A perplexing situation that has been obvious for generations is how some of the largest foundations begun with money from compassionate American capitalists have morphed into some of the most virulent opposition against capitalism and America.
Fortunately, every so often, principles arise (Bravo Goldman Sachs) as this story from the Wall Street Journal reports.
An excerpt.
“Earlier this month, hundreds of New Yorkers received an unusual dinner invitation from the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union.
“The Credit Union, a small lender serving New York's poor, was holding a fund-raiser to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Among the chief sponsors listed on the invitation was Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
“Among the honorees: "Occupy Wall Street."
“They might as well have asked Marie Antoinette to dig into her purse to support Madame Defarge's knitting business.
“Shortly after the invitation was sent out, Goldman withdrew its name from the dinner. It also pulled the plug on its $5,000 funding pledge.
“The debate that ensued—between bankers and nonprofit chiefs, philanthropists and financiers—turned a modest fund-raising dinner into a heated battleground between Wall Street and the Occupy protestors, exposing contradictions on both sides.
“On one side was Goldman Sachs, which told the credit union it didn't want its name or money used to celebrate a protest movement known for placards like "Goldman Sachs is the work of the devil," dinner organizers said. The investment bank's giant glass-and-steel headquarters tower is just blocks away from the protest headquarters in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park.
“On the other side of the debate were several hosts and board members of the credit union, who said honoring the protesters is more important than the money from Goldman—even though the funds were slated to cover a quarter of the dinner's $20,000 cost.
"Their money was welcome, but not at the price of giving up what we believe in," said Pablo DeFilippi, one of the dinner hosts and associate director of member development at the National Federal of Community Development Credit Unions. "We lost their $5,000, but we have our principles."
Showing posts with label Mission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mission. Show all posts
Monday, October 24, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Retaining & Creating Donors
Very good advice from Contributions Magazine.
An excerpt.
“Why is it that fund raisers don’t have time to devote to building relationships with their most promising donors? Often it is because they are busy organizing galas, awards dinners, or other events that are expected to raise big bucks and bring in new “heavy hitters” but somehow always fall short of expectations. Here are some tips for keeping the focus on donor stewardship when you plan your next event.
"1. Respect your donors
The people who support your organization are motivated by some combination of belief in your mission, respect for the person who introduced you to them, and excitement about your organizational personality. When you get a gift before, during, or after an event, remember that it was an actual person who wrote that check.
"2. Use your event to focus on your mission
Every step of your event – invitations, program books, speeches, party favors, thank you notes – gives you the chance to cement the connection between your donors and the missions that they make possible. Tug some heart strings. Tell some tear-jerking stories. Make the mission come to life.
"3. Do not indulge in excess party planning
Keep it simple. Minimize every celebratory flourish that does NOT connect your donors and partners with your mission. Don’t break a sweat about the color of the napkins.
"4. Use the event to enlarge your family
A mission-focused event is a great way to engage new people. Don’t get hung up on the price of a ticket. If it will benefit your organization in the long run to have someone get introduced, find a way to invite him or her as the guest of the executive director. Or of a board member.”
An excerpt.
“Why is it that fund raisers don’t have time to devote to building relationships with their most promising donors? Often it is because they are busy organizing galas, awards dinners, or other events that are expected to raise big bucks and bring in new “heavy hitters” but somehow always fall short of expectations. Here are some tips for keeping the focus on donor stewardship when you plan your next event.
"1. Respect your donors
The people who support your organization are motivated by some combination of belief in your mission, respect for the person who introduced you to them, and excitement about your organizational personality. When you get a gift before, during, or after an event, remember that it was an actual person who wrote that check.
"2. Use your event to focus on your mission
Every step of your event – invitations, program books, speeches, party favors, thank you notes – gives you the chance to cement the connection between your donors and the missions that they make possible. Tug some heart strings. Tell some tear-jerking stories. Make the mission come to life.
"3. Do not indulge in excess party planning
Keep it simple. Minimize every celebratory flourish that does NOT connect your donors and partners with your mission. Don’t break a sweat about the color of the napkins.
