Glacier Institute on the Today Show

Not often is a local nonprofit featured on national television, let alone the Today Show. Congratulations to the Glacier Institute, and the youth experiencing Glacier National Park for the first time! If you missed the segment this summer, be sure to watch it here.

Annual Reports that Rock!

Recently, we’ve received in the mail a couple of annual reports from local nonprofits. We thought these looked great and want to commend our friends for their use of pictures, graphs, digestible numbers and most importantly, stories about people affected by their good works! While many nonprofits don’t do a formal annual report, these organizations used this time-honored approach to highlight their accomplishments and connect with the “heart and soul” of their missions. Check out these examples of well-done reports:

The Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana
See their PDF version here.

The Flathead Land Trust
See their PDF report here.

Harmonious Collaboration

In 2008, the Glacier Symphony and Chorale (GSC) was planning the first ever full-week classical music festival called “Festival Amadeus” to be held in Whitefish during the first week of August 2008. The GSC developed a collaborative effort with the North Valley Music School (NVMS), which already had significant youth music education programs in Whitefish, including a summer string camp for youth. After a years worth of planning, Festival Amadeus 2008, along with Camp Festival Amadeus 2008 were held simultaneously with great success for both organizations. The two events have now been held for three years in a row, and plans are underway for Festival Amadeus and Camp Festival Amadeus from July 31 – Aug. 6, 2011. Some of the benefits are:

Shared resources

o Many orchestra and chamber music players and performers for Festival Amadeus are also teachers and coaches at Camp Festival Amadeus. By both organizations being able to pay them for their services, it makes it feasible for them to be in Whitefish for the week.

o NVMS performs their final camp concert in space that is already rented by the GSC for Festival Amadeus.

o The GSC utilizes space rented by NVMS for orchestra rehearsals.

Increased Marketing for both organizations

o Families of students at Camp Festival Amadeus come to Whitefish for the week, or to pick up their kids and attend concerts at Festival Amadeus.

o Many players in the Festival Amadeus orchestra and guest artists are music teachers and as time goes on will send students to participate in Camp Festival Amadeus.

The collaboration between the GSC and NVMS has been very beneficial to both organizations as Festival Amadeus and Camp Festival Amadeus get established. One never knows what things will grow into, or when they need to be shifted to another direction, but certainly this collaboration has helped create a unique and beneficial event to both organizations.

Nonprofit Love

In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Blue Avocado – a national e-newsletter on nonprofit issues – featured our own Ned and Cathy Cooney. Ned is the Program Director of NpDP, while Cathy works with the Montana Community Foundation. Check out their story here.

Eight Layers of Giving

Through the Eight Layers of Giving contest across all of the Cold Stone Creamery stores nationally, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flathead County was announced as one of the winners of this video contest.

Ice cream and charity. What a sweet mix! Congratulations to Tim Sievers, Executive Director; the Board; volunteers; and staff for a strong showing!

Flathead High School IB

Flathead High School International Baccalaureate (IB) program recently received an anonymous donation of $300,000. Awesome!

Share your organization’s exciting news. Let’s celebrate it together. Please e-mail your news to include it in our monthly e-News or post it on our Wall.

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