Business Commons^™

Community Foundations As Community Leaders: The Role Of Community Leadership In Creating Change, Colton Strawser

The Foundation Review

Community foundations claim to play an integral role in fostering philanthropy at a local or regional level across the United States, seeking to improve the quality of life for community residents. Their business model has three main components: grantmaking, fundraising, and community leadership.

As the newest addition to the community foundation operating model, community leadership remains the least examined component in terms of how these foundations define and pursue it. This article seeks to contribute to the literature on the challenges and benefits community foundations encounter in pursuit of a community leadership role.

Utilizing an exploratory design, interviews with leaders …

Virtually (Im)Possible: Transitioning To A Virtual Marketing And Outreach Program, Laura Wilson, Corinne Gabriele, Alex Mcconnon, Susan Skoog, Nicole Tantum, Lisa Villa

Staff publications

This article outlines the challenges and successes of a library outreach team at a small New England college campus during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March of 2020, the highly residential College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, sent almost all students home to continue their classes online—yet no online classes had ever been taught at the college before. For the first time ever, the college’s libraries were in the position to rebuild all promotional communications and activities from scratch—pivoting from a largely in-person setting to an entirely virtual setting. The team quickly created and launched social media campaigns and …

Shifting Power In Maine: Findings From A Six-Year Community-Based Health Initiative, Susan Foster, Teresa Doksum, Charles Dwyer

The Foundation Review

Between 2013 and 2019, a Maine Health Access Foundation community-based initiative provided place-based funding to communities to address system gaps and inefficiencies that impede the ability of Maine’s most vulnerable individuals to obtain essential services and supports. To rebalance power between the funder and grantees, the foundation introduced grantmaking practices such as long-term, flexible funding and new ways of relating to and supporting grantees. The theory of change guiding the initiative was that systems change is more effective and sustainable when communities develop cross-sector partnerships and engage community members in planning. The foundation guided the evaluation team to conduct a …

Stakeholder Experiences With Arts-Based University-Community Partnerships In General Education, Veronica Leone Matthews

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

University-community partnerships (UCPs) have significant potential as a way for universities to connect with communities and provide students with High Impact Practices (HIPs). Despite over 20 years of literature calling for increased community engagement, institutions of higher education have been slow to integrate UCPs into the General Education curriculum. Certain components have been identified as necessary for the effectiveness and sustainability of UCPs. However, little is known about the experiences and perceptions of key stakeholders including students, faculty, and community partners who participate in arts-based UCPs. This study investigated these stakeholders’ perceptions regarding participating in arts-based UCPs as part of …

Past, Pandemic, And Future: Adaptations And Innovations In Student Engagement At Collegiate Art Programs, Jessie H. Buford

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Nonprofit Studies Capstone Projects

This research paper will focus on student engagement programs associated with collegiate performing arts centers and art programs and how these programs engage and support students prior to and during the Covid-19 pandemic. It will look at the ways arts administrators identify and evaluate the barriers and motivations related to participation within arts programming. Lastly, this research will explore the ways in which these programs have adapted to the pandemic and how these innovations and adaptations might continue, post-pandemic, in order to better support faculty, staff, and students. Data was gathered through interviews with six student engagement professionals who work …