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Helping those who help others

When bar association executives expressed their needs, ALPS listened. The ALPS Foundation Services concept was born from conversations with bar association executives who expressed a need for additional support, staffing, or development in order to achieve their objectives. In 2002 it became a reality.

Today, ALPS Foundation Services is a professional consulting firm offering bar foundations and associations cost-effective consultation to fulfill their needs. Beyond the bar, ALPS Foundation Services also provides philanthropic management and counsel for nonprofits, IOLTA and private foundations, and businesses across the country.

The only quality measure of our success is the increased efficiency of the organizations we serve.

Management Operation:

Staffing for nonprofits that do not have a full-time staff at particular times of the year, or during a particular activity

Managing details of an organization's finances, including complete bookkeeping and accounting services, compliance with Form 990 requirements, and corporate fillings

Grant writing and review to help secure funding from private foundations, government agencies, and corporations

State-of-the-art donor tracking software to follow the success of fundraising activities and provide recommendations to leadership on donor cultivation efforts

Direct and select mail coordination and management of membership lists

Organizational Capacity:

Board development training on roles and responsibilities, leadership evaluations, policies and by-laws, committee structure, action-packed agendas, and more

Board and committee support, including meeting agendas, materials, notes, facilitation, and meeting set-up services.

Strategic planning to help define an organization's long-term vision, vest the board of directors with a sense of mission and purpose, and provide a measuring stick of organizational progress

Retreat and meeting facilitation to help achieve results efficiently, while creating an open forum for the views of all parties involved

Development and organizational audits reviewing past objectives, successes and failures through interviews with key stakeholders. Based on the history of the organization, and analysis of the interview responses, ALPS Foundation Services provides a set of comprehensive recommendations to move the organization forward

Fundraising:

Capital and Endowment Campaign Coordination including feasibility assessment, development of case statements and campaign materials, campaign marketing strategy and coaching on fundraising requests to donors

Consultation on a major gifts program as a viable option

Building planned giving into an organization's fundraising activities

Working specifically with IOLTA foundations to enhance their IOLTA revenues through bank and bar surveys, law firm and bank competitions, and personal asks

IOLTA enhancement activities including developing a yearly plan to improve interest rates with financial institutions and develop promotional and outreach materials for revenue enhancement activities

Charitable giving is rewarding. Foundations with a well thought-out charitable plan address some of society's most pressing needs.

Not as rewarding is the administrative burden of running a charitable foundation, particularly for foundations with few or no staff. When grants management, tax compliance, meeting coordination, and record-keeping fall to a volunteer board of trustees, the board often becomes increasingly overwhelmed and may lose sight of the impact and importance of their foundation's charitable giving.

If a foundation's administrative obligations are more than manageable, ALPS Foundation Services is the answer. ALPS Foundation Services specializes in providing bar, private, and IOLTA foundations with complete foundation management. We help free up time for trustees to focus on what matters most - achieving the foundation's charitable intent.

We help state and local bar foundations and associations realize their potential.

ALPS Foundation Services works to meet and exceed the expectations of our state and local bar clients through customer service, integrity, and innovation. We specialize in providing state and local bar foundations and associations with the opportunity to move their organizations forward without adding staff and overhead.

The ALPS Advantage

Dedication to the Legal Community: Unlike other consulting firms, ALPS Foundation Services was founded by attorneys for the benefit of attorneys and the legal profession. We understand the importance of civil legal aid and the ethical and moral responsibility attorneys accept to support access to justice programs in their state.

Customization and Flexibility: Our unique and flexible services allow us to do as much or as little as is necessary to meet the needs of your bar foundation or association. From comprehensive management, planning and fund development services to website development, ALPS Foundation Services can meet your specific needs.

Commitment: ALPS Foundation Services believes in the noble missions of state and local bar foundations and associations, and actively supports the program work of its clients. We cannot ensure equal justice without access to justice.

Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court Building. It is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entirelegal system exists....It is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availablity, without regard to economic status. --Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, Jr

ALPS Foundation Services knows that running a nonprofit can be chaotic.

In addition to meeting the demands of daily operations and management, nonprofit boards and staff must also plan strategically for the future of their organizations. ALPS Foundation Services is here to help. We can look at organizations from the 30,000-foot level to improve capacity and strategic development. We can also work with organizations on the ground, helping improve every aspect of day-to-day operations. ALPS Foundation Services has the nonprofit experience and strategic advantages, including:

Flexibility: We can tailor our services to the unique needs of each nonprofit organization.

Expertise: We understand current trends practiced by nonprofits across the United States. We have established expertise working with nonprofits nationwide. We are published experts and featured presenters on topics of interest to nonprofit organizations.

Commitment: We believe in the public benefit of nonprofit organizations, and consider it a privilege to work in the nonprofit sector.

Documents

ALPS Foundation Services Bar Foundation Brochure

ALPS Foundation Services Nonprofit Brochure

ALPS Foundation Services Resource Guide

Publications

Guide Book Image

The Complete Guide to Bar Foundations by Chris Newbold, Esq.

This 150 page book is packed with advice, information, and strategies for bar foundations. The Guide focuses on issues pertinent to bar foundation development, explains why bar foundations exist, discusses how bar foundations interact with bar associations, and addresses other topics specifically related to bar foundations. The Guide covers the organizational and funding gamut: developing an action-oriented board of directors, compliance with rules and regulations, grant-making, implementing capital and endowment campaigns, cultivating donors, enhancing IOLTA revenue, and much more.

The accompanying CD-ROM (free with purchase) is filled with over 35 sample policies, tools, and templates representing best practices in the bar foundation field. Examples include board duties, codes of ethics, conflict of interest and whistleblower policies, fellows letters, grant guidelines and more.

The Guide and accompanying CD-ROM are available for purchase for $195. Join the over 100 bar foundations (large and small, rural and urban, state and local) currently using the Guide.

National Conference of Bar Foundations Report on "The State of Bar Foundations" Survey by ALPS Foundation Services

Part I: Cumulative Impact Analysis
Part II: Successes and Challenges

From March to July, 2008, the National Conference of Bar Foundations (NCBF) distributed Parts I and II of the National Conference of Bar Foundations Survey on the "The State of Bar Foundations" (Survey). The Survey, the first of its kind, is intended to gather comprehensive data related to the work and overall impact of bar foundations and other legal foundations nationwide.

BarLeader

ABA Bar Leader, March-April 2009 by Kim McKelvey, J.D., CFRE

Report shows bar foundations significantly impact their communities

If you're curious about the world of bar foundations, and about how yours compares with others, just about everything you want to know is in a report released recently by the National Conference of Bar Foundations. In the first of two articles, you'll get an overview on foundations' revenue, distribution, and community impact. Did you know that bar foundations generated more than $900 million in revenue between 2005 and 2007?

ABA Bar Leader, May-June 2009 by Kim McKelvey, J.D., CFRE

Bar foundations have potential for increased impact

In the recently released Part II report, there are some statistics and recommendations you may want to share with your foundation's board. Are you leaving money on the table? And if so, how can you make your foundation more effective, more efficient, and more forward-thinking?