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Tides Center Awarded $4.5 Million to Expand Nonprofit Sector Capabilities
Tides Center Awarded $4.5 Million to Expand Nonprofit Sector Capabilities
Published 02-07-05
Submitted by Tides Center
With this substantial funding, Tides Center is deploying a scalable technology platform that will enable thousands of nonprofits and fiscal sponsors to operate more efficiently and effectively. This platform will greatly increase the availability of affordable, quality, administrative infrastructure and reduce duplication in the nonprofit sector. Tides Center also will use the grants to collaborate with others to improve standards of practice and accountability in the sector. Currently, Tides Center provides grants management, administrative, financial and human resources services to charitable initiatives not incorporated as 501(c)(3)s. Tides Center is the fiscal sponsor to hundreds of projects across the U.S. in such areas as economic development, social justice and the environment.
Kellogg Foundation initially funded Tides Center in 2003 with a $950,000 grant to support strategic planning and collaboration efforts. With this latest grant, Kellogg is investing in Tides Center's implementation of its plan. "Tides Center's history of enabling nonprofit leaders to focus on their missions and programs by sharing a common legal home and administrative infrastructure uniquely qualifies the organization to lead this important sector-wide initiative," said Tom Reis, Program Director at W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "We believe this initiative will transform many organizations in the nonprofit sector by increasing their financial sustainability, enhancing the effectiveness of their programs, and, ultimately, increasing their impact in the communities they serve. Kellogg Foundation is pleased to extend its relationship with Tides Center."
"In today's environment, affordable, up-to-date infrastructure and effective operating and governance practices are not merely a matter of convenience, but a matter of survival for nonprofits," said Willa Seldon, Executive Director, Tides Center. "Tides Center is honored to act as a leader in developing and making available these valuable services to the nonprofit sector. We also look forward to collaborating with other management support organizations as a part of this initiative."
"Fiscal sponsors allow social entrepreneurs to focus on what's mission critical," said Barbara Kibbe, Vice President, Program and Effectiveness at the Skoll Foundation. " As the largest national fiscal sponsor and the national leader, Tides Center is well placed and poised to grow its business, to strengthen the field of fiscal sponsorship domestically and to explore international expansion. All three of these strategic objectives support the incubation of social entrepreneurship and the development of infrastructure for the nonprofit sector."
"Tides Center has provided administrative support to The Children's Partnership for over 10 years as we have grown from the start-up stage to a well-functioning organization," said Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President, The Children's Partnership. "We are delighted to see foundations investing in infrastructure for the nation's nonprofits, and we look forward to the expanded information technology and other new services that Tides Center will offer."
About Tides Center
Tides Center is the nation's leading fiscal sponsor for social change initiatives providing a legal home as well as administrative, human resources and financial infrastructure services nationwide. Since 1977, Tides Center has enabled social change innovators to focus their time and energy on their vision and program goals - rather than on operational issues. Tides Center manages combined budgets totaling more than $50 million annually and serves over 200 groups focused on community development, social justice, the environment and other issues.
Tides Center is a part of the Tides Family of Organizations, a group of nonprofits that share a common vision for a healthy society-a society based on principles of social justice, broadly shared economic opportunity, a robust democratic process and sustainable environmental practices. The Tides Family of Organizations includes Tides Center, Tides Foundation, Tides, Inc., Groundspring.org, Thoreau Center for Sustainability and Community Clinics Initiative. For more information, go to www.tidescenter.org.
About W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 "to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations." Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community, and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions, and healthy communities.
To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. For more information, go to http://www.wkkf.org.
About Skoll Foundation
Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., the Skoll Foundation was created in 1999 by Jeff Skoll, the first employee and first president of eBay. Its mission is to advance systemic change by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs.
The Skoll Foundation invests in social entrepreneurs through three award programs and the new Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Said Business School at Oxford University. The foundation connects social entrepreneurs through its online community, Social Edge , at www.socialedge.org. It celebrates social entrepreneurs through projects such as a four-part public television documentary called "The New Heroes" that will be broadcast in 2005, and via the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, which is held every spring at the Skoll Centre. For more information, visit www.skollfoundation.org.
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Copyright © 2005, Tides, Tides Center, Tides Foundation, Tides, Inc., Tides Canada, Groundspring.org, Thoreau Center for Sustainability. Other names used in this press release may be trademarks of their respective owners.
