Tower Foundation Advisory Team Hits Its Stride
This year we expanded our Advisory Team of young adults to be more representative of our funding geographies and funding focus areas. A recent blog post describes the work of the Advisory Team over the last four months or so, and looks ahead to what’s in store for 2022. We are going to expand the team in the coming year. If you know a young person that could be a good candidate (or are interested yourself!), please email Nick Randell, Program Officer, for more information.
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ANNOUNCING OUR DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION GOALS
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For the last year and a half, the Tower Foundation has focused on bringing an equity perspective to our work. We have challenged ourselves to learn and grow as individuals and collectively as a Foundation staff and board of Trustees. We have connected with organizations and other foundations to learn alongside them, to learn from their experiences, and to move forward together. All this learning, reflecting, challenging assumptions, changing practices and routines has culminated in the development of five aspirational goals for the Foundation. We are excited to share them with you in this blog post.
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NONPROFIT COMMUNITY OF EXCELLENCE
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The Foundation is excited to invite agencies working in its geography and issue areas to participate in a new Nonprofit Community of Excellence, starting in late January 2022. The Foundation is sponsoring a cohort of up to 25 agencies to participate in this 18-month organizational development opportunity built around the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework.
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework is a systematic process designed to bring out the very best in every organization, be they private businesses, educational institutions, healthcare entities, or nonprofit agencies. It’s designed to promote a sustained culture of excellence, encouraging agencies to achieve better results for themselves and the people they serve, even if they’re already amazing. While it has standardized components, Baldrige looks different for every organization, so it’s not a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach. It meets you where you are and helps you move towards excellence.
This 18-month commitment consists of:
- A management Bootcamp where you and your team can learn how to implement essential management practices recommended by the U.S. Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework for Businesses and Nonprofits.
- Membership in a monthly roundtable where your organization receives support, shares results, discusses blockers, and celebrates successes with a panel of peer-advisers.
- A calendar of web-events for you and your team that explores important topics related to human resources, marketing, accounting, audits, foundation relations, search engine optimization, and other requested subjects.
- An online community where member organizations can share knowledge, resources, and tools.
Combined, these offerings are designed to help every participating organization design and implement a clear roadmap for becoming a more systematic, sustainable, and scalable organization.
If this sounds appealing, please review the Community of Excellence webpage and contact Don Matteson, Chief Program Officer, to learn more and be connected to the Foundation’s Baldrige consultant.
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2021 COMMUNITY CHANGE GRANTS
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We are pleased to announce a number of Community Change Grants that have been awarded in the second half of this year. These are generally multi-year grants involving a number of stakeholders that target community-level improvements and/or systemic change.
[If you would like additional details or contact information for any of these initiatives please email Chuck Colston, Program Officer.]
- Behavioral and Mental Health Consortium / People Inc. (fiscal agent)
Behavioral and Mental/Medical Health Consortium Continuation
- Children’s Mental Health Campaign
Behavioral Health Urgent Care for Children with ASD/IDD
- The Center for Public Representation
The Rosie D. Preservation Project
- City of Gloucester, MA
Healthy Gloucester Campaign
- Massachusetts Advocates for Children
Lawrence Inclusion Initiative
- Melmark New England
Ending the Cliff: Creating a Bridge to an Innovative Program Model for Community-Based Services for Young Adults
- Partnership for the Public Good
Decriminalizing Behavioral Health: A WNY Coalition to Separate Mental Health and Substance Use Response from the Punitive Justice System (NY)
- The Research Foundation (State University of New York/Buffalo State College)
Px21 Expanded Environmental Prevention and System Support
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DIVERSITY, EQUITY and INCLUSION
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In this space, we will share what we learn, what inspires us, and - in the spirit of transparency - what new actions we take in pursuit of a more equitable approach to our role as grantmaker both internally and externally.
What we are reading:
Stanford Social Innovation Review recently published a supplement all about the importance of centering disability in its work to advance justice. This piece, “Time for Philanthropy to Confront Ableism” talks specifically about the ways that ableism shows up in philanthropy and ideas to dismantle it. For instance, “Ableism doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For philanthropy to play a role in systems change, it must first understand that disability coexists with other identities and that other forms of systemic oppression also contribute to and intersect with ableism.”
What we are doing:
The Tower Foundation team has been all-hands-on-deck to finalize our new DEI goals and to build out the priorities that will move us in the direction of achieving these goals. 2022 will be a year full of learning, experimenting, and adapting in the spirit of equity.
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