This grant provides multiyear general purposes support to the Foundation Center, a national organization that collects, analyzes, and publishes information on foundations and philanthropy. The center operates five regional libraries and a network of over 200 funding information centers - located in professional, public-access libraries. It sustains the participation of grantseekers in the philanthropic process by making available information through directories, research reports, books, and a Web site that teaches about foundations.

This grant provides continued general purposes support to GuideStar, the premier source of information about nonprofit organizations in the United States. With data on over 1.8 million nonprofits in its database, millions of users of its free public services, and thousands of customers for its paid services, GuideStar has become an invaluable source of information to nonprofits and grantmakers. GuideStar's data services provide greater transparency for the nonprofit sector, encourage charitable giving by building public interest and trust, and enable individuals and institutions involved with charitable activities and organizations to make better decisions. Plans over the next two years include creating and marketing universally accepted nonprofit data standards, optimizing data collection and management techniques and processes, maximizing data sharing with nonprofits, enabling simplified data provision by nonprofits through enhanced delivery tools, distributing nonprofit data and tool packages to partner sites, and creating an agile development resource for rapid technological innovation.

The Global Philanthropy Forum is a project of the World Affairs Council of Northern California. The forum's mission is to build a community of donors and social investors committed to international causes and to inform, enable, and enhance the strategic nature of their work. At present, the forum consists of a network of over 750 donors of which 61 are members. Its main activity is an annual conference, which last year attracted 472 participants. Other forum services in 2011 included learning events in the San Francisco Bay Area, online resources, and donor-recipient matchmaking. In 2012 and 2013, the forum will host annual conferences in Washington, D.C., and the Bay Area, provide other learning and partnering opportunities to donors, and expand its constituency. The World Affairs Council of Northern California is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization devoted to engaging the public in a discussion of the transnational issues of tomorrow.

This grant provides partial support for the Philanthropy, Policy, and Technology Project, which recognizes that new forces, such as global connectivity, new enterprise forms, new advocacy rules, and market mechanisms as sources for social good, will ultimately require a new policy framework. Three scholarly workshops will be convened that result in the publication of an edited volume of philanthropy and public policy. A series of ten monthly public symposia will bring together leaders in various relevant fields to inform the scholarly work with practical insights. A visual mapping project will identify the key policy issues and major regulatory and legislative agencies within the main policy domains that affect the social sector. The project will be implemented by the Stanford University's Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, a research center at a leading university that develops and shares knowledge to improve philanthropy, strengthen civil society, and effect social change.

The program goal is to support the community foundation movement in Romania. To this end, the Association for Community Relations in partnership with the Romanian Environmental Partnership Foundation and PACT - Partnership for Community Action and Transformation (both Mott grantees) will provide funding and technical assistance to strengthen the two newly established community foundations in Cluj-Napoca and Odorheiu Secuiesc. In addition, the grantee will initiate and support the development of new community foundations in at least four locations in the next two years. The grantee's activities will include promoting the community foundation concept, assisting local groups during the registration process, and providing funding and technical assistance to the newly established community foundations. During the previous two years, the grantee helped to establish two new community foundations and supported five initiative groups to explore community foundation development. Also, the grantee supported the development of local philanthropy and resource mobilization and provided support to two existing Romanian community foundations. The grantee is based in Cluj-Napoca.

This grant provides core support to the Princess Margarita of Romania (Romania) Foundation, which is one of the leading philanthropic organizations in the developing third sector in Romania. With oversight by members of the Romanian royal family, the foundation's principal mission is to develop and support projects that improve health care and address special needs of children, youth, and the elderly. The foundation also hosts the Romanian Donors' Forum, an informal network of donors supporting the development of civil society in Romania.

This grant will support the continued collaboration of the Foundation Center, a key nonprofit sector institution providing knowledge resources to both grantseekers and grantmakers, and IssueLab, a small nonprofit which electronically archives, distributes, and promotes research produced by the nonprofit sector. Since May 2010, the two organizations have collaborated on a number of projects of mutual interest. Over the next two years, the two organizations will produce collaborative tools that will enhance the ability to manage, provide free access to, and preserve the nonprofit sector's knowledge assets. This, in turn, will determine the further relationship between the two organizations. Joint activities will include content integration and resource development for two main Foundation Center information resources, the consolidation of research collections, and the development of a vision and plan for next generation knowledge services for the nonprofit sector.

