The New York Times Company Announces Four Winners of Its First Nonprofit Excellence Awards

The New York Times Company today announced four winners of the inaugural New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Awards. The program’s selection committee, consisting of nonprofit management experts and leaders, chose the winners from 10 semifinalists, who were announced on April 24. Winners were chosen for the excellence of their management practices after completing two rounds of written applications and site visits. All nonprofit organizations based in and serving the communities of New York City, Long Island or Westchester were eligible to apply; the application period ended on January 29, 2007. The awards were a collaborative effort of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York (NPCC) and the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers (NYRAG), which joined the Times Company in the establishment of this program. The JPMorgan Chase Foundation lent its support to the Nonprofit Excellence Awards by underwriting a special section published in the newspaper on June 26. Support for administering the program came from the Surdna Foundation, The New York Community Trust, RSM McGladrey, Inc., the Columbia Business School Executive Education Institute for Not-for Profit Management and New York University School of Law. Awards were given in four categories: Overall Excellence; Excellence in Serving Emerging Communities; Excellence in Sustained Impact; and Excellence in Communications. The four winners are: Good Shepherd Services – Winner of the Overall Excellence award, Good Shepherd is a leading social service and youth development agency that positively affects the lives of more than 18,000 children and families annually by creating effective programs that help New York City’s vulnerable residents gain support, skills and opportunities. The selection committee cited Good Shepherd’s successful growth management, transitioning from a $15 million organization to a $50 million organization and completing two mergers with similar agencies. The committee also found Good Shepherd’s financial management practices to be models in the field. Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS) – Winner of the award for Excellence in Sustained Impact, CUCS is dedicated to ending homelessness for as many people as possible and ensuring that low-income individuals can live successfully in communities across the New York region. The selection committee was impressed by CUCS’s use of research data and performance tracking, which holds staff accountable for performances and outcomes, and its strong focus on diversity and cultural competence in developing and managing its human resources. Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) – Winner of the award for Excellence in Meeting Emerging Issues, FUREE organizes low-income families to build powerful coalitions for social change so that all people’s work is valued and all people have the right and economic means to determine their own destinies. FUREE’s strong leadership development system within its organization, through which members receive extensive training and development and are tracked for their leadership potential, as well as its effective use of grassroots communication strategies to build community support, received high marks from the selection committee. WITNESS – Winner of the award for Excellence in Communications, WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. It empowers people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change. WITNESS’s use of open source technology and transparent communications to involve partners for human rights around the world made a great impression on the selection committee, as did its Performance Dashboard, posted on WITNESS’s Web site, which uses metrics to measure the organization’s results and features reviews of its key activities from WITNESS’s primary partners. The winning organizations were recognized at a special awards presentation held on June 26 at the New York University School of Law. The Overall Excellence Award includes a cash prize of $25,000 plus a scholarship of $4,500 to the Columbia Business School Executive Education Institute for Not-for-Profit Management. Each of the other awards features a $5,000 cash prize. "We congratulate the four nonprofit organizations chosen as winners of the inaugural New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Awards,” said Diane McNulty, executive director of community affairs and media relations, The New York Times Company. "These organizations, selected for their innovative management practices, remind us of the great work that is possible when outstanding management is paired with a commitment to the public good.” Michael Clark, president of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, said, "The recognition of these four nonprofit organizations for their excellent management practices by an outstanding selection committee of top experts in nonprofit management reflects how different excellent management can look in different types and sizes of nonprofits. Each of them demonstrated management practices from which other nonprofits can learn.” "Across the region and even throughout the country, there is a growing awareness that the quality of management makes a difference in the outcomes we are all seeking to achieve,” said Vincent Stehle, chair of the NYRAG board and program officer for the Nonprofit Sector Support Program at the Surdna Foundation. "In New York, NYRAG is the place where grantmakers turn to increase our knowledge and improve the practice of philanthropy. And one of the core beliefs we have as funders is that we can achieve nothing without competent nonprofit partners. So we are all interested in seeing excellence in nonprofit management.” "These four organizations personify the best in our sector,” said Darren Walker, vice president of The Rockefeller Foundation and chair of the Nonprofit Excellence Awards selection committee. "They have passion for their missions and for management based on best practices.” The winners of the Nonprofit Excellence Awards were chosen by a selection committee featuring leaders from New York City’s nonprofit community. Members of the committee included: Fran Barrett, Community Resource Exchange Joyce Bove, The New York Community Trust Majora Carter, Sustainable South Bronx Barbara Chang, NPower New York Rodney Christopher, Nonprofit Finance Fund Don Crocker, Support Center for Nonprofit Management Michael Davidson, Governance Matters Sean Delany, Lawyers Alliance for New York Dennis Derryck, New School University Denise Gray-Felder, Communication for Social Change Consortium Lillian Rodriguez Lopez, Hispanic Federation Mary McCormick, Fund for the City of New York Cao O, Asian-American Federation Ana Oliveira, New York Women’s Foundation Michael Park, Robin Hood Foundation Hilda Polanco, Fiscal Management Associates Hildy Simmons, Philanthropic Advisory Services Darren Walker, Rockefeller Foundation – Chair About The New York Times Company The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2006 revenues of $3.3 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, WQXR-FM and more than 30 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment. The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, Inc. (NPCC), "the voice and information source for New York nonprofits,” is a service and membership organization for more than 1,500 nonprofit organizations in the NYC area. It informs and connects nonprofit leaders, saves nonprofits money and strengthens the nonprofit sector by building positive relations with government and advocating effective, accountable and transparent management and governance by nonprofit organizations. NPCC publishes a monthly newsletter, New York Nonprofits, runs workshops and roundtables on management issues, offers cost-saving group purchasing services, coordinates an esteemed Government Relations Committee that works on sector-wide government and legislative issues and maintains a Web site loaded with information on operating a nonprofit. The New York Regional Association of Grantmakers is a nonprofit membership organization of more than 280 grantmaking foundations and corporations in the tri-state New York area and beyond. Its members represent more than $35 billion in assets and award more than $4 billion annually to charitable organizations in New York and around the globe. Its mission is to promote and support the practice of effective philanthropy for the public good. This press release can be downloaded from www.nytco.com and www.nytimes-community.com