AROUND THE CENTER:

Mandel Center Teams up with Community Wealth Ventures

In January, the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations in partnership with Community Wealth Ventures Inc. (CWV), a national social enterprise consulting firm, launched the Cleveland Community Wealth Initiative, an 18-month project to help nonprofits develop new revenue streams and reduce their dependency on donations. The partnership will position the Mandel Center to offer programs and services designed to increase the impact of nonprofit organizations' missions, goals, and financial self-sufficiency through income-generating business ventures.

"We are thrilled to partner with the nationally recognized CWV to establish ongoing, localized programs and services for social enterprise activity in our region. Cleveland has a lot of talent," said Susan Lajoie Eagan, the Mandel Center's executive director. "In addition to drawing on our own faculty expertise, the Center is excited to tap into Cleveland's network of business people and community leaders interested in helping to nurture entrepreneurship for the public good."

The Mandel Center has a long track record of preparing current and future leaders to transform their agencies into high-performing, successful organizations. The Cleveland Community Wealth Initiative will enable the Center to continue offering topical professional development programming to help nonprofit leaders address the increasingly dynamic environment in which their organizations operate.

The Cleveland Community Wealth Initiative has two main goals: 1) to build organizational wealth and capacity; and 2) to foster a community environment that encourages and supports social enterprise. To address these goals, the Initiative consists of the following components:

The Cleveland Community Wealth Collaborative is an intensive, 10-month business planning process that will assist a select group of high-performing nonprofit organizations in developing and growing earned income ventures. This will be the third iteration of the Collaborative in Cleveland, which first was launched by Community Wealth Ventures in 2005.

The Community Wealth Collaborative alumni services program will provide ongoing business coaching and training to those nonprofit organizations that recently graduated from the collaborative in order to assist them in the first critical year of business plan implementation.

A series of community workshops and communications strategies will build awareness and educate the broader nonprofit community in the Cleveland region about earned income. The community workshops will begin in June 2008, with additional activities to follow in the months to come.

A planning process by the Mandel Center, in collaboration with Community Wealth Ventures, will allow the Center to conduct comprehensive market research of its own and develop a plan to provide localized social enterprise support services.

"Some may not realize that many nonprofits are already earning income in some form or fashion to sustain their mission-related work," Eagan said, "but organizations are looking for help with business planning, marketing and capitalization to maximize this revenue potential."

Cleveland has a distinguished philanthropic history that has supported the development of a sophisticated nonprofit community. However, as the region deals with challenging economic times, nonprofits are faced with meeting the growing demands for social, educational, and community services. With rising expectations and limited government and philanthropic resources, nonprofits are in search of new strategies to help generate the revenue needed to sustain their work.

"A focused effort like this will support nonprofit social enterprise leaders who are using community wealth to diversify their revenues and better support their missions," said CWV chair Bill Shore. "Our goal is to ensure the ongoing viability of these organizations that are doing so much good in Cleveland."

The Initiative is funded by The Cleveland Foundation, The William J. and Dorothy K. O'Neill Foundation, National City Community Development Corporation, The Fred A. Lennon Charitable Trust, Saint Luke's Foundation, and The Sherwick Fund.

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