2019 Recap

Dear Center for Community Stewardship Supporter:

Have you ever had an idea for a new nonprofit service that could help your community? Many of us have, but the thought of all the administrative work it takes to start a nonprofit, plus worrying about the details of accounting, taxes, and insurance, stops us from taking that first step towards helping others. That’s where C4CS comes in.

One of the ways in which C4CS makes it easier to make a difference in our community is by serving as a fiscal sponsor for non-profit initiatives. We are fortunate to have so many entrepreneurs who want to step up and fill a community need and make our community a better place, and our job is to help them bring this vision to life. When they are ready to launch their project, C4CS handles the back-end work so they can focus on their mission.

We’re proud to announce that in 2019 we made big strides in adding more support and services to take the burden off the 48 entrepreneurs under our fiscal sponsorship.  One of the most exciting pieces of news this year is that C4CS made affordable health benefits and HR support available to our fiscally sponsored projects with employees. Becoming an HR expert is yet another thing that nonprofit leaders don’t need on their to-do list. We are excited to provide this service so they can have the support they need to continue to grow their initiatives.

2019 HIGHLIGHTS

• C4CS added nineteen new fiscally-sponsored projects. Four existing projects moved on to their own 501c3 or wrapped up their projects.
• Our Executive Director and a Board member attended the National Network of Fiscal Sponsors conference in Philly. Along with 200 other fiscal sponsorship organizations, we shared best and emerging practices in using fiscal sponsorship to support community change.
• We connected several projects to funding opportunities, and provided several more with grant-writing feedback, leading to successfully funded projects.
• C4CS offered two workshops at Madison Nonprofit Day in October – Facilitating Challenging Large Group Conversations and Influencing Meetings as a Participant. We will be offering these again in 2020.
• We held eight different facilitated conversations between residents & police, and between residents, about community safety on the Northside.
• We added new board member Amanda Jabs, who is the Controller of Food Fight Restaurant Group. Welcome, Amanda!

And, we have even bigger plans for 2020! We will be expanding our capacity to better support our fiscally sponsored projects by adding an additional C4CS employee, so that we can spend more time connecting project leaders to resources and educational opportunities, and working with them one-on-one. Many of our projects are grassroots initiatives whose leaders are experts in their field, but who are new to the world of nonprofit management. We want to help them be as effective as they can be.

With 19 new projects this year alone, and many more in the pipeline for 2020, we need your assistance in making sure we have adequate staffing to help these projects succeed and make our community a better place for all of us to live and thrive. We’ve got the funding for a part-time person, but know that our projects would benefit from the support of a full-time person.

Can you help us make this possible? Donate at www.community-stewardship.org/donate, or make a donation via check.

Thank you, and have a wonderful holiday season.

Sincerely, C4CS Executive Director Lisa Dugdale & C4CS Board: Bert Stitt, Steve Hingle, Jessica Mederson, Scott Haumersen, Patrick Marsden, Haywood Simmons, and Amanda Jabs