Winding Down the Atlantic Philanthropies: 2009-2010: Beginning the End Game

Reviews late-term program planning, including envisioning the end of the foundation and translating that vision into concrete plans. Examines challenges and opportunities for final grantmaking in the Population Health and Children and Youth programs

First, Treat the System: The Atlantic Philanthropies' Effort to Promote Health and Equity in Viet Nam by Investing in a Healthier, More Equitable System of Policy, Practice, and Care

Describes Atlantic's investments and early outcomes in helping develop a more complete and equitable primary care system as well as a culture of public health policy and practice in partnership with the East Meets West Foundation and local institutions

Taking It to the Street: How Roadway Design Helped Shape a Neighborhood's Development

Summarizes lessons learned during the process of planning the redesign of one of the region's most historic corridors in Minneapolis -- Lake Street -- and illustrates how roadway design can help shape a neighborhood's development

Getting In, Staying On, Moving Up: A Practitioner's Approach to Employment Retention

Changes in workforce development policy are requiring employment programs to develop job retention strategies. This report looks at the Vocational Foundation, Inc. (VFI), one of New York Citys most respected employment programs for disadvantaged youth, and the principles that underlie its successful job retention program, Moving Up, a 24-month postplacement strategy for placing and keeping clients in jobs. VFI is one of only a handful of programs nationwide with a well-defined job retention strategy and an internal MIS system designed to track participant outcomes. The report describes in detail the elements of VFIs program, from recruitment and training to job placement and follow-up, and closes with nine principles of effective practice for workforce programs to consider as they develop their own retention efforts

Bad Words for Good: How Foundations Garble Their Message and Lose Their Audience

Looks at the widespread use of jargon and other forms of unclear writing that prevent foundations and nonprofit organizations from successfully communicating their message

Culture on the Range: Attracting Audiences and Dollars to One of America's Most Remote Places

Illustrates how the remotely located Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada has successfully cultivated donors and members from around the country

Winding Down the Atlantic Philanthropies: The First Eight Years: 2001-2008

Reviews Atlantic's decision, rationale, and process for spending down its entire endowment within two decades; financial and investment management issues; and the effects on grant budgets, program strategy, staff, and planning. Outlines lessons learned

Working Close to Home: WIRE-Net's Hire Locally Program

Hire Locally is an employment program that matches Cleveland's west side residents with industrial jobs employers would otherwise have searched far and wide to fill. The program is part of the nonprofit Westside Industrial Retention and Expansion Network, or WIRE-Net. This report documents the program's innovation in developing a sectoral strategy to meet labor market demands while also setting a broad agenda for community improvement. It also shares key program elements and recommendations to ensure that future programs are more effective

Hard Work on Soft Skills: Creating a Culture of Work in Workforce Development

Understanding and adapting to the norms of the workplace are important to long-term success in the labor market. Preparing participants to meet these challenges on the job requires more than a weekly session about how to dress or the importance of showing up on time. Workforce development practitioners must create a culture of work within their own programs if they want participants to be prepared to meet employers' expectations. "Hard Work on Soft Skills" describes the efforts of four very different organizations with sophisticated strategies that suffuse soft skills development throughout their programs by integrating them with their hard skills training

Advocacy Funding: The Philanthropy of Changing Minds

Grantmakers tend to be cautious about funding advocacy, and for good reason - yet advocacy can play a crucial role in advancing a foundation's mission. In this guide, contributors explain that advocacy includes a lot of opportunities to improve public policy through work that is well within the limits of the law. Whether your purpose is to advance an idea, argue a position, or enrich the policy debate, the guide offers resources and strategies for planning your work, reaching your audience, assessing impact, and more. HighlightsWhat's permissible for foundationsWorking with grantees who lobbyBuilding a case, cultivating a constituencyPreparing for oppositionWhat's in the Guide?Why Foundations Support Advocacy: For foundations, the pursuit of better public policy is often crucial to achieving their fundamental missions. Advocacy can be an important part of the strategy.Defining Your Role as an Advocacy Funder: An advocacy strategy needs to match a foundation's mission, values, and long-term goals. It should also be in alignment with your level of persistence, grant-making style, and tolerance for public attention.What's Permissible: Foundations, Advocacy, and the Law: U.S. federal law prohibits private foundations from lobbying or expressly funding lobbying -- that is, promoting a particular position on pending legislation. Yet those restrictions still leave a lot of open territory for grant makers who want to improve public policy.Building Knowledge and Will: Tools and Techniques: Grantmakers in advocacy also help to define and describe problems of public concern, and to educate policy makers and their constituents about possible solutions.Identifying and Cultivating a Constituency: Tools and Techniques: Advocacy is typically a collaborative effort in which organizations, coalitions, or movements deliver their message to the wider public. Organizing people and groups that share a common interest and a determination to make change may therefore be part of the task.Preparing for Opposition: When Advocacy Meets Resistance: When advocacy comes up against opposition, the options for action are not solely to attack or retreat. Success may depend on striking the right balance between confrontation and negotiation, resistance and engagement.Defining and Measuring Success: One common fear that keeps grantmakers from funding advocacy is that success is hard to measure. In this section, grantmakers offer approaches to assessing advocacy work