Community Convening - Community Foundation for Nantucket

The Community Foundation places great value on community convening to be as strategic as possible when providing resources to Nantucket’s most pressing community needs. Our Advisory Committee of health care workers, educators, clergy, police, town officials, the media and others, meet throughout the year to identify and prioritize the Island’s most critical needs.

Members of the Advisory Committee are elected annually by the Board of Trustees. Members are updated on grant making and other activities of the Foundation so that they can help the general public develop an awareness of and involvement in the policies, purposes, objectives, and operations of the Foundation.

Summaries of Advisory Committee Activity

Annual Advisory Committee Meeting 9/17/18 (PDF)

Small Group Advisory Committee Meeting 6/27/18 – Affordable Housing (PDF)

Small Group Advisory Committee Meeting – 2/20/18 – Elder Affairs (PDF)

Annual Advisory Committee Meeting 9/28/17 (PDF)

Annual Advisory Committee Meeting 9/20/16 (PDF)

Nantucket Nonprofit Leadership Conference

On Wednesday, September 26th, 135 of Nantucket’s nonprofit leaders, representing 45 Island charities, joined the Community Foundation for Nantucket for the first annual Nantucket Nonprofit Leadership Conference.

Thanks to the vision and generosity of a CFN benefactor, the Foundation was able to offer our Island nonprofit leadership teams and board members a full day workshop. Participants were able to learn from experts in the field on topics that included Strategic Planning, Board Development, Outcomes Based Planning and Nonprofit Finances. Workshop presenters included Bud Ris, Nanette Fridman, Brian Kellaway and David Orlinoff.

We are already looking forward to next year.

2018 Conference summary

Nonprofit Housing Survey 2015

THE RESULTS ARE IN!! Thanks so much to the 47 nonprofit respondents who completed the recent Housing survey the Community Foundation sent to over 80 local nonprofits. We were very pleased that over 50% of our active charities participated in this exercise, and we were pleased to host an early morning gathering at the Nantucket Yacht Club on Wednesday, September 16th to hear the results from the survey. Complete survey results are below.

The Community Foundation is committed to convening as many groups as possible to discuss what many believe is the #1 priority for Nantucket, in hopes that many voices can lead to many possibilities for solutions.

Nonprofit Survey Results Summary (PDF)

Nonprofit Survey Results Detail (PDF)

State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey 2015

For the past several years, the Foundation has worked with several other nonprofits to look at Island-wide giving and donation trends, looking to see if legislative efforts could negatively impact our local charities. Our Steering Committee has included representatives from the Atheneum, NHA, Maria Mitchell, NCF, access Nantucket, Nantucket Public Schools, Boys & Girls Club and NCH. Our hope in spearheading new initiatives is that Nantucket nonprofits will combine their voices in educating our community about the wonderful good works they do, and the challenges they face.

As we began 2015 and another year of philanthropy, we decided to start by examining the current state of the nonprofit sector, specific to Nantucket. With a very generous grants from the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation and the Cape Cod Five Charitable Foundation, and assistance from the Nantucket Historical Association, the Nantucket Atheneum and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Nonprofit Finance Fund (nff.org) conducted its seventh annual nationwide survey with a unique link for the responses from Nantucket nonprofits.

34 responses were received, and in June representatives from the NFF traveled to Nantucket and presented the results from the Nantucket-specific survey. The full presentation is below, and the Foundation is hoping to spearhead the State of the Sector Survey for Nantucket again in 2016.

Nantucket State of the Sector Final Presentation (PDF)