Children and staff at Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School reading in June 2016
When nonprofit Metanoia found success in their 2015 Lowcountry Giving Day campaign, they decided it was time to put a plan in place for the future of the organization’s well-being. After ten years of investing in the Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood of North Charleston (an area with some of the highest poverty rates in SC), Metanoia established an organizational endowment with Coastal Community Foundation.
Endowment investments have dual goals: to grow principal and generate income. What’s the benefit of an organizational endowment? Organizations in the endowment game reap the benefits of solidity and unrestricted income. CCF’s Director of Development, Steffanie Dohn likes to describe this as “a line item on the budget that you can count on year after year. What better way to invest in the sustainability of your organization?”
According to the organization’s CEO, Revered Bill Stanfield, this step “links capacity to drive investment-related income to communities without resources.” Since 2015, Metanoia has used funds from their endowment to build capacity and invest in programs like Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School, “a high energy six-week summer camp that teaches children a love of reading and inspires a commitment to make a difference in the world.” Engaged members of the community are invited to read at Freedom School, and serve as role models for students. Every week, all one hundred participating students are sent home with a book in hand thanks to engaged community partner Blackbaud, and full bellies thanks to nutritious breakfasts and lunches served during the day.
Since 2005, Metanoia staff and volunteers have also renovated/built fifteen new units for homeowners, invested in quality affordable rentals, financial literacy classes and initiated an owner-occupied repair program. According to the North Charleston Police Department, one street where they built three new homes has experienced a 64% drop in crime since new homeowners joined the neighborhood.
Metanoia’s organizational endowment is an excellent example of how local nonprofits can work with the Community Foundation to ensure long-term success. To discuss creating an organizational endowment for your nonprofit, please contact our Director of Development, Steffanie Dohn at 843-723-3635 X109 or at Steffanie@coastalcommunityfoundation.org.
About Metanoia: Begun in 2001 by urban ministers Bill Stanfield and Evelyn Oliviera, Metanoia is an asset-based community development nonprofit located in the Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood of North Charleston. Founded in 2004, the organization invests in assets which already exist within the community to establish quality housing, generate economic development and build engaged leaders. Metanoia has recently expanded its efforts to include all of southern North Charleston. To learn more or get involved, please visit www.pushingforward.org.
