GREENFIELD — With the help of the Hancock County Community Foundation, the leaders of five local charitable organizations are receiving professional training on how to help their operations grow — plus a bonus boost to their funding.
The foundation’s Excellence Academy, launching for the first time this year, will bring the leaders of five area nonprofits together for quarterly classes throughout the next three years. Topics covered will include board development, nonprofit management and organizational leadership.
The participating organizations will receive a $500 unrestricted grant toward their programs at the end of each year. When they complete the program in 2022, a new group will be chosen.
Katie Ottinger, the community investment and grants officer for the foundation, said the program was created in response to feedback by local charitable organizations.
The Excellence Academy is just one piece of the foundation’s Partners in Excellence nonprofit support initiative, which is aimed at helping charitable organizations in Hancock County grow and better serve the community.
Foundation president Mary Gibble said the program was created because the foundation wanted to use its increasing resources to help nonprofits with smaller staffs and financial resources.
“It’s very humbling to steward the financial resources that can really make an incredible difference in the survival of our community nonprofits,” Gibble said.
Other aspects of the Partners in Excellence initiative include creating more opportunities for nonprofits to network and share news, as well as the Level Up grant program, which will provide up to $10,000 for nonprofits to work with consultants.
The Excellence Academy focuses on “capacity-building,” which will aim to help organizations develop stronger programs; improve their fundraising efforts; and support professional development for their staff and board members.
The five organizations participating are Hancock County Senior Services, Love INC of Greater Hancock County, Friends of the Theater, Boys & Girls Clubs of Hancock County and Meals on Wheels of Hancock County.
The organizations were invited to participate by the foundation. Ottinger said they were chosen to create a mix of newer and older organizations, as well as several that are experiencing changes in leadership. Three — Senior Services, Meals on Wheels and the Boys & Girls Clubs — were former United Way partner agencies that can no longer rely on that revenue stream due to changes in how United Way of Central Indiana allocates its funds.
“That’s a big change for their capacity, and so as we looked at different nonprofits, we tried to be intentional about identifying those organizations that might be a particularly transitional place, that something of this nature might really be helpful,” Ottinger said.
Sessions will be led by business management consultant Bryan Richards of Aspen Impact and will incorporate both lecture and interactive elements.
Chantel Fowler, the director of Boys & Girls Clubs of Hancock County, said the opportunity to participate in the program came at the right time for her organization, as she has just taken over as the new leader and is also looking to fill several seats on the organization’s board.
“I think it will be a full-circle learning experience for us,” Fowler said.
Fowler said she enjoyed attending the first session in August, which focused on board development, and that it gave her valuable advice on finding new board members who will be effective and engaged.
When the three-year Excellence Academy program is over, Fowler said she hopes she will be able to look back on a period of productive improvement for the Boys & Girls Clubs.
“I just hope that we are effectively growing in every area that we possibly can,” Fowler said.
Karla Whisenand, the executive director of Christian nonprofit Love INC, said she was excited to be participating in the academy and that the first session was “super welcoming and cheerful.”
Whisenand said she looked forward to both the staff and the board at Love INC benefiting from the Excellence Academy. One of the most beneficial parts of the program, she said, will be the opportunity for the participating nonprofits to learn from each other.
“We do have similar challenges,” Whisenand said. “We have more in common than we have not in common.”