If you are looking for a fun way to learn, make a difference, and get out of the house this weekend, these CFP nonprofits are waiting for you! See what is in store for the DC Metro area this weekend on Around Town. Heading to one of these events? Let us know–we would love to hear about it:

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Grocery Deliveries to Low-Income Seniors in North Capitol/Shaw

We Are Family Senior Outreach Network
We Are Family will be delivering groceries to over 250 low-income seniors in the North Capitol and Shaw neighborhoods.
When: Saturday, May 18, 2013 (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)
Where: Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
Fee? no
Volunteer Info: Volunteers will help assemble and deliver grocery bags to low-income seniors. Although a car is not needed, it is helpful.
Contact: Mark Andersen, (202) 487-8698
For more information: click here

LAMB 10th Anniversary Fiesta & Auction

Latin American Montessori Bilingual Public Charter School
Join us in celebrating LAMB’s 10th anniversary at the Fiesta & Auction! Food, music, silent auction & live auction, including items for many fabulous restaurants, hotels, and local businesses. Venga a disfrutar!
When: Saturday, May 18, 2013 (6:00 PM – 10:00 PM)
Where: Latin American Montessori Bilingual Public Charter School, 1375 Missouri Ave. NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20011
Fee? yes $35 in advance; $45 at the door
Contact: Colleen Renk or Iyon Rosario, (202) 726-6200
For more information: click here

The Big 33: The World’s Most Important Dinner Party

A Wider Circle
Come see why Zagat calls 9159 Brookville Road one of the finest dining establishments in town. Okay, not really, but come see – and share – what A Wider Circle is all about! It only costs A Wider Circle $33 to provide a child or adult with all of his or her basic need items – from beds and dressers to sheets, towels, dishes, pots, pans, and much, much more! $33 is only a suggested donation. We invite you to come on out, share in some great food, hear about the work, and enjoy a wonderful dinner party. Have questions or want to RSVP? Call 301-608-3504 or email Dinner@awidercircle.org All are welcome, so please feel free to share this invitation with friends, family members, neighborhood listservs, or anyone who may be interested.
When: Saturday, May 18, 2013 (7:00 PM)
Where: A Wider Circle’s Center for Community Service, 9159 Brookville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Fee? no
Contact: Erin Fiaschetti, (301) 608-3504
For more information: click here

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Christopher K. Morgan & Artists/skybetter and associates

Dance Place
DC based Christopher K. Morgan & Artists joins forces with NY based skybetter and associates for an evening of contemporary dance employing sinuous and abstract movement combined with detailed musicality. Performance includes Inclement Weather, choreographed by Sydney Skybetter, centering on the hallucinogenic memory of a beloved, lost grandmother. Co-presented by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
When: Sunday, May 19, 2013 (7:00 PM)
Where: Dance Place, 3225 8th Street NE, Washington, DC 20017
Fee? yes $22 General Admission; $17 Members, Seniors, Teachers and Artists; $10 College Students; $8 Children (17 and under)
Contact: Carolyn Kamrath, (202) 269-1608
For more information: click here

CFP nonprofits have some great things going on this weekend. Check them out and maybe find a great new nonprofit to support!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

2nd Annual Chess Challenge in DC Citywide Elementary and Middle School Chess Tournament

Chess Challenge in DC
Chess Challenge in DC Is proud to present the 2nd Annual Citywide Elementary and Middle School Chess Tournament. This exciting event features a four round tournament with a blitz playoff. Trophies for the top three finishers and prizes for all. Registration is FREE and includes a t-shirt, wristband, lunch, prizes and raffle tickets. To register go to www.chesschallengeindc.org.
When: Saturday April 20, 2013 (08:30 AM – 4:00 PM)
Where: Woodrow Wilson High School, 3950 Chesapeake Street, NW, Washington, DC 20016
Fee: no
Volunteer Info: Volunteers are needed to help with set-up and clean-up, registration, lunch and other jobs throughout the day. No chess experience necessary. Please contact shana.rosenblatt@chesshchallengeindc.org.
Contact: Shana Rosenblatt, (202) 579-5551
For more information: click here

Annual Earth Day Cleanup and Celebration

Anacostia Watershed Society
Join AWS for our 24th annual Earth Day Cleanup and Celebration of the Anacostia River. More than 20 different cleanup sites throughout the area will be available to choose from by the end of February. All volunteers are invited to join us for the celebration that follows at Bladensburg Waterfront Park. There will be free food and drink, live music, exhibitors and speakers! Registration is required, contact Maddie below.
When: Saturday April 20, 2013 (09:00 AM – 2:00 PM)
Where: TBD, TBD, TBD, TBD TBD
Fee: no
Volunteer Info: Trash and debris cleanup
Contact: Madeline Koenig, (301) 699-6204 ext 109

Grocery Deliveries to Low-Income Seniors in North Capitol/Shaw

We Are Family Senior Outreach Network
We Are Family will be delivering groceries to over 250 low-income seniors in the North Capitol and Shaw neighborhoods.
When: Saturday April 20, 2013 (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)
Where: Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
Fee: no
Volunteer Info: Volunteers will help assemble and deliver grocery bags to low-income seniors. Although a car is not needed, it is helpful.
Contact: Mark Andersen, (202) 487-8698

