• Capacity Building Overview
• Center for Nonprofit Excellence
• Catchafire
• Cleveland A. Wright Lecture Series
• Other Resources

Capacity Building Overview

After investing $10 million over eight years to build the capacity of Southside Virginia nonprofit organizations, in 2014, The Cameron Foundation sought ways to fine-tune what has worked and to pursue new approaches. Foundation staff and board members, nonprofit leaders and peer foundations were engaged to ensure that the redesigned program met Foundation goals, community needs and proven approaches. The capacity-building program was redesigned with elements offering support to organizations across a range of sizes and levels of sophistication – all aimed at improving performance for greater impact. The redesigned approach to capacity building includes several elements:

• Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNE): The Foundation is partnering with CNE to provide programs and services that enhance the ability of area nonprofits to manage change, deepen impact and achieve mission. CNE is a nonprofit that serves as a champion, learning partner and advisor to nonprofit staff, board members and volunteers.

• Catchafire, Where Talent Meets Purpose, is a global network of nonprofits, funders and volunteers that offers a unique opportunity for nonprofits to work with skills-based volunteers who support them in over 150 project types. For nonprofit organizations in Cameron’s service area whose work aligns with Cameron’s mission, the Foundation is offering fully funded, year-long membership to Catchafire.

• Duke University Nonprofit Management Classes: For many years, the Foundation has worked in partnership with Duke University to provide a variety of individual nonprofit management classes to those serving the Tri-Cities area. During 2024, the university will deliver its Custom Intensive Track Program in person at The Cameron Foundation to a cohort. Participants will attend a series of eight weekly sessions as a group. The Intensive Track gives nonprofit professionals the skills and expertise needed to succeed in the sector by exploring eight key areas of nonprofit management through courses taught by instructors who are established practitioners and scholars from a variety of disciplines within the nonprofit arena. As a result of their full participation in those eight sessions, members of this cohort are able to complete the requirement for the Duke Certificate in Nonprofit Management.

• Cleveland A. Wright Lecture Series was introduced in 2015 as a way to bring the community together to learn from national experts in areas of nonprofit practice.

• Learning Communities: Collective learning among nonprofit leaders in the same field has proven to be an approach to improve practice and develop peer relationships that spur greater collaboration. Learning communities can be a follow-up to events like the Cameron-sponsored health equity workshops that have taken place in several localities across the Foundation’s service area. Learning communities also can be organized separately to focus on an issue, such as the collaboration of Partners for Neighborhood Renewal—Poplar Lawn. With a goal to undertake targeted neighborhood revitalization, the partnership is facilitated by The Cameron Foundation and consists of several nonprofit housing and preservation organizations as well as the City of Petersburg.