The Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation's Planning and Technical Assistance Grant Program aims to strengthen nonprofit organizations in the Berkshire Taconic region by providing flexible funding for capacity-building projects. This aligns with the foundation's broader mission to help nonprofits achieve their goals through grant funding, workshops, learning opportunities, and leadership development. The program addresses the need for immediate additional resources for projects such as strategic planning, board development, organizational assessments, business model evaluation, fundraising strategies, and website/database enhancements.
The target beneficiaries are nonprofit staff, board members, and volunteers of 501(c)(3) organizations or fiscally sponsored equivalents, based in and serving residents of Berkshire, Columbia, northeast Dutchess, and northwest Litchfield counties. A key impact goal is to strengthen the governance and diversity of smaller nonprofit boards. The program seeks to empower organizations to refine their strategy, invest in board development, and evaluate and refine program delivery, especially at times when their missions are most crucial to the communities they serve.
Priorities for funding include projects that enhance an organization's governance and diversity, with a particular focus on smaller nonprofit boards. Preference is given to organizations with operating budgets under $1 million annually and those that have not previously received funding from this specific program. The review criteria emphasize the potential for funding to strengthen governance and diversity, the organization's impact on residents, and the proposed project's long-term effectiveness. Demonstrated need for funding and readiness to implement the project are also important considerations.
The expected outcomes include improved organizational effectiveness, stronger governance, increased diversity within boards, and enhanced program delivery. While specific measurable results are not explicitly detailed, the focus on capacity building projects suggests a theory of change where targeted investments in organizational development lead to more robust and impactful nonprofits. This, in turn, contributes to the foundation's strategic priorities of increasing educational attainment, community engagement, and economic opportunity across the region. The foundation also aims for proportional funding distribution across its service area.
