Disaster Response Virgin Islands Project #29854

Nonprofit Consortium of St. Croix (USVI)

by St. Croix Foundation for Community Development

Nonprofit Consortium of St. Croix (USVI)

Project Report | Mar 10, 2020
Embracing Communities Globally for Resilience!

By Lilli Cox | Senior Program Officer

The Climate Strong Islands Declaration is Signed!

Embracing Regional, National, and Global Communities for Long-Term Resilience!

Since launching our Nonprofit Consortium (a collective of over 30 local nonprofits) in September 2016, exactly one year prior to the 2017 hurricanes, St. Croix Foundation has sustained its founders’ pledge to support the Territory’s civic sector as an inextricable component of our core organizational programming. Over the past three years, all of us at the Foundation have been so inspired to witness the Consortium grow into a powerful coalition of civic organizations that is building dynamic collaborations and birthing a beautiful Vision for the future of our Islands in the aftermath of the hurricanes. It’s because of supporters like you that we have been able to continue this work, which is a natural expansion on our 30 years as a fiscal sponsor of 250 nonprofit organizations and grassroots efforts.

Also, because of the deepening of our support for nonprofits, we have great hope and optimism that the successful projects we’ve spearheaded have set a firm foundation for greater capacity, for service, and for advocacy around a collective vision for the Virgin Islands. Today’s report reflects work over the past quarter that will create ripple effects of progress within our nonprofits and the residents they serve for years to come.

ST. CROIX FOUNDATION HOSTS 4TH ANNUAL FORUM FOR NATIONAL FOUNDATIONS
As a vehicle for engaging national funders and exposing them to the unique realities of the U.S. Caribbean, this past February, St. Croix Foundation for Community Development was pleased to host its 4th Annual Philanthropy Retreat on the island of St. Croix.

The retreat entitled The Power of People and Place: Status Matters, convened and connected over 20 local nonprofits and 15 national and international Senior Philanthropy Executives and Board Members from Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Council on Foundations, the Southeastern Council of Foundations, the Association of Black Foundation Executives, LASCO Chin Foundation of Jamaica, Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina, and Grantmakers for Southern Progress.

Over the course of several days, St. Croix Foundation led our local nonprofit partners and foundation guests in a focused conversation around political status, social equity, community resilience, and nonprofit capacity building. The Consortium offered guests an unfiltered opportunity to learn about the inherent challenges and assets of the Virgin Islands and included an island tour with visits to the Juan F. Luis Hospital (St. Croix’s only Community Hospital). Limetree Bay Terminals and Refinery, the Caribbean Center for Boys and Girls (CCBG), Marley Housing Project, Frederiksted Health Care, and Sejah Farms of the Virgin Islands.

Each destination served to emphasize the cross-sector collaboration of Consortium members that enables funding and networking to leverage every asset for multiple benefits. Resiliency efforts such as energy independence for youth centers at the CCBG and economic development opportunities for farmers focused on food security were showcased for executives. The tour and attendant conversations incorporated data points about the realities of living in an unincorporated U.S. Colony that is often not recognized as a funding priority by most national philanthropic entities. Several of those special social and environmental conditions surrounding the hurricane include the reopening of a 50-year-old shuttered refinery, the condemning of our only community hospital, and the loss of 6 of 13 public schools, not to mention soaring housing costs and resident displacement due to the influx of recovery contractors and imported refinery workers. All of these challenges continue to underscore the necessity of strong nonprofits, civic leadership, and philanthropic investments.

After 3 days with the Nonprofit Consortium and the Foundation, our national partners committed themselves to serve as a voice for the Virgin Islands, to articulate the value of the Virgin Islands as a priority to national funders and as a potential test-bed for innovative models. While !the challenges of isolation are well known to the Territory – whether it be political, economic, geographic, or racial - by focusing on assets that already exist in our community, we are building a strong civic base that is both proactive and responsive. And with global partners, we are more than locally strong. We are resilient.

