Community Action Agencies (CAAs) around Ohio, as well as around the country, are always looking for ways to improve services and strategies that ultimately impact poverty in their communities. Peer-to-peer facilitated learning is an ideal way to identify effective practices that address the causes and conditions of poverty. The Community Action Partnership has taken the lead on developing new ways …
Year-End Fundraising Ideas
It’s hard to believe that another year has come and nearly gone. As we look forward to the holidays and reflect on 2017, many of us are also planning year-end fundraising campaigns to kick-start our efforts to help low-income Ohioans in 2018 and beyond. If you haven’t already started, or are looking to add to your year-end planning options in …
Recognizing Community Action
There are over 6,500 Community Action professionals across 48 agencies in Ohio, each working in a unique way to help alleviate poverty in their community with the same mission: to help people help themselves and each other. In our effort to recognize some of the great professionals in this network, beginning next month, OACAA will accept submissions from member agencies …
Issue One: Marsy’s Law
In June, the OACAA Board of Trustees voted to endorse Issue 1, Marsy’s Law for Ohio. Issue 1 is a citizen initiated constitutional amendment creating equal rights for victims of crime; nothing more, nothing less. Often victims feel as though they’ve been re-victimized by the criminal justice process, leaving them even more broken then they were before. Issue 1 constitutionally …
Dear Commissioner Goodell
The following letter was sent to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on October 17, 2017. Dear Commissioner Goodell: As you know, our Nation has witnessed a growing divide due to the frustration and injustices felt by some of our fellow citizens. NFL players across the league have taken a knee as part of their First Amendment right to protest in the …
What is the Foundation Level Seminar Series, anyway?
Like pyramids, organizations are only as strong as their foundational level. That foundation determines the size of the pyramid, if the pyramid stays straight, and to how high the pyramid can grow. In 2016, OACAA launched a seminar series for entry level and new employees. By offering a series of seminars such as these, we believe agencies can build the …
Effective grant writing
Grant writing is the process of requesting funds from various sources, typically through a competition that requires submission of an application or proposal. Nonprofit organizations rely on this form of fundraising to support programs, agency operations or other financial needs. Grants are especially popular because they are considered “free money” by many in the industry, which leads some to believe …
Branding in Community Action
“Brand” has been defined as many things in both for-profit and nonprofit fields: a symbol or identifier, a logo or an image, a psychological perception of a company, an asset. In the nonprofit world, branding has experienced a paradigm shift that has moved away from simple imagery to the embodiment of mission and values. Branding goes far beyond a logo, …
Technology and the Nonprofit
Technology changes rapidly. If you buy a computer, printer, and perhaps a new server today, they all may work fine and meet your current needs. However, if you jump forward five years, you’ll see the computer begins to slow down and it doesn’t work right because technology has advanced so quickly you start to wonder what decade you’re in! When …
What is a social enterprise?
Acts of kindness and benevolence used to be the standard for being a good non-profit organization. Over the years, however, there has been a dramatic shift from the model of charity to a more challenging paradigm. As donations became scarcer due to the economy, competition, and other factors, many nonprofits began to ask tough questions about the sustainability of this …