Read About the Public/Nonprofit Partnership Initiative

As part of its mission to strengthen philanthropy and the nonprofit sector in Illinois, Donors Forum launched a three-year initiative in the fall of 2008 to help strengthen the human services system in Chicago and Illinois. Funded by The Wallace Foundation, the project is called The Public/Nonprofit Partnership Initiative.

Donors Forum undertook this Initiative as part of its longstanding work to promote public policies that support philanthropy and nonprofits. One of the five main concepts underlying the policy work of Donors Forum is a commitment to promoting efforts that "secure adequate public resources and achieve equitable fiscal policies and practices for vital [nonprofit] programs and services that sustain and enhance our communities."

The initiative is led by Donors Forum's public policy staff but involves dozens of thought leaders from Illinois. The current focus is on two main strategies: 1) to strengthen public/nonprofit partnerships for human services and 2) to strengthen a particular kind of human service -- out-of-school-time (OST) learning activities for school-aged youth. Both strategies will include policy convenings and communications activities aimed at educating elected officials and the general public.

While both strategies focus on human services, both have broad implications for other services provided by nonprofits and for other partnerships between the public and nonprofit sectors. Many of the concepts could be well applied to other nonprofit services and programs that receive government funding, including--but not limited to--the arts, economic development, health care, and programs that promote volunteerism and community service.