This grant renewal provides general purposes support for CIVICUS, an international alliance established in 1993 dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society worldwide. CIVICUS' membership currently includes representatives from over 100 countries. Key partners at the global level include United Nations agencies, academic institutions, and many large international development organizations. CIVICUS also has consultative status with global and regional bodies such as World Bank and the Council of Europe. CIVICUS' key programs are (a) the Civil Society Index, a systematic action research program on the state of civil society in more than 50 countries; (b) the annual World Assembly, which brought together more than 750 participants in 2008; and (c) Civil Society Watch, a program that mobilizes quick, public responses to situations where the right to freedom of civic association is threatened. CIVICUS also has programs on participatory governance, development cooperation and aid effectiveness, and legitimacy, transparency, and accountability.

This grant will provide general purposes support to the Association of Black Foundation Executives, Inc., through a three-year institutional membership. Founded 23 years ago, the association currently has 179 members representing all regions of the country, and the full spectrum of philanthropic institutions. The mission of the Association of Black Foundation Executives, Inc., is twofold: 1) to encourage increased grantmaking that addresses issues of importance to the black community; and 2) to increase the status and number of black professionals in philanthropy. The association presents educational programs, conducts and encourages research and issues publications on philanthropy as it relates to the African American community, provides technical assistance, and convenes periodic networks for its members.

This grant provides important general purposes support to the Association of Community Trusts and Foundations, a membership organization of community foundations in the United Kingdom. The Association of Community Trusts and Foundations has become a model organization in its efforts to support the growth and development of community foundations in the United Kingdom. This grant will help the Association of Community Trusts and Foundations enhance its services to members and implement a three-year plan designed to take the network to: broader levels of coverage in the United Kingdom, increased growth of financial assets, enhanced visibility to key audiences, and greater quality of work. Lessons learned in the United Kingdom have assisted in community foundation development across continental Europe and in other priority geographic regions of the Foundation.

The Transatlantic Community Foundations Network is a learning community launched in 1999 that facilitates, nurtures, and encourages community foundation development across North America and Europe. Over the past 12 years, the network has brought together more than 50 community foundation field practitioners from 14 countries for meetings focused on shared learning, mutual skills building, and information resource development. Community Foundations of Canada, a national membership association, has been the network's host since 2009. The network will conclude its programs in 2011, although its platform, relationships, and knowledge base are expected to transfer to the Global Fund for Community Foundations. A grant increase and six-month extension are needed to support program management and transfer of the network's resources, as well as scholarships for network members and other international field leaders to participate in the May 2011 Community Foundations of Canada biennial conference and a final, one day post-conference network learning event.

This grant increase helps the Council of Michigan Foundations during a period of critical leadership transition. Council of Michigan Foundations is widely considered the premier regional association of grantmakers. This additional general purposes support assist the new executive director in implementing a strategic plan and investing in needed capital items that will help secure the sustainability of both the Council of Michigan Foundations and those organizations it serves.

The Tides Center sponsors and provides financial and human services and administrative oversight to nearly 200 projects nationwide that fit in three program areas: 1) community development and services; 2) environment and health; and 3) policy, strategy, and global initiatives. This grant continues support for the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, a program of the Tides Center. The program's goal is to build the amount and effectiveness of resources aimed at combating institutional and structural racism through capacity building, education, and convening grantmakers and grantseekers. Since it began in 2003, the program has engaged hundreds of foundation representatives in discussions of racial equity focusing specifically on how they can advance the mission of achieving racial equity through their philanthropic organizations. In 2011-12, the program will continue to conduct workshops with regional, issue-based, and identity-based funder networks; provide assistance to the Racial Justice Funders Roundtable; and develop new projects that place a greater emphasis on increasing the effectiveness of resources aimed at eradicating institutional and structural racism.

This grant will support an organizational, capacity-building technical assistance funding facility for members of the Alliance of Mexican Community Foundations. The U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership will competitively award small technical- assistance grants of between $1,000 and $5,000 for projects that advance the community foundations' fundraising and resource development capacity, develop their boards, and improve their administrative and financial operations. The partnership will compile project results and report these back to the community foundations for their collective learning. This initiative is one of three programming components (the other two are leadership development and challenge grants for grantmaking and endowment building) being supported by a funder collaborative of the Inter-American, Kellogg, and Mott foundations created to support the development of Mexican community foundations. Established in 2002, the U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership is a bi-national membership organization whose goal is to strengthen and grow community philanthropy in the U.S.-Mexico border region.