Nonprofit Consortium of St. Croix (USVI)

November 2018

EXPANDING THE MAP

A major objective for the St. Croix Foundation and the Nonprofit Consortium has been to maintain visibility on the radar of national funders and networks, especially throughout the recovery and rebuilding period. St. Croix Foundation participated in numerous convenings to continue to educate partners on the mainland regarding post-hurricane realities in our small-island community. In September, Deanna James, Executive Director participated in the Southeastern Council of Foundations’ Breaking Through Barriers meeting in Atlanta, GA. In October, she was invited to be a nonmember attendee at the Environmental Grantmakers Association Annual Retreat in Asheville, NC. For that retreat, Frandelle Gerard of the Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism entity joined Deanna and together they created an appetite for further education from Environmental Funders who will visit St. Croix in January 2019- many for the first time in their organization’s history. In November, as the first foundation members of the US Caribbean, St. Croix Foundation was invited to host a plenary session at the Southeastern Council of Foundations Annual Meeting, Bridge the Divide, in Louisville, Kentucky. Deanna James, as well as Nonprofit Consortium members Sommer Sibilly and Sonia Dow presented on the impact of place-based philanthropy in the US Virgin Islands in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The plenary focused on smart investment in the civic sector and sustainable rebuilding while warding off disaster capitalism. Link.

On November 27 the St. Croix Foundation participated in the USVI Alliance for Response Forum. During this Forum, key representatives of the Virgin Islands cultural heritage and arts organizations met with the Territory’s principal emergency managers and first responders to lay the foundation for facilitating increased cooperation and effective emergency response in times of disaster. Executive Director Deanna James was a member of the Source of Funding panel. Members of the panel provided information about funding for cultural heritage stewards and arts organizations for disaster preparedness, emergency response, recovery techniques and disaster mitigation strategies. The same forum was also held on the island of St. Thomas.

DEVELOPING LEADERS

The St. Croix Foundation continues to be a guiding and grounding voice in meetings with territorial, federal, and other recovery partners, recognizing that while the recovery of our physical infrastructure continues, our need to rebuild and strengthen our community and its diverse members is equally important; important to the cultural life of the island, important to the sense of community among our populations, and important to rebuilding a more sustainable future for the Island. AmeriCorps VISTA on St. Croix will be a major step to enhance the capabilities of our nonprofits today and develop more leaders for the future. Key finding from the Nonprofit Disaster Recovery and Capacity Assessment showed that more than 90% of the nonprofits had damage to their facility as a result of the storm. Most nonprofits (69.6%) reported an increased demand for program services, yet 72.8% of nonprofits survey respondents were still operating on a limited basis or not at all. 75% of respondents said funds were a current need for their organization, 76.4% expressed the need for assistance identifying grant opportunities and 50% of organizations needed assistance marketing and advertising. Additional data from these surveys can be found at the St. Croix Foundation website: http://www.stxfoundation.org/hurricane-recovery/care-fund/.

To that end, the St. Croix Foundation is proposing a 12 Member VISTA Team with a VISTA Leader to assist multiple non-profits. Our work with our team of St. Croix’s nonprofits has illuminated this one fact: everything really is connected to everything! When seemingly disparate organizations sit at one table and gain understanding of each other’s work and challenges, the intersections where missions and visions meet is unearthed, and bridges are built. We seek to continue directing resources at those points to support collective impact and sustainability. In line with the AmeriCorps VISTA Core Principles, St. Croix Foundation work is rooted in anti- poverty focus, community empowerment, sustainable solutions and capacity building.

The St. Croix Foundation is committed to providing increased services to nonprofit organizations and dedicated to VISTAs for this disaster recovery project including office space, shared professional services, professional development, and a network for grassroots and NGOs conducting hurricane relief efforts. In compliance with the VISTA Program Guidance, VISTAs will support the long-term recovery of the St. Croix community. Throughout their various roles with the nonprofits, VISTAs will provide programmatic, technical, research and outreach assistance. The Foundation anticipates that with greater data available and a stronger operational structure, nonprofits will be able to provide a more cohesive approach to fully uniting the civic sector around a vision for St. Croix and the Virgin Islands through our work with AmeriCorps VISTA. Through assistance from AmeriCorps VISTA and driven by data, nonprofit organizations spanning arts and culture, youth and education, public safety, environmental preservation and community revitalization will identify projects necessary for the community and partner on critical work that will them to leverage resources, to increase impact on targeted low-income populations, and to sustain and expand programs to ensure the future health and prosperity of this island community.

