A 14th Year of Work Begins with the HEB ISD Education Foundation

Long-term assignments are not new to us.  When the HEB ISD Education Foundation first reached out about possibly teaming in late summer of 2011, we had just completed a fifteen-year assignment that supported the board of directors for the North Texas Clean Air Coalition, nine years of work with the Tarrant Independent Schools Consortium, and fourteen years of service to the North Texas Cutting Champions Club.  Yet I couldn’t have imagined at the time that the new partnership that resulted from the interview would become one of those long-term assignments. 

It has been such a pleasure to team with this board of directors that is laser-focused on achieving its mission, which is to raise and award private funds and community resources to support the excellence in education of the HEB ISD.  And they do so with such joy and gratitude for the opportunity.  It’s no wonder a fourteenth year of working together is beginning!   

“I’m so glad I found you!  Project Partners has been a very successful partner for the HEB ISD Education Foundation – we wouldn’t be where we are today without your advice, expertise, ideas and follow through. I appreciate all you and your team have done!”

—Mary Martin Frazior, IOM, CCE - President & CEO, HEB Chamber of Commerce and Foundation Board Member

Civic Engagement at the Heart of New Fort Worth Initiative

Rainwater Charitable Foundation, long known for its support of community change-makers, is helping launch a new civic engagement program in Fort Worth, designed to convene a devoted group of community leaders around issues affecting our city.  Together, we will help this fledgling nonprofit to engage its first board of directors and first membership base, establish its infrastructure, and develop the inaugural programming. 

Since 1995, Project Partners has been dedicated to helping nonprofit leaders advance community causes, so we jumped at the chance to support this effort, now called the Fort Worth Forum, that is certain to bring positive collective impact to our city for years to come. 

Gourley Foundation Board Plans for Continued Success for Students

Since 1988, the Gourley Foundation has provided direct financial assistance to more than 1,000 local college students for wrap-around services, which has helped empower their success for graduation and beyond.  With that history, the organization is looking ahead to the next priorities to accomplish for the Foundation.  We are thrilled to be teaming with the Foundation to gather data to help inform decisions, lead a board workshop around key considerations, and draft the resulting strategic plan.  

While the Foundation is new to Project Partners, the board chair is not, and it’s always fun for us to work again with key community leaders who serve multiple organizations through the years!

Blackland Prairie Raptor Center Plans For Fundraising Success

Transitions among the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center’s founder, Executive Director, and board members have caused a need to shore up the Center’s fundraising expertise and capacity for sustainable success with a first focus on grants and corporate sponsorships of educational programs, and a secondary focus on the opportunity to better steward and increase funds from individual donors.  A development committee of board members has been established to help guide and support an improved fundraising strategy and implementation, staffed by the newly named Executive Director. 

With that, the Center has teamed with Project Partners to work through our “Infrastructure for Fundraising Success,” an assessment that will help identify opportunities and establish priorities.  We will also conduct funder research, consider educational programming sponsorship levels, and coach the development committee members on the art and science of fundraising.  

Change for any nonprofit can be hard, but it does provide the opportunity for board members to increase their engagement in the fundraising continuum.  How can you best involve your key volunteers during times of transition?  

Sixty & Better Adapting to Change Through Strategic Planning

The pandemic caused a huge shift in Sixty & Better’s program of work, a program of work that had helped define this organization’s mission for more than fifty years.  With that, Sixty & Better’s leadership is adapting through a strategic planning process made possible by a Toolbox grant from the North Texas Community Foundation (NTCF). 

Our work together will redefine the organization’s mission, the programming to achieve that mission, and the ensuing fundraising, communications/community engagement, board leadership, and administrative support necessary for success. 

We are pleased to return to Sixty & Better (formerly Senior Citizens Services of Greater Tarrant County) for this fourth assignment, providing the new leadership team both historical data based on prior work before and after their rebranding, and the opportunity to focus on the plan for continued success in serving specific needs of older adults in our community. 

We are proud to serve quite often as a partner for good through executive staff and board leadership transitions!