Non-Profit News

Through the Montana Nonprofit Sector Report, MNA aims to build awareness about the sector and educate policymakers, the media, and the general public regarding the role nonprofits play in healthy and vibrant economies.

"Our grandfathers are the ones that built these institutions, and we are the stewards that must keep them going," Nault said. "It’s not so much about the arts; it’s about the community.”

The key, according to those who have had success, requires adapting one’s tactics to the particular organization.

Adventure Cycling’s Web site http://www.adventurecycling.org/ also includes a wealth of information, including what type of bike to ride, gear to carry and training tips. It even advises that riders not take the Great Divide Route solo and offers a message board so riders can hook up for trips.

The MNA eNews is a source of timely information on all things nonprofit in Montana, including training events, funding opportunities, new services available through MNA and our partners, and more.

The effort is centered around a Web site, at http://ebay.com/rethink, where Americans with unused gadgets can get information on how to get rid of them safely.

Rather than lurch from grant to grant, these founders are starting for-profit/nonprofit hybrids and applying business tactics to expand their reach and make better use of available resources. They’re embracing the wave of productivity savings unleashed in the economy in the 1990s — new information technologies, smarter financing strategies, savvy alliances.

"Whatever our professions, we are all citizens, and we all care deeply about unmet social needs — which is precisely where social entrepreneurs make their essential contribution," says Mark Fuller, Monitor’s chairman. "But good intentions are not enough. To put that vision into action, their efforts must meet the harsh test of performance, and their labors the demanding standards of accountability."

Poor or rich, 20-somethings or retirees, more and more women are forming charitable investment clubs to research, socialize, and give – and in the process, they’re revitalizing personal philanthropy, seizing on causes from battered children to relief for tsunami victims.

"We teach them how to do things for themselves, and how to turn the things that they know how to do already . . . into revenue-generating endeavors," said Bob Price, the center’s chairman.