Join us on Tuesday, February 24th

• Join us on Tuesday, February 24th for a nonprofit tweetchat summit, 5 pm pst.
• We will be discussing all things nonprofit including: funding, governance, programmatic design, evaluation, and organizational development.
• Co-facilitated by Shanna Trenholm of Trenholm Writing & Consulting, and Carrie Roberts of Roberts & Associates.
• Join us as we share important information using Twitter as a platform for exchange of ideas. Use #npsummit—Let’s make this a trending topic!
• Send questions to @writeyourgrant OR @shannatrenholm

You may download and printout and distribute this flyer.  CLick here to download

Other Justifications for Roberts & Roberts

Professional development vs. basic administration

Conferences, workshops and membership in grantmaking organizations are the most common ways that giving professionals stay on top of current trends in the field and share best practices with their colleagues. As administrative budgets are cut across companies, the costs of these professional development efforts will be weighed against technology upgrades, travel for site visits and even staffing levels, and anything that looks like “fat” will quickly be cut.

Marketing vs. philanthropy

Constraints on resources across the company will mean pressure to maximize every dollar spent. Under such circumstances, giving dollars are often viewed as “found money” by managers in other areas, particularly sales or marketing, who will try and stretch these dollars to serve their own purposes - a grant to a university in order to cement a sourcing agreement, for example, or a grant to the favorite charity of a celebrity spokesperson that falls outside the company’s giving focus. Giving managers will have to push back hard in many of these cases, or find ways to make grants that can help meet other corporate goals but still stay true to the giving mission.

Why Choose Roberts & Associates

As a small consulting firm, we bring a level of expertise and knowledge to the grant writing experience however we remain personally involved with each client, providing individualized attention to each agency’s unique funding opportunities.   Roberts & Associates possess the skills, temperance and vibrancy necessary to work with nonprofit organizations and government entities,, understanding the frustration and anxiety many organizations encounter as they prepare proposals for funding competitions.  Strengths include:

a) Federal Grant Writing Overview

Overview of the Federal Grant Writing Process

b) Budget –Carrie

SF 424 forms, match and other federal budgeting procedures

c) Logic Modeling & Theories of Change

Developing Logic Models & Utilizing theories of change while completing proposals
d) Research & Resources

e) Evaluation

Process and product evaluation

f) Collaboration –

How to develop a regional approach—integrating services and creating meaningful collaborations

i) Program Planning & Design -

How to develop program infrastructure to respond appropriately to calls for proposals.
ii) Faith Based Federal Grants

How Faith Based organizations approach, implement and evaluate federal grants.

———————————————————————————

CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS PROFILE

•  Do you have charitable organizations that you currently support on an annual basis?
•  What are your values?  What principles are running your business?
•  What charitable interests have your pursued as an outgrowth of your values?
•  What has been the most satisfying charitable gift that you have made? Why?
•  What role has philanthropy played in your organization?
•  What core values would you like to express through your giving?  What do you stand for?
•  When you think about challenges facing our region, what are your major concerns?
•  Are any of these concerns the focus of your giving? Should they be?
•  What would you like to accomplish with your giving?  What do you think is possible?

• Who are the decision makers in the organization?
• Who from the organization has the historical perspective to provide helpful information?
• What is your time frame?

• What resources (people and money) are you committing to this project?

• • How would you like to be acknowledged for your giving?

• • Do you have any set contributions policies?

• Do you have a contributions committee formed?  If not, do you see this an important piece of the philanthropic process.

• • Geographic preferences for giving

Roberts & Roberts assists companies in all aspects of corporate philanthropy. Assignments range from assisting in-house corporate grantmaking departments to strategic planning and development of new corporate philanthropy and cause-related marketing initiatives.

Typically, assignments range from assisting in-house corporate grantmaking departments to strategic planning and development of new corporate philanthropy and cause-related marketing initiatives. We serve both corporate and private clients in these areas:

• Strategic planning, program development, support for corporate giving programs, private foundations and individual philanthropists.
• Management and outsourcing of foundation and corporate giving programs.
• Design and implementation of effective cause-related marketing strategies.
• Development, execution and maintenance of employee volunteer programs and tools to manage volunteers.
• Tailored research and information services to help philanthropists and other giving professionals stay on top of key issues and trends in the field of philanthropy, locally, nationally and internationally.

Corporate charitable giving has an impact when a strategic philanthropic plan is integrated with the corporate mission. To do that well, Roberts & Roberts provides customized services to meet our clients’ needs and achieve both philanthropic and corporate goals.

Our consulting services include:

• • • Strategic planning, program development and support for corporate giving programs and private foundations
    • Management and outsourcing of foundations and corporate giving programs, including proposal review, site visits and grant evaluations
    • Anonymous due diligence of potential grantees
    • Assessment of existing grantmaking programs or specific grants
    • Design and implementation of effective cause-related marketing strategies
    • Development, execution, and maintenance of powerful employee volunteer programs and tools to manage volunteers across multiple locations
    • Tailored research and information services to help philanthropists and other giving professionals stay on top of key issues and trends in the field of philanthropy, locally, nationally and internationally
    • Retreat and meeting facilitation
    • Training and professional development for corporate staff
    • Web-based resources, including an on-line information center

Our clients benefit from the shared wisdom of our entire staff who bring expertise in all aspects of the not-for-profit and philanthropic sectors. corporate grantmakers are increasingly pressed for time. Grants budget have increased, but the size of staff has been declining, so demands on the remaining staff are greater.

With the Dow continuing to drop, sales slumping, and stock options remaining under water and the economy sputtering, chief executives have to make difficult and unpopular decisions: layoffs, downsizing, and plant closings. The issue of CEO compensation and perks is in the news like never before, and not in a positive or flattering way. And with the scandals involving the CEOs of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco International and other formerly high-flying companies, CEO reputations have been blackened with a very broad brush. A recent article in The New York Times portrayed corporate giving as just one more vehicle for CEO misbehavior and overindulgence.

In a recent meeting with leaders in the field of corporate philanthropy, business and media, one media representative noted that association at the moment with the word “corporate” is not positive: greed, dishonesty, destruction of the environment, starvation of the world’s poor? In discussing the role of the media in reporting on corporate giving, he went on to ask, “Do you want to correct the current impression that every CEO is a pig and a thief”?

A harsh indictment, to be sure. Is there anything that the corporate grantmaking field can do to change these perceptions? Yes ! two things.

1. Transparency.
2. Strategic, focused giving.

In embracing transparency, companies are open about why they give and to what, disclosing the details of their grantmaking programs to the public. They have nothing to be ashamed of and so nothing to hide.

Focusing giving in a strategic manner, in line with the company’s business interests, provides companies with a framework for allocating scarce resources and also helps the company achieve greater impact with its dollars. A strategic focus also provides a clear rationale to shareholders for the distribution of corporate dollars, and allows for linkages among employee volunteer efforts, cash and in-kind giving, and other corporate resources.

These two concepts should be part of the DNA of every corporate giving program. And if the corporate sector doesn’t voluntarily embrace these concepts, they may find themselves forced to do so. U.S. Representative Paul Gillmor of Ohio has submitted bills in Congress that would require companies to disclose their giving practices in filings with the S.E.C. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, requiring disclosure of corporate giving was dropped from the legislation that was eventually enacted, but could certainly be raised again in the next Congress.

Transparent, focused corporate giving programs are one positive step in the direction of rebuilding public trust in corporate America and its leaders, and should be embraced by all companies.