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ABOUT US
CONNECTING YOU WITH LOCAL
CHARITIES
Community Shares of Mid Ohio (COSMO) was established in 1993 as a coalition of locally-based, non-profit organizations
collaboratively participating in workplace giving campaigns. These campaigns provide vital and stable financial
support for non-profit, social advocacy member organizations.
Our fifty-one members are community-based, volunteer-led charities and agencies that address a wide range of social
and environmental services and issues, and focus on long-term, prevention-oriented solutions that emphasize social change
and justice.
GOALS
- To collaboratively raise funds for the benefit
of member 501 (c) (3) non-profit organizations actively engaged in programs
directed toward community improvement, social change, and citizen education
and empowerment.
- To establish a strong financial base to ensure
the continued existence and effectiveness of member agencies.
- To enhance the capacity of member agencies to
accomplish their missions through funding, leadership development, training,
and education.
WHY WE'RE UNIQUE
Our locally based, locally controlled coalition is governed by a voluntary Board of Trustees, including representatives from each member agency,
that participate in decision and policy making as well as provide additional
input and leadership.
Furthermore, donors may designate specific COSMO agencies to receive their contributions or may make an undesignated gift to COSMO. Undesignated pledges are divided among COSMO agencies and added to their designated
pledges.
COSMO members focus on education and
service to the community, raising awareness of the root causes of social
and economic problems and generating preventative solutions. |
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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COSMO AND THE UNITED WAY
The United Way establishes priorities among health and human service programs and funds organizations targeting those priorities.
Many services and programs which also contribute to the community's quality of
life, such as environmental and human rights groups, are ineligible for funding through the United Way.
COSMO works with many of these agencies considered ineligible by the United Way to address areas essential for the community's health and
welfare.
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WORKPLACE FUNDRAISING
This method of fundraising is a time and cost effective method of raising funds from individual donors and reaches a large number of people with information about services within the community. Workplace fundraising also increases the
resources available to the entire community by adding more local non-profit organizations to traditional workplace campaigns and includes employees of all income levels while making philanthropy more diverse and democratic.
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FEDERATED FUNDS AND THE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION |
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Over the last twenty years, non-profit organizations across the nation have been joining forces to create new philanthropic vehicles, known as charitable federated funds. There are about 210 federated funds operating in the U.S.,
including federations of international and national agencies as well as federations of local and statewide community-based organizations.
A federated fund is a cooperative enterprise, owned and controlled by the nonprofit members, whose purpose is raising program and |
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operating capital for each member agency. It serves as a contribution vehicle for donors to
direct charitable dollars to the groups and issues about which they care. A donor gift to the
federation is usually distributed to all the member organizations, or donors can target gifts to specific groups in the federation. With a federated
fund, the donor decides how to distribute his or her gift, in contrast to other charitable giving structures where boards of trustees or advisory committees make the allocations decisions.
The fastest growing type of fund, the local or statewide federated fund, offers high levels of accountability and commitment to a community, region or state. According to the National Alliance for Choice in Giving
(NACG) - a trade
association of federated funds – there are 92 local or statewide funds in the U. S. dedicated to social action, women’s, environmental and African-American causes. Federated funds build permanent community assets through a sustainable
and ongoing revenue-generation strategy known as workplace payroll deduction campaigns. Once each year, the employer conducts a campaign, providing employees with information and presentations about the approved charities they can support through regular payroll deductions. Employees who choose to give complete a pledge form indicating how much of each paycheck they want deducted for the charities they designate.
The beauty of payroll deduction is that it enables employees of all income levels to join together and become a major donor to their community. Once established, workplace campaigns are easy to repeat; donor renewal rates are extremely high because charitable solicitation and giving become part of the workplace culture. Most employees automatically choose to match or increase their pledges every year. This makes federated funds a particularly stable source of annual operating funds for member organizations.
Federated funds such as Community Shares of Mid Ohio are an integral part of any
strategy to grow philanthropy and invest in our community because they:
- build permanent capital, much like endowments
- are a key source of unrestricted capital for non-profits
- provide a cost-effective administrative mechanism
- bridge diverse segments of the community-building social capital
- make philanthropy more diverse and democratic
- are important vehicles for investing in community
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CONTACT US
Community Shares of Mid Ohio
3709 North High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43214
Phone:(614) 262-1176
Fax: (614) 262-4343
Email: office@communityshares.net |
