Tools to Get You Started: On the Brink of New Promise Toolkit

The publication of "On the Brink of New Promise: The Future of US Community Foundations in 2005 was a significant event in the movement, for it poses key questions about the opportunities and challenges the movement will face in the future, and what we have to change in order to adapt to a new environment.

Using this toolkit

This companion toolkit is designed to make it easier for community foundations to understand and apply the lessons of On the Brink of New Promise to the specific circumstances of their communities and organizations. It contains tools that can be used for everything from a 45-minute presentation to your board to the front end of an extended, in-depth strategic planning process.

This material is most useful in working with groups at your CF: the Board, staff teams, a Committee or advisory group, or a group of stakeholders. It offers a slide show, to get people thinking and then an optional set of exercises that people can work on in small or large groups, usually with facilitated discussions.

The toolkit includes the following (including elements which have been revised for our Canadian audience):

Powerpoint - On the Brink of New Promise: The Future of Community Foundations in Canada and the US
1 - OBNP Canada.ppt [Note: use Slideshow mode to watch this presentation.]

Presenter's Guide - walks you through a number of ways that you can use the presentation with your organization and community
2 - ONBP Presenter's Guide.doc
2 - ONBP Presenter's Guide.pdf

Scenario Discussion Guide - offers a playful way to help you start imagining how the future might unfold
3 - OBNP Scenario Discussion Guide.doc
3 - OBNP Scenario Discussion Guide.pdf

Community Change Discussion Guide - helps you to stimulate discussion about how your community is changing and what those changes might mean for you
4 - Community Change Discussion Guide.doc
4 - Community Change Discussion Guide.pdf

Mapping Your Community Philanthropy Environment - aims to help you see your place among other community-based philanthropic organizations operating in your area
5 - Mapping Your Community Philanthropy Environment.doc
5 - Mapping Your Community Philanthropy Environment.pdf

Strategic Roles Assessment - tool that allows you to think about what leadership roles your organization can and should play in your community
6 - ONBP Strategic Roles Assessment.pdf

Prototyping Community Solutions - helps you to brainstorm about what it would actually take to address critical needs in your community
7 - ONBP Prototyping Community Solutions.pdf

Renewing Strategy - worksheet provides some integrating questions to draw together your learning from other exercises
8 - Renewing Strategy.pdf

Monitoring Local Change - suggests simple ways your organization can build its capacity to continuously watch and assess changes in the environment around your foundation
9 - Monitoring Local Change.pdf