As this New Year begins, we at The Champlin Foundation are feeling the excitement of both a fresh start and a renewed commitment to the people and places of this beautiful state. In my first letter to the field I look to share with you some reasons for my own enthusiasm about the coming months.
I am enormously grateful for the warm welcome I have received since arriving last summer. Thank you. It is my profound privilege to follow in the footsteps of Keith Lang and, before him, David King as Executive Director. Their leadership, along with that of our Distribution Committee, is an inspiration to me as steward of the foundation’s reputation and reliability. Champlin has been and will always remain a steadfast investor in the nonprofit organizations that are essential to Rhode Island.
With our leadership transition complete, the foundation is turning its attention to operations and planning. True to our 87-year history, we will be thoughtful and deliberate.
We will spend 2019 adopting grant management technology that will allow us to move to online applications in 2020. Our goal is to streamline while also retaining the simplicity of our process. There will be no changes to The Champlin Foundation’s regular grant process for 2019.
To prepare for longer-range planning, we will also spend time listening. For this, we need your help.
The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) will be conducting an anonymous Grantee Perception Study on our behalf. You are in a unique position to provide valuable feedback. If selected to be in the study cohort, you will receive an email from CEP in early February.
We hope to understand what has worked well and what could be improved. Ultimately, we want to know how we might advance to be of more assistance to the nonprofit organizations on which our communities rely. Please participate!
Your work in service to Rhode Island is what shapes our grantmaking. We are eager to highlight the impact your organization has had with the help of Champlin Foundation funding. Please email your story and compelling photo to office@champlinfoundation.org for our online chronicle at www.champlinfoundation.org, Equipped for Success.
In turn, from time to time we will tell you about our work. Look for The Champlin Foundation’s 2018 annual report on our website in the spring. While you are there, subscribe to receive occasional emails with news from the foundation and its community partners.
I hope we will stay in touch throughout this year, and look forward to seeing you in the field.
With appreciation for all you do,
Nina Stack
Executive Director