Using Data to Shine a Light on St. Croix’s Assets & Focus Collective Resources
At the Retreat, the Consortium also presented findings from the first phase of its asset mapping initiative of St. Croix’s nonprofit sector, namely:

Of nonprofits surveyed, 24% of respondents reported that they impact 20% of the population.
Meanwhile, an overall majority, or 58% of nonprofits, had part-time or full-time staff of no more than 2 or fewer employees.
However, despite these troubling statistics, not one organization described its overall organizational health as “in crisis.”

At this phase, the Consortium’s initial conclusions are that nonprofits are a critical component of the welfare of community, particularly in the absence of healthy governmental systems after a hurricane. As such, nonprofit capacity building and data collection must be a continued focus. With an expanding community of collaborators, the Nonprofit Consortium continues to take focused steps to raise awareness around the need to build a culture of data collection that is timely, relevant, and shared.

Background Note: In 2019, 22 organizations completed our Impact Survey for Nonprofits which was disseminated to 60 nonprofits. Representing all four sectors of our Consortium, our overarching objective has been to inventory the impact of the work being led by nonprofits, in addition to assessing their needs and inhibitors to effectively serve some of our most vulnerable residents. The survey zeroed in on the status and impact of nonprofits by seeking to understand the level of organizational stability at the executive level, funding sources, the number of community members served, and more.

BUILDING NETWORKS AROUND CLIMATE CHANGE & RESILIENCY
St. Croix Foundation's President, Deanna James, presented at the Environmental Grantmakers Association's Winter Briefing in San Juan this past week. Speaking to the vulnerabilities of the Caribbean and more specifically the USVI as an unincorporated US Territory, Deanna provided an update on the status of the Territory’s recovery and St. Croix Foundation’s investment in our ‘social infrastructure’ (i.e. nonprofits) as a critical component of the USVI’s present and future resilience.

Our presentation at the EGA conference and on other national stages is keeping the Virgin Islands firmly on the recovery agenda of national philanthropy, while also advancing a bold conversation around equity, energy justice, climate resilience, and civic collaboration!

CLIMATE CHANGE DECLARATION
Just this past week, our President also attended the second Climate Strong Islands Dialogue in Puerto Rico. St. Croix Foundation joined nonprofits, foundations, universities, and private sector stakeholders to discuss access to clean, reliable, and cost-effective energy, food security, and the value of U.S. island communities working together to respond to accelerating climate change.

On Wednesday, February 26th, along with over 70 organizations across the nation (from Guam to the outer banks of Maine) the Foundation signed the Climate Strong Islands Declaration highlighting the particular needs and incredible potential of islands to collectively find solutions to the Climate Change Crisis.

The Declaration emerged from nearly two years of discussions about the struggles and chronic underinvestment that many U.S. islands have endured over the past fifty years. Correcting this historic inequity is a matter of basic fairness, as the world’s islands have produced only 1 percent of the emissions that are heating the planet but are often already bearing the brunt of the consequences.

Our Community
We are grateful to former and current Board Members of the Foundation, who understood the critical nature of the Consortium early on. Because of them, the Foundation was able to convene nonprofit partners immediately after the storms in deeper, more strategic ways than ever before. And, together, we leveraged our collective resources to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and underserved residents at a time when both the local and federal government responses were insufficient.

Three years later, through the Consortium, we are collectively gaining real insight around the strengths and challenges of operating nonprofits under challenging social, political and economic conditions. But most of all, the Consortium is fostering and cultivating the most inspirational, intentional, and dynamic culture of civic engagement and collaboration in the U.S. Virgin Islands. And today, we are fulling our pledge to expand from our shores, embracing regional, national, and global communities to harness the expertise, passion, and resources necessary for real resilience.

We are deeply appreciative to GlobalGiving for being one of the first funders after the hurricane to recognize and value the critical role of nonprofits. And, because of our growing national and international exposure, and our philanthropic approach, our Nonprofit Consortium is today becoming a national (and regional) model for community building and community resilience.

Presenting at the Environmental Grantmakers Assoc.

The 4th Annual Phil. Retreat was a Success!

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Dec 9, 2019
Resilience through Data and Empowering Community

By Lilli Cox | Senior Program Officer

The Consortium: By Community for Community!

