Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK)

“The Denver Foundation’s Technical Assistance grant program has been an invaluable tool for ELK to grow the organization’s capacity through infrastructure and board development. We most recently have been working on developing training manuals so that ELK can expand in a systematic fashion, and make sure we are around for many years to come to continue our important work in the community. The Denver Foundation’s staff and application process is wonderful and enables us to get things done in the most effective and efficient way possible.”

“It is very important to make sure that the nonprofit is clear on what exactly you want the consultant and/or facilitator to do. Having taken the time necessary to develop strong outcomes that are measureable goes along way to enabling the person you hire to gauge the process being made towards the goals and how much more work needs to be done to wrap up the project.”  Stacie Gilmore, Executive Director  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Past Technical Assistance Grantees

The following are posts by nonprofit organizations who have received technical assistance grants from The Denver Foundation.  Please feel free to comment here on this blog and follow up with the organizations for in-depth conversations.

Click here to visit The Denver Foundation’s Resources for Nonprofits web page.

Boulder County RSVP Board, Inc.

“We have greatly appreciated being funded multiple times by The Denver Foundation’s technical assistance fund.  Over the last few years, this funding has supported RSVP as it doubled its staff and budget.

We used the funding to hire consultants that assisted us in:
     1.  refining our mission and objectives
     2.  establishing agency and board committees
     3.  developing a three-year strategic plan

We were able to breathe new life into our organization with the support of The Denver Foundation.  As a result of working with Richard Male and Associates in 2007 and 2008, RSVP has “greened” our programs, acquired larger office space and has increased its capacity to serve seniors and adults with disabilities.”  Maureen Ewing, Executive Director

The YESS Institute

“We see the TA grant assistance as a necessary leveraging tool to elevate our agency up to the next organizational level pushing through the glass ceiling.”  Carlo Kriekels, Co-Founder & Executive Director

Grand Design, Inc.

“- The application process and format are very well spelled out and easy to follow; although telephone contact information is available for assistance, we never had to made a telephone call or send an email seeking further information or clarification.

 

 

Mountain Chamber Music Society

“The Mountain Chamber Music Society derived great benefit from our technical assistance grant.  We concentrated on Board Development and Budgeting, and learned a great deal.  It helped us solidify our vision, and truly enabled us to begin the work to achieve our mission.”  Laura Schulkind, Executive Director

Adams 14 Education Foundation

“Through the TA grant we were able to hire a facilitator for one of our board retreats.  The topic was how board members can help raise money for the organization. The insights learned were:

 

1.  Each board member must contribute money each year.  Even if it is a very small amount. Some board members do not have a great deal of discretionary income but they can contribute according to their means; even if it is $5 per year.

 

2.  All board members have contacts.  Through our facilitator our board members were able to link the various associations they have in the work place, at church, in the neighborhoods in which they live, places they shop, relatives, friends from high school and college, parents from their children’s sports team and the parents of the friends of their children, to new potential donors and new board members.”  Tony Uva, Executive Director

 

 

 

HealthBridge Alliance

“We had an excellent experience and received invaluable help with creating a new, more rigorous program evaluation model.  The lesson learned I would share is that you also need to make sure to have a plan in place to find resources to continue the work that you laid out.  In our case, it  has been very challenging to have the resources and time to enter the data for analysis.”  Dace West, Executive Director

Intercambio de Comunidades

“It’s good to focus on what your organization does well, but it’s also important to focus on areas that need improvement, and technical assistance can ensure that those improvements happen and that you create a system to ensure that they continue to happen.”  Lee Shainis, Executive Director

TEENS, Inc.

“The strategic plan that the TA grant from The Denver Foundation allowed us to complete has become the backbone of our organization.  It was great to involve the larger community and stakeholders in the process so we could see what the actual perceptions were about TEENS, Inc.  The process culminated in an all day retreat involving the board and the staff.  The staff gave in depth updates to the board about their programs and really presented a sense of where we are and where we need to go.  The board took that information and created the plan with long range goals and a time frame to meet the objectives.  The work has not ended there.  The board of directors went through “making the ask” training and pulls out the strategic plan each board meeting to review it.  The review of the objectives and follow through are the most important aspects of this process.”  Stephen LeFaiver, Executive Director