Main Street Arkansas Update - August 27, 2007

August 27-31

Monday -
Tuesday - Mark, Paragould – lunch joint civic clubs ER presentation
Wednesday - Cary, Mark, Susan – Helena, Window Display Workshop
Thursday - Cary, Mark, Susan – Helena, Window Display Workshop; Greg – Helena, Visioning Workshop
Friday – Nancy, Susan - NLR – mini-grant review

INTENT TO NOMINATE FORMS DUE IN OUR OFFICE FRIDAY! Every program should have something worthy of nomination for a MSA award. If you’re new & unsure what to nominate, contact one of us, or better yet, an experienced volunteer with your program.

Heber Springs has hired Sumer Garrison as their new Executive Director. Sumer attended orientation Friday and will be at Destination Downtown next month.

IN THIS ISSUE:

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VARIOUS PRESS

GOOGLE EARTH OUTREACH AVAILABLE TO NONPROFITS

6 GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

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Main Street Rogers Grant Press:

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/08/20/news/082107rzmsrmoney.txt

Main Street Searcy Promotes the MBG:

http://www.thedailycitizen.com/articles/2007/08/22/news/features/features03.txt

Frisco Festival Press:

http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/52620/

Cultural Arts District Discussed for Downtown Fayetteville:

http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/56373/

note the mention of 1% for the arts near the end of the article.

Good Press for the AHPP:

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/199702/

NLR Looks to Create 4 TIF Districts Downtown

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2007/aug/23/nlr-looks-create-4-redevelopment-district-20070823/ subscriber only, sorry.

Nice piece on the El Dorado Promise:

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Perspective/199668/print/

nice quote “. . . the city’s Main Street—which is, and this is a sarcasm-free aside, vibrant and happening. Ever been to Main Street in Little Rock ? Think of the exact opposite and you’ve got Main Street El Dorado. But that’s another story for another time.. . .”

Google Earth Outreach Offered to Nonprofits

Google is offering its satellite imagery system to U.S. nonprofits for their use in creating videos and other materials to better educate the public about their missions, programs and impact.

Google Earth allows users to search for a location and then view that location using satellite imagery and three-dimensional maps. Users can not only view the terrains on maps of geographical areas around the world, but also find their houses and even get directions.

Google is now offering Google Earth Outreach, a program designed to give nonprofits the resources and tools they need to leverage Google Earth for their own missions. The Outreach website contains online guides and video tutorials on how to use the system, as well as a moderated forum to foster discussion, exchange ideas and provide technical support.

Utilizing the maps, various nonprofits have shown how diseases have spread to different parts of the world, tracked population distribution and migrations and given viewers a tour of an animal preserve. Examples of how charities have applied the satellite imagery system for their own programs are available on the Google Earth Outreach website.

Google also is granting free Google Earth Pro licenses to qualifying 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. Google Earth Pro has several additional features, including GIS data importation, a movie-making module and a high-resolution printing feature. Organizations must apply for a license, and not every organization will receive one. More information about applying for a license can be found on the Google Earth Outreach website.

GRANTS OPPORTUNITIES

1. Volunteer Management

2. Brownfields Communities

3. Microbusiness

4. Planning for Local Museums

5. NTHP Matching Grants

6. Interpreting Historic Places

Grants for Volunteer Management

http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=15235

The Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation) announces the availability of up to $800,000 for grants to support the efforts of national and statewide nonprofit organizations to increase volunteer retention and expand the use volunteers to address societal challenges. Grants may range in size from approximately $50,000 to $200,000. The purpose of this grant competition is to assist national, regional, and statewide nonprofit organizations in planning for and implementing activities within their networks and communities to:

• increase volunteer retention;

• expand current use of volunteers by creating new volunteer roles and recruiting the appropriate volunteers to fill them;

• improve both the impact of volunteers’ activities and how that impact is measured; and

• develop strategies that sustain the impact and results associated with the project after the conclusion of Corporation funding. Examples of the types of activities this grant may support include:

• assessing current volunteer use and management practices;

• designing competency-based volunteer roles and descriptions;

• engaging stakeholders in collaborative planning and implementation processes;

• developing new or improved measurement systems to track the impact of volunteers;

• conducting recruitment activities or developing strategic partnerships to attract the appropriate volunteers to fill newly created volunteer roles; and

• implementing volunteer management practices -- such as screening, orientation, training, and recognition -- to increase retention.

Applicants should demonstrate how their proposed project would, over a two-year period, significantly improve retention, expand their current use of volunteers, and help them improve and better measure the impact of their volunteers. Organizations are encouraged to collaborate with existing volunteer connector organizations in planning and implementing their proposed activities. Volunteer connectors are organizations that specialize in assisting individuals or groups with finding appropriate volunteer opportunities while also providing organizations that use volunteers with services such as recruitment support and training and technical assistance related to volunteer management.

Grants for Brownfields Communities

http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=15233

Microbusiness Grant Opportunity

The Self-Employment Tax Initiative (SETI), a project of CFED, announces a Request For Proposal to development tax preparation products for start-up microbusinesses is now available. It can be downloaded at CFED's homepage (www.cfed.org). An accompanying "Background Paper" is also available in the "What's New?" section (right hand column). If you have questions or trouble downloading, please contact Gene Severens(gseverens@cfed.org).

SETI is a new CFED project that is exploring both:

* the use of self-employment tax preparation ("Schedule C")as a product that can scale-up direct support to start-up microbusinesses and

* the use of the tax code (federal and state) as a new policy tool to direct new support to microbusiness start-ups.

The grant funding for this RFP is made available through the support of the Citigroup Foundation. Other support comes from the eBay Foundations and Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The DEADLINE is September 15, 2007. Award amounts $10,000.

A Q & A CONFERENCE CALL will be held on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 3:00 PM (Eastern); 12:00 PM (Pacific) (see RFP for details).

Planning Grant for Local Museums

http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=15173

National Trust Matching Grants

Applications are due October 1 for the next round of matching grants from the National Trust Preservation Funds, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund for Historic Interiors and the Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation. Your National Trust regional office can help you figure out which is best for you.

Deadline: 10/1/2007
For more information: Contact your National Trust Regional Office http://www.nationaltrust.org/regional_offices/index.html

Interpreting America's Historic Places Grants:

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) offers Planning Grants and Implementation Grants to support public humanities programs that use one or more historic sites to interpret important topics in American history. Projects can interpret a single historic site, a series of sites, whole neighborhoods, communities or towns or larger geographic areas. They can include exhibits, interpretive materials, heritage tourism partnerships, or other strategies for helping the public learn more about your historic place. More information is available at http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/historicplaces.html.