For over 30 years, multiple organizations and leaders have identified the need to establish a statewide support network for nonprofit organizations. The most recent indication of this need came out of the planning for Vision Shared in 2010 from the work team focused on nonprofit capacity building. WV Grantmakers and the WV Hub, with a grant from the Benedum Foundation, hired Dynamic Consulting to
conducted a feasibility study that included input from over 250 nonprofit leaders representing the geographic size, type, and diversity of the state's nonprofit community through a series of focus groups, town hall meetings, interviews, and online surveys. Other state nonprofit associations across the country that serve similar geographic, demographic, and population statistics were interviewed. In May of 2011, this study resulted in the presentation and approval of a proposed business plan by the Board of Directors and staff of both the WV Grantmakers Association and the WV Community Development Hub. In September of 2011, the West Virginia Nonprofit Association Advisory Board was formed and their first year of work focused on the creation and rolling out of the Nonprofit Association in 2012. The West Virginia Nonprofit Association (WVNPA) is a collaborative initiative of West Virginia Grantmakers serving as the fiscal sponsor engaging all nonprofits across the state. The primary functions of the WVNPA
* Provide a regionally delivered training platform that is developed per the needs of the Non Profit sector and that region
* To serve as a clearing house for a wide range of benefits and services that strengthen individual organizations and, in turn, a platform for agencies and other service providers to reach non profits
* To catalyze new thinking, best practices, and excellence in operations, planning, and achieving results
* To advance the non profit sector in the public’s eye, both building awareness and public support for the importance and work of non profits, and bringing a voice to the policy arena