"4. Use the event to enlarge your family
A mission-focused event is a great way to engage new people. Don’t get hung up on the price of a ticket. If it will benefit your organization in the long run to have someone get introduced, find a way to invite him or her as the guest of the executive director. Or of a board member.”
Thursday, September 8, 2011
California Nonprofits & Property Taxes
Some interesting developments reported by this story in the New York Times.
An excerpt.
“A growing number of nonprofit groups in California are being denied exemption from property taxes because the state’s chief tax collector and assessors contend they do not do enough to benefit state residents, according to lawyers representing the groups.
“I have a client who applied for the exemption recently and has been denied on the basis that it would not be doing enough to benefit the citizens of California,” said Ofer Lion, a lawyer. Mr. Lion would not name his client, but said it was a new charity with “a global outlook in its mission.”
“They purchased a building in California because they relied on being able to qualify for property tax exemption,” he said. “If it has to pay the tax, it’s not going to go under, but less money will, of course, be available for its mission.”
“No one knows how many nonprofit groups in California have been affected or why the issue has become contentious now, but the state’s budget woes have been mentioned as a likely motive. “It probably has something to do with the economy,” said Stephanie L. Petit, who has clients dealing with the process. “I think regulators are starting to look more closely at organizations that have the property tax exemption.”
“State and local governments have been taking a hard look at nonprofits and the various tax exemptions they receive for the last couple of years, as tax revenues have fallen and the demand for public services has risen.
“Last year, Hawaii tried — and failed — to impose a 1 percent tax on nonprofit groups. Boston has asked nonprofits to pay the city what is essentially a discounted property tax, and Chicago plans to ask nonprofits to start paying water and sewer fees.
“Not surprisingly, such plans run into stiff opposition from nonprofit groups and their political supporters. But in California, the rules on the property tax exemption for nonprofits evolved out of a 1944 ballot initiative, so they are more grounded than in many other places — if not necessarily applied assiduously by county assessors.
“The state has a two-tiered system, in which nonprofits first apply to the Board of Equalization, which collects state-mandated fees, sales and sin taxes and certifies exemption eligibility.”
An excerpt.
“A growing number of nonprofit groups in California are being denied exemption from property taxes because the state’s chief tax collector and assessors contend they do not do enough to benefit state residents, according to lawyers representing the groups.
“I have a client who applied for the exemption recently and has been denied on the basis that it would not be doing enough to benefit the citizens of California,” said Ofer Lion, a lawyer. Mr. Lion would not name his client, but said it was a new charity with “a global outlook in its mission.”
“They purchased a building in California because they relied on being able to qualify for property tax exemption,” he said. “If it has to pay the tax, it’s not going to go under, but less money will, of course, be available for its mission.”
“No one knows how many nonprofit groups in California have been affected or why the issue has become contentious now, but the state’s budget woes have been mentioned as a likely motive. “It probably has something to do with the economy,” said Stephanie L. Petit, who has clients dealing with the process. “I think regulators are starting to look more closely at organizations that have the property tax exemption.”
“State and local governments have been taking a hard look at nonprofits and the various tax exemptions they receive for the last couple of years, as tax revenues have fallen and the demand for public services has risen.
“Last year, Hawaii tried — and failed — to impose a 1 percent tax on nonprofit groups. Boston has asked nonprofits to pay the city what is essentially a discounted property tax, and Chicago plans to ask nonprofits to start paying water and sewer fees.
“Not surprisingly, such plans run into stiff opposition from nonprofit groups and their political supporters. But in California, the rules on the property tax exemption for nonprofits evolved out of a 1944 ballot initiative, so they are more grounded than in many other places — if not necessarily applied assiduously by county assessors.
“The state has a two-tiered system, in which nonprofits first apply to the Board of Equalization, which collects state-mandated fees, sales and sin taxes and certifies exemption eligibility.”
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Organizational Problems? Look to Leadership
Though this is virtually ancient history for anyone involved in studying the field of management, it still never hurts to be reminded anew: that leadership sets the pace, as this article from Harvard Business Weekly notes.
An excerpt.
“When CEOs speak with Rob Kaplan looking for answers, he usually focuses them instead on figuring out and discussing the right questions.
