This grant supports the Council on Foundations' international programs, which aim to promote and facilitate responsible and effective grantmaking for international purposes among its members and to support philanthropy as an essential part of strengthened civil society around the world. Accomplishments over the past three years include the publication of The Principles of Accountability for International Philanthropy, the launch of the Philanthropic Initiative for the Americas, the redesign and expansion of the United States International Grantmaking Web site, and work on the Centralized Repository Feasibility Project. Over the next two years, the Council will (1) maximize opportunities for collaboration, understanding, and learning around international grantmaking; (2) promote the highest standards of accountability, diversity, and good practice for international grantmaking; and (3) advocate for an improved legal environment for international grantmaking. Founded in 1949, the Council on Foundations is a membership organization of private, community, and corporate foundations, primarily in the United States.

Associated Grant Makers is a regional association of grantmakers whose mission is to support the practice and expansion of effective philanthropic giving. Associated Grant Makers' membership consists of 125 grantmaking foundations, corporations, and philanthropic advisory services in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. This grant will provide partial support to Associated Grant Makers for its Diversity Fellowship Program, which focuses on expanding ethnic minority leadership in the philanthropy profession. Since it began in fall 2006, the Diversity Fellowship Program has completed two years placing ten fellows at various philanthropic organizations in the region.

This general purposes support to the Michigan Nonprofit Association will allow it to continue and expand its work to strengthen the nonprofit sector in Michigan in the areas of accountability, governance, and transparency. During this grant period, the association will place special emphasis on public policy and advocacy work, including educating policymakers on critical issues impacting Michigan nonprofits, keeping the state's nonprofits informed of the issues that impact the sector, and providing tools to help nonprofits become more effective advocates. The grantee has encountered a higher than anticipated level of demand for some of its services. This grant increase will enable the Michigan Nonprofit Association to expand its training services in order to meet the increased volume of demand.

This grant supports the general purposes of the Network of European Foundations for Innovative Cooperation, an international, nonprofit membership association based in Brussels. Its goal is to strengthen philanthropic cooperation among foundations, associations, voluntary organizations, and other nongovernmental organizations in Europe. This grant increase is necessary to meet funding shortfalls resulting from unanticipated costs in several projects and to fulfill the objectives of the Foundation's general purpose support to the grantee. The network manages several joint, donor-funded programs related to building social capital, citizens' rights, global governance, education, and culture. During 2007, the network supported a range of initiatives in which major European foundations collaborated on issues of youth empowerment, HIV/AIDS, citizen engagement, and Europe's role on global social issues. The network has 12 members and engages many other foundations, public donors, and other types of philanthropic organizations in its projects.

Community Connections provides organizational development training and technical assistance to build institutional capacity of community-based organizations in the Western Cape province. It primarily supports nonprofits focused on local economic and community development, HIV/AIDS, early childhood development, women empowerment, arts and culture, the environment, and poverty eradication. Past core activities included providing organizational development trainings and workshops, developing a computer resource center, partnering with several organizations for consultancies, promoting networking between community organizations and local government, and publishing training materials. This renewal grant will support the continuation of core activities through trainings, workshops, consultancies, publications, expanding the resource center's activities, and providing opportunities for peer learning and networking. Community Connections is a membership-based nonprofit that was founded in 2000 to address issues of poverty.

The Nonprofit Quarterly was launched as a national journal in late 1999 as a publication of Third Sector New England. In 2006, the Nonprofit Quarterly spun off into an independent publication. Since this time, the periodical has grown its print journal and online subscriber base by over one third and increased its share of earned revenue from 41 to over 70 percent. It enjoys widespread credibility and a well-respected brand identity among its readers, which include small storefront nonprofits to large nonprofit institutions. In addition, policymakers and academics find the journal to be a useful blend of critical analysis, research, and practitioner wisdom. Funding will allow the Nonprofit Quarterly to enhance its sustainability by building the number of paid print journal subscribers, increasing Web site traffic, systematizing special coverage as a business line, and planning and testing two additional business lines.

