Community Foundation

2005, 22 pages. Grantcraft, a project of the Ford Foundation, 320 East 43rd Street, New York, NY 10017, 212-573-5288.

PDF Download: www.grantcraft.org/dl_pdf/personalstrategy.pdf.

This fifteenth guide in the Grantcraft series promotes thedevelopment of personal strategies for grantmakers to better manage the ambiguous "soft" part of their work. Other guides are also available on this web site.

2005, 82 pages. The Foundation Center, 79 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10003-3076, 212-620-4230.

Published in cooperation with the Independent Sector, this report is the first comprehensive analysis of U.S. foundation funding for social justice from 1998 to 2002, based on data that includes all grants of over $10,000 from more than 1,000 of the nation's largest private and community foundations.

2005, 174 pages. Theatre Communications Group, 355 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10017-0217, 212-697-5230.

Launched in 1999, the National Theatre Artist Residency Program was designed to foster both new and expanded relationships between theaters and artists through grants for long-term residencies. This volume documents the experiences of the 135 artists and 99 theaters that participated in the program through 2005, and provides an in-depth analysis of the many challenges and opportunities they faced.

2005, 12 pages. U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20220, 202-622-2000, www.treasury.gov.

Download pdf: www.treasury.gov/offices/enforcement/key-issues/protecting/docs/guidelines_charities.pdf

These voluntary guidelines are intended to "assist charities in developing a risk-based approach to guard against the threat of diversion of funds by use by terrorists and their support networks."

For those of us who are passionate about the arts, it has been disheartening to see so many schools cut back on arts education. I am happy to report on a new initiative by the American Architectural Foundation that hopes to boost interest in teaching kids about architecture and design.

A few years ago, Laura Penn, managing director of Intiman Theatre in Seattle, met me for coffee at the Saint Francis Hotel. I was between sessions of the Independent Sector's (IS) national conference in San Francisco. Laura had never heard of IS and was curious about it. The Independent Sector is a coalition of corporations, foundations, and private voluntary organizations that works to strengthen nonprofit organizations and is committed to advancing the common good in the U.S.

We live in a world of "widespread hostility toward the United States and its policies."1 This antipathy is not limited to the countries and peoples that are directly affected by the U.S. "war on terror" and its attendant pol-icies, but includes many of our former allies and fellow democracies. A friend who just returned from a year in Spain reports that she spent a significant amount of time and energy convincing people she met there that the U.S.

Years ago, after reading a case statement from one of my earliest experiences with fundraising, my husband, who is in the wine business, told me the three "s's" of salesmanship. He said that a salesman should have

Something to say
Say it, and
Stop.

He made it sound fairly easy and apparently it works if you are approaching a reluctant wine buyer who should prefer the rare Aglianico you're offering to an ordinary Chianti from your competitor. Sales have been good and my husband has a thriving company.

May 2005, The Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20037, (202) 833-7200, www.urban.org

"The idea that expressive activities contribute to building and preserving communities has become an increasingly important part of economic development and community revitalization discourse in cities, towns and nations around the world."
Carole Rosenstein, Ph.D.

2005, 32 pages. The Boston Foundation, Boston, MA, 02116

This study reports on the impact and roles of arts service organizations (ASOs) in the Boston area and nationwide. Considered "the unacknowledged gems of the cultural ecosystem," ASO services help other nonprofits to achieve certain economies of scale and to function as if they were larger operations. At the same time, many ASOs themselves do not have the budgets or staff capacities to make a real impact. The study outlines a strategy for supporting this segment of the cultural sector.