"Show me a company, nonprofit, or a government leader that is struggling, and almost invariably you'll see someone who isn't sufficiently focused on asking the right questions," says Kaplan, a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. "Most leaders spend a lot of their time looking for answers. Very often, they may feel isolated and alone. I want to help them refocus their attention on framing and then discussing the key questions that will help them regroup, mobilize their team, formulate a plan of action, and move forward."
“In his new book, What to Ask the Person in the Mirror , Kaplan argues against the notion that great leadership is about having all the answers. He believes that leadership skills can be learned--and that many of these skills require executives to rethink their conception of what a superb leader actually does. Developing and practicing these skills requires hard work and may demand that talented executives overcome some degree of discomfort and even anxiety in order to raise their game.
“The book discusses several key areas of inquiry that can help leaders improve the success of their companies and nonprofit organizations including: vision and priorities, managing your time, giving and getting feedback, succession planning and delegation, evaluation and alignment, being a role model, and reaching your potential. "My objective is to help leaders reach their potential by helping them realize that they don't need to have all the answers or do this alone. I hope they will see that framing a question and listening can be enormously powerful in leading to excellent decisions. A leader needs to master the use of inquiry and reflection as well as advocacy in order to build his or her organization and career."
“Have you developed a clear vision and key priorities for your enterprise?
"When I see a problem with a business or nonprofit, it often starts with a lack of clarity about the organization's aspirations," Kaplan says. The leader may have a clear vision in his or her head but has not communicated it effectively throughout the organization. "When there is not a clearly articulated vision along with a manageable set of key priorities, you may see an organization where employees are expending their energies in a number of divergent and uncoordinated directions."
“Leaders need to ask whether they articulate a clear vision and, just as importantly, whether their key employees can rearticulate this vision in a consistent manner. For instance, DuPont's vision is "to be the world's most dynamic science company, creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer and healthier life for people everywhere." This vision helps DuPont employees better understand what (and why) they are spending their professional energies trying to accomplish.
“Once the vision is established, Kaplan advises leaders to come up with and communicate a list of no more than three to five priorities that are critical to the organization in order to achieve the vision. In his book, Kaplan describes various approaches to formulating and adapting these priorities to each department and geographic region in order to better achieve overall organization objectives. "When a leadership has this discipline, they focus much more intently on what tasks they need to do superbly well in order to achieve their goals. This also can help them to question certain activities where they are spending substantial time and money yet not contributing to organizational goals and maybe they shouldn't be pursuing."
An excerpt.
“When CEOs speak with Rob Kaplan looking for answers, he usually focuses them instead on figuring out and discussing the right questions.
"Show me a company, nonprofit, or a government leader that is struggling, and almost invariably you'll see someone who isn't sufficiently focused on asking the right questions," says Kaplan, a Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. "Most leaders spend a lot of their time looking for answers. Very often, they may feel isolated and alone. I want to help them refocus their attention on framing and then discussing the key questions that will help them regroup, mobilize their team, formulate a plan of action, and move forward."
“In his new book, What to Ask the Person in the Mirror , Kaplan argues against the notion that great leadership is about having all the answers. He believes that leadership skills can be learned--and that many of these skills require executives to rethink their conception of what a superb leader actually does. Developing and practicing these skills requires hard work and may demand that talented executives overcome some degree of discomfort and even anxiety in order to raise their game.
“The book discusses several key areas of inquiry that can help leaders improve the success of their companies and nonprofit organizations including: vision and priorities, managing your time, giving and getting feedback, succession planning and delegation, evaluation and alignment, being a role model, and reaching your potential. "My objective is to help leaders reach their potential by helping them realize that they don't need to have all the answers or do this alone. I hope they will see that framing a question and listening can be enormously powerful in leading to excellent decisions. A leader needs to master the use of inquiry and reflection as well as advocacy in order to build his or her organization and career."
“Have you developed a clear vision and key priorities for your enterprise?
"When I see a problem with a business or nonprofit, it often starts with a lack of clarity about the organization's aspirations," Kaplan says. The leader may have a clear vision in his or her head but has not communicated it effectively throughout the organization. "When there is not a clearly articulated vision along with a manageable set of key priorities, you may see an organization where employees are expending their energies in a number of divergent and uncoordinated directions."
