Featured Resources
 
 

Blue Ridge Foundation New York’s “Resource Bank” captures materials that help nonprofits, and particularly new organizations, operate effectively. Some of the resources have been created by Blue Ridge or our grantees, but most are also located elsewhere on the web. The Resource Bank simply puts in one searchable database the items that have proven to be particularly helpful to practitioners. 
 
Information is organized in two ways:

1. By Category. We’ve found that most management issues fall within the following areas: Board, Communications, Evaluation & Assessment, Financial Management, Fundraising, Human Resources, Legal, Program Development, Real Estate & Facilities, Strategic Management, and Technology. The Resource Bank is organized around these categories

2. By Type. The resources we collect are geared toward helping overcome practical, day-to-day operational challenges, and include the following types:

  • Article: a descriptive publication that provides background or answers the question “why,” rather than “how”
  • Directory: a short list or compilation of resources, people, etc.
  • Example: a resource drawn from an actual nonprofit (usually a Blue Ridge portfolio organization)
  • Guide: a “how-to” publication
  • Template: a blank, sample document
  • Website: a link or web-based resource

 

WHY WE DESIGNED
THE RESOURCE BANK
 
Start-up organizations can be difficult to manage because, by their nature, so much of what goes on in the organization is happening for the first time: the first Board meeting, the first intern recruitment effort, the first time purchasing insurance, etc.  Fortunately, many of these activities are not in themselves complex; the time it takes to get them done is mostly spent looking for the right information, tracking down an appropriate example, or finding someone who has recently faced the same situation.
 
Because Blue Ridge works almost exclusively with start-ups, we can help our grantees overcome their challenges by learning from the experience of the rest of our Portfolio.  They don’t need to reinvent the same wheels.  The Resource Bank is the system we use to capture the best knowledge and materials that our grantees use, and create, in developing and running their new organizations.
 
We’ve put the Resource Bank online so that organizations beyond our small Portfolio can benefit and contribute to the knowledge sharing that occurs among our grantees.