Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies

The Center has recruited a Steering Committee consisting of the leaders in a number of nonprofit intermediary organizations. Committee members are responsible for guiding the project, recruiting participating agencies, and identifying Sounding topics.

The Alliance for Children and Families is a nonprofit membership association representing child and family serving organizations in North America. Member organizations provide an array of community-based programs and services to all generations, and serve close to 8 million people each year in more than 6,700 communities. Motivated by a vision of a healthy society and strong communities, the Alliance's mission is to strengthen the capacities of North America's nonprofit child and family serving organizations to serve and to advocate for children, families, and communities.

"The Alliance is participating in this project to help its members better address the enormous challenges that nonprofit organizations face in the rapidly changing field of social services. To move beyond mere survival and get ahead of the curve on these challenges, we need for an "early alert system" to help the Alliance readily identify innovative practices across the entire nonprofit sector and quickly share these discoveries with our members, their supporters and funders, and policy makers in family and children services. The Listening Post Project will provide us with a unique source of information and ideas that will improve our capacity to best serve our members and to ensure that family and children's agencies can fulfill their critically important functions."

The Alliance for Nonprofit Management is a professional association of nonprofit capacity builders — people and organizations that help strengthen nonprofits. The Alliance is always on the look-out for ways to enhance the knowledge and resources available to capacity builders as they develop focused strategies that support nonprofit organizations and the sector as a whole. It is absolutely critical that this learning community have access to the most up-to-date information and research from the field.

"The Listening Post Project has the potential to be an ideal vehicle to link research and practice. Our hope is that it will bring forth timely input from the nonprofit community on a variety of internal and external issues that are of critical importance to the field. By participating in the Listening Post Project, the Alliance for Nonprofit Management will enable our members to glean important insights into the needs, challenges and innovations of a broad spectrum of nonprofit organizations. By continuously seeking and building knowledge, through projects such as the Listening Post, capacity builders are better equipped to support nonprofits, and thereby to strengthen the communities they serve."

Founded in 1961, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) is committed to advancing the vision of healthy, affordable, and ethical aging services for America. Its core businesses are advocacy to advance policy to serve the public interest, research to improve quality care and services, and leadership development to sustain excellence in the field of aging services. The association currently represents 5,600 not-for-profit nursing homes, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living and senior housing facilities, and community service organizations. AAHSA has state association partners that represent AAHSA members in 39 states.

"AAHSA is built on a tradition of nonprofit, mission driven providers of care and services to our nation's elderly. The daily challenges faced by these providers are enormous, as they strive to provide the highest quality of delivery in the face of financial and other hardships. The promises of technology to improve efficiency and quality of life, the advent of evidence-based practices, and a commitment to quality provide a strong foundation for strengthening our member organizations. Through the Listening Post Project, AAHSA hopes to contribute to a healthy nonprofit sector through shared learning and new knowledge. Nonprofit aging services providers have much to gain from a better understanding of the ideas and insights of others in the nonprofit community."

Founded in 1906, the American Association of Museums (AAM) is dedicated to promoting excellence within the museum community. Through advocacy, professional education, information exchange, accreditation, and guidance on current professional standards of performance, AAM assists museum staff, boards, and volunteers across the country to better serve the public. AAM is the only organization representing the entire scope of museums and professionals and nonpaid staff who work for and with museums. AAM currently represents more than 16,000 members — 11,500 individual museum professionals and volunteers, 3,100 institutions, and 1,700 corporate members.

"AAM is participating in the Listening Post Project in order to provide the museum community with opportunities to learn from the broader nonprofit community. Museums are undergoing profound change. New technologies, new interests, and new venues are redefining what a museum is and how it can serve its constituents and the communities in which they operate. AAM and its members are working together to create the museums of the 21st Century. However, all we are sure of now about these museums of the future is that they will little resemble the model of today. Participating in this project will provide AAM with the information it needs to better monitor the trends and challenges affecting its members across the country. It will also allow us to engage other nonprofit sectors facing similar challenges in technology adoption, private-nonprofit partnering, and fee-for-service revenue development. Through the Listening Post Project, AAM will help its members to create innovative, cutting-edge programs aimed to help museums succeed and better serve the public by building on the experiences of the entire nonprofit community. In light of AAM's recent national initiative, Museums and Communities, which informed us that communities want and need their museums to be civically engaged and responsive, we see this project as an especially important means for us to adopt a more community-centric role for the museums of the future."