The program goal is to involve more Russian citizens in supporting nonprofit organizations by improving their capacity to collect private donations and develop supportive constituencies. Building on its successful staging of a certified professional fundraising course, as well as over 30 training workshops involving 600 participants, the NGO School will work to improve organizations' abilities to exploit the Internet and the growing social networking phenomenon to promote genuine grassroots fundraising. A specialist fundraising Web site will be established to support this initiative. Additional activities will include a series of fundraising and resource mobilization workshops; ongoing experience sharing through meetings of a Fundraisers' Club; and further enhancement of the NGO School's own fundraising capacity, based on its success in raising over 100,000 rubles for its course scholarships. Having evolved out of Charities Aid Foundation Russia, the NGO School provides a range of services supporting the professional growth of the nonprofit sector in Russia.

This grant provides support for the further development and promotion of GrantsFire, a system which aggregates and publishes grants information using Web 2.0 tools and technology. Currently in an initial pilot phase, GrantsFire makes up-to-date information on philanthropic grants widely and easily accessible through a network-centric strategy. GrantsFire will pull recently published grants information from known foundation Web site feeds according to a simple unified standard. Grants data will be pooled and the collective data will be made searchable and publishable by key words and other sort criteria. Ultimately, GrantsFire will bring down the cost and raise the timeliness and accessibility of grants data collection. The GrantsFire initiative is being led by Solpath, a nonprofit organization created specifically to develop solutions that improve foundation grants management processes and software systems.

The concept of community foundations has been germinating in South Africa since the early 1990s. From 1998 to 2002, the Southern African Grantmakers Association tested the model in over ten communities and one of the results was the establishment of the Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation in June 2000. This foundation is one of only a few community foundations successfully developed in South Africa. Recent core activities included mobilizing and distributing resources to local nonprofits, conducting community needs assessments, providing technical assistance to 200 nonprofits through a newly established center, funding more than 50 nonprofits totaling R1.5 million, and developing a youth philanthropy program. This renewal grant will support continuation of core activities in addition to providing skills development and mentoring for the foundation's managers and staff. The Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation makes grants and provides capacity-building support to community-based organizations in the Northwest province.

The program goal is to develop philanthropy in Romania. During the grant period, the Association for Community Relations will carry out research on the current state of philanthropy; build the capacity of nonprofit organizations to raise local resources by providing training and technical assistance; disseminate information about fundraising mechanisms and successful practices; and develop innovative fundraising programs. The grantee's past achievements include publishing studies on funding for nonprofit organizations in Romania, organizing annual conferences on corporate philanthropy, raising awareness about existing incentives for philanthropy for businesses and individuals, and supporting fundraising efforts of nonprofits on the local and national levels. This grant increase will enable the grantee to provide additional services to two recently established community foundations and develop a long-term national strategy for community foundation development in Romania.

This grant provides general purposes support to Native Americans in Philanthropy, a grantmaker affinity group dedicated to improvement in all aspects of philanthropic activity related to Native-American people. The organization seeks to strengthen indigenous communities by increasing philanthropic investment in Native-American people and advancing the participation and leadership of Native Americans in the philanthropic sector. Recent past accomplishments include a significant increase in membership, regional gatherings on leadership and philanthropic partnerships, and demographic research on Native-American philanthropy. The current organizational focus includes leadership development, sharing lessons learned regarding investing in Native-American communities, and increased networking between Native-American communities in philanthropy.

This grant provides general purposes support to Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, an organization focused on improving nonprofit results by supporting changes in grantmaker practice. Grantmakers for Effective Organizations has increased the understanding of organizational effectiveness and its value in strengthening nonprofits, and has used its Change Agent Project to identify changes that substantially improve nonprofits' ability to succeed. Grantmakers for Effective Organizations will continue to provide a forum for foundation professionals to share research and best practices, offer tools and other information to improve nonprofit effectiveness, and work to identify and address leadership development needs in the nonprofit community.

