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Greater DC Cares magnifies the impact of social change efforts in the D.C. region by redefining volunteering and philanthropy to engage all community assets.

In brief. Greater DC Cares defines philanthropic assets to include direct service volunteers, pro-bono consultants, trained nonprofit board members, and donated goods and services.

We believe that combining these assets with grant-makers’ dollars will significantly increase the impact of both. We create cross-sector partnerships and help develop the capacity of all our partners – building powerful nonprofits, strengthening businesses, and increasing volunteer activism and leadership.

And we are driven – above all – to solve the key social needs of this region and its people.

Greater DC Cares is the world’s first non-monetary community foundation!  It’s an approach we adopted from the dollar grant-making world.  Here is a little history:

Private Foundations

• Private grantmaking foundations usually operate with one source of money – either from a family or a company.  In the first half of the 20th century, most grantmakers were private foundations. 

• Private foundations typically:
• support a specific social issue;
• take months to respond to a grant request
• spend about 10% of their assets just on the administration of their grantmaking program.

Community Foundations

• Community foundations act a central administrative mechanism – one staff, one set of operating systems – that many different donors can use at one time.  Around 1970, community foundations were replicated all over the country. 

• Community foundations typically:
• support a whole range of social issues;
• can respond quickly if needed by using their discretionary funds;
• spend between 2% - 5 % of their assets on administration of their grantmaking since the costs are shared by many donors.

The Big Idea:  A Non-Monetary Community Foundation
In 2000, Greater DC Cares realized that a community foundation approach applied to the field of volunteering would make a big improvement!

We decided what it would look like:

• We would treat all assets of the community other than money as philanthropic assets to be invested wisely.

• We would accommodate a wide range of donors, accommodating the interests and types of involvement each desires, including skills, issue areas, geography and availability. 

• We would keep costs down by having one staff provide the administration for a whole range of donors. 

• We would work in partnership with other private and community foundations to combine our assets with their dollars to increase the overall pool of philanthropic resources and their impact. 

Today, we have realized our vision!

• We facilitate not only hands-on volunteering but also pro bono consulting, donations of in-kind goods and we train and place people for service on nonprofit boards.

• Two organizations that were formerly independent – COMPASS and Executive Service Corps - have become “advised programs” of Greater DC Cares and enjoy lower administrative costs and better coordination through this efficient approach.  

• We work in partnership with local grantmakers to place volunteers at nonprofits that are their grantees.

We also brought a few new tricks to the trade:

• We build partnerships that ensure a return on investment for the nonprofit, the volunteer AND the business so their community investing will be more sustainable.

• We see ourselves as a long-term partner of our clients – instead of thinking only of the project at hand - and we make sure that we build their capacity to manage their own community investing by providing trainings and tools.

• We are testing out new ways of measuring the real impact of non-monetary assets – not just how many hours a volunteer serves but how he or she made a difference to the nonprofit and its clients.

Join with us to take philanthropy into the 21st century!

For more information.
Email ; or call 202-777-4463.