Press Release

HARRY & JEANETTE WEINBERG FOUNDATION
INITIATES PROGRAM FOR NONPROFITS
SERVING DISADVANTAGED PEOPLE IN BALTIMORE CITY

Local Institutions and Organizations Collaborate
on an Innovative Leadership Development Initiative
to Train Executive Directors Of Nonprofit Agencies

Baltimore, MD. The Weinberg Fellows Program, created and funded by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, is an innovative leadership development initiative designed to enhance community-based nonprofit agency capacity to assist people in need. The program was first introduced in 1992 in Hawaii, where more than 200 Weinberg Fellows have since graduated and are making a difference throughout the Islands. Now the Weinberg Foundation is replicating and adapting its program to serve Baltimore, assisted by a Board of Advisors which includes leaders of Baltimore's foundation, social service and academic communities:

Robert C. Embry, Jr.	The Abell Foundation
William G. Ewing	Maryland Food Bank
Darrell D. Friedman	The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore
Yolanda J. Pruitt	University of Maryland Baltimore
Earl S. Richardson, Ph.D.	Morgan State University
Lester M. Salamon, Ph.D.	Johns Hopkins University
Terri L. Turner	Citizens Planning and Housing Association
Larry E. Walton	United Way of Central Maryland

The Board also includes Alfred L. Castle of the Honolulu-based Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, one of the founders of the Hawaii Weinberg Fellows Program ten years ago, and still active in it today.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Incorporated is a private, not-for-profit institution dedicated to aiding those unfortunate people who by reason of poverty, disability, failing health and/or advanced age are unable to adequately help themselves. Established in 1959 by Harry and Jeanette Weinberg, the Foundation makes grants to charitable organizations which will use the funding to benefit predominantly those individuals whose financial resources are less than those of at least half the members of their community. Its total charitable distributions for the most recent fiscal year exceeded seventy-seven million dollars, including grants to Maryland recipients totaling approximately twenty-three million dollars.

The Weinberg Fellows Program for Baltimore City will train selected nonprofit executive directors and board members, adding to their knowledge and honing their skills, developing common standards and understanding of best practices and positioning their services for maximum benefit to the Baltimore community. The idea is to assist disadvantaged people by strengthening the effectiveness of nonprofit agencies serving them.

Bernard Siegel, President of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Incorporated, explains the thinking behind the Weinberg Fellows program: ”Truly being helpful when people need assistance most often requires direct aid, but occasionally demands a more complex response. Many nonprofit agencies helping Baltimore City's disadvantaged residents towards a brighter future are headed by overworked, underpaid people who day after day not only make do with insufficient resources, but have little, if any, opportunity to catch up on current management ideas and skills or to interact with their peers. The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation admires these vital community leaders, and created the Weinberg Fellows Program to give them fresh support from a local network of caring experts in the foundation, business, academic, government and human service communities -- but maybe most importantly, from each other."

A diverse group of 25 executive directors of agencies whose major purpose is to serve disadvantaged residents of the City of Baltimore will be selected to attend two 4-day retreats and two 2-day sessions over a six-month period. Their board presidents and other board members will participate in half-day and full-day sessions. Topics covered with executive directors will include the context of the nonprofit sector, agency mission, outcomes, organizational development, strategic planning, community capacity-building, board/staff relations, personnel, resource development, financial management, legal issues, risk management and other subjects. Key board members will receive role-specific training on governance, finance, board development, fundraising, and more.

The Program’s instructors, panelists and resource people will include experts from nonprofit organizations; business, professional and consulting firms; government agencies; professors from local universities and colleges and staff of the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations.

The new program has been enthusiastically greeted by leaders of the local academic and non-profit communities. An example of their response: Dr. Mary Pat Seurkamp, President of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, comments: "We welcome the opportunity to be part of this exciting partnership to strengthen the Baltimore community. We are exploring ways to connect interested faculty and students to the program, as well as possibilities for the Weinberg Fellows themselves to earn academic credit towards a Masters in Nonprofit Management at the College of Notre Dame."

Other colleges and universities expressing interest and support include Baltimore City Community College, Baltimore Hebrew University, Coppin State College, Johns Hopkins University, Loyola College in Maryland, Morgan State University, University of Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore County and Western Maryland College.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation is underwriting the great majority of the program costs. Executive directors selected to participate in the Weinberg Fellows program will be expected to personally invest $100. Each Fellow's agency will be expected to invest an additional $500. A limited number of partial scholarships will be available to eligible individuals and/or organizations unable to participate without such assistance.

The program will be hosted and staffed by Maryland Nonprofits, which represents over 1,200 nonprofit organizations statewide. The Weinberg Fellows Program complements the various programs of Maryland Nonprofits, which supports and strengthens the ability of Maryland nonprofits to serve the community, while enhancing public understanding of, confidence in and support for the nonprofit sector. “We are excited to be able to work with the Weinberg Foundation in providing this unique opportunity to local service providers,” remarks Peter V. Berns, Executive Director of Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations. “The Weinberg Fellows Program dovetails beautifully with projects we currently have underway such as the Standards for Excellence program, the Advocacy Leaders program and our training for new executive directors.”

Applications for the 2002 Weinberg Fellows charter class are now being accepted from executive directors of nonprofit organizations which serve disadvantaged people in Baltimore City. Applications and additional information may be obtained from...

The Foundation web site (www.hjweinbergfoundation.org),
by email (weinbergfellows@theweinbergfoundation.org),
by calling the Foundation (410-654-8500),
or Mara Winters at Maryland Nonprofits (410-727-6367).

Applications must be received by 5 PM December 21, 2001.

Representatives from the Weinberg Foundation and Maryland Nonprofits will be available to answer questions at a breakfast roundtable on December 12 at Maryland Nonprofits’ Annual Conference at Martin’s West in Baltimore. Pre-registration for the informational roundtable is required and can be accomplished by calling Maryland Nonprofits.