To sponsor Donors Forum is to invest in the health and efficacy of Illinois grantmakers and nonprofits, organizations that in turn provide services that are vital to the health and well being of individuals and families across Illinois. Donors Forum uses the money earned from sponsorships to provide programs that allow staff members, volunteers, and other leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector to:
- Connect, finding inspiration, ideas, and support as they network with savvy peers, national experts, and key leaders in the private, public, and independent sectors.
- Learn, increasing their impact by using Donors Forum’s programs, publications, research, and library to learn about best practices, new trends, critical issues – and more.
- Act, joining with peers to advocate more effectively for public policies – as well as policies and practices in the field and in their own organizations – that strengthen their work and the people they serve.
Bringing Grantmakers and Nonprofits Together: Donors Forum is unique in its approach, and distinguished among its peers. We are the only state membership organization in the U.S. that serves both grantmakers and nonprofits, as well as advisors. No one brings together grantmakers and nonprofits as Donors Forum does; indeed, the convening of grantmakers and nonprofits is a focus of our work in Fiscal Year 2012.
To ensure its long-term relevancy to the sector, as well as its organizational sustainability, Donors Forum undertook a year-long planning process that examined the purpose and profitability of every aspect of our organization. As a result, Donors Forum is offering new and improved programs and services, several of which convene grantmakers and nonprofits together to tackle common problems and to find common solutions. These include an author series featuring national leaders; a learning group around Budgeting for Results, the state’s new budgeting process; and two Communities of Practice, one on streamlining grantseeking and grantmaking and the other on nonprofit overhead.
How This Helps Your Work: The ultimate outcome of Donors Forum’s work is a sector of smarter, more sustainable organizations that are better able to meet their missions. To give just a few examples:
- When nonprofits take our courses on individual giving, corporate and foundation relations, and outcome evaluation, they become more efficient and effective in their fundraising, programs, and leadership. This means that grantmakers receive better proposals and better program ideas.
- When grantmakers work with each other – in our Member Issue Groups, for example – they benefit from each other’s knowledge, finding ways to collaborate and streamline their approaches.
- When nonprofits and grantmakers work together – in our Communities of Practice, for example – they develop a mutual understanding that saves everyone time and money in day-to-day operations and in the administration of grants, and that allows nonprofits to focus more on their mission.
- When grantmakers and nonprofits advocate together – through Donors Forum’s public policy efforts, for example – they advance laws and public policies that strengthen the efficacy of the sector and that protect the investments that funders and nonprofits have made in Illinois’ communities.
An Invitation: The board and staff of Donors Forum invite you to sponsor this important work, while enjoying new and enhanced opportunities for recognition as a leader in the philanthropic and nonprofit sector.
