pravah, an Indian nonprofit, designed and implemented a school-based curriculum enabling Indian youth (ages 12-16) to become informed and proactive citizens. Over the course of four years of Lodestar funding, the program evolved from working directly with students to preparing teachers to administer the program, thereby broadening the reach of the program and creating an opportunity for sustainability. An additional technical support grant from Lodestar enabled Pravah to engage a professional fundraiser to support sustainability efforts. Lodestar partnered with the Tata Foundation of India in funding all of Pravah's activities. ($46,000)
http://www.younginfluencers.com/htmlfiles/aboutpravah.htm