Why Does Infrastructure Matter?

Ellen Friedman, Executive Vice President

I am excited to announce the launch of the Tides Blog – written by and for people interested in creating strong infrastructure for the social change sector. In this sector, what we do (the mission work that gets us up every morning for a vision of a just and equitable world) is interwoven with how we do it (the organizations we create to implement our vision). If we don't pay attention to the infrastructure we are putting in place to support the work necessary to implement our visions, the lack of strong organizational practices and efforts will ultimately cause us distraction from our work, at best, and at worse, result in the dissolution of the very organizations we have created to do the work.

I believe that efficient operational infrastructure, like that provided by Tides, is a critical part of facilitating social innovation and making the world a better place. Read more...

NEW! Shared Services Guide

China Brotsky, Senior Vice President

As doing more with less has become the new norm for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes, budget-savvy nonprofits are wisely teaming up to share resources and services through innovative "shared services" programs.

Sharing workspaces, IT resources, administrative functions like accounting and HR, and other services through a shared services arrangement is a relatively easy—yet highly effective—way for nonprofits to increase their operational efficiencies,  lower their operating costs, and focus more energy on advancing their core missions. Read more...

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What's Your Vision for 2010?

Do the most with your money, your ideas, and your ideals: make this the year you realize your vision of social change. Here are two examples of funding partners doing just that.

Simple solutions for complex funding programs

Lumina Foundation for Education works to ensure that 60 percent of Americans are college-educated by 2025. They recently embarked on an ambitious initiative to increase productivity spanning several states and many educational institutions—and they chose Tides to manage the logistics of such a complex program. Lumina makes a single grant to Tides and Tides in turn manages and administers the activity of the grant and fulfills all reporting requirements with higher education institutions in seven states. By taking on the expenditure responsibility of these activities, Tides relieves Lumina of significant logistical, administrative, and regulatory burden. Tides pioneered these services to help institutional funders achieve big goals, and rest assured the little details are in order.

Graphic courtesy Lumina Foundation for Education

Collaborating for Reproductive Justice
The Catalyst Fund was created to increase resources to women of color-led reproductive justice efforts across the U.S.; in just two years, The Catalyst Fund has helped move over $4 million to such efforts. A collaborative fund that brings together like-minded funders to amplify their impact on the reproductive justice movement, The Catalyst Fund provides matching grants and capacity building to local grantmaking partners throughout the U.S. Many of the national funders and grantmaking partners participating in The Catalyst Fund have doubled or tripled their giving to women of color-led reproductive justice efforts since joining the Fund. Tides offers ready-made infrastructure for funding collaboratives to enable smart coordination of resources and marshal additional funding for critical social change work.

2009 A Strong Year for Tides

Despite the downturn in 2009, Tides managed grantmaking, real estate, and nonprofit project activities of $170 million*—keeping pace with our '08 numbers. We managed over $68 million in financial activities for our fiscally sponsored nonprofit projects, and added 19 new projects; granted $101 million to nonprofit organizations (compared to $108 million in 2008); and managed $26 million in real estate-related assets committed to the promotion of green nonprofit centers.

Contact us to find out why our philanthropic, nonprofit management, and nonprofit real estate services are the right solution in any economic climate.

*All figures are preliminary estimates and based on unaudited numbers.
 

Innovations, Efficiencies, & Fresh Ideas

How Nonprofits Can Share Down their Costs and How to Launch a Sharing Revolution. From Shareable.net, a Tides project and online community promoting design for a shareable world.

An accurate 2010 Census count facilitates the flow of public, private, and philanthropic resources to constituencies and regions most in need, supporting critical infrastructure-building. With only months to go, it's vital you get involved.

• Resources for nonprofits from Nonprofits Count
• Resources for funders from the Funders' Committee for Civic Participation

What Does the Future Hold for Nonprofit Infrastructure Organizations? From Rosetta Thurman's blog on promoting the next generation leadership for social change.