Like so many residents in the Caribbean, all of us at St. Croix Foundation took a deep breath and sighed with relief on November 30 as we marked the end of another hurricane season. Luckily for the Virgin Islands, we came out of this season relatively unscathed! That was not the case for our neighbors in the Bahamas. And so, while we are hypersensitive about the threats afoot in this new normal of stronger, more destructive weather systems, we believe it presents an unprecedented opportunity for our Territory to transform so many of our broken systems that are on the brink.

In fact, it wasn’t the 2017 hurricanes that informed St. Croix Foundation’s decision to expand our work beyond grantmaking and fiscal sponsorship to include nonprofit coalition building. It was actually back in 2014 that we first began convening nonprofits on St. Croix in response to the closure of a 50-year-old oil refinery, which left the Island reeling from expanded social needs and dwindling resources to support those needs. Recognizing that nonprofits must be strong for Communities to be healthy, we officially launched our Nonprofit Consortium in 2016 with the Vision of both streamlining and amassing our civic sector’s collective efforts.

One year later, when Hurricanes Maria and Irma hit, we realized that this single strategy was perhaps one of the key levers to building resilience and ensuring our community is healthy and safe through any future economic, natural, or political ‘storms.’

Today, we extend our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to GlobalGiving and our cadre of partners, including the nearly 100 nonprofits who sit at the table with us regularly and who have advanced their own organizational work as well as spearheaded advocacy work through the Consortium. Together we are shaping a stronger foundation upon which to grow this work as a collective community. The work completed in the last quarter serves as a testament to the deep relationship building our nonprofits have nurtured over the past three years and will significantly influence our work ahead.

The Environmental Sector Holds Town Hall Meeting on Oil Refinery
As we’ve reported in the past, our Nonprofit Consortium is working to build organizational capacity for members and participants in order for them to fulfill their mission and provide direct services to our community as expanded needs require.

The Consortium also works on a Sector-wide basis as well, linking the collective efforts of mission-aligned organizations in the following sectors: youth and education; health and wellbeing; arts and culture; and the natural and built environs. On a whole, the Consortium intersects all four sectors, seeking to build a broad-based and cohesive vision while providing a convening space for nonprofits to collaborate and expand operational capacity through targeted direct services, information sharing, and collective advocacy.

This past May, the Environmental Sector of our Nonprofit Consortium held its first Environmental Forum to provide data to key stakeholders on the risks of climate change in the USVI, including the risks associated with climate change and heavy industry in small island communities.

Then, on November 5^th the Nonprofit Consortium held its first informal Community Information Town Hall Session to hear updates on the reopening of the Limetree Bay Terminals & Refinery which was once one of the largest oil refineries in the Western Hemisphere. The Town Hall was standing room only, with over 100 people in attendance.

As a trusted Neutral Community Convener, St. Croix Foundation and the Consortium’s Environmental Sector hopes this Town Hall will be the first of many Community Conversations, led by Community for Community. The gathering served as an information session through which residents had the opportunity to learn about environmental hazards, public safety standards and reporting protocols relative to monitoring and emergency response. Panel members included several policymakers as well as the Commissioner and Staff of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency Director; who addressed questions about the refinery restart.

This informal discussion was ultimately intended to establish an open dialogue between policymakers, regulators and the Community to cultivate a relationship of trust and transparency. But most importantly, it was intended to empower Community Stakeholders to lead important conversations that impact their neighborhoods, their well-being, and their economic interests- all essential components of Healthy Communities.

EngageVI.org
Our November convening was really about empowering people in the Virgin Islands to build real competencies around civic engagement in order to nurture the Community we all envision for ourselves and our families. The Foundation, as a follow up to the Town Hall, created a website at www.ENGAGEVI.org that is intended to be the very first iteration of what we hope will become a forum for information sharing, for environmental consciousness ad for all issues that significantly impact the health, welfare, environment, and future of this Territory.