STAYING THE COURSE

As we continue to ensure that the Virgin Islands remains relevant and on the radar of many national funders, we are also ensuring that our nonprofits remain a part of the holistic recovery. We are currently preparing to host our 3^rd Annual Philanthropic Retreat in February 2019. The Retreat will focus on our work during the recovery and our plans for rebuilding. Because of these convenings, we now have personal champions who know St. Croix, who know St. Croix Foundation, who know the passion and potential of our civic leaders, and who are working to open doors of opportunities for St. Croix.

Hurricane Rebuilding by Empowering & Strengthening Nonprofits
As the nation once again prepares for yet another Superstorm as Hurricane Florence approaches the coast of the Carolinas, one year after the two Category 5 Storms hit the U.S Virgin Islands, we are reminded of the critical importance of long-term philanthropic support for American citizens living on a remote island trying to recover from a catastrophic disaster. For St. Croix, which is 10 miles wide and 25 miles across in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, the stakes are very high.

What if government systems collapse and private sector operations shut down? That’s what happened on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands in September of 2017. In fact, it’s what happens in most small, remote communities. Who fills major service gaps such as a nonworking 9-1-1 phone call? Who ensures that our elderly are safe in their homes when our health and human service agencies have collapsed. Who serves thousands of displaced children when the public schools are condemned, and the system is in chaos? It’s St. Croix’s nonprofits that fill those critical gaps.

But what happens if St. Croix isn’t on the national philanthropic map? What happens if issues of inequity, often exacerbated after natural disasters, affect local funding and there are no advocates for vital nonprofit organizations that are filling increasing needs with fewer resources?

This is why St. Croix Foundation for Community Development is aggressively supporting our St. Croix Nonprofits through a myriad of philanthropic strategies from grantmaking and advocacy to direct services through our Nonprofit Consortium and today, one year after the storms, we can say that our nonprofits are getting stronger, serving more of our most vulnerable residents, and creating strong collaborations.

GETTING THE VIRGIN ISLANDS ON THE PHILANTHROPIC MAP
The St. Croix Foundation hosted a small delegation of Board members from the Southern Partners Fund (SPF) from July 11th -15th. Southern Partners Fund is a 501(c)(3) public foundation serving grassroots organizations in rural communities across 12 states; Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Their visit to St. Croix served to help the Foundation make a case for expanding SPF’s funding map to include the Territory.

With a commitment to “giving voice and opportunity to marginalized and underserved communities and families in the rural south, SPF’s mission is to support rural Southern communities and organizations seeking social, economic, and environmental justice by providing them with financial resources, technical assistance and training, and access to systems of information and power to shift the balance of power in their communities.

One of the primary goals of SPF’s visit was to expand opportunities to get the Territory ‘on the map’ and recognized as a relevant and legitimate funding priority for national funders. The Foundation fundamentally believes that one of the critical components of a holistic recovery is a healthy civil society.

With far too many of our nonprofit organizations too dependent on government subsidies the Foundation hosted 20 of our local nonprofits in an intimate gathering with SPF with the overarching goal to support our nonprofits so that they can ultimately exert the level of political power necessary to advocate for an equitable recovery and for social justice for the constituents they serve.

Organizations that connected with Southern Partners Fund include St. Croix Women’s Coalition, who serves as an advocate and direct service provider for victims of abuse and violence; the Caribbean Centers for Boys and Girls, who serves nearly 200 young people every single day; the St. Croix Landmark’s Society, who houses one of the most comprehensive culture and heritage archives on the African Diaspora in the region; and the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, whose wide range of economic, educational, artistic, cultural and civic events and services are bringing together community in an innovative and culturally relevant way!

