Southwestern College
SOCS255—Philanthropy

Facilitator: Joni Rankin

Course Overview:
An exploration of philanthropy and the philanthropic process, nonprofits and their boards, grant writing and fundraising, strategic grant-making, and sustainable philanthropic impact as informed by the Students4Giving program and the corresponding SC grant.

Course Outcomes:
Upon completion of the course, students will

• Understand local community-based knowledge and collaborate with existing non-profit boards and community members
• Manage the philanthropic process from mission statement to measurement, including RFPs and the impact of grant-making choices
• Explore a sustainable campus infrastructure that focuses on the non-profit sector and needed resources, including the development of a board manual
• Develop a philosophy of philanthropy through research and interaction with philanthropists and community leaders

Course Requirements:
Ongoing participation is expected. Please send Joni an email if you are unable to attend a class session. Additional reading assignments taken from journals, books, or online resources will be assigned during the course. Additional blogging assignments may be added as well.

Class Periods:

• Wednesday, Oct. 22—What is Philanthropy?
• Refreshments/Introductions
• Housekeeping: Syllabus and folders, meeting times, Saturday addition, and Web page
• Team building
• What is Philanthropy? What are the goals? Who is a part of it? Where do we come in? Who do they serve? (Discussion)

Assignment: Research 2 local (Cowley County) nonprofit organizations. Write an overview of each organization that includes a short history or the organization and its vision and mission. Due by Wednesday, Nov. 5 meeting.

• Wednesday, Nov. 5—Meeting Community Needs Through Philanthropy
• Community asset mapping to analyze needs in Winfield and Cowley County. [Seth Bate to walk us through asset mapping process and then present Cowley County results.]
• The role of a mission and vision in nonprofits, deciding your target area for those able to apply (from Oct. 22 assignment)

Assignments: Participate with at least 2 comments during the next two weeks to the blog with Seth Bate as guest blogger. In addition, bring a vision and mission statement from one grant making foundation to Nov. 19 class.

• Wednesday, Nov. 19—Foundations and the Role They Play in Philanthropy
• Guest, Pam Moore
• Development of a mission statement for the SC Student Philanthropy Board

Assignment: Find at least one Request for Proposal (RFP) to share with the class at the Dec. 3 meeting. Submit at least 1 comment to guest blogger related to foundations [Dick Merriman?]

Wednesday, Dec. 3—Grant Focus and RFPs

• Establish our grant focus
• Set timeline/calendar for spring grant making
• Assign and schedule board members’ visits of KICC and other nonprofits in the spring
• Understanding RFPs

Assignment: Visit http://foundationcenter.org/ and research RFPs. What are the major components of an RFP? What must we include in ours? Be prepared to discuss in class.

Wednesday, Dec. 17—Request for Proposals

• Development of SC Student Philanthropy Board RFP
• Begin developing evaluation criteria, selection process and evaluation tool
• Plan for distribution and publicity of RFP
• Discuss liaison role between committee and community agencies
• Debrief and prepare for spring semester

TBA Saturday meeting: Nonprofit Challenges; Measuring Success, the Budget

• Panel discussion: “How we develop our budget; successes and challenges” [A local guest panel will discuss these topics.]

Wednesday, Jan. 14—Welcome Back and Recap

• Discuss new and old events; review of RFP timeline
• Develop RFP evaluation criteria, selection process and draft evaluation
• Assign members to a nonprofit board
• Begin compiling data for a board manual

Wednesday, Jan. 28—Board Visits—No class!

• In lieu of a meeting, members will attend assigned board meetings. A board report is due for discussion at the February 11 meeting.
• Deadline for start of RFP call process

Wednesday, Feb. 11—Grant-making Rubric

• Finalize grant evaluation criteria and selection process
• Develop evaluation rubric
• Develop the process for notifying applicants and publicity plan [guest for a publicity plan, Charles Osen]
• Grant-writing guest blogger,

Assignment: Submit at least 1 response to the class blog related to the posted question.

Wednesday, Feb. 25—RFPs and Award Preparation

• Review of RFP deadline (we must have begun by now!) using evaluation rubric
• Continue work on Board Manual
• Begin exploring sustainable campus infrastructure for SC Student Philanthropy Board. [Guest, Paul Bean, Institutional Advancement]

Wednesday, Mar. 11—Awards and Publicity

• Distribute awards
• Execute publicity plan
• Evaluation of the process for inclusion in the Board Manual
• Continue exploration of sustainable campus infrastructure for SC Student Philanthropy Board.

Wednesday, Mar. 25—Board Manual

• Finalize Board Manual
• Pursue plan for sustainable campus infrastructure for SC Student Philanthropy Board

Assignment: As needed per above plan.

Wednesday, April 8—2009-2010 SC Board

• Finalize 2009-2010 grant board at SC
• Transition meeting from 08-09 board to 09-10 board

Wednesday, April 22—Year End Review

• Course evaluation
• Project evaluation
• Celebration!