Digital Strategy for Community Foundations and Mission-Driven Local Organizations, April 4-6

1. Enhancing Communication &
Connections: Building the Foundation
for a Community's Engagement &
Empowerment
Kim Anderson, CEO, Families First
Tahmida Shamsuddin, Director – Neighborhood Nexus,
The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta

2. The Community Foundation
for Greater Atlanta
• One of the nation’s top 25 community foundations
• Assets: Estimated at $755 million
• Gifts: $104 million given to The Community Foundation in
gifts to new and existing funds in 2012
• Grantmaking: $95 million distributed to approximately
2,000 nonprofit and faith-based organizations
• Vision
To be the most trusted resource for growing philanthropy to
improve communities throughout the Atlanta region.
• Mission
The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta strengthens our
region by providing quality services to donors and innovative
leadership on community issues.

3. Goals
• Engage philanthropists
Provide personalized philanthropic services to individuals and families
interested in making a long-term, positive impact in the community through
their giving.
• Strengthen the region’s nonprofits
Support nonprofits through grants and educational opportunities, strengthening
their ability to make an impact on critical issues in the region.
• Advance public will
Lead and participate in collaborative efforts to provide solutions to community
problems, often partnering with other funders, nonprofits and individual donors.
• Practice organizational excellence
Remain a trusted steward of a long-term charitable resource that for more than
60 years has served donors and benefited nonprofits and communities.
Values: learning, leadership and transparency
Connect passion with purpose.

4. Community Leadership
• Goals 2 and 3 both lead to
Community Leadership programs
• Neighborhood Fund
• 20 years of grassroots grant
making
• Connecting people, changing
communities
• Neighborhood Nexus
• Online community information
system that empowers Metro
Atlantans to make information-
based decisions

5. Neighborhood Fund
• 20 Years of Small Grants for
Neighborhoods
• 665 Grants Allocated
• 17 Counties in which Grants
Have Been Made
• $2.7 million Total of Monetary
Awards
• 225 Number of Residents
Receiving Leadership Training

6. Neighborhood Nexus
• The Neighborhood Nexus database houses 500 categories of demographic
indicators – and is growing.
• Data from the U.S. Census is cross-referenced with state information from
sources such as the Department of Education and Department of Public
Health
• Data is aggregated in “quality of life” categories that initially include health,
wealth, and wisdom (education) that are relevant to community decision-
makers.
• The data is accessible to anyone through the Neighborhood Nexus website
(NeighborhoodNexus.org) 24/7 and provides community analytics through
tools such as “Weave” and mapping that allow the data to be sorted down to
the neighborhood (census track) level.
• Neighborhood Nexus reverses the relationship of time looking for data
versus analyzing it so that the preponderance of time can be used for
analysis, where good decisions are made.

7. Core Partnership

8. Two Sides of the Story
• Neighborhood Nexus • Neighborhood Corner
• A data-heavy site • Combines pictures,
• New data coming online videos, documents with
all the time hard data
• Data doesn't always tell • Allows other side of the
the whole story story to be told
Neighborhoods need information about themselves to determine their
interests and take innovative action.
Need for new tools: User friendly process to identify and address
neighborhood challenges and assets in a creative and dynamic way.
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9. Knight Foundation Support
• Two great tools
• Community Information Challenge Grant to build
Neighborhood Corner, a web platform for communities
to post blogs, videos and other qualitative information
on the Neighborhood Nexus website.
• Community Information Toolkit

10. Three Step Process
• Community Information Toolkit is the community
engagement process
• Neighborhood Nexus is the data collection site
communities will use during the engagement
process
• Neighborhood Corner is the space where the
information gathered will be hosted on a website

11. Five Pilot Communities
• NPU-V/Eco-Action group, championed by Annie E. Casey
Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site
• Fayette County, championed by Fayette FACTOR (Fayette Alliance
Coordinating Teamwork, Outreach and Resources)
• Adamsville (NPU-H), championed by Adamsville Business &
Community Partnerships (ABC Partnership)
• Edgewood community, championed by Families First (Organized
Neighbors of Edgewood)
• Norcross Mobile Home community (Latino group) championed by
Families First

