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Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro

Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro: Family Forward NC Certified Employer

The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro has been named a Family Forward NC Certified Employer by the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation’s (NCEC) Family Forward NC initiative. A Family Forward NC Employer Certification designates employers that offer policies and practices that support the health and well-being of working families and children.

To achieve certification, NCEC looks at employer benefits in the following policy and practice categories:

  • paid leave and wages,
  • accommodations for pregnant and breastfeeding workers,
  • childcare supports,
  • health and wellness benefits,
  • and scheduling practices.

“I am proud that my employer, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, has been designated as a Family Forward Certified Employer because we are a family-friendly workplace,” says Martin Acevedo, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. “I moved to Greensboro for a job, but I stayed for the quality of life that Greensboro and this job affords me.”

The U.S. is facing a massive talent shortage that will result in a deficit of millions of workers by 2030, and a childcare crisis coupled with lack of supports like paid leave mean pregnant workers and working parents and caregivers—especially women—are disproportionately forced to change jobs or leave the workforce entirely or are unable to rejoin the workforce after giving birth.

“Employers want to attract and retain the best employees, and they want those employees to be happy and healthy,” said Muffy Grant, executive director of the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro offers the following family-friendly benefits to employees and their families:

  • Maternity Leave
  • Lactation/Breastfeeding Accommodations
  • Parental and Family Leave
  • Bereavement Leave
  • Volunteer Involvement
  • Personal Leave
  • Jury and Witness Duty Leave
  • Military Leave
  • Professional Development Leave
  • Professional Development
  • Education Assistance Benefits
  • SEP (7% ER contribution), 403b
  • Flex Spending and HRA
  • STD, LTD, and Life Insurance – 100% Employer Paid
  • Medical and Dental benefits – 100% Employer Paid
  • Vision Plan
  • PTO
  • Office closes on Fridays at 3pm
  • Remote Work
  • Flex Schedules
  • 12 Paid Holidays plus week of July 4th  (17 days annually)

Decades of research have established that children need supportive and supported families and communities to build strong brains, along with health and development on track from birth and high-quality birth-through-age eight learning environments with regular attendance.

“For children, our future workforce, there is a critical window of time for brain development during the earliest years of life. In fact, the first 2,000 days of a child’s life are so defining that by the time that child turns eight, his or her third grade reading outcomes can predict future academic achievement and career success,” Grant said.

Launched in 2018, Family Forward NC is an innovative initiative to improve children’s health and well-being and keep North Carolina’s businesses competitive. It is employer-led change to increase access to research-based, family-friendly practices — big and small — that improve workplace productivity, recruitment, and retention; grow a strong economy; and support children’s healthy development. To date, Family Forward NC has engaged with more than 6,900 employers across North Carolina.

For more information about our employee benefits and culture, visit cfgg.org. For more information about Family Forward NC and the Family Forward NC Employer Certification, visit www.familyforwardnc.com.

Community Foundation Making Grants of up to $2,500 to Feed the Community

The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro has announced a seasonal grants program to support nonprofit organizations that help feed the community on Thanksgiving. These grants will provide essential support to groups that are hosting free community meals open to the public, distributing food for individuals and families to prepare at home, or delivering meals to those who are homebound on Thanksgiving day. 

The Thanksgiving Fund is accepting applications now through the Community Foundation’s Online Grant Portal, and the deadline is Tuesday, October 31st at 11:59 pm. The funds may be used for food, supplies, and other costs associated with Thanksgiving initiatives. 

To be eligible for these grants, organizations must have 501(c)3 status, be located in Guilford County, and provide services in Guilford County. Priority will be given to projects that provide food or meals to those experiencing homelessness, people whose incomes are below the federal poverty threshold, and older adults in Greensboro. For a complete list of eligibility requirements, please visit cfgg.org. 

The Community Foundation’s Thanksgiving Fund was created in 2011 with the purpose of serving meals on Thanksgiving Day to community members. To date, $150,000 has been contributed to the fund to support this important initiative with thousands of meals provided throughout the region. 

