Community SupporT SERVICES

The goal of the Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation's Community Support Services program is to build organizational capacity and promote collaboration among the local nonprofit community by optimizing back-office support operations and creating efficiencies through shared staff and administrative functions, thus strengthening the missions of the local nonprofit sector to help improve the quality of life for the local area.
 
In today's economic climate, nonprofits can no longer conduct business as they once did.  Resource constraints are forcing many nonprofits to close their doors or merge operations in order to survive.  More than ever, nonprofit organizations are in need of creative collaborative solutions to help them overcome financially challenging times.  Many nonprofit organizations are responding by sharing office space under one roof in nonprofit centers and by sharing back office services to gain greater efficiencies and synergies, leverage collective knowledge and experience about the community, cost-sharing, and collaboration.

The Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation has creative solutions that provide the forum for nonprofits and foundations to save money, achieve greater efficiency, and increase collaboration by sharing office space and services.  The Community Support Services program allows our partner organizations to share the costs and the rewards of working together by paying fees that are below fair market value.

Since 2006, the Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation has served a broad selection of organizations, providing a wide range of services to meet a variety of needs through our Community Support Services program.  For the first four years of the program, the Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation provided a significant amount of resources to help others advance their missions at zero cost to our partner organizations.  We estimate that $660,000 in costs to the Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation was associated directly to the Community Support Services program.

In 2010, the foundation was selected by the Council on Foundations, in Washington D.C., to receive their national Critical Impact Award, which honors grant makers who have supported innovative leadership, bold visions, and significant impact in advancing the common good through effective grant making, which can serve as a model for others in philanthropy.  The Council on Foundations, formed in 1949, is a nonprofit membership association of grant making foundations and corporations. Members of the Council include approximately 2,000 independent,operating, community, public, and company-sponsored foundations and corporate giving programs in the United States and abroad. The assets of Council members total more than $307 billion. The Council’s mission is to provide the opportunity, leadership, and tools needed by philanthropic organizations to expand, enhance, and sustain their ability to advance the common good.


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OUR SERVICES:
We provide consulting, assistance, and training in the following areas:

1. Administration Support
   • Clerical Staff
   • Marketing Assistance
   • Mailing Assistance
   • Website Assistance
   • Policies & Procedures
   • Physical Space
2. Human Resources
   • Personnel Policies
   • Employment Policies
   • Performance Management
   • Hiring/Termination
   • Discipline
   • Payroll & Related Payroll Taxes & Returns
   • Benefits Administration
3. Finance & Accounting
   • Budgets
   • General Accounting Services
   • Monitoring & Analysis
   • Expense Management
   • Financial Statements
4. Risk Management