In the Fall of 2007 the Foundation launched the ADVANS project, which stands for Advancing and Developing the Value and Assets of Nonprofits in Syracuse. A total of 9 nonprofit organizations were selected to participate in the pilot program, which ran through October 2010. They worked with area consultants who utilized the self-assessment and business planning tool and techniques developed by Dr. Susan Kenny Stevens as outlined in the book Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity.
Organizations in the first ADVANS cohort received 1 to 3 years of consultant support and grants to help implement organizational changes and business plans. These nine nonprofits represented a cross-section of the Foundation’s programmatic interests and were selected by the Foundation’s board because of the importance of their mission and services to the people of Central New York and because of their institutional readiness and excellent position to participate in this rigorous Initiative.
The nine original ADVANS organizations were Arc of Onondaga, Cazenovia Area Community Development Association, Center for Nature Education at Baltimore Woods, Dunbar Center, Hiscock Legal Aid, Huntington Family Center, La Liga (Spanish Action League), Literacy Volunteers of Greater Syracuse and RedHouse Arts Center.
In the summer of 2010 the Foundation announced the next round of participants for ADVANS 2. Each of the four organizations received a Lifecycle assessment, one year of consultant support and $25,000 to implement their identified capacity needs. They were Farnham Family Services in Oswego, the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center in Fayetteville, Sage Upstate in Syracuse and Cooperative Federal (Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union) of Syracuse. These organizations "graduated" from the program in October 2011.
In early 2011 the Foundation committed an additional $1.2 million to ADVANS 3, using the same selection criteria and implementation model as described above for ADVANS 1. Between 2011 and the end of 2013 the following organizations will receive Lifecycles assessments, technical assistance, consultant support, business planning and implementation funds as they build capacity: Community Action Partnership of Madison County, Cooperative Federal, Home Headquarters, Interfaith Works, McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Center and the Samaritan Center.
The Foundation will still review grant requests from other organizations throughout Onondaga, Oswego and Madison counties, but will focus this giving towards capacity requests only. Grants will be awarded to organizations seeking capacity assistance ranging from board and staff development to software and technical advancement. See Grantmaking Section for more details.