Organization Name:
 

Fieldstone Alliance

Program ID Number: I-102

Date Profile Created:
 

December 1, 2005

Program Summary:
 

Fieldstone Alliance, formerly the Wilder Publishing Center and Wilder National Consulting Services, spun off from the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in June of 2005, and now works as an independent nonprofit. It offers consulting, publishing, training, network development, demonstration projects, and capacity building to strengthen nonprofits and their communities, intermediaries, and funders. The overriding goal for its work is to strengthen the performance of the nonprofit sector.

Approximately 2/3 of Fieldstone Alliance’s consulting clients are foundations that contract with Fieldstone to provide capacity-building services for their grantees. For example, it is part of the Knight Foundation capacity-building provider network, serving Knight grantees. Consulting work focuses on assessment and strategy development, collaboration and network development, and capacity-building initiatives. Additionally, research and demonstration projects identify effective practices in an area – e.g. in capacity-building work with refugee and immigrant-led organizations, housing development in urban areas, or workforce development for people with disabilities – and then disseminate the information to improve practice across the sector.

As part of its publishing work, Fieldstone has co-branding relationships with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, and others. These serve as ongoing and intensive partnerships for the publication of numerous works in three lines: strengthening the nonprofit sector, increasing grantmaker effectiveness, and building stronger communities.

Fieldstone has operated very large capacity-building projects, in some cases incubating start-ups until the projects could go independent. With Leadership Foundations of America it incubated faith-based community development work that is now independent and international. Payne-Lake Community Partners is now a project of Local Initiatives Support Corporation. A Living Cities project and one of 5 demonstration sites on creating economic opportunities for immigrant and refugee communities in central cities, recently spun off to become independent. Fieldstone did regranting and capacity-building work, convened participants, and conducted research for the partnership. The Ticket to Work Program is a Social Security Administration effort to increase employment among people with disabilities. Fieldstone partnered with the National Association of Workforce Boards on a pilot in 5 cities, building capacity among local nonprofits and for profits that collaborated on increasing employment for people with disabilities. Fieldstone provided training, coaching, planning and convening to build better networks and better support.

While currently it does only a little regranting, Fieldstone anticipates growing that aspect of its work in the future for specific projects. Any nonprofit can hire Fieldstone independently for its consulting assistance. Additionally, while the Wilder research division formerly evaluated all of its work, Fieldstone is currently using an external evaluator to help develop an evaluation design that it will implement for the future. Financials presented in this profile include 11 months of operation under the Wilder Foundation, and 1 month as Fieldstone Alliance.

Date Program Began:

1982

Total Funds Awarded by this Program for Most Recent Fiscal Year:

$1,800,000

Date Program Scheduled to End:

N/A

Total Administrative Expenses for this Program for Most Recent
Fiscal Year:

$4,900,000

How Capacity-Building Programs are Operated:

Run internally by the organization.

Number Staff/Consultants:

17/25

Background Materials Available:

Yes

Capacity-Building Work Evaluated:

Yes

Evaluation Results Available:

Yes

Frequency of Evaluation:

Ongoing

Type of Evaluation:

Mixed Methodology

Geographic Areas Served:

National:

Yes

International:

Yes

  Selected States:

N/A

  Geographic Details:

Majority of work in U.S.

1. Grants:

2. Direct Service:

3. Direct Financial Support:

Categorical
Part of Larger Grant

Assessment of service needs
Center (Facility Offering Services)
Coaching/training for individual nonprofits
Convening activities
Education/training for groups of nonprofits
Information and referral
Infrastructure for peer networking
Participation in community capacity-building initiative
Website with capacity-building assistance

N/A

Areas of Nonprofit Operations Supported:

How Funding/Service Decisions Are Made:

Administration & finance
Fund development
Governance (board & executive leadership)
Staff development & training
Human resources
Planning
Evaluation
Communication (internal & external)

Application by potential recipient – organization selection.
Application by potential recipient – outside party selection.
Proactive identification of applicants by organization.
Services available to all nonprofits.