once upon a time a friend and i had lofty dreams of ditching our corporate jobs and saving the world's girls & young women by starting a foundation serving same. as part of our quest to learn all things nonprofit, we took a couple of seminars at the foundation center. what a wonderful, enlightening place filled with caring, knowledgable people, more information than one could possibly ever absorb, and tons of resources on where/how to get even more information. i mean, wow. classes on grants/proposals/budgeting/working with corporations, governement and the private sector/management/research, books/periodicals/reference works, databases, free classes/seminars/lectures, live nonprofit walking encyclopedia brainiacs to help you on the spot, and more. you name it, they've got [or can get] it. this place is a gem.
after the first class we took, we signed up for another and floated out of FC on an idealistic high, ready to don capes and put all that we'd learned into action. of course, life isn't that easy and our other responsibilities got in the way. work, home, raising (and ironically, sometimes saving) our own manchildren, school, health, etc. so, we've shelved our save the girls idea for a while. but we often come back to it and the value of FC always comes up in the conversation. we've reccomended it to countless friends and colleagues, especially those in, or looking to get into, the nonprofit world. i've no doubt we'll return to learn more so we can do more. read more