I hope the year is off to a great start for you all. I am filled with gratitude to serve as a partner in our projects’ missions to make the world a more equitable and inclusive place for another year! I am also excited and energized to work with a staff that brings passion and a sincere desire to help to their work every single day.
The work of our 100+ projects spans 36 states and six foreign countries! We continue to believe in our projects and the people behind them, and our goal is to do everything in our power to bring their vision to life.
In 2023, Community Initiatives re-engaged our long-term partner, Research Evaluation Consulting (REC), for our Annual Project Impact and Customer Satisfaction Survey to learn how we can improve or maintain our services. We are grateful for the participation of 95% of our fiscally sponsored projects. We continue to value your feedback. It helps us to improve and more effectively serve our projects.
Below are the topline results from 2023. Please take a look. Let us know if you have any questions or comments.
Cheers for the new year!
Ruth Williams
President and CEO
Community Initiatives
Who Are We?
In 2023, we had 125 fiscally sponsored projects. Our projects contribute to the sectors listed below.
| Animal Welfare | ….. | Human Services |
| Arts and Culture | Philanthropy | |
| Education | Journalism and Media | |
| Environment | Networking and Alliances | |
| Capacity Building | Social Justice | |
| Health
|
Youth Development
|
|
 |
 |
What Did We Learn?
Measuring project satisfaction is critical to Community Initiatives’ ability to provide best-in-class service while you focus on your communities. Community Initiatives is pleased to find that of the projects surveyed:
- When projects were asked whether they would recommend Community Initiatives for fiscal sponsorship, we received a score of 3.26 out of 4, an improvement from 2.99 in 2022.
- When questioned about how satisfied they were with Community Initiatives overall, projects rated us with an average score of 3.57 out of 4, an improvement from 3.31 in 2022.
We are delighted to see that our projects have noticed our desire to improve and strengthen our services!
What Do Our Projects Value Most?
The graph below shows the top three services that projects have identified as the primary benefits of being fiscally sponsored over the past five years.
We take the financial management of our projects and their relationships with their employees seriously and are pleased to be of service.
Project Dissatisfaction
Community Initiatives strives to offer best-in-class service, where we have fallen short provides us with clear goals for improvement.
The graph below illustrates a percentage of projects that have experienced dissatisfaction with at least one service in 2023.
We are happy to report that the level of dissatisfaction is nearly half what was reported in 2022!
In Your Own Words
Here’s what some of our project directors had to say about working with us in 2023:
- “I am incredibly grateful to every person I’ve worked with for their patience and command of the material that has made [my project] appear like a very professional and well-run organization!”
– Institute for Transportation Decarbonization
- “The Community Initiatives team is extremely supportive. We appreciate having them as a thought partner and fiscal sponsor.”
– The Black Genius Foundation
- “Everyone has been great so far…they’ve been willing to listen and work through potential solutions even when it might not be easy.”
– US Research Software Engineer Association
Satisfaction With Staff Performance
The graph below illustrates our projects’ satisfaction with our customer service. I’d like to express gratitude to our projects for recognizing our efforts to support staff and improve the customer experience.
We will continue to provide our staff with training, support and other professional development opportunities so that they may provide you with best-in-class service.
How Did Our Projects Rate Services?
Community Initiatives believes it’s important to assess whether the products and processes we offer are measuring up so that we may make mindful adjustments.
The Accounts Payable/Payroll Support, and HR on- and off-boarding are the services our projects feel could use some improvement.
Where Do We Go From Here?
With these findings, Community Initiatives creates operational goals moving forward to recognize what we’re doing right by continuing our satisfactory level of services, and to take steps towards alleviating project dissatisfaction.
In addition, we double down on our commitment to invest in our projects and their experience with us through evaluation. We thank them for taking the time to fill out the annual survey, and we hope to hear from them again in 2024!