“Leaders need to ask whether they articulate a clear vision and, just as importantly, whether their key employees can rearticulate this vision in a consistent manner. For instance, DuPont's vision is "to be the world's most dynamic science company, creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer and healthier life for people everywhere." This vision helps DuPont employees better understand what (and why) they are spending their professional energies trying to accomplish.
“Once the vision is established, Kaplan advises leaders to come up with and communicate a list of no more than three to five priorities that are critical to the organization in order to achieve the vision. In his book, Kaplan describes various approaches to formulating and adapting these priorities to each department and geographic region in order to better achieve overall organization objectives. "When a leadership has this discipline, they focus much more intently on what tasks they need to do superbly well in order to achieve their goals. This also can help them to question certain activities where they are spending substantial time and money yet not contributing to organizational goals and maybe they shouldn't be pursuing."
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Nonprofit Innovation
This nonprofit project in Richmond, Virginia, reported by the Richmond Times Dispatch, is founded on a very creative idea, exactly the kind of help a certain downtown street in Sacramento needs.
An excerpt.
“Adam Lovelady found a place to get help with a modest overhaul of his front yard on Richmond's North Side.
“With little money to spend, he became the first client of the nonprofit Storefront for Community Design, which opened in February as an affordable resource for design and building projects throughout the city.
“Lovelady was paired with a volunteer trained in landscape architecture and ended up with a sketched plan for his yard. Following the suggestions of Juliellen Sarver, Lovelady got to work, digging up and replanting about 15 shrubs, spreading mulch and clearing a path to recognize his 2½-year-old son Carter's route to the side yard.
"The sod will have to wait for another year and another budget," Lovelady said.
“The Storefront, which is being funded by the city along with individuals, companies and organizations, operates on the notion that the quality of a neighborhood is determined in part by its design.
“The center tries to help by matching prospective projects with professionals who can help navigate the city's bureaucracy and shed light on possibilities.
"The average person is not exposed to design professionals. This provides a forum for that," said Andrew Moore, a member of the Storefront's advisory committee and a senior associate with Glavé & Holmes Architecture.
"It's about quality and inclusion," added board member Mary Harding Sadler, a historical architect with Sadler & Whitehead Architects and chairwoman of the city's Commission of Architectural Review. "It's about the whole city, raising the bar and making high-quality design possible."
“The Storefront's first hour of service is free. After that, rates are charged on a sliding schedule.”
An excerpt.
“Adam Lovelady found a place to get help with a modest overhaul of his front yard on Richmond's North Side.
“With little money to spend, he became the first client of the nonprofit Storefront for Community Design, which opened in February as an affordable resource for design and building projects throughout the city.
“Lovelady was paired with a volunteer trained in landscape architecture and ended up with a sketched plan for his yard. Following the suggestions of Juliellen Sarver, Lovelady got to work, digging up and replanting about 15 shrubs, spreading mulch and clearing a path to recognize his 2½-year-old son Carter's route to the side yard.
"The sod will have to wait for another year and another budget," Lovelady said.
“The Storefront, which is being funded by the city along with individuals, companies and organizations, operates on the notion that the quality of a neighborhood is determined in part by its design.
“The center tries to help by matching prospective projects with professionals who can help navigate the city's bureaucracy and shed light on possibilities.
"The average person is not exposed to design professionals. This provides a forum for that," said Andrew Moore, a member of the Storefront's advisory committee and a senior associate with Glavé & Holmes Architecture.
"It's about quality and inclusion," added board member Mary Harding Sadler, a historical architect with Sadler & Whitehead Architects and chairwoman of the city's Commission of Architectural Review. "It's about the whole city, raising the bar and making high-quality design possible."
“The Storefront's first hour of service is free. After that, rates are charged on a sliding schedule.”
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The Ancient Exploitation
It is surely that directed towards women—and the prevalence of nonprofits working to help women, even in the advanced culture of the United States, testifies to that—and thankfully, in the regions where the exploitation of women is still pronounced, it continues to be challenged, as reported by Harvard Business Weekly.
