BALTIMORE—A financial services center in West Baltimore and an upholstery business that prepares disadvantaged women for family-sustaining careers are two of the eight winning social ventures chosen to be part of the new Baltimore Community Wealth Collaborative.The Collaborative, a partnership between The Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), the Open Society Institute-Baltimore (OSI), the Goldseker Foundation, the Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Foundation, the Aaron Straus and Lillie Straus Foundation, the Baltimore Community Foundation, the University of Baltimore and Community Wealth Ventures (CWV), will provide 10 months of focused technical support to help the businesses become financially viable. The goal is to help the for-profit social ventures earn revenue to help support their non-profit parent organizations.
"At a time when funding for organizations that are meeting critical needs in our community continues to tighten, this Collaborative is crucial," said Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley who has supported the concept from its inception. "It will not only strengthen the city’s non-profit community, but also create jobs and opportunity in our neighborhoods."
The winning ventures were announced at a press conference today. Representatives from the non-profits were on hand for the announcement.
"Our objective in advancing these nonprofit social enterprises is to foster greater sustainability among critical human services organizations in the Baltimore community, so they can weather difficult economic times and expand their non-profit services to meet new or growing needs," said Diana Morris, director of OSI-Baltimore.
Thirty-seven nonprofit organizations applied to be part of the Collaborative. The finalists were chosen after an extensive screening process, including site visits and personal interviews. Participants include: BioTechnical Institute of Maryland, Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation, Caroline Center, Chesapeake Center for Youth Development, Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, Parks & People Foundation, Patterson Park Community Development Corporation, and Vehicles for Change.
CWV will provide technical assistance and support for the businesses, including in-depth monthly seminars with peer non-profit leaders and experts in the fields of social enterprise and business development, as well as customized business consulting. CWV has chosen to partner with the University of Baltimore for the project. Both graduate graphic design students and M.B.A. candidates in the entrepreneurship program will provide research and management assistance to participating organizations. In addition, business executives from leading Baltimore-area corporations will serve as mentors.
"The Casey Foundation's history of working for positive outcomes for families plus our 10-year commitment to the Baltimore community inspired us to support this terrific initiative,” said Donna Stark, director of leadership development at AECF. "Financial sustainability is a crucial issue for nonprofits. This initiative provides the strategies, the tools and the peer networks to respond to the challenges they face."
The social ventures range from a used car business to the Hollywood Diner, which was a location site for the movie Diner and other films including Tin Men and Sleepless in Seattle. The diner, operated by the Chesapeake Center for Youth Development, trains at-risk youth for Baltimore’s growing hospitality industry. The technical assistance provided by Community Wealth Ventures will lead to a new business plan, and it will help generate additional revenue to support education, job training, and after-school programs for children.
The Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation applied for help expanding and improving its financial services center in West Baltimore, which is currently financed through grants. Located in a part of town that is often ignored by banks, the center—called Our Money Place—offers low-income residents an alternative to check cashing operations that charge high fees. Our Money Place is planning to use the technical assistance to expand its range of services and to reach out to middle-income neighborhood residents.
"We have found that our neighborhood is a strong market for financial services," said Kevin Jordan, associate director for economic and community development. "By providing a lower cost alternative to the current market options, we think we can help keep money in the community and also become self-sufficient as a business."
Another non-profit participant, the Caroline Center, plans to expand its fledgling upholstery training program into a business. Started in the fall of 2001 under the guidance of a retired master upholsterer, the program teaches upholstering skills to unemployed or underemployed women in Baltimore. The women may even earn while they learn as they receive a percentage of the fees for customer pieces. The Caroline Center will use the assistance from the collaborative to structure and launch a retail upholstery shop. Profits from the business will support the center’s overall mission of enabling more women in the community to gain employment skills and become self-sufficient.
A selection team comprising Community Wealth Ventures, local educators, and Baltimore business representatives chose the winning organizations because they are mission-focused, have business ventures under way or have done considerable research towards developing a business venture, have strong boards of directors, and are willing to take calculated risks to build their financial base.
"A focused effort like this will support nonprofit social enterprise leaders who are using community wealth to diversify their revenues and better support their missions," said CWV Chairman Bill Shore. "Our goal is to ensure the ongoing viability of these organizations that are doing so much good in Baltimore."
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. It was established in 1948 by Jim Casey, one of the founders of United Parcel Service, and his siblings, who named the foundation in honor of their mother. The primary mission of the foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today's vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the foundation makes grants that help states, cities, and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs. For more information, visit the foundation's website, www.aecf.org.
The Open Society Institute (OSI) is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open society around the world. OSI's U.S. Programs seek to strengthen democracy in the United States by addressing barriers to opportunity and justice, broadening public discussion about such barriers, and assisting marginalized groups to participate equally in civil society and to make their voices heard. U.S. Programs challenge over-reliance on the market by advocating appropriate government responsibility for human needs and promoting public interest and service values in law, medicine, and the media. OSI's U.S. Programs support initiatives in a range of areas, including access to justice for low and moderate income people; independence of the judiciary; ending the death penalty; reducing gun violence and over-reliance on incarceration; drug policy reform; inner-city education and youth programs; fair treatment of immigrants; reproductive health and choice; campaign finance reform; and improved care of the dying. OSI is part of the network of foundations, created and funded by George Soros, active in more than 50 countries around the world.
The Goldseker Foundation was created in 1975 through the generosity and foresight of Morris Goldseker (1898-1973). The foundation supports nonprofit organizations helping communities and individuals in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Visit www.goldsekerfoundation.org for more information.
The Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Foundation supports programs that improve the lives of individuals and families by expanding access to education and economic opportunity, promoting self-sufficiency, and supporting local responses to problems in order to strengthen communities and advance interfaith and intergroup understanding. Through its grantmaking programs, the foundation aims to remove structural and institutional impediments to human development and to have a positive lasting effect on people's lives. Visit www.blaufund.org/foundations/alvinandfanny_f.html for more information.
The Aaron & Lillie Straus Foundation’s mission is two-pronged. The foundation promotes and sustains a strong Jewish community both locally and worldwide, and secures better futures for vulnerable children by helping to build family and community supports which nurture their educational, social, economic, and physical well-being. In order to meet this mission, the foundation funds in three specific program areas: Jewish community services; families, children and youth; and capacity building of the non-profit sector. For more information about the foundation, visit its website at www.strausfoundation.org.
The Baltimore Community Foundation (BCF) helps all kinds of people to carry out their individual philanthropic plans, with the common goal of improving the quality of life in the Baltimore region, today and for generations to come. To donors, BCF offers a complete toolkit for charitable giving, expert assistance in learning more about the causes they care about, and the opportunity to join others with similar interests to learn and give together. To the community at large, BCF offers a permanent, growing source of grant monies, as well as a common meeting ground and leadership on important issues in our region. Visit www.bcf.org for more information about the Baltimore Community Fund.
The University of Baltimore (UB) is an upper-division, graduate and professional university. UB, the state’s career-minded university, is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts and the Merrick School of Business. Visit www.ubalt.edu for more information.
Community Wealth Ventures, a subsidiary of Share Our Strength, is a consulting firm that works to generate new resources for the social sector using business ventures and corporate partnerships. Community Wealth Ventures provides consulting services for a broad range of clients in the nonprofit, corporate, and foundation communities. Visit www.communitywealth.com for more information.