COLLABORATION
A
fter the Community Foundation of Collier County was
founded in 1985, the Leadership Center was established, and then later named the Center for Nonprofit
Excellence (CNE). The board of trustees at that time recognized the need to provide local nonprofits with skills and
technical assistance to accomplish their missions and serve the
community with excellence.
As the Community Foundation grew, the CNE became the
go-to resource for nonprofits serving Collier County. Over
time, building nonprofit capacity—activities and grants to help
agencies improve their management and governance—became
a strategic focus. Seminars offered through CNE included
board leadership, fundraising strategies, public and media relations, strategic planning and financial management.
Since its inception, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence has
served thousands of individuals from hundreds of nonprofits
in Collier County. Over 300 seminars and 150 custom retreats
have been offered.
“Our sincere gratitude goes to the Community Foundation of Collier County
for funding many grants which have
enabled us to enhance the quality and
quantity of services for our patients.
But it was the PEG grant we received
in 2005 that changed the way we do
business and measure program outcomes.
“Mary Ellen Barrett worked with us during Center for
Nonprofit Excellence sessions diligently and patiently teaching
us a better way to operate. She showed us how to look at our
business differently. The new thought process quickly became the
standard care for all of our patient educational programs, and still
practiced today. We couldn't be more grateful,” Chief Advancement Officer Nina Gray, Neighborhood Health Clinic, says.
The Program Planning & Evaluation Grants (PEG) were
awarded to support new or existing programs of nonprofit
organizations serving Collier County. This special grant
program was designed to help organizations improve and
strengthen their operations through rigorous training sessions
(five four-hour sessions over three months). The program
helped each organization identify, measure and report program
outcomes, indicators and data collection methods. Although
this exact grant is no longer available similar grants may be
applied for on the Community Foundation website.
To date, the CNE is the only
management service organization serving nonprofits in Collier
County. However, the demand for
services has outweighed the capacity of
the Community Foundation, and in August
2012, the Board started examining options for growth. The number of nonprofits
in Collier is 450+, twice as many organizations as when the CNE started operating.
The demand for higher level classes
and certification has grown as well. The
logical solution to help serve this growing
industry was to expand in partnership with
a university.
The Community Foundation was proud to
announce partnership with Hodges University in May 2013 with a three-year grant
totaling $150,000, to help establish CNE
at Hodges’ Nichols School of Professional Studies as the leading educator and
provider of nonprofit management and
education in Collier County.
Nonprofits may view a current schedule of CNE programs at
www.hodges.edu/CNE.
Community Foundation of Collier County | cfcollier.org
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