OVERVIEW: The Taproot Foundation makes substantial in-kind service grants of professional consulting services to nonprofit organizations in the Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. metropolitan areas.
IP TAKE: The foundation’s in-kind service grants present a unique opportunity to get work accomplished with top consulting professionals in the field on a pro bono basis. Nonprofits working in a wide array of sectors can apply, so long as their work is conducted in one of the foundation’s designated major metropolitan areas—and Los Angeles is on that list.
PROFILE: The Taproot Foundation seeks to nourish “social change organizations by connecting them with the expertise and insights of skilled volunteers, enabling both to thrive.” Its Service Grants Program does this by offering a wide variety of capacity building pro bono services to nonprofits, enabling the organizations to work with top-level consultants in a manner they might not otherwise be able to afford. (Taproot assesses the dollar value of the in-kind services at $45,000 and upward.)
Taproot’s service grants support nonprofits through its Arts, Education (pre-K and K-12), the Environment, Health, and Social Services programs. Its network of nonprofit consultants works in a select number of major metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles.
The types of in-kind consulting projects a nonprofit can apply for fall into four major categories: Strategy Management, Leadership Development & Strategic HR, Marketing, and Information Technology. Within each of these areas, potential grantees apply for specific project needs. In Strategy Management, the options include Financial Analysis and Program Measurement. In Leadership Development & Strategic HR, they include Board Recruitment and Volunteer Management. In Marketing, they include Annual Reports and Key Messages & Brand Strategy. In Information Technology, they include Salesforce Implementation and WordPress Websites. This is but a sampling; there are 19 project options in total. The foundation’s website lists and describes them all in a highly organized fashion.
Some arenas are more competitive than others. Marketing and all of its sub-projects are the most popular applications, and therefore the most competitive. Information Technology is the second-most popular area (with website services as the most popular project across the board). The foundation promotes opportunities in its Leadership Development & Strategy HR possibilities, which is likely code for its particular interest in encouraging applicants to apply in this area.
What types of nonprofit organizations are best suited to win one of these service grants? The answer lies in the Taproot Foundation’s wish for nonprofits to “do more with more.” Therefore, an organization (which must be a 501(c)(3)) must be well-positioned in terms of staff size and budget (the requirements vary a bit by city and project area). Grant seekers must also be able to display significant organizational buy-in to the project at hand. In fact, the most rigorous aspect of the Taproot application might be its requirement that grant seekers identify at least six collaborators by name and title, and requires significant and thoughtful discussion regarding how the organization will implement and sustain the project once the pro bono team completes its work.
Past Los Angeles area grantees include the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Big Up Kidz, the Domestic Violence Center of Santa Clarita Valley, Independent School Alliance, and JVS Los Angeles in the Strategy Management arena; Education Through Music-Los Angeles and L.A.C.E.R. After School Programs in the Leadership Development and Strategic HR arena; Grades of Green, Pretend City Children’s Museum, and SPIRITT Family Services in Marketing; and The Achievable Foundation, the Samburu Project, and the South Asian Helpline and Referral Agency in the Information Technology arena.
Taproot Service Grants accommodate year-round needs. Application deadlines occur on a quarterly basis, at the beginning of March, June, September, and December. Check out the foundation’s specific Los Angeles page for more logistical details.
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