Using Data to Shine a Light on St. Croix’s Asset & Focus Resources
In our last report, we provided updates on the work of the Consortium to begin an asset mapping initiative of our nonprofit sector. Our overarching objective has been to inventory the impact of the work being led by nonprofits, in addition to assessing their needs and inhibitors to effectively fulfilling their missions and capacity to serve some of our most vulnerable residents. In September, we launched A 2019 Impact Survey for Nonprofits which was disseminated to over 30 nonprofits. Twenty-two Organizations, representing all four sectors of our Consortium, responded. The survey zeroed in on the status and impact of nonprofits by seeking to understand the level of organizational stability at the executive level, funding sources, the number of community members served, and more. Sample questions included the following:

Does your organization have an executive succession plan?
In 2017 (prior Hurricanes Irma and Maria), how much did your organization raise philanthropically to support your programming in St. Croix?
What is the most difficult constituency to capture data around?
What data would your organization like to collect?

Today, the Consortium is compiling the data collected as we prepare to enter into the next phase of our data collection project in February 2020. At that time, we will prepare an Executive Summary with the goal of presenting findings (relative to each NPC Sector) to National Foundation Executive Partners who will be joining us on St. Croix for St. Croix Foundation’s Fourth Annual Philanthropy Retreat.

Data, Advocacy, Social Transformation: The Power of Civic Organizations
Our Consortium has taught St. Croix Foundation a lot. We have learned that, in our community, a significant number of our social service organizations (particularly those on the frontlines) are fulfilling the role of municipal government.

In reality, many nonprofits are stabilizing forces in our community just as they are in many communities. They hold Vision steady; they advocate for public policy; they save lives; and they drive social change. Ultimately, nonprofits play a central role in not just the ECOLOGY of our community, but in the ECONOMY of our community. As such, SCF is committed to supporting our nonprofits holistically as a critical component of our Territory’s resilience, and we hope you will continue to stay the course with us as we deepen our work!

3 Levels of Nonprofit Capacity Building for Impact

May's Environmental Forum leads to Town Hall.

Refinery Town Hall Session was standing room only!

EngageVI: A new space for resources and dialogue.

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Sep 9, 2019
Building Momentum and Capacity for True Resilience

By Lilli Cox | Senior Program Officer

Collaboration training for action & systems change

The Atlantic Hurricane “Season” is from June 1st to November 30th of every year with peak activity occurring in September. This year, as with every year, countless people throughout the Caribbean and the eastern coast of the United States are watching satellite images, tracking storms, and preparing their homes for six months of the year – all the while hoping and praying. While Hurricane Dorian did minimal damage on St. Croix, its impact on our sister islands, St. Thomas and St. John, was felt more directly. As we collectively grieved for the catastrophic damage Dorian wreaked on the Bahamas, St. Croix Foundation for Community Development is profoundly cognizant that the process of recovery in the face of Category 5 hurricanes is a long and arduous one. As island nations around the world are being forced to annually deal with the global impacts of climate change, the Foundation is committed to leading a progressive and focused resiliency agenda for the people of St. Croix and the entire Virgin Islands.

With St. Croix’s only hospital still condemned two years after Category 5 Hurricanes Maria and Irma and with almost half of our public schools closed, we are still living with the long-term impacts of the disaster. We also know recovery is no quick exercise. Once the emergency relief ends, the process of rebuilding the social consciousness and systems begins – and it can take decades. During and after hurricanes it is communities, it is neighbors, it is the social infrastructure of a place that must come together, collaboratively, to foster front-line survival and long-term recovery. We witnessed it every day. And that’s why the Foundation is dedicated to continuing to build on the momentum we have achieved by nurturing greater capacity in our nonprofits through our Nonprofit Consortium.

With over 25 official members and another 20 active participants, our NPC represents every sector in our civil society– from arts and cultural heritage to health human welfare – and, during this past quarter has been building off previous strategies to leverage our momentum for greater impact. The NPC continues to empower and equip nonprofits with the tools to hone in on specific actions around strengthening our resiliency and embedding it into a holistic, equitable and sustainable Vision.

We’re mindful, every single day, that we could not do this without our GlobalGiving partners, and in honor of communities just like ours who are struggling, we want you to know that we build with intention to help create a community-based model of resiliency.

Skill-Building that Empowers Leaders to Advocate and Serve
In June, St. Croix Foundation invited world-renowned systems change strategist, Tuesday Ryan-Hart back to St. Croix for her second visit with our Nonprofit Consortium and community members.

