It’s essential that every nonprofit organization have something akin to a “theory of change.”  After all, we are all held in the public trust and granted special privileges and tax breaks because we are doing something for the public good somewhere.

At Craigslist Foundation, for example, we believe that engaged communities and neighborhoods are the cornerstone of our society — that where we actually live, work, and play on a daily basis has significant influence on our well being as a people and a culture.  We also believe that attention to local communities, and the public good at this level, has been overshadowed in recent decades by increased focus on communities of interest, geographic mobility, and globalization.

Our theory of change is that place-based communities and neighborhoods must be strengthened if our society is to flourish and our democracy advance — and that Craigslist Foundation can play a catalytic role in assembling the talents of key partners and collaborators capable of offering people in communities the tools and resources they need to take greater responsibility for where they live, work, and play.  This translates into a role for us in convening successful organizations and people across all sectors — nonprofit, government, business, philanthropy — to work intentionally and together toward building stronger local communities and economies.

It also translates into the creation of programs, services, and internet applications that can develop community leadership and stewardship capacities, give broad access to success stories and promising practices from one locale to another, offer people ways to articulate priorities and aspirations for their communities on a regular basis, establish simple ways to measure the impact of individual and organizational contributions to community building and progress, and provide opportunities for community journalism to fulfill its potential to lift up the assets, stories, and narratives on a hyper local basis.

The staff and board of Craigslist Foundation, along with our partners and collaborators, believe we see a significant fulcrum for change in our society — engaged communities and neighborhoods — and we have offered possible ways we can be involved in strengthening the places where we live, work, and play.  We are now eager to have input to our thinking, and to be stretched with additional ideas, recommendations, support, and constructive criticism.  Ultimately, it will take a vast and inclusive community of community builders to bring new health and vitality to one of our longest lived institutions — our local communities — and we invite you to tell us how you’d like to participate.

“Life’s most persistent questions is: What are you doing for others?” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Service is a really important aspect to our mission here at Craigslist Foundation. Everyday, we work to connect people and organizations to the resources they need to strengthen communities and neighborhoods.

Over the past year, we’ve volunteered our time to help create and lift up All for Good. Inspired by the call of President Obama to engage more Americans in service, we joined a great group of individuals (including Craig Newmark) from the technology, marketing and public sectors to help build an open source application that allows you to find and share volunteer activities.

How do you plan to spend January 18th?

On MLK Day January, 18, 2010, I plan to volunteer for the great folks in SF at St. Anthony Foundation.

1. Find a volunteer opportunity on All for Good

2. Create and/or register a project

3. Help The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) recruit and spread the word for the 2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge by installing their widget onto your website or blog

In this session, GreatNonprofits’ Shari Ilsen and Zazengo’s Vicki Saunders showcase the latest trends on the web related to tracking impact and measuring results. Learn how to find out what your supporters saying about you and what actions are they taking.

Podcast info: Download the mp3 (10mb, mp3) or subscribe to our iTunes stream.

It’s not just doing good works that counts. As admirable as they are, good works are only part of the story. Their impact is a key ingredient in the equation and one that more and more organizations are trying to capture. In fact, organizations are realizing they need to demonstrate impact in an economy where funding is more scarce.

One tool we’ll use for impact tracking at Boot Camp is We Are What We Do. Boot Campers will be able to share the actions they’ve taken before, during, and after Boot Camp. In turn, We Are What We Do will help the people see the cumulative efforts of their fellow Boot Campers. It’s only one piece of the puzzle. We hope it lays the groundwork for longer term impact measurement, and we hope Boot Campers find it inspiring to see all the good works their friends are doing.

Here’s a short video with some background on Eugenie Harvey, We Are What We Do’s founder, who will host the Change The World For Ten Bucks session at Boot Camp. Haven’t registered yet? There’s still time!