Spotlight On
August 1, 2005
Organization Name: The Taproot Foundation
Year Founded: 2001
Contact Person: Kim Davis, Managing Director - New York
Address: 150 Court St, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Phone: (718) 923 -1400
Fax: (718) 923-2869
Email: kim@taprootfoundation.org
Website Address: http://www.taprootfoundation.org
Mission:
The Taproot Foundation's mission is to strengthen nonprofit organizations by engaging business professionals in service. Launched in San Francisco in 2001, the Taproot Foundation delivers critical infrastructure-building support to local organizations by using our highly structured volunteer management process. Through our "Service Grant" award program, nonprofit organizations receive new naming, branding, brochures, websites, donor databases and HR systems created by corporate volunteers, thus providing the additional resources needed to strengthen local programs and communities.
Background:
Aaron Hurst founded the Taproot Foundation 40 years after his grandfather, Joseph E. Slater, wrote the original blueprint for the Peace Corps. Inspired by his grandfather and the Peace Corps' ethic that seemingly intransigent boundaries can be crossed when people work together as peers, the Taproot Foundation was created to connect this country's millions of business professionals with nonprofits who need their talents and experience.
From its beginning, the Taproot Foundation has had three overarching goals:
- To build the capacity of nonprofits by helping to develop their infrastructure in such critical areas as marketing/fundraising, information technology, and human resources - infrastructure that is taken for granted in the private sector;
- To redefine volunteering by giving business professionals the opportunity to apply their existing skills and expertise to deepen the impact of social change organizations; and
- To break down barriers between the for-profit and nonprofit sectors.
Our broad vision is to improve the human condition by harnessing human capital. We believe that the Taproot Foundation can catalyze and foster an ethic of service across professional fields. To date, only the legal profession has a well-defined culture of pro bono service. For example, most law firms have institutionalized processes for allowing lawyers to work with nonprofit clients; long-standing ethical guidelines demand that pro bono services meet the normal standards of the profession; and individual lawyers expect to have the opportunity to engage in pro bono service throughout their careers. Comparable cultures of service have yet to take root in other fields, despite the fact that many additional business professions have the potential to provide critical support to community-based organizations.
The Taproot Foundation's model facilitates structured, high quality pro bono work by professionals beyond the legal community. We work in the marketing, technology, and human resources sectors, and are steadily expanding our focus. We want to ensure that all business people can serve their communities by giving what they know - their own professional expertise - to strengthen nonprofit organizations.
Current Programs:
The Taproot Foundation awards the following Service Grants to nonprofit organizations in New York and San Francisco:
Naming
A Naming Service Grant is designed for nonprofits that have decided to change its name for strategic reasons (e.g. legal issues, major shift in mission or programs, etc.) and has the board and resource commitment to the process. The result is a new positioning statement, 2-3 new naming options and the development of a plan for implementing a new organizational name.
Branding
The Branding Service Grant creates a new or refreshed branding and identity package that defines how to position the nonprofit to its various audiences and translate that positioning into marketing messages and materials. The deliverables include a positioning statement with core attributes, a logo/word mark, tagline and a stationery suite.
Brochure
This Service Grant provides nonprofits with a high-impact brochure that can be distributed to donors, partners, clients or customers. It's designed to serve organizations that need a targeted new brochure to better reach a specific audience. The result is a print-ready electronic copy of a brochure, designed with the organization's print budget in mind.
Basic Website
The Basic Website Service Grant provides nonprofits with a basic but high-impact web presence. It is ideal for a nonprofit that does not currently have a site or has one that was developed without professional copy and/or design resources. The deliverables include a static 10-15 page website that will serve as an online brochure with online donation functionality.
Advanced Website
Advanced Website Service Grants provides nonprofits with the tools to launch and manage a mature web presence. It's designed for nonprofits that currently have a professional web presence and have the resources dedicated to managing the site, but needs to re-design the site to enable it to scale and be more effective (e.g. easier to update, improved navigation, stronger visual design, bi-lingual capabilities, etc.). This Service Grant will result in HTML design templates that can be used by the organization to launch and manage the site as well as training on how to get it done.
Donor Database
There are a lot of fundraising software solutions out there and identifying the right one for an organizations current and future need is a difficult decision to make. The Taproot Foundation's Donor Database Service Grant is designed for an organization that relies significantly on support from individual donors, volunteers and/or fundraising events. The target organization has been tracking donor, volunteer and event data in some format, but is looking for a more stable and scalable solution. A completed Service Grant will result in a fully implemented fundraising database and includes the training required for staff to manage the solution. The solution will be based on the organization's technology budget, but does not include the cost of the software selected.
Performance Management
This Service Grant can increase employee engagement and help reduce turnover, resulting in a stronger and more successful organization. It refines or creates a performance management process. It helps to align each employee's goals and development with the organization's objectives while enhancing the ability of managers to set specific goals for their teams and provide constructive feedback on progress to each team member. The Performance Management Service Grant is designed for nonprofits that have an active strategic plan, a staff member focused on human resources and at least 15 employees. It will result in a documented process for setting group and individual goals after annual strategic or operating plans have been set. The grant team will also provide templates for setting goals and monitoring progress, train employees and managers on the process, and provide constructive feedback after the first round of goal-setting has occurred.
Available Roles:
The Taproot Foundation is always seeking professional marketing, information technology (web and database) and human resources volunteers. In addition, we seek individuals who have strong backgrounds in and project management. For more information on our volunteer roles, please visit our website: http://www.taprootfoundation.org/volunteering/job_desc.shtml .
Funding Needs:
The Taproot Foundation is supported through three primary channels: general operating support grants, sponsorships of Service Grants and through innovative collaborations with leading companies and foundations. To learn more about how to support or partner with the Taproot Foundation, please visit our website: http://www.taprootfoundation.org/about/inkind.shtml.
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