Last summer, Ms. Ryan-Hart introduced local nonprofits to a new concept of community engagement, entitled “The Art of Hosting” (AoH), to initiate conversations and training around high impact collaborations and leadership development. This summer, building off her first visit, Ms. Ryan-Hart provided more individualized trainings around collaboration and shared work to nurture further capacity around the spirit of collaboration to address systemic issues. Today, the Foundation is acutely sensitized to the fact that Systemic Change in our Civic Sector (and all sectors of our community) must happen in order for our entire Territory to not only survive but to thrive. As such, the Foundation has committed to drilling down deeper.

Ms. Ryan-Hart along with fellow AoH practitioner, Kelly McGowan, took a deeper dive into the concepts surrounding the Art of Hosting and provided fully immersive trainings in the practice. In total, over 40 nonprofit partners attended the two-day workshop in which diverse community stakeholders explored and unpacked barriers to effective collaborations to include acknowledging perceptions of where and how Power sits in a room; mutual agreements around shared work and shared values; how stakeholders host themselves as Individual Leaders vs. Organizational Leaders in collaborative spaces; and how to find balance between Chaos and Order in complex systems.

Ms. Ryan-Hart’s engagement represents the deepening of our commitment to a progressive and sustainable approach to capacity building in our civic sector. Thanks to our GlobalGiving family, and some very special corporate and individual friends of the Foundation, the Nonprofit Consortium will continue to provide vital services to our community while also moving the needle on entrenched social issues.

The Nonprofit Consortium Connects for Data and Advocacy
In August, the Nonprofit Consortium hosted a week of sector meetings for St. Croix nonprofits to explore the following:

Organizational Sustainability, including how the Nonprofit Consortium (as a body) can contribute to the mission and vision of each individual organization; and how the NPC can help organizations meet the fiscal and organizational needs of nonprofits given system-wide dysfunction.

Community Organizing, including strengthening consensus on place-based priorities and determining the necessary steps for diverse nonprofits to come together around work to leverage resources for greater impact.

Consortium Building, identifying strategies and specific implementation steps to move collective work forward and establishing evaluation methods.

After four days of work with 20 organizations sitting at the table, the NPC determined that data collection is one of the most critical variables in ensuring organizational sustainability, the ability to be effective community organizers and to build capacity within the Consortium itself. The Consortium established major milestones and metrics to be observed and formally committed to a six-month deep dive into the data behind their work. Beginning with a planning phase in September and a 3-month period during which relevant sector-related data will be collected, the NPC has a projected date of February 2020 to begin reporting to the community and global stakeholders.

Making the Case for St. Croix on Capitol Hill
While the Consortium builds capacity, St. Croix Foundation continues to take every opportunity to educate the nation on the true conditions people in the Virgin Islands are still facing.

Our president, Deanna James along with the Foundation’s Local Disaster Recovery Manager, Kemit Lewis, traveled to the capitol this past August to build networks and support for the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to direct more federal and philanthropic resources to the Territory and more specifically to our local nonprofits on St. Croix.

Our Delegates were able to describe the St. Croix story, which dates back much farther than the two Cat. 5 storms that hit the island in 2017 - from the reality of being a territory with no voting rights to the lingering impact of Hurricane Hugo and the economic recession resulting from a failed oil refinery.

As the Foundation and the Nonprofit Consortium work to move the needs forward on true resilience over the long-term, ensuring that the reality of St. Croix’s needs and assets are fully understood is paramount—and the Foundation is committed to giving voice to Virgin Islanders and strengthening our nonprofits.

The Voice of the Civic Sector
We thank our GlobalGiving partners near and far for their commitment to St. Croix and the Virgin Islands. Not only has your partnership provided financial and networking resources for us to show the power of philanthropy when partners of all sizes collaborate – it has given us an opportunity to have a voice far beyond our shores. That empowerment leads St. Croix Foundation to pay it forward, and we will soon be announcing and sharing a very special Movement Building Activity that our Nonprofit Consortium will be voicing this fall.

We’ve only just begun…

Neighbors, community, healing. Post Maria, 2017

Deanna James, President, advocates on Capitol Hill

Nonprofit Consortium's 4 Sectors: On the Move!

The Art of Hosting (and collaboration) in action!

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