Program Summary:
Tides Center's roots lie in the Tides Foundation. The foundation began working with promising progressive initiatives in 1977. This was formalized into the Projects Program in 1979, and then as Tides Center, an independent, nonprofit organization. Since 1996, Tides Center has been fiscal sponsor to 677 projects with combined revenues of $522.4 million. The Center currently manages roughly 200 projects.
Tides Network (the Center, Foundation and other elements) strengthens the progressive movement through leading-edge thinking and technology, and efficient infrastructure services. Tides Center assists existing and emerging projects that share the vision of a just, healthy, and sustainable world. Its projects effect change in the areas of social justice, economic development, civic engagement, environmental sustainability, environmental justice, human rights, community development, international affairs, and nonprofit capacity building, among others.
Some of Tides Center's projects begin with the goal of eventually becoming independent nonprofits; some work to accomplish a discrete goal or endeavor, then close operations; others remain a part of Tides Center indefinitely. Some raise dollars to provide grants to other nonprofits working in their interest areas. Projects vary in size from a single volunteer to a staff of hundreds, and are located all over the nation. The Center's services enable project staff to stay focused on their missions and fundraising without compromising on the expertise needed to run day-to-day operations. The Center's capacity-building assistance takes diverse forms including organizational assessment, training, and hosting convenings for peer networking.
Tides Center provides: (1) a suite of back-office services, including financial, human resource, payroll, risk and liability, compliance, and grants management services, staffed by subject matter experts with extensive experience in nonprofit operation. (2) The legal framework - as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Center serves as a fiscal sponsor and provides a legal structure for its projects and activities; and (3) capacity-building support - the Center offers its projects assistance in building the skills, knowledge, and experience needed to carry out effective progressive social change work.
The Center works with projects in three areas of concentration:
1. Community Development & Services programs build the social, economic, spiritual, and cultural foundations of community, working to strengthen communities for the benefit of individuals and families and for the positive contribution that such communities make to their cities and regions. Projects in this program aim to promote localization, reclaim control of community resources, establish participatory decision-making mechanisms, and achieve improvements in livelihoods, social infrastructure, and the local environment. Most projects deliver or improve direct services; provide education and training programs on critical issues; engage in grassroots organizing; build capacity in specific locations or populations; and promote problem-solving that supports local partnership and collaboration. Populations that benefit from this work range from youth, the LGBT community, and the elderly to the incarcerated, victims of domestic abuse, and the formerly homeless.
2. Environment & Health programs engage in diverse activities to promote a healthy, just, and sustainable world. They promote integrated approaches to sustainability that combine or cross issues of environmental protection, sustainable resource use, green jobs and economies, and environmental justice. Programmatic activities include working to combat global warming, promoting alternative energies, establishing environmentally sustainable business practices, encouraging voter participation on environmental issues, and educating the public. Health projects work across the full spectrum of health-related issues, from increasing healthcare access for underserved populations to health care reform and policy, and from reproductive justice to providing research and resources on specific health issues including HIV/AIDS, schizophrenia, hepatitis C, and cancer. Projects in this group employ a variety of strategies including media outreach, civic engagement, leadership development in the nonprofit sector as well as in specific constituent populations, policy research, and advocacy work.
3. Policy, Strategy, & Global Initiative projects work in issues ranging from religion, ethics, and conscience to human rights and social justice; from international development and anti-globalization to government reform and economic opportunity. They place particular emphasis on the most vulnerable populations, including women, migrants and refugees, and racial, ethnic and sexual minorities.
The Center is in the midst of a three-year evaluation process and will make results public when this is completed.
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Address:
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P.O. Box 29907
San Francisco, CA 94129
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