Our Platform
The Boulder Spirit foundation aims to be more than just a grant making organization. While financial support to entrepreneurial people and groups is a part of our work, we also recognize that the challenges many innovative projects face go beyond simple financial needs. To be a successful non-profit program requires a level of infrastructure that can be difficult for new initiatives to pull together. We aim to help solve these issues by providing a broad range of solutions ready to support all of our projects.
Governance & Oversight
Non-profit ministries are built on trust. This includes trust from donors that their support is being used as intended, trust from participants that they and their loved ones are safe, and trust from the various government and institutional partners that the ministry is acting in accordance with their expectations. Boulder Spirit Foundation is built off the decades of experience gained running a non-profit church related camping ministry and we bring that wealth of experience to all our projects.
The board of directors of the Boulder Spirit Foundation serve as the board for all of our projects. Our projects operate under our non-profit status as a not for profit corporation in the state of Montana, a status we have held for decades. We continue to develop policy for our projects to follow, especially as it relates to the health and safety of young people in our care.
Accounting
All finances for the foundation and our projects are managed by the professional accounting staff at the foundation. We are well versed in practical matters like payroll and important issues like annual audits. We also recognize that innovative ministries often have spending needs that might be considered out of the ordinary for traditional established ministries. We aim to provide the right mix of spending accountability as well as latitude for our projects to pursue unique and innovative ministry ideas.
Training, Coaching, & Mentoring
We continually look for training opportunities that would be of value to our projects. In addition, through our Executive Director, we provide coaching and mentoring to the leaders of our projects. This includes monthly check-ins and additional individual support as needed. When outside expertise is needed, we strive to identify subject matter experts in whatever the needs are. We also believe strongly in peer learning. As additional projects are brought on board they get the opportunity to learn from others also engaging in innovative ministry.
Donor Development
We are actively developing a donor development platform utilizing the Little Green Light software product. We are growing a list of individuals passionate about innovative ministry to reach youth, young adults, and their families. This list will be developed to benefit all our projects and the foundation itself. New projects will gain access to an already developed platform and potential donor list. Additionally, the foundation will sponsor awareness and fundraising events to benefit everyone involved.
Communication
We are developing standard website and communication templates that will be plug and play for future projects. By standardizing on specific solutions different projects will be able to share lessons learned about the best way to utilize these systems. Fragmentation where multiple projects are using different tools to address the same problem is a real disadvantage as it limits the ability to share knowledge.
Insurance & Risk Management
Innovative ministry often involves trying things out of the ordinary. We encourage our projects to be bold and creative while also keeping them safe from unnecessary risk. We work to provide appropriate levels of insurance and risk management on their behalf. Because we aim to work with youth and young adults this is crucially important to gain and maintain the trust of parents and other legal guardians.