Lutheran Services in America creates opportunities with people in thousands of communities throughout the United States and the Caribbean as an alliance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, and their nearly 300 health and human service organizations. Working neighbor to neighbor through services in health care, aging and disability supports, community development, housing, and child and family strengthening, these organizations together touch the lives of one in 50 Americans each year.

"The Listening Post Project's ability to translate information into opportunities for action offers enormous potential for nonprofits like LSA. LSA's membership is diverse - from a rural, single site nursing home to an extensive multi-site health care system, from a one-person, one-county focused agency to multi-service statewide organizations. What these organizations hold in common is service within a faith context, an important lens on the challenges nonprofits face. LSA looks forward to broad and meaningful participation in this national project."

The National Council of Nonprofit Associations (NCNA) is a 501(c)(3) membership-based organization of state and regional associations that represent thousands of nonprofits throughout the country. Our members work at the state and local level to provide training and technical assistance to improve the operations and effectiveness of organizations while promoting the value and accountability of the nonprofit sector.

The mission of NCNA is to advance the vital role and capacity of the nonprofit sector in civil society and support and give voice to state and regional associations of nonprofit organizations. By representing the views and concerns of its state and regional members NCNA serves as a credible voice and champion of the sector at the national level.

"In recent years, the operating environment of nonprofits has gotten increasingly difficult due to fewer resources, growing community needs, and multiple constituencies. Strident calls for accountability and tighter regulation, an ongoing economic recession, pressures to be more lean and efficient, and battles for shrinking federal and state dollars are putting tremendous external pressures on nonprofits. These conditions require that nonprofits join together at the local, state, and national levels in a concerted effort to improve efficiency, demonstrate results, and champion our causes. Now more than ever, we must establish networks, collaborate across issue areas, leverage our resources, and strategically build and document our know-how and influence. NCNA and state associations have long recognized the benefit of research to informing practice. The Listening Post Project is looking at current issues impacting the sector in a timely manner that will help the nonprofit sector fulfill its mission."

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, offers a wide array of services in line with its mission: to strengthen, nurture, and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. Through its artistic, management, and international programs, advocacy activities, and publications, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field, and promote a larger public understanding of and appreciation for the theatre field. TCG has approximately 450 member theatres nationwide.

"After a dynamic decade of growth in the 1990s, not-for-profit theatres find themselves contending with a variety of issues, including growing competition from alternative entertainment venues, shifting social attitudes about the role of live theatre in American community life, and meeting the growing needs of greater cultural diversity in the face of declining public support and increased competition for scarce private contributions. While TCG is already engaged in a variety of projects focused on the performing arts to address these challenges directly, we recognize that the most stimulating thinking often comes from looking outside one's own field. The Listening Post Project provides just such a venue. We see our participation in this initiative as a way for us to tap into the knowledge and experiences of other fields. By linking with other types of organizations, we will be more equipped to ensure the future viability of the arts."

UNCA works in partnership with neighborhood centers to find solutions to social problems which hinder individual self-development and prevent productive community life. In the early settlement house movement, committed volunteers "settled" into needy urban neighborhoods. The settlers came to learn from the neighborhood residents, to receive assistance in solving neighborhood and national problems and to provide help in solving these problems. The relationship between the settlement workers and the neighborhood residents was one of equality. The houses where the settlement workers lived soon became the neighborhood center and hub. The houses expanded from mere residences to the large community centers we know today. Many settlement houses developed multiple branches. Programs grew to include the first youth groups, senior services, neighborhood development projects, and services for immigrant and migrant workers. These still compose the core services which most UNCA member agencies provide.