An excerpt.
“India is a country where many women struggle for survival from the day they are born. Girls in India are less likely to be breastfed than boys, for instance, and less likely to be immunized.
“But India also has the highest number of elected female representatives in the world. A 1993 constitutional amendment meant to broaden the scope and accessibility of democracy called for the creation of directly elected local councils at the district, intermediate, and village levels, and mandated that one-third of all council seats be filled by women. The amendment is an ongoing policy experiment of sorts, on an epic scale.
“As Harvard Business School professor Lakshmi Iyer and her colleagues discovered, it's been producing encouraging results. Their research suggests that disadvantaged or minority groups in India whose members are elected to local governments have not only more of a "political voice" but also more access to and better results from the justice system.
“In the working paper The Power of Political Voice: Women's Political Representation and Crime in India, Iyer, Anandi Mani (University of Warwick), and Prachi Mishra and Petia Topalova (International Monetary Fund) examine the effect that mandated political representation for women has had on crimes against women.”
An excerpt.
“India is a country where many women struggle for survival from the day they are born. Girls in India are less likely to be breastfed than boys, for instance, and less likely to be immunized.
“But India also has the highest number of elected female representatives in the world. A 1993 constitutional amendment meant to broaden the scope and accessibility of democracy called for the creation of directly elected local councils at the district, intermediate, and village levels, and mandated that one-third of all council seats be filled by women. The amendment is an ongoing policy experiment of sorts, on an epic scale.
“As Harvard Business School professor Lakshmi Iyer and her colleagues discovered, it's been producing encouraging results. Their research suggests that disadvantaged or minority groups in India whose members are elected to local governments have not only more of a "political voice" but also more access to and better results from the justice system.
“In the working paper The Power of Political Voice: Women's Political Representation and Crime in India, Iyer, Anandi Mani (University of Warwick), and Prachi Mishra and Petia Topalova (International Monetary Fund) examine the effect that mandated political representation for women has had on crimes against women.”
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Mission Accomplished
And once it is so, nonprofits should transfer any assets to another nonprofit and close up shop, as this article from the New York Times reveals, is actually happening.
An excerpt.
“A few nonprofit groups have recently announced plans to wind down, not over financial problems but because their missions are nearly finished.
“Most notable, perhaps, is Malaria No More, a popular nonprofit that supplies bed nets in malaria zones. Its goal is to end deaths from malaria, a target it sees fast approaching.
“The charity has announced plans to close in 2015, but it is keeping its options open in the unlikely event that advances against malaria are reversed.
“We never planned to be around forever,” said Scott Case, a co-founder of Priceline and vice chairman of Malaria No More. “We have thought of this more as a project than as an institution-building exercise, and the project is nearing its completion.”
“So far, the number of organizations opting to go out of business for mission-related reasons is too small to call a trend. It is still far more common for a nonprofit to close its doors because of financial pressure, which is increasing as governments continue to pare their budgets and donors maintain tight grips on their giving.
“Still, the novelty of organizations going out of business once their work is done has attracted attention.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a widespread phenomenon because there are a lot of groups taking on problems like alcoholism and domestic violence that aren’t problems that go away,” said Jan Masaoka, editor in chief of Blue Avocado, a blog for nonprofits. “But I do see that in some cases there is an opportunity for organizations to wind down gracefully and with their job done.”
“Out2Play, an organization started by Andrea Wenner in 2005, plans to close its doors next year. The group has put up roughly 120 playgrounds used by about 80,000 children in public elementary schools around New York City and is fast running out of locations, in part because the Bloomberg administration liked the idea so much that it took on some schools itself.
“When I first wrote the business plan, I thought about expanding it to other cities or into other types of institutions, like housing projects or hospitals, and we talked about those ideas and others when the board began seeing the end in sight,” Ms. Wenner said.
“Ultimately, though, the board decided that the model worked best for the purpose it had served and that anything else would require more than a simple tweak.”
An excerpt.
“A few nonprofit groups have recently announced plans to wind down, not over financial problems but because their missions are nearly finished.
