The Kauffman Foundation is investing nearly $400,000 in leadership training for Kansas City’s nonprofits.
The foundation has awarded a large capacity-building grant to the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership. The center is part of the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The center will use the $396,00 in funding to …
- Support its existing lineup of organization development and leadership training, with a special focus on KC-area nonprofits
- Increase its ability to perform analysis, especially into social entrepreneurship and governance
- Bolster community engagement
- Create “Learning Circle” programs for local nonprofits
The Learning Circle teaches nonprofits how to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of their own programs. About 10 to 20 nonprofits will be selected to participate in the center’s new Learning Circle program, which runs about six months.
“During that six months, as a result of completing these steps, the agency will have completed an evaluation from start to finish, leaving them with one program they can replicate year after year,” the university stated in a release. “This evaluation will give them a current market analysis, employee satisfaction information, customer satisfaction data, current performance evaluations, nonprofit board assessments and an overall program evaluation for their organization. This concept will connect the nonprofits with each other, creating a cross-pollination of ideas and resources, and build their long-term capacity for future evaluations.”
The new grant is a continuation of earlier Kauffman funding for the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership. The foundation awarded similar funding about two years ago, as a way to help boost other “intermediaries” supporting local nonprofits.
