Compassion Massachusetts

About Us

I. Project Overview: The University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute (The University) Compassion Massachusetts is a comprehensive, organizational development initiative that targets small faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) in the rural counties of Berkshire (western MA) and Barnstable (southeastern MA). In Year Three (October 1, 2009-Sept. 30, 2010) Compassion Massachusetts will open up the Subaward process to the following priority areas:

• Homeless
• Elders in Need
• Families in Transition
• Those in Need of Intensive Rehabilitation such as addicts and prisoners
• Prisoners re-entering the community and children of prisoners
• At-Risk Youth
• And Organizations Who Serve Populations that combine the above priority areas.

The primary goal of the Initiative is to: expand the capacity of FBCO's to deliver social services and increase sustainability by enhancing an organization's ability to compete for federal and non-federal funds in the future.

Compassion Massachusetts is planned and implemented through a Partnership among the following organizations:

• University of Massachusetts, Donahue Institute, which provides organizational development and training services to public agencies and private and non-profit FBCO's.
• Berkshire Youth Development Project comprised of three regional Partners - Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, Pittsfield Prevention Partnership and South Berkshire Youth Coalition.
• Cape Cod Justice for Youth Collaborative comprised of approximately 40 organizations.
• New England Network for Child, Youth and Family Services, which provides organizational development and capacity building training and technical assistance to youth and family services organizations and research and policy development.

Compassion Massachusetts will support capacity building activities in five critical areas of development:

• Leadership: board and professional staff development and training.
• Organizational: organizational status, mission, vision, assessment, strategic planning, fiscal management, volunteer and staff development, annual performance reviews and increasing computer/soft-ware proficiency, and record-keeping.
• Program: develop/implement plans that increase scope of services and/or number of clients, new approaches, quality/effectiveness of services, client data, feedback and evaluation, services assessments, and organizational outcomes evaluation.
• Revenue: creating a fundraising plan, increasing number and sources of funding applications, hiring a grant writer/consultant to train staff.
• Community Engagement: creating/updating website, developing/distributing written materials, engaging in Partnerships with other FBCO's, advertising, activities that increasing understanding of community and service area needs.