PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Background: The Arizona Endowment Building Initiative (AEBI) was launched June 2005 in an effort to address the need for endowment building among Arizona’s nonprofits.  The AEBI process uses a mentor/mentee approach.  Volunteer mentors include attorneys, financial planners and seasoned development professionals.  Five to six Arizona nonprofits are selected for each class.  Each organization selects their own mentee team which includes their Executive Director, their Development Director and Board-level volunteers.  Monthly AEBI programs for mentors and mentees include a formal curriculum along with break-out sessions for individual project work and information sharing among organizations.  Selected charities are encouraged to identify a qualified mentor from among their Board members.

The AEBI program is structured as a 15-month curriculum.  AEBI provides a team of mentors (two per charity) to train Boards, assist with developing policies, and implement a specific plan of action.  In addition, the program makes grants to participating charities to underwrite their own start-up costs and marketing activities.

Collaborative Effort: AEBI was formed with support from the Stardust Foundation, the Arizona Community Foundation and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust and became a program of The Arizona Planned Giving Institute (APGI). As of October 2011, AEBI is a program of the Arizona Community Foundation with funding from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.

Each mentee team, along with their mentors, attend regular training sessions which include:  endowment / planned giving vehicles, acceptance and investment policies, governance, budgeting, goal-setting, prospecting and marketing, and solicitation strategies.

Goals: AEBI provides participating organizations with a comprehensive approach to endowment / planned giving along with a process for implementation by Boards, volunteers, and staff.  Using AEBI-trained mentors, each organization is assigned two mentors for the duration of the program to develop customized activities for each participating charity. Significant gifts can be realized with Board support, written procedures and policies, and a motivated development staff. Early successes reinforce each charity’s efforts in endowment building.     

Expected Results:Completed gifts are one of the program’s primary goals, along with monitoring each charity’s progress in developing and implementing an effective program. 

Over the long-term, endowments create financial stability in Arizona’s non-profit organizations which leads to healthier communities throughout our state.  We plan to continue measurement and informal mentoring of graduated charities well into the future, in order to assess the community wide impact of this in-depth training program.

Participating Organization Financial Support: Completion awards to each of the participating charities are granted, depending upon funding, to advance each charity’s endowment building efforts.  These awards act as a major catalyst in motivating the charities to complete all program requirements and launch their own endowment campaigns.