Message from the Executive Director

The Nonprofit Center has wrapped up its first full year and we are now combing through a lot of information to evaluate last year's programs and plan for the year ahead. To everyone who completed our most recent interest survey, thank you! Next month, we hope to share a list of upcoming professional development activities as well as some other big news. In the meantime, we're sharing resources, congratulating grant recipients, and asking you to respond to a one-question poll about data.

Oh, and thanks to County Executive Pittman's FY25 budget, we are excited to hire a full-time program assistant at the Nonprofit Center. Please share the announcement with your networks.

The Nonprofit Center is Hiring!

Join our growing team! We will soon welcome a full-time, contractual Program/Administrative Assistant to The Nonprofit Center @41 Community Place. This person will assist with organizing the professional development programs we offer to all Anne Arundel County nonprofits as well as preparing for the day we open our doors. If the idea of using your time and skills to help develop a brand new center to support local nonprofits providing all-important services to their communities sounds exciting, we hope you will apply.

Candid's Foundation Directory Use by Nonprofits

The Nonprofit Center’s June 2024 survey revealed that 1 in 4 Anne Arundel County 501(c)3 organizations that responded had recently accessed Candid’s Foundation Directory through their local Anne Arundel County Public Library (AACPL) branch.

As of May 29th, AACPL reported 258 separate logins to the Foundation Directory. Yet, our survey also suggests that many small and voluntary organizations did not know this free resource is available to them. We will continue to spread the word.

Candid expanded to all library branches in January 2024.

Thank You!

The Nonprofit Center staff wants to thank the 41 organizations who took time to complete last month's program interest survey. The respondents represented nonprofits of all sizes and, not surprisingly, your interests often varied by size. Fundraising Strategies and Partnerships & Collaborations are two topics that rose to the top for all groups. The vast majority of respondents are interested in networking events with roundtables a close second. We also received very useful narrative comments. We are looking closely at the results and will use them to plan this year's programming. Stay tuned for details.

Community Support Grant Recipients

Many nonprofits in Anne Arundel County perform essential work providing services to underserved populations, addressing the health and wellbeing of communities, promoting equity and inclusion, and eliminating the opportunity gap in education. The Community Support Grant program administered by Arundel Community Development Services (ACDS) was designed to support them in their efforts. 

An interagency team of County Health and Human Service leaders reviewed 125 applications for Community Support Grants that together represented over $5 million in funding requests. Yesterday County Executive Steuart Pittman and ACDS CEO Erin Karpewicz announced the 73 local nonprofit organizations that will receive a total of $2 million. Congratulations to the Community Support Grant recipients, and thank you to all applicants!

Read the County Executive's press release HERE.

“For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people's love and concern for each other.”

– Millard Fuller

Nonprofit Center's Resources for Nonprofits

Have you used the Nonprofit Center’s Resources for Nonprofits page to find or share a resource that has been valuable to your organization?

This month we introduced a section on fiscal sponsorships. One such resource you can now find on our page is from the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR). In addition to listing databases you might use to search for fiscal sponsors, AIR dispels confusion over the topic by explaining two common–yet wildly dissimilar–types of fiscal sponsorship.

Where Do You Go For Community Data?

You most likely know about the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County's Community Needs Assessment, Poverty Amidst Plenty and United Way's ALICE Report, but did you know that the county government also has reports available for the public to view and datasets to download and use?

OpenArundel is a collection of tools, reports and data developed to empower county residents with information and to encourage civic engagement. If you have used OpenArundel, the team is looking for your feedback. Please take a few minutes to complete a short survey (2-3 minutes). If you haven't heard about OpenArundel, check it out. And, if you have any questions or want to know more, contact nordaz@aacounty.org.

Other Nonprofit News and Announcements

☆ Attention Nonprofit Leaders - Training Scholarships Available

Arundel Community Development Services (ACDS) is pleased to offer Ardath M. Cade Scholarships to support the professional development of the county’s housing and community development leaders. Awards up to $1000 are available to cover the costs of training courses and certifications. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Click here for more details and a link to the application. 

☆ Candid Learning often offers free training for nonprofits. Two sessions this month include: Introduction to Finding Grants (July 23rd; 2:00 - 3:30) and Maximizing the impact of giving days for Black-led and serving nonprofits (June 25th; 11:00 - 12:00), and Introduction to Foundation Directory (July 25th; 2:00 - 3:30) They are FREE. You just need to create an account to register.

☆ Anne Arundel County Public Libraries offers monthly workshops for nonprofits. The next two are:

• How to Start a Nonprofit Organization (July 31st; 2:00 - 3:30) at the Busch Annapolis Library
• Grants Management and Compliance (Aug 22nd; 2:00 - 4:00) at the Crofton Library

☆ Giving Gap's 2024 State of Black Nonprofits Report underscores the pivotal role of Black-founded nonprofits as service providers, agents of positive change, and champions of racial equity and justice. Take a look. Key findings will be presented on July 31st during a FREE Candid webinar.

☆ The National Council of Nonprofits recently shared the latest data from Giving USA on charitable giving in 2023, which shows that all four sources of giving – individuals, foundations, bequests, and corporations – remained flat or declined when adjusted for inflation. Overall charitable giving dropped 2.1% in 2023. This follows the 13.4% decline in individual giving in 2022. Not great news, but an opportunity to ask Congress to pass legislation that could make a difference. Review statements from the Charitable Giving Coalition and Congressman Moore (Utah) to learn more.

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The Nonprofit Center is a program of Anne Arundel County government. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Each NPC-sponsored event includes information about how to request an ADA Accommodation.

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