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It’s been just over two months since the We’re In This Together event, organized by the Center for Community Solutions and the Greater Cleveland Funders Collaborative, took place at the City Club. We wanted to reconnect and share some updates on actions we have taken since March to help support the nonprofit sector through the significant challenges resulting from changing federal and state policy.
The Cuyahoga Human Services Chamber
In the intervening time, the Human Services Chamber, housed at The Center for Community Solutions, has grown in membership and held several sessions on topics including pivoting communications and legal considerations. The group also took its first advocacy position, successfully opposing an attempt to grant the executive branch unchecked authority to revoke nonprofit tax-exempt status.The inaugural in-person membership meeting took place last week and elections for the Steering Committee will occur later this summer. If you are a nonprofit organization providing health or social services in Cuyahoga County, please consider joining today. More information, including access to the membership inquiry form, is available online. Learn more or join the Chamber
The Greater Cleveland Funders Collaborative
Meanwhile, the Greater Cleveland Funders Collaborative has been at work behind the scenes, designing a thoughtful response that provides support to the nonprofit sector in this moment while protecting long-term strategic commitments. Building on the feedback collected at We’re In This Together and many subsequent conversations, local philanthropy has developed plans to provide resources under three pillars, which will launch in a phased approach, with the first coming in midsummer.
Based on event feedback, local philanthropy has developed a three-pillar support structure, launching in phases starting in mid-summer. Information and education around the current policy environment were identified as the top need for participants at the event, and we are responding by building the capacity of the Human Services Chamber under the first pillar: Policy & Advocacy for the Sector.
The second pillar, the Community Resilience Initiative, connects organizations to contracted professionals to provide general consultation in four key areas: legal support, IT and data security, strategic communications, and fiscal and audit compliance. Organizations at higher risk to external threats may pursue extended support from the Collaborative to address their urgent and complex needs.
The final pillar, Pooled Community Resilience Fund & Aligned Basic Needs Grantmaking, remains under development and is designed to help philanthropy organize its funding around key basic needs issues as they emerge and evolve. The Center for Community Solutions and Sangfroid Strategy are assisting with project management of the pillars.
Stay engaged!
This groundwork on multiple fronts is helping to ensure that the momentum and ideas generated during the March event are translated into meaningful support. We truly appreciate your participation and contributions. Your engagement has helped shape the direction of the work we’re doing now, and we’re looking forward to sharing more tangible progress with you soon. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any thoughts, questions, or would like to stay more closely involved. We’ll continue to keep you updated as things evolve.