The project goal is to increase the level and effectiveness of corporate giving in Central and Eastern Europe. To this end, donors' fora in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia will continue cooperating within CEENERGI - Central and Eastern European Network for Responsible Giving, which is an informal network of donor associations in the region. During the grant period, the network will address a number of critical issues associated with corporate giving both at national and regional levels, including current low levels of corporate contributions to the nonprofit sector, ineffective grantmaking practices, and a lack of collaboration between corporate donors and the rest of the philanthropic community. Since its establishment in 2005, the network has carried out a series of activities both at national and regional levels, including researching corporate philanthropy, promoting good practice in corporate giving, and providing technical assistance to corporations on their philanthropic programs.

The program goal is to strengthen the financial sustainability of a leading Slovak foundation whose mission is to support systemic reforms of social service provision, increase the quality of life of socially disadvantaged groups, and strengthen social cohesion of Slovak society. To this end, Socia - Social Reform Foundation will run an endowment-building program to raise $600,000 and increase its total endowment to at least $1 million by the end of 2012. In addition, the foundation will strengthen its overall fundraising strategies and capacities and replace its foreign funding sources with local sources. The foundation is the successor organization of the work of the Cooperating Netherlands Foundations and was registered in May 2002. During 2002-2006, the foundation has distributed as grants over $3.4 million. In addition to grant support, the foundation provides capacity-building and networking opportunities to its grantees and actively participates in policy development relating to social services.

This grant supports the Diversity in Philanthropy Project, an initiative designed to advance strategic interventions for equity, diversity, and inclusion in philanthropy. The previous grant enabled the project to coordinate with leading research and professional organizations to develop new data gathering approaches, engage approximately 1,000 field leaders and executives in high-level conversations on diversity issues, and develop a national advisory group of leading CEOs, trustees, and network executives to guide the project. The third phase of the project will focus on four activities: promoting regionally based pilot efforts to improve field data and reporting; producing and disseminating diversity best practice case studies; piloting the first regional voluntary initiatives among committed foundations; and promoting further field building and collaboration in support of diversity-focused funds. The New York Regional Association of Grantmakers is a membership organization of foundations, corporate-giving programs, and other philanthropies in the metropolitan New York region and beyond.

This general purposes grant supports the National Council of Nonprofit Associations' effort to strengthen the national network of state nonprofit associations and develop their capacity to support community-based organizations throughout the country. The organization serves over 20,000 members in 41 states and the District of Columbia, linking local organizations (especially small and midsized nonprofits) to a national audience through state associations. Recognizing the challenges facing the nonprofit sector through increased scrutiny and regulations, the council continues to provide technical assistance, share best practices and other relevant information, and offer networking opportunities to state and regional associations to enhance their ability to increase their members' effectiveness and accountability and to better represent their members at the public policy level.

This grant provides general purposes support to Council on Foundations, a national membership organization of private foundations, community foundations, and corporate funders. The Council is dedicated to promoting, strengthening, and enhancing services to support the field of philanthropy in both the United States and internationally. Since its establishment in 1958, the Council has served as a resource and advocate for philanthropic organizations. Throughout the field, the Council is recognized as the main organization that represents the voice of a broad spectrum of foundations in the United States.

This general purposes grant renewal will help the National Center for Black Philanthropy, an organization that has encouraged giving and volunteerism among African Americans and educated the public on African-American philanthropy since 1997. During the previous grant period, the organization was able to hold three regional conferences and one national conference, continue its research on black business owners' giving habits, and provide philanthropy workshops and endowment training. With continued support, the National Center for Black Philanthropy will hold its seventh National Conference on Black Philanthropy, scheduled for 2009, and convene its fourteenth regional meeting in 2008. In addition to continuing its endowment and fundraising training workshops for African-American organizations, running its Black Business and Philanthropy program, and publishing a book titled A Philanthropic Covenant with Black America, the National Center for Black Philanthropy will focus on building its funding, management, and programmatic capabilities to ensure its long term survival.

