News from TCC Group

December eNews

Client Spotlight

The Family Center was founded in 1984 to meet the needs of families affected by AIDS. At the time, the biggest concern of parents with HIV was not for themselves, but for their children's futures. Thankfully, much has changed in recent years. Individuals with HIV/AIDS now live longer with careful treatment. To better serve the community's current needs, The Family Center's programs and mission evolved -- "to strengthen families affected by illness, crisis, or loss." Read more about TCC's work with the Family Center during this transition.

Family Center

Sharing the Gold:
New Findings about Nonprofit Effectiveness

Since 1997, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded 1,391 organizational effectiveness (OE) grants to more than 900 nonprofits. The grants support a variety of capacity-building efforts, including strategic planning, financial and executive coaching, organization and network assessment, and board development and governance.

Packard Foundation

Packard launched the Goldmine Research Project to collect, analyze, and share data from its OE program. The Foundation engaged TCC Group as a partner in the learning process. Examining a number of critical questions related to organizational effectiveness and using an innovative "learning in public" approach, TCC not only helped the Foundation better evaluate its grants, but also shared these important lessons with the field so that others might advance their own capacity-building efforts. View TCC's final report here.

What is Good Governance? Richard Mittenthal

What are the duties of a nonprofit's board of directors, and how are members held accountable? Does a charitable organization have an ethical responsibility to accept any and all donations, regardless of origin? Can "tainted money" tarnish an organization? TCC Group President and CEO Richard Mittenthal weighs in on these issues. Read his thoughts from a recent speech at New York University's Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising.

Maximizing Corporate Community Investments Tom (white background)

On January 17, Southern California Grantmakers will host a workshop led by Tom Knowlton, TCC Group Partner and Director of Corporate Services. The one day session will focus on the development of corporate citizenship and community involvement strategy. Participants will discuss:

Trends in corporate citizenship
Building the business case for corporate citizenship and community involvement
Developing and implementing strategic, unified programs for corporate giving and corporate citizenship
Tracking ROI to measure internal and external impact

Click here to register.

The Evolving Social Sector Paul Connolly

Join Senior Partner Paul Connolly on Februrary 3 for a panel discussion at the Yale School of Management's Philanthropy Conference. This session, "The Evolving Social Sector: Surviving the Trends While Capitalizing on New Opportunities," will focus on how nonprofits can effectively navigate change to remain resilient and relevant. Register here. Panelists include:

Stephanie Strom, Nonprofit and Philanthropy Correspondent, The New York Times (Moderator)
Carolyn Miles, CEO and President, Save the Children
Laura Walker, CEO and President, New York Public Radio
Sheri Rosenfeld, Senior Vice President, International Projects, Sesame Workshop

Assessing Organizational Capacity Online

This year, more than 2,600 executives, staff, and board leaders at over 380 nonprofits used TCC Group's Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT) to help strengthen their organizations and guide decision making. The Texas-based OneStar Foundation has used the CCAT with a pool of over 300 grantees across the state during the past three years.

OneStar

"For an organizational assessment it's a fast, efficient way of getting a snapshot of operational capacity," says Jane Murray, OneStar's Senior Organizational Development Specialist. "We love that organizations grantees can immediately access and apply the results. It is a 'teaching tool' -- it doesn't just give scores, but provides detailed explanations and practical suggestions to strengthen any identified challenges. We have been able to look across our grant portfolio's aggregate CCAT data," adds Murray, "and identify common areas of weakness and focus grantee training and technical assistance on building strength in those areas."

A 146-question online survey, the CCAT measures a nonprofit's effectiveness in relation to four core capacities -- leadership, adaptability, management, and technical -- as well as organizational culture. Additionally, it helps identify organizational lifecycle stage and provides real-time findings, a capacity-building plan, and the technology to generate self-selected benchmark reports from a national database of 2500+ nonprofits. Learn more.

About TCC Group

Our mission is to develop strategies and programs that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations, philanthropies, and corporate community involvement programs to achieve social impact.

www.tccgrp.com