“Most notable, perhaps, is Malaria No More, a popular nonprofit that supplies bed nets in malaria zones. Its goal is to end deaths from malaria, a target it sees fast approaching.
“The charity has announced plans to close in 2015, but it is keeping its options open in the unlikely event that advances against malaria are reversed.
“We never planned to be around forever,” said Scott Case, a co-founder of Priceline and vice chairman of Malaria No More. “We have thought of this more as a project than as an institution-building exercise, and the project is nearing its completion.”
“So far, the number of organizations opting to go out of business for mission-related reasons is too small to call a trend. It is still far more common for a nonprofit to close its doors because of financial pressure, which is increasing as governments continue to pare their budgets and donors maintain tight grips on their giving.
“Still, the novelty of organizations going out of business once their work is done has attracted attention.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a widespread phenomenon because there are a lot of groups taking on problems like alcoholism and domestic violence that aren’t problems that go away,” said Jan Masaoka, editor in chief of Blue Avocado, a blog for nonprofits. “But I do see that in some cases there is an opportunity for organizations to wind down gracefully and with their job done.”
“Out2Play, an organization started by Andrea Wenner in 2005, plans to close its doors next year. The group has put up roughly 120 playgrounds used by about 80,000 children in public elementary schools around New York City and is fast running out of locations, in part because the Bloomberg administration liked the idea so much that it took on some schools itself.
“When I first wrote the business plan, I thought about expanding it to other cities or into other types of institutions, like housing projects or hospitals, and we talked about those ideas and others when the board began seeing the end in sight,” Ms. Wenner said.
“Ultimately, though, the board decided that the model worked best for the purpose it had served and that anything else would require more than a simple tweak.”
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
True to Mission
This is equivalent to staying on message and this article from Contributions Magazine examines how to do that.
An excerpt.
“I was part of a team conducting a focus group for a large nonprofit client. The focus group comprised representatives from the financial sector, a target audience this particular national nonprofit was most interested in cultivating through its messaging.
“One or more of the messages we were about to test had the words “partners” and “partnership” in them, which we thought were no-brainers. After all, they are simple, easy-to-understand words that convey affiliation, cooperation, collaboration, alliance, all the good stuff, right?
“Wrong!
“As the messages came up for the group’s reaction, two bankers immediately raised their hands.
“In our industry, the words ‘partners’ and ‘partnership’ are loaded with legal implications,” said one. “We don’t mind being recognized as ‘working together’ with the organization, but we’d rather not be identified as ‘partners,’” said the other.
“Bah-dah-bing!
“Had we allowed our client to go public with the original messages, chances are the impact that they might have had on their intended audience, namely potential financial sector funders, would have been the opposite from what the organization was hoping for.
“The lesson learned: It’s not about how your message is delivered, but rather how it is received that makes all the difference.
“Fact is most organizations shoot from the hip when it comes to talking about themselves. They don’t pay enough attention to the messages they send out and often have no idea how those messages are resonating with the very audiences they are seeking to reach.
“Gain control over your messages.
“Gain control over your messaging process by creating a “messaging package,” namely by compiling the core messages you want to convey to your target audiences. The purpose of your messaging package is to help everyone affiliated with your organization stay on message.”
An excerpt.
“I was part of a team conducting a focus group for a large nonprofit client. The focus group comprised representatives from the financial sector, a target audience this particular national nonprofit was most interested in cultivating through its messaging.
“One or more of the messages we were about to test had the words “partners” and “partnership” in them, which we thought were no-brainers. After all, they are simple, easy-to-understand words that convey affiliation, cooperation, collaboration, alliance, all the good stuff, right?
“Wrong!
“As the messages came up for the group’s reaction, two bankers immediately raised their hands.
“In our industry, the words ‘partners’ and ‘partnership’ are loaded with legal implications,” said one. “We don’t mind being recognized as ‘working together’ with the organization, but we’d rather not be identified as ‘partners,’” said the other.
“Bah-dah-bing!
“Had we allowed our client to go public with the original messages, chances are the impact that they might have had on their intended audience, namely potential financial sector funders, would have been the opposite from what the organization was hoping for.
“The