The Midwest Community Foundations' Ventures is a supporting organization of the Council of Michigan Foundations. Having renamed itself from the Michigan Community Foundations' Ventures and expanded its geographical scope to include Illinois, Ohio, and potentially Indiana, the grantee develops and manages collaborative initiatives that deliver continued innovation in the community foundation field. These include (1) community-building initiatives (retaining local and regional wealth for philanthropy, strengthening the community foundation role of civic engagement, and promoting sustainable development through better land use); (2) resource-building programs (sharing best practices for marketing and development, facilitating regional marketing, and supporting and leveraging national standards); and (3) capacity-building tactics (advancing board development, expanding technical assistance, and building sustainable infrastructure for regional associations).

This grant supports the Nonprofit Listening Post Project of the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University. The project is designed to improve the management and operation of nonprofit organizations and the policy environment within which they operate by equipping managers and board members, public policymakers, assistance providers, and other stakeholders with more timely information about the significant challenges facing American nonprofits and about the coping strategies that innovative nonprofit managers are applying in response to them. Launched five years ago, the project has had visible impact on policymakers, nonprofit practitioners, and foundations. In its next phase, the project will broaden its coverage both substantively and geographically. This will include the addition of a component by which an initial set of six states, including Michigan, will participate in national-level surveys, produce state-level reports, and organize activities. The Michigan Nonprofit Association will be an implementing partner.

The program goal is to strengthen the financial sustainability of a leading Czech foundation whose mission is to promote and strengthen civil society in the Czech Republic. To this end, VIA Foundation will run an endowment-building program to raise at least $1 million and increase its total endowment to $3.3 million by the end of 2012. In addition, the foundation will strengthen its overall fundraising strategies and capacities. The foundation was established in 1997 as the successor organization of the American Foundation for a Civil Society. Since its establishment, the foundation has provided grants to more than 2,000 projects of nonprofit organizations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine. In addition to grant support, the foundation provides capacity-building and networking opportunities to its grantees and actively participates in policy development relating to civil society and philanthropy.

This grant provides continued general purposes support to the Alliance for Nonprofit Management to strengthen nonprofit support centers and others that deliver management and governance support services to nonprofit organizations throughout the United States. The organization has grown its members to over 1,100 and those members are able to reach over 250,000 nonprofits each year. Over the coming grant period, the organization will again co-sponsor an annual conference with the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, target its membership marketing campaign, expand its Cultural Competency Initiative to include diversity factors other than race, and learn extensively about issues critical to the capacity-building field.

The program goal is to support the development of an enabling legal environment for civil society in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia and the European Union neighborhood. The European Center for Not-for-Profit Law carries out this goal by promoting an effective legal and fiscal framework for nonprofits; improving the legal framework for volunteerism and other forms of public participation; strengthening governance and accountability in the nonprofit sector; and assisting nonprofit organizations to participate in the European Union accession process. Major accomplishments during 2005-2007 included assisting in the development of improved laws on nongovernmental organizations in Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, and Moldova; developing laws on volunteerism in Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, and Serbia; and assisting in the development of a government-civil society cooperation agreement in Bosnia. Established in 2003, the center is based in Budapest, Hungary.

In many less-developed regions of the world, privatization sales are a huge potential source of funds for community-focused philanthropic endowments. A number of examples exist around the world, such as healthcare conversion foundations in the United States and bank foundations in Italy. The East-West Management Institute, together with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies, is launching a "Philanthropication thru Privatization" project to explore and promote capturing a portion of the proceeds of privatization sales as a means for building community-based philanthropic endowments. This grant will provide support to a planning and discovery phase during which a small core team will organize the initiative, investigate, and develop a list of examples from around the world of the creation of charitable endowments out of the privatization of formerly public or nonprofit assets, and determine promising pilot test areas for future "philanthropication thru privatization" campaigns and projects. Founded in 1988, the East-West Management Institute promotes the rule of law, civil society, and free market systems globally.

