Many of you have probably heard of Pepsi’s recent community-giving project called the Pepsi Refresh Project, which allows organizations or individuals to submit a request for funding their community project. A nationwide vote determines four monthly winners with grants of up to $250,000 for community projects. It’s a great idea for letting Pepsi’s fans determine the viability of each idea submitted and which organization should receive funding.
Local community foundations do not have the resources of Pepsi to determine ways to distribute their grant dollars. In addition, local nonprofit organizations often compete with each other for community dollars.
What is a potential solution to this challenge? Let the community organizations pool resources.
In general, this is not happening anymore; communities are not working together and pooling their resources for the good of the entire city, town or county.
Typically, community foundations fund individual community projects. When an organization fills out an application for a grant, it is often accepted, and they receive the funding. However, there are some community foundations who are funding a vision/action plan, which will let the community members determine where the money will go, based upon the vision of the community.
When we participate in community projects, we get more of a short-term benefit – a good feeling that we are accomplishing something. However, we will never be fully satisfied with the short-term outcome. That is, we are changing our community little by little, but without our eye on the common goal: how the community needs to change to grow and to meet the needs of future generations.
My business, Winning Communities, helps people develop vision and action plans for the entire community. Resulting from that plan are action steps that the cities, towns and counties can take to improve their future – along with defined priorities for community projects. Once the community has rallied together, taken account all needs, then the community initiates each project together. This often includes applying for grants for community projects.
People think that vision planning is just an academic exercise that does not lead to action. However, my experience is that proper vision planning not only leads to more action; it leads to a greater outcome.
Does your community have a vision, or is it still operating on a per-project basis? I’d love to hear from you.
Tags: community projects, Grant Funding, Nonprofit Organizations, Pepsi Refresh Project
