Frequently Asked Questions
Please browse our frequently asked questions and answers below. If you don't see your question listed, or would like additional information, please fill out our contact form with your question here.
Our expenses are currently funded 100% by the founders. We do not plan to compete for the limited charitable donations and grants available at Lakeside and hope that our work will encourage more financial support for nonprofits in the region.
Lago Alianza is in the process of determining our legal structure and this will determine how we will handle any paid staff. We are thinking carefully about long-term sustainability, well beyond the tenure of the current founders. The founders have individually contracted for outside consultants for the survey report, website and may for training (capacity building) and administrative support until our legal structure is finalized after strategic planning.
We understand that “umbrella” can have different meanings. One is serving as a ‘parent’ organization for groups that are not ACs, acting as an intermediary for fundraising and administrative support. This is not in our immediate plans, although it may be a helpful model for some groups in the future.
Another meaning is serving as an administrative hub for shared services such as bookkeeping, board administration, and database management. While this could become a needed service over time, it is also not part of our immediate plans.
We have taken inspiration from other groups, especially Community Foundations, and we continue to learn from a range of best practices where they are applicable to this unique community.
The Foundation for Lake Chapala Charities is an intermediary organization. Its purpose, as a U.S. 501(c)(3), is to issue tax letters for donations made to local groups under IRS guidelines. Over its many years of service to this community, it has supported Lakeside charities through millions of dollars in donations.
Our mission is different. We aim to strengthen the nonprofit sector itself by supporting organizational development and capacity-building. Currently there is a donor advised fund (DAF) set up to support non profits in the Lakeside area that intends to work closely with Lago Alianza but will be governed as an independent organization with a separate governance structure
The survey summary reveals that many organizations are experiencing burnout, fatigue, and over-reliance on single leaders or donors. Many want to learn more about donor cultivation and retention. Most expressed a desire for greater bilingual participation and increased involvement of local Mexican leaders. Several groups also expressed confusion around AC compliance requirements and accounting rules. The full survey is available on our website at this link.
This refers to the number of discrete “contacts” with a client (a person, animal, or another organization). These are not necessarily unique individuals, as many clients may be served multiple times.
We believe that one-on-one support will be an important part of our work, though likely in a limited and prioritized way. We are currently identifying individuals and organizations that can offer capacity-building services in both group and individual settings.
We want to encourage long-term sustainability. If two or more groups approach us to explore the pros and cons of a merger, and seek support in making it successful, we would want to assist. Once a plan is developed and there is true buy-in, we will help in whatever ways are appropriate and feasible.
For now, Groups.io will serve as the primary platform for discovering collaboration opportunities and sharing information and problem-solving. To learn more about Groups.io please visit this page.
We are currently active on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lagoalianz and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lagoalianza/ and are making weekly posts about the nonprofit sector. We encourage you to follow our channels and share these within your network.
We are committed to supporting all charitable organizations in the Lakeside area. During strategic planning we will discuss if there will be any prioritization of organizations at different stages of development or in different service sectors.
We do not intend to influence donor choices. Instead, we will focus on working with groups that seek a collaboration with us to strengthen the ability to communicate mission and cultivate and retain supporters.