Building Capacity of NonProfits

Community Engagement Day

Each year Community Engagement Day brings together over 100 organizations to connect and collaborate in partnership with the University of North Texas at Dallas. Participating nonprofits focus on building support and gathering funds for local gardening groups and neighborhood associations.

The next Community Engagement Day will take place on April 10, 2024.

State Fair Cares

Through partnering with Fair concessionaires, this initiative collects any leftover food from participating vendors’ stands to be donated to local food pantries and shelters on the day after the Fair. In 2017, we provided food from more than 78 vendor booths for five selected agencies.

Nonprofit Infrastructure Initiative Cohort

The Nonprofit Infrastructure Initiative Cohort is a program led by the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, University of North Texas at Dallas, and the State Fair of Texas to focus on the development of nonprofits in the Southern Sector of Dallas. The incubator cohort is designed to prepare those agencies who were not accepted into the Nonprofit Infrastructure Initiative to build their capacity so that they are ultimately eligible to enroll. Many grassroots organizations are doing great work but do not have the infrastructure to secure funders. The goal of this program is to build leaders, their programs, and provide more effective and efficient services in the neighborhoods they serve in the Southern Sector of Dallas.

During the six-month initiative, executive directors from the selected service agencies will meet at United Way for group trainings designed to help them scale up their organizations and increase impact. NPII has included sessions on mission/vision, change management, and understanding assets in the community. The program also features leadership coaching and trainings that focus on fundraising and board governing. Leaders from United Way, UNT-Dallas, State Fair, or external partners such as Communities Foundation of Texas take turns teaching. Agencies have the opportunity to pitch for funding for capacity building projects within their organizations such as software, consultants, or audits. In both year one and two, 36 organizations applied to participate – 10 were selected year one and 12 in year two.