By Michael Kelley on May 3, 2018
Policy Coordinator
BikeWalkKC
I was fortunate to be able to attend the advocacy training hosted by the Health Forward Foundation and the Alliance for Justice last week. The speaker for the course, Nona Randois, the California director for Alliance for Justice, used an example and an activity to help frame the conversation. The example was from a school […]
By Anne F. Rauth, MBA on December 18, 2017
Marketing and Development Director
Mercy and Truth Medical Missions
The state of Kansas, and specifically the Kansas Department of Commerce, created an interesting program that assists nonprofits in achieving fundraising goals. Through their Community Service Program, state tax credits are annually awarded to nonprofits through a highly competitive application. Nonprofits can then pass these tax credits on to any donor who contributes $250 or […]
By Toniann Richard on December 7, 2017
Executive Director
Health Care Collaborative of Rural Missouri
Last year when Dr. Karl Grant joined the Live Well Health Center in Buckner, we knew he would be a good fit for our fabulous rural community. He interviewed in cowboy boots and came from fixing fence and working cattle. It was an immediate partnership for Live Well and the Health Care Collaborative of Rural […]
By Debra Box on November 8, 2016
Executive Director
Support Kansas City
Support Kansas City was founded in 2000 with the express mission to support nonprofits by providing them with business and development services so that they could focus on their missions. Over the last 17 years, SKC has worked with over 300 nonprofits in the metro area. Through our education and community impact work, we’ve reached […]
By Jessica Hembree on April 20, 2016
Policy Officer
Health Forward Foundation
Presidential election years heighten the decibel of the political conversation. Between SNL skits, shocking headlines, and social media, politics are very top-of-mind for many of us in our personal lives, but where do they factor into the work of nonprofit organizations? Although nonprofits are prohibited from endorsing candidates or taking partisan position, they have significant […]
By Steve Roling on November 10, 2015
Inaugural President and CEO
Health Forward Foundation
I started playing baseball at a very early age, and I have always loved the sport and the important life lessons learned by playing team sports. So as you can imagine, these last few months for me have been like living on a cloud. Every day, another exciting come-from-behind win or bitter disappointment. Luckily for […]
By Joanna Sebelien on April 23, 2015
Chief Resource Officer
Harvesters
Every nonprofit has an advocacy program. Surprised? It might be called “educating the public” or “raising awareness,” but it is advocacy. At its core, advocacy is about engaging people in an issue or cause. It is what all nonprofits do every day. Harvesters has always had a commitment to engage the community in our issue […]
By Jennifer Sykes on January 12, 2015
Communications Director
Health Forward Foundation
Happy New Year! If you were like me over the holiday break, you spent time catching up. Reading papers, magazines, watching news stories, visiting with friends and families. Telling and hearing stories. It was during this down time that I explored Hatch. Hatch is a new platform for digital storytelling. Created by Hattaway Communications and […]
By Jennifer Sykes on August 28, 2014
Communications Director
Health Forward Foundation
There’s probably a good chance that at some point over the past month you’ve poured a bucket of ice water on your head … and not because of the scorching end-of-summer heat. A phenomenon hit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds this summer called the #ALSicebucketchallenge. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the […]
By Melinda Lewis on August 11, 2014
Associate Professor of Practice
University of Kansas School of Social Welfare
In advocacy, we talk about ‘message’ a lot. We’re exhorted to remember to ‘stay on message’. We’re given talking points that are supposed to distill our message into sound bites. We’re asked to condense our communications to the most essential message. And yet we seldom have the tools we need to build really effective messages, […]
