Island Community Fund

Recognizing that support can take many forms, The Island Community Fund (ICF) seeks to assist island community-organizations by not only providing financial resources, but also by sharing the professional and informational resources that the Island Institute has developed in its long history. 

The Island Community Fund and related professional assistance should be considered as part of a strategy to generate higher levels of funding by other sponsors.  Thousands of federal, state, business and foundation programs currently support community education, planning, economic development, social services, and resource management.  However, navigating the maze of support programs can be a lengthy and intimidating process.  One of the most important services that the Island Institute can provide is linkage between the applicant and organizations that can provide support.  With support from Programs staff, island organizations can receive assistance in all phases of project or program development. 

Most islands have small year-round populations, limiting the scope of, and access to, services at reasonable costs as well as discouraging support by state and nonprofit agencies that require a “critical mass” of individuals to participate in a given program. 

Over the past two decades, we have realized that there is neither a “magic bullet” to achieve community sustainability, nor a model of community-development that is appropriate for all island communities.  Rather, a much more effective approach to community sustainability involves the development and support of modest, incremental programs that build community capacity to be sustainable.  

While the Island Community Fund can provide limited funding for community programs and projects, its primary value is in providing local organizations and community initiatives with training and staff assistance to grow from conception through implementation and evaluation.  This is accomplished by offering a wide range of services including technical assistance, education and training, identification of resources, linkage with support and service providers, assessment and dissemination. 

The broader purpose of this initiative, however, is to help mobilize existing resources within island communities and to leverage new sources of funds for innovative island program-development. 

The Island Community Fund seeks to:

• Create and Pursue Visions and Goals:

Programs consist of a continuum of activities; beginning with a visioning process to identify a community need, developing goals, building community participation to achieve goals and support the initiative, and project implementation.  Island Institute staff can assist applicants with converting their vision into a series of incremental steps that build local capacity and focus on deliverable outcomes and products.

• Identify Needs and Opportunities:

Anticipating and identifying needs is crucial for developing successful projects.  With significant experience in program development, Island Institute staff can assist applicants in anticipating or identifying areas of need within their community, their proposals, and even within the projects.  Staff is available to assist community members with: researching information from diverse sources to gain a clearer understanding of the problem and its causes; generating evaluating alternative solutions to a challenge; developing options most appropriate to community goals, capacity and available resources; and producing criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of solutions.

• Provide Technical Assistance:

One of the major factors for the success of the Island Fellows program is that Fellows provide an “extra set of hands,” and are dedicated to providing full-time assistance to projects that would otherwise be run by busy, volunteer community-members.  Island Institute staff can play a similar role to ICF applicants, providing assistance in structuring and writing proposals, tailoring proposals to specific funding agencies, and developing strategies, budgets and timelines for the implementation and evaluation of a project or program.

• Identify, Catalogue and Provide Linkage to Resources:

The Island Institute has been developing a significant archive of service and support organizations over the last two decades that we can share with island organizations in order to coordinate proposal guidelines, application forms, budgets and timelines in support of the proposed project.  In addition, the Institute can assist individuals who are unfamiliar with utilizing computer software and the internet to locate resources. 

• Provide Seed Monies:

The Island Institute understands that organizations need funding not only for capital projects or to hold events, but also for the expenses accrued during the daily management of the project.  Unfortunately, funds for such operating costs are often difficult to find.  The Island Institute can provide modest startup funds for fledgling community programs to offset some of the necessary postage, phone, printing or meeting costs that are essential to an organization’s success.  The Island Institute can also provide some financial assistance such as small cash matches or bridge funding if these are required to make the program successful and provided that the community demonstrates that the program is a priority.  However, the Island Community Fund will not be the primary sponsor of a program.  Financial resources should always leverage primary funding either from within the community or from foundations, businesses, agencies or individual sponsors.  It should be noted that a primary function of ICF activity will be to assist communities according to locally developed priorities.