Karen Sherman

Dance Place
In One with Others, Minneapolis-based artist Karen Sherman re-purposes dance, words, and scrap lumber to consider biography, personal mythology and social legacy. Using choreography both desperate and delicate, the piece grapples with desire, communication, humiliation and destiny. Funded in part by the NEA and the NPN.
When: Saturday April 20, 2013 (8:00 PM)
Where: Dance Place, 3225 8th Street NE, Washington, DC 20017
Fee: yes $22 General Admission; $17 Members, Seniors, Teachers and Artists; $10 College Students; $8 Children (17 and under)
Contact:Carolyn Kamrath, (202) 269-1608

It’s a slow weekend for CFP nonprofits, but check out this show put on at the District of Columbia Arts Center.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

I, Jack, am the Knave of Hearts

District of Columbia Arts Center (DCAC)
I, Jack, am the Knave of Hearts takes the audience on a journey of discovery and reckoning as Don Juan bursts through the fissure that separates mortality from eternal damnation and tries desperately to remember who he was, discover what he is doing here now and uncover why he has been allowed to escape. “You want to know what Hell is like? Hell is to be aware when there is nothing to be aware of and nothing to be aware with but your own desire? Hell is the end of hope.” John Carter, a local poet who has turned his hand to playwriting over the past fifteen years, deftly merges lyrical language with narrative as he delves layer by layer into the complex nature of Don Juan’s reflections on a life he would have lived in no other way; even with the full knowledge of the resulting punishment. His last play, Lou, based on the life of Lou Salome received critical acclaim in the New York Fringe Festival last year.
When: Saturday March 30, 2013 (7:30 PM)
Where: DC Arts Center, 2438 18th St Washington, DC 20009
Fee: yes, $25.00
Contact: B. Stanley (202 ) 462-7833

Have a great weekend from the folks at CFP!

This week, I came across an interesting blog post on the Cultural Data Project. We first learned of the CDP when conducting our own network wide Impact Survey last fall, and several of our Culture Nonprofits mentioned the CDP as another data collection and tracking tool commonly used by arts organizations in DC. The CDP is a “unique system that enables arts and cultural organizations to enter financial, programmatic and operational data into a standardized online form. Organizations can then use the CDP to produce a variety of reports designed to help increase management capacity, identify strengths and challenges and inform decision-making. They can also generate reports to be included as part of the application processes to participating grantmakers.” The District of Columbia is one of thirteen states that currently takes part in the CDP.

Talis Gibas and Amanda Keil, writing for Createquity, discussed the background of the CDP, its impact to date on both sector-wide research and arts organizations, as well as potential future expansions. Their article highlights opportunities and challenges for CDP as it transitions in 2013 to an independent entity after operating under the Pew Charitable Trusts. To date, it seems as though the project has proved of greater use and benefit to researchers and advocates for the arts instead of arts organizations themselves:

“Cultural organizations themselves don’t always hear about [the research and advocacy] work, or take full advantage of the CDP’s resources. In 2012, the CDP conducted a survey of over 1,800 arts organizations charged with filling out a Data Profile every year …68 percent of respondents had never read a report that includes CDP data. This implies that researchers, and the CDP itself, need to close the feedback loop between research and the constituents being studied. In addition, the survey revealed that more than 40% of participating organizations have never run an annual, trend, or comparison report. The same survey that found nearly half of organizations don’t use CDP reporting tools also found that 45% of participants understood their own finances better as a result of completing the Profile. Of those respondents that did use CDP reports, 40% said it resulted in better transparency, 45% said they had a better sense of their progress and goals, and 56% said they had a better sense of their organization over time. These relatively low percentages suggest that even organizations taking full advantage of CDP reports do not always find them of substantial benefit.”

This is not entirely surprising to the Catalogue, as we work with small (arts) nonprofits regularly who struggle with the capacity to accomplish many routine administrative duties, not including additional data tracking and reporting. As a project like the Cultural Data Project gains traction, and as the post suggests, becomes a more routine and common tool for arts grant-makers, perhaps more nonprofits will ‘buy in’ and find the process worthwhile.

As far as I can tell, the CDP primarily partners with larger foundation funders. Our sweet spot is individual and smaller family foundation donors, and it will be interesting to see if and how projects like the CDP will reach out to this donor community — at least with ways to access their data and research to inform individual philanthropy as well as foundation giving.

The article also mentions a similar tool that’s been developed for the community and economic development sector called Success Measures — “an outcome evaluation resource for community development organizations, intermediaries and funders.” The emergence of multiple similar tools for tracking trends and outcomes just goes to show the growing importance of impact measurement within the nonprofit and funder communities.

I applaud this trend and look forward to seeing how projects like CDP will help not only individual organizations better track their own data, trends, and outcomes but help provide a better picture of trends across the sector — and see where and how the needles are moving on key social issues. This is potentially more relevant for moving needles like poverty rates, educational achievement levels, and adult literacy, but also may also be key in securing support for the arts as sequestration and other government cuts start to hit.