This grant continues support to the U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership, formed in 2002, in order to expand philanthropy and improve the quality of life in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Currently, 19 community foundations are members of the partnership. Over the past five years, members have shared best practices, learned together about important border issues, leveraged almost $20 million to strengthen their institutional capacities and support programs in their border communities, and developed cross-border ties. In its next phase, the partnership plans to become an independent nonprofit organization. Its membership base will expand from community foundations to include other types of border philanthropic institutions, programs, and individuals. The International Community Foundation, a current member, will take a leadership role in transitioning the partnership from a Synergos Institute-managed project to a new entity and also act as the partnership's fiscal agent until the new entity becomes fully incorporated.

The program goal is to build the capacity of Ukraine to integrate more closely with European and Euro-Atlantic structures through the application of Polish and European experience. In order to fulfill its mission, the Polish Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation "PAUCI" has identified five primary focus areas: (1) advocacy for closer integration with European and Euro-Atlantic structures; (2) implementation of administrative and local government reform processes; (3) adoption of international and European Union business standards; (4) application of internationally recognized ethical standards in public life; and (5) youth empowerment. The grantee will build on its successful operating and grantmaking programs, which included distribution over $430,000 in grants for cross-border initiatives. Created in 2005, the foundation is the successor to the Polish-America-Ukraine Cooperation Initiative which sought to share Polish experience in market and democratic transition.

The program goal is to encourage civic initiatives in rural communities in four counties in central Croatia. To this end, during the grant period the Regional Foundation for Local Development Zamah will provide grants, organize training, raise public awareness about civic responsibility, and carry out advocacy initiatives. In 2008, the grantee will make up to 50 grants totaling $136,500 to mobilize community-based resources to address local issues and concerns. Direct grantmaking will be complemented by work with local businesses and local government officials to encourage transparent and effective funding mechanisms for civic initiatives. As a new organization, the grantee will strengthen its organizational capacities by increasing the number of full-time staff to two, retaining reliable financial and accounting services, securing and outfitting adequate office space in Zagreb, and building contacts with key business leaders. The grantee was established in 2006 by a group of community development experts working with the Center for Civil Initiatives, a long-time Mott grantee.

This grant will provide continued support to the University of KwaZulu-Natal for a partnership in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship with the Masters in International Studies in Philanthropy program based at the University of Bologna in Italy. This is a multidisciplinary program, which provides postgraduate training in all aspects of philanthropy through an accredited and recognized master's degree. In addition to an exchange in students between the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Bologna, the institutions will expand and enhance the academic offerings to students and joint research activities will provide additional philanthropy resources to the sector.

Established in 1993, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is an international alliance dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society globally. Recent achievements include hosting the secretariat of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty; producing regular electronic newsletters and reports on a range of issues affecting civil society; coordinating a systemic action-research program to investigate the state of civil society in more than 50 countries; facilitating research and learning on civil society governance standards and practices; and organizing an annual CIVICUS World Assembly, which in 2007 brought together over 900 civil society practitioners and activists from around the globe. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation will continue its programs and activities in 2008, with a focus on finalizing and implementing a new Strategic Framework for 2008-2012 and ensuring a smooth transition in leadership.

This grant supports the general purposes of the Network of European Foundations for Innovative Cooperation, an international, nonprofit membership association based in Brussels. Its goal is to strengthen philanthropic cooperation among foundations, associations, voluntary organizations, and other nongovernmental organizations in Europe. This grant increase is necessary to meet shortfalls that developed due to exchange rate losses and to fulfill the objectives of the Foundation's general purpose support to the grantee. The network manages several joint, donor-funded programs related to building social capital, citizens' rights, global governance, education, and culture. During 2007, the network supported a range of initiatives in which major European foundations collaborated on issues of youth empowerment, HIV/AIDS, citizen engagement, and Europe's role on global social issues. The network has 12 members and engages many other foundations, public donors, and other types of philanthropic organizations in its projects.