Partnerships and alliances are critical to the success of neighborhood revitalization efforts. At PPND, we are pleased to announce new affiliations with LISC and with The Forbes Funds.

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PPND and LISC Affiliation

In the fall of 2007, PPND's Board of Directors finalized a new affiliation with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation's leading community development support organization.  This new alliance creates many new opportunities for success in our work to transform the Pittsburgh region's communities.  As a LISC affiliate, PPND can expand its support for Southwestern Pennsylvania's community development organizations with resources such as redevelopment capital, including loans, grants and equity investments; a network of national experts for technical and management assistance in strategies such as housing, commercial development and public safety; and advocates for local, statewide and national policy that affects community development.

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PPND and The Forbes Funds Neighborhood Capacity-Building Initiative

In 2007, PPND reviewed and updated our business plan to more accurately reflect the work we undertake. Under Neighborhood Change, we created the Introduction Capacity category, to provide access to our investment strategy for areas of the city that were under-represented or not present in our Capacity Program. Qualifying organizations would receive extensive PPND staff support for crafting strategic work plans and outcomes, with funding limited to one year.

At the same time, we recognized that if organizations could not meet our minimum threshold criteria in areas such as financials and community representation, they would never be able to access our Capacity Program. Thus PPND has partnered with The Forbes Funds to provide assistance for those types of organizations. The Forbes Funds was established in 1982 to provide emergency financial assistance to nonprofit organizations that were experiencing short-term cash flow problems. Over the years, this assistance has evolved to also support capacity-building initiatives for human service and community development agencies, fund research critical to fostering responsive, innovative, and sound nonprofit management, and encourage and celebrate exemplary practices in the nonprofit sector.

The primary goal of this initiative is to prepare organizations to be able to meet the minimum threshold criteria of our Capacity Program and thus be able to be considered for Introduction Capacity funding. This is accomplished, in part, by conducting a gap analysis between PPND's funding criteria and the capacity-building needs of the organization, with critical gaps addressed through targeted technical assistance. A secondary outcome of this initiative is the improvement of the general capacity-building needs of the organizations. Targeted technical assistance will allow the organizations to have greater impact on the communities they serve, even if such an organization does not ultimately receive PPND funding.

Three organizations have been chosen for this diagnostic and technical assistance in 2008: Uptown Partners, Homewood-Brushton Community Coalition Organization and a collaborative of 13 organizations from the Hilltop area of the City of Pittsburgh (Allentown , Beltzhoover, Arlington , Knoxville , Carrick, Mt. Oliver Boro, Arlington Heights and St. Clair Village). These organizations will receive assistance in accessing our Capacity Program with grant-writing, fundraising and related strategic planning, board development and financial management, along with community organizing and planning.

The groups will be provided a series of workshops/trainings in the spring, followed by hands-on technical assistance in the summer and early fall, and comprehensive grant-writing consulting to assist with the completion of an “Introduction” proposal to PPND in the fall of 2008. While this initiative does not guarantee PPND funding to any group, it hopefully places each group into funding consideration.