Last Thursday, we posted a question-and-answer walk-through of the CFP application process. Applications are due in one month and one day, so we’re adding a few more FAQs — and just leave a comment or tweet us @cataloguedc with any other questions:

Have you announced the dates for the financial supplement workshops yet?

We have! Two workshops will be held, one on February 14th, 2-4 PM and the other on March 5th 2-4 PM, at Smith & Wollensky’s, 1112 19th Street NW. You can sign up online right here.

When and how do you notify applicants of the decisions?

If we need to see financial information, we will request it in early to mid-April. Final decisions are made in early to mid-May and we will be sure to email you the decision either way. The new Catalogue comes out in early November in time for the giving season.
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Applications are now open for the 2012/2013 Catalogue for Philanthropy and due on February 13 at midnight. So let’s talk details:

Who is eligible? We try to keep the process as open as possible to a wide range of nonprofits. You just need to be a 501(c)3 organization, operating in the Washington region, with a budget below $3 million. That’s about it. And if you were featured in the 2008/2009 print Catalogue and earlier, you can apply for it again this year.
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Via “Helping Nonprofits Benefit From Fresh Ideas,” published on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Mission: Innovation blog yesterday:

Nonprofits that are tackling big questions about their mission benefit greatly from seeking ideas from people outside their organization — including those who work in other fields, says Jeff Leitner. The former advertising executive has started a charity to help organizations do just that.

Insight Labs, in Chicago, brings business executives, scholars, government officials, and others together with a charity’s leaders for a three-hour strategy session to thrash out possible solutions to a tough issue the group faces.
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Tufts U. Soothes the Financial Sting for Graduates Taking Nonprofit Jobs (Chronicle of Higher Education): “Tufts University is [now] offering loan-repayment assistance to alumni of any of its undergraduate or graduate schools, or professional-degree programs, if they take on public-service or nonprofit careers [...] Based on their need and income, alumni can receive grants of $500 to $5,000 each year to use toward paying off student-loan balances.” Pretty cool! In addition to financial incentives, what other assistance could universities offer to enable and encourage graduates to try a non-profit career? Read all »

A bundle of non-profit and local news coming your way …

Capital Area Food Bank to begin charging members for produce (Washington Post): “For the first time in its history, the Capital Area Food Bank will begin charging its members for fruits and vegetables July 1, adding thousands in unexpected costs for some of the 700 agencies that rely on the organization to feed the region’s hungry.” The new initiative is a result of ever-increasing demands for the services of local food organizations, despite the improving economy. The trend is alarming, and indicates that local non-profits working to combat hunger will certainly require additional support in the coming year.

Gentrification a matter of economics, not ethnicity (Greater Greater Washington): At the NPR Building last week, a panel of young black professionals debated the question of DC’s gentrification … and “although the assembled group, almost entirely African-American with a majority female, acknowledged it is ‘dangerous to say that gentrification is not a race issue,’ the consensus held strongly that gentrification more closely correlates with economics.” Do you agree? Read all »

Talk about an intense matching grant. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Massachusetts (my place of residence from age 0 to 18) has begun consideration of “a financing approach for social-service projects that would require charities and philanthropists to obtain private financing and show results before getting state money.” In other words, public support would be contingent on a match from private donors and a “match” (in the form of results) from the non-profit itself.

Reuters reports that “President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget plan includes $100 million for these ‘social impact bonds,’ which more closely resemble private loans than debt.” For example? In the UK, the Rockefeller Foundation invested half a million dollars in an 8 million dollar project to reduce recidivism; were the project to succeed the Foundation “could reap the equivalent of up to a 13 percent annual interest rate payment.”

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From “Looking for the good news about orchestras” on the Post’s Classical Beat blog:

Alan [Pierson] is taking just the kind of approach more and more orchestras are looking to these days. He represents a particular new-music, Gen-X sensibility, something even the Chicago Symphony is reaching for [...]

However, the bottom line is that the success of any new initiative — and the definition of “success” is fodder for a blog post of its own — depends in no small part on the organization’s motivation for launching the initiative in the first place. Too often, such attempts seem born of a vague sense that New is good, or, more cynically, of an idea that New gets funding, or, more desperately, of a realization that if something doesn’t change, the organization is sunk. But if New doesn’t fit in with your organization’s mandate, it’s not going to get you very far [...]

So which orchestras appear to be doing the best? The ones that seem to have sound artistic vision and energy: the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for instance. The ones who have established a genuine relationship to their communities [...] Then there are the ones that genuinely represent different models [...]

All of which invites a few simple questions: what qualifies as a genuinely “different model?” Not just for orchestras and performing arts organizations, but anyone? And how “different” can you get without disassociating from your mission? It seems like a tough — albeit, beneficial, thought-provoking — line to walk.

Rereading yesterday’s post just now, the following statistic kept leaping out at me:

Studies dating to the 1960s have suggested that children’s experiences inside the classroom are responsible for as little as 20 percent of their overall educational development.

20 percent. For all the focus placed upon on test scores and grading and ranking, the success of a particular student relies (by 80 percent) on factors that their school never sees — of which they might not even be aware. CFP Executive Director Barbara Harman made a key point in her response to the NY Times article yesterday:

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From “Finding a New Tune: How Arts Organizations Balance Creativity and Operations” by Corbett Barklie in the latest issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly:

By its nature, infrastructure is a barrier that splits the focus of an artistic group and demands attention. At its most positive, it protects the artistic product over the long term and ensures continuation. But to achieve long-term stability, the present must also be considered and planned. This planning often leads to self-conscious creative behavior, which can divide the artist from his art and the art from its community. Without equally considering the potential loss of spontaneity and engagement, recommending the development of infrastructure as the source of long-term security seems irresponsible.

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Writes Mark W. Johnson of Business Week:

Creativity, by itself, is not enough. As I’ve previously written in this space, inventions that aren’t commercialized — no matter how creative — remain inventions, not innovations. To be commercial, an invention needs to matter enough to a customer to be worth paying for. And what matters to most customers is not the invention itself but what job it enables them to do that they couldn’t do, or do well enough, before. The microwave, for example, when it was first introduced, was a terrible oven, but it was fantastic defroster.

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