To apply for the Thanksgiving Fund Grant, visit Thanksgiving Fund Grant Application

Steve Hayes: January is National Mentoring Month

There was a study done decades ago that discovered that children who thrived after traumatic events had one thing in common:  An adult who was a constant positive presence in their lives.  Upon hearing this, one of our more prominent nonprofit leaders remarked,” Where is my adult?  I need that too!”  We all need that “Adult” in our lives we can turn to for guidance and support.  One of the tenets of the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium is that good training for nonprofits must be supported by opportunities for individual coaching and mentoring.  While the Consortium offers forty different “classroom style” training events each year, much of the benefit of that training are the hundreds of hours of mentoring, coaching, and support that is built into every event.

The Executive Leadership Academy is a year-long leadership development program that allows participants to attend training at the Center for Creative Leadership.  After a battery of online assessments, participants meet for day-long seminars on developing their own leadership skills. Supporting the training is a program that gives each nonprofit leader an individual coach to work with during the training to implement what they’ve learned.  Participants are also placed in small “Peer Coaching” groups where they learn how to coach and support each other in their development.  Many of these Peer Groups continue to meet years after the Academy is over.

In 2020, Triad Coaching Connection, an organization of local professionals in leadership and organizational development, partnered with the Consortium to provide 24 nonprofits with individualized coaching to help them navigate the early days of the pandemic and economic crisis. These professionals volunteered their skills and support to help local nonprofits keep the doors open in those early dark days.

One of the most valued Consortium programs is our Executive Director Roundtable Series.  This is a “closed door” meeting for the Executive Directors of nonprofits where they can safely and confidentially discuss the challenges they face in their day-to-day work.  Topics may include human resources issues, relationships between Directors and their Boards, financial management, and fundraising.  There may be no topic at all!  During the pandemic, many roundtables were just opportunities to check in with each other and offer mutual support.

The staff of the Consortium spend much of their time mentoring and supporting nonprofit professionals.  The Consortium Director met with 289 individuals from 136 different organizations in 2021.  They may have heard from Board Chairs asking, “How can I get this Board member to participate in meetings?”  From Executive Directors they heard, “How do I lead my organization through Strategic planning?” The young nonprofit professional asked, “Can you help me develop the skills I need to build my career?”  The most common request for help came from the committed community member who asked, “How do I start a nonprofit?  Should I?”

There is the old adage “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”  This is the heart of the work of the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium.  We do indeed train people, but more importantly, we help build the relationships that make training work.  We help find that “Adult” that our nonprofits need to thrive.

Could you be an “Adult” for one of our local nonprofits?  Organizations that rescue animals, mentor youth, develop our economy, provide the Arts, feed the hungry, ensure affordable, safe housing, and many other causes need your support.  One of the best ways to share your talents is by serving on a nonprofit board.  The Consortium can help you find that nonprofit that needs your help and shares your values.  We will even offer you training on how to be an effective board member.

January is National Mentoring Month.  We usually associate mentoring with providing young people with personal, academic, or professional support.  This is important, but our nonprofit community needs those same supports.  Consider being an “Adult” for a nonprofit by offering your skills in accounting, human resources, events planning, fundraising, or any of the myriad of ways that you can help.  The Consortium can help you find that “right fit.” Contact us at guilfordnonprofits@gmail.com  and start building those relationships.

Steve Hayes, Director Guilford Nonprofit Consortium

Ending the Cycle of Poverty Through Micro-Enterprise

Passion to Purse and YWCA Greensboro are empowering women to start small businesses as a big step toward financial security.

In 2015, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro’s Women to Women endowment fund awarded its first-ever, multi-year grant to Passion to Purse. This program, offered through YWCA Greensboro, is aimed at ending the cycle of poverty and homelessness by helping low-income and minority women start micro-enterprises.

While the core of the program remains an eight-week course covering business development, market research, pricing, and financial projections, it also offers a safe space for these women.

“It was like a support group for them,” said Rosalyn Womack, founding director of Passion to Purse. As the women worked on their individual businesses, they were also helping each other through the adversities they faced in their own personal lives.

Now in its fifth year, Passion to Purse has countless success stories of helping women create jobs for themselves. From selling hair products and hand-made soaps to opening bakeries and online consignment stores for designer children’s clothing, the “graduates” of Passion to Purse can be found living and thriving across our community.

The program is also thriving. Since receiving its first grant from Women to Women, Passion to Purse has been able to secure additional funding due in part to the prestige of that first grant.

“It makes other funders very comfortable [to know that] Women to Women found it fundable,” said Lindy Garnette, Chief Executive Officer of YWCA Greensboro.

To learn how you can donate to causes like this and others that are empowering people to create better lives for themselves, contact us today.