“My books have, in a way, made me a parent. Peter and his friends grow, have fun, problems, fears, and successes, and I’ve been with them through it all. I love these children, and it’s been one of the greatest pleasures of my life to raise them and see them off into the world.”

– children’s author Ezra Jack Keats, born today in 1906; The Snowy Day appeared on the Adventure Theatre stage in January 2012

Where are you heading this weekend, friends? Might we suggest …

We Are Family Senior Outreach Network (at Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge Street NW)

On Saturday at 10:00 AM, volunteers will receive a brief orientation and then go out in pairs or groups to visit with seniors in their homes. You can sign up right here.

Volunteer Fairfax (at The Greene Turtle Fairfax, 3950 University Drive #209 Fairfax, VA)

Compete for prizes at VolunTrivia this Saturday at 1:00 PM! Play solo, form a team, or join a team; sign up right this way.

Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington (St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church 4700 Whitehaven Parkway NW)

The Spring Gala, coming up on Saturday evening, features both a live and silent auction and will honor the legacy of the late Rt. Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon. All details right here.

Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE)

On Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 7:00 PM, ClancyWorks Dance Company will combine physically demanding, powerful movement with the sensitive portrayal of cultural nuances and personal emotions. You can nab tickets this way.

Washington Bach Consort (at National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Avenue NW)

Rich sonority, sublime harmony, and complex instrumentation characterize this Sunday’s “Honor and Remembrance” program (3:00 PM), which features choral and orchestral music by Schutz and Bach. Buy tickets right here.

Just a few cool ideas for your weekend, coming up at …

Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE)

Accompanied by a live accordion and violin-driven score, this world premiere (“Ruth Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”) sweeps across an array of metaphorical hints and extravagant fabrics. Buy tickets for the Saturday or Sunday show here.

Building Bridges Across the River t/a THEARC (Ritz-Carlton, 1150 22nd Street NW)

The “Wacky & Whimsical Tea to Benefit THEARC” is a fun-filled Sunday afternoon (2:00 PM) that will include high tea, a silent auction and creative games for kids of all ages and their families. Learn more here.

Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop (Martin Luther King Memorial Library, 901 G Street NW)

Free Minds members will join with the Carpe Diem choir in a concert combining spoken word poetry, hip hop, world rhythms, and songs of hope and freedom on Saturday at 3:00 PM.

DC Youth Orchestra Program (THEARC, 1901 Mississippi Avenue SE)

Come see the passion and talent of some of the DC area’s most gifted young musicians when DC Youth Orchestra Program’s top ensemble (the Youth Orchestra) returns to THEARC on Sunday at 4:00 PM. Check out the press release here.

Coming up: Be sure to catch Washington Bach Consort‘s FREE Noontime Cantata Series concert this Tuesday from noon to 1:00 PM at the Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G Street NW.

The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself and carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion. It is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along.

– Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, born today in 1841

Apologies for the delay, friends! Check out some fun and local weekend ideas at …

Educational Theatre Company (AHC Hunter’s Park:, 2021 N. Nelson Street, Arlington, VA)

This year, ETC launched a new intergenerational model where seniors and college students participated in theatre exercises together to create a strong ensemble. Come check out the results this weekend! More information here.

Joy of Motion Dance Center (Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE)

On Friday at 10:30 PM, enjoy DCypher Dance’s hip hop fusion: contemporary hip hop theatre to the latest, hottest new school moves. Only one performance tonight — so be sure to nab tickets.

Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE)

On Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 4:00 PM, Israeli choreographer Idan Cohen presents an ecstatic piece set to the sound of W.A. Mozart’s Solo Piano Sonatas. Learn more this way.

Anacostia Watershed Society?(Huerich Park, 2916 Nicholson Street, Hyattsville, MD) — Cancelled

AWS is working to restore a section of streambank along the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River on Saturday at 10:00 AM. Volunteer sign up right this way.

Happy day-after Valentine’s Day! We certainly heart our local nonprofits …

Dance Place (3225 8th Street NE)

SpeakeasyDC returns to Dance Place to celebrate Valentine’s Day though hilarious and moving true stories about romance, relationships, and sex. Nab “Sucker for Love” tickets right here; performances on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM.

We Are Family Senior Outreach Network (at Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge Street NW)

Volunteers will help assemble and deliver grocery bags to low-income seniors near North Capitol Street and Shaw on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Sign up here (scroll down a bit).

Constellation Theatre Company (at Source, 1835 14th Street NW)

Final weekend! Zorro, the masked avenger, is born when quiet, bookish Diego must find a way to fight corruption and injustice. Catch performances on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday at 2:00 PM.

Washington Bach Consort (at National Presbyterian Church, 4101 Nebraska Avenue NW)

In honor of the 35th Season, and by popular demand, WBC presents “Bach for All Seasons,” all-Bach program built around the “Great Eighteen Chorales” on Sunday at 3:00 PM. Purchase tickets right here.