The Foundation, through their Nonprofit Consortium, is working to elevate the efficacy and force of the nonprofit sector and in turn build a model for other communities’ recovery and sustainability efforts. Toward that end, SPF has already made a commitment to supporting the work of St. Croix non-profits through several direct grant awards to local nonprofit organizations.

ST. CROIX FOUNDATION HOSTS WEEKLONG COMMUNITY-BUILDING ACTIVITIES WITH WORLD RENOWNED SYSTEMS CHANGE & SOCIAL EQUITY AGENTS
In the aftermath of any disaster, rebuilding efforts must be grounded in each community’s unique culture and DNA. It is common, however, for redevelopment to happen with marginalized groups very much on the sidelines and for the fabric of a community’s culture and core values to be torn apart by disaster capitalism which can oftentimes exploit community’s in the areas of employment, housing, health, and education. To mitigate this and ensure that our nonprofits have the ability to advocate for the vulnerable residents they serve, the Foundation has undertaken to provide real technical skills and introduce nonprofits to advocacy-based organizations. Here’s just a snapshot of our recent convenings:

• In early August the Foundation hosted a week of activities geared at empowering organizations and our community at-large to become change agents. Led by Tuesday Ryan-Hart, an internationally renowned systems change strategist who has worked with organizations and stakeholders engaged in community building, we introduced over 55 organizations in 3 days to a new concept of community engagement entitled, “The Art of Hosting” to help build organizing capacity in our community through conversations and training around high impact collaborations.

• The Foundation also hosted a two-day session with the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) which has committed itself to increasing national philanthropic engagement in the U.S. Caribbean (USVI & Puerto Rico). In the aftermath of the Hurricanes, ABFE is nurturing a shift toward greater social equity and philanthropic investments in communities of color which have historically been ignored by the field. 25 of St. Croix’s nonprofits joined, representing organizations that are directly advocating for a food security, workforce development, historic and community revitalization and the preservation of our environment and culture and heritage.

Nonprofit Consortium – Building Infrastructure!
As stated in the St. Croix Foundation’s Third Quarterly Report for the Nonprofit Consortium, a 30-60-90 day plan for building infrastructure around the Consortium was built and is today officially being implemented. While much of the work will be ongoing, the Foundation is currently pleased to report on the following components of the plan:

• Practice inclusion – Recent events such as the Art of Hosting and the convening hosted by ABFE as well as our workshops with the Southern Partners Fund listed above were opportunities for nonprofits and interested partners and agencies to witness and practice internal development work as well as an opportunity to connect with agencies they may not have been able to reach in the past. These convenings also built technical skills around collaboration, building awareness for public advocacy, hosting effective meetings, and analyzing issues through an equity and data based lens.
• Develop a logo and an overall brand for the Nonprofit Consortium – St. Croix Foundation recently offered the Nonprofit Consortium a logo and tagline of “Holding the Vision”. The Foundation is now working to have Consortium members provide input and vote on the formal adoption of this logo.
• Refine and distribute Nonprofit Consoritum Contact Listing – An ongoing activity and critical to communications and gaining traction, the NPC Listing is regularly updated and distributed to members.
• Create a Facebook page – To share our calendar of activities and events and provide announcements pertinent to the community that will enhance connectivity a group has been created within the St. Croix Foundation’s Facebook page to begin sharing announcements and updating our NPC. Once the official logo has been decided, the page will be made active but exclusively for NPC member.

Building structure around the Foundation's NPC will provide greater communication and leveraging of resources for nonprofits who are actively working to help St. Croix recover from the hurricanes. Because of the support of GlobalGiving and some generous support of local corporate citizens, we’ve been able to build the cornerstones of what we know is already becoming a strong consoritum of nonprofits who have the capacity to affect social change that connects with St. Croix’s economy, environment, culture and heritage, and the education of our young people.

We wish to thank our generous partners who have made all of the Foundation’s work possible and hope you’ll stay the course with us. Making the Nonprofit Consortium possible makes anything possible!