12. Incentives for the
Communities
• Up to $2,500 (for stipends, food, materials, honorariums, etc)
• Community Information Toolkit outputs (visioning plan; scorecard,
implementation strategy; action plan that can be used for fundraising)
• Training and community coaching in using the website and data for
decision making
• Invitation to the 2012 Neighborhood Summit to present the
community’s experience and benefits of participating in Neighborhood
Corner
• Exposure through Neighborhood Nexus marketing and community
outreach

13. 13

14. Anticipated Outcome
• Residents post stories, pictures and videos about
neighborhood conditions, assets
• Neighborhoods design plans to take concrete action
on key issues
• Neighborhoods discuss ideas and information and
learn from one another about innovative strategies
for change

15. Success Measure
• 25 total posts from 5 pilot communities
• 25 additional posts from outside the pilot
communities
• 3 out of the 5 pilot communities will demonstrate
progress toward the goals they established for
themselves
• 200+ hits per month to the Neighborhood Corner
website since the launch
• 100+ additions to the newsletter distribution list

16. MISSION AND VISION
• Mission: “To ensure the success of children in
jeopardy by empowering families”
• Vision: “A community where all children and
families flourish.”
• Served 38,040 in FY 2011-2012

17. Purpose and impact
“We work to create communities
where all children have the
opportunity to succeed, flourish
and give back.”

18. OUR SOLUTIONS
Our solutions focus on three impact areas
necessary for child well-being and family self-
sufficiency.
Child & Youth Healthy Families Family
Permanency & Relationships Sustainability &
• Adoption • Counseling, Empowerment
• Post Adoption Connections and • Transitional and
Services Support Supporttive Housing
• Foster Care • Effective and • Community Support
• Residential Living Nurturing Parenting
• Ways to Work
• Permanency • Healthy Babies,
Connections Healthy Moms
• School Success

19. PRIORITY 1
Lead a Cultural Transformation to Galvanize
Community Responsibility for All Children
To raise & solidify the village we must re-imagine
relationships within communities, engage immobilized
people, forging new networks generating a positive
impact in peoples’ lives.

20. TOOLKIT
Toolkit serves as a catalyst for community engagement
which is essential to galvanize community and achieve
social change.

21. EDGEWOOD COMMUNITY
• Median income-$38,192
• 21% of households with children (down from 45%)
• 11% single parents (down from 30%)
• 16% no HS diploma; 33% w/at least BS
• 8.75% unemployment; 29% w/income less than $1,251/mo.
• 34% white, 59% black or African American, and 3% of the
population Hispanic or Latino

22. NORCROSS MOBILE HOME PARK
• In Gwinnett County, suburb of Atlanta; one of fastest growing
counties in US with median income of $60,533
• Norcross population 9,100; median income-$43,000
• 40.8% white, 19.8% black or African American, and 39.4% of
the population Hispanic or Latino
• Mobile Home Park-225 Latino and Hispanic Families
• 100% children receive free or reduced lunch
• Average education of parents is 4th grade
• All mothers are unemployed

23. TOOLKIT IN EDGEWOOD
• 56 participants
• Diverse participation
• Different participants in each session
• Strictly applied tools, including Community
Information Scorecard, Checklist and Scavenger
Hunt
Community Strategy-Cultural education event
for youth

24. TOOLKIT IN NORCORSS MOBILE HOME
• 100 attended orientation
• 40 attended all three sessions
• Scavenger Hunt questions and all materials translated in Spanish
• Modified application to address literacy levels and limited knowledge
of community resources:
• 2 groups used computer
• 1 group used Mundo newspaper
• 1 group used phone book
• 1 group used “word of mouth”
• “Word of mouth” completed first
Community Strategy-Development of Resource Guide

25. LESSON LEARNED
• Share ownership of project with community leaders from beginning
• Scavenger Hunt too long; questions not always relevant
• Computer skills and literacy may skew results
• Modification necessary to facilitate participation and to address culture and
language differences
• Consistent engagement through all sessions important
• Survey completion is an unwelcomed, isolated experience
• Toolkit design must address ethnic and cultural differences and literacy
• Funding to plan and implement ideas and strategies that derive from
sessions is essential
• Toolkit must align with community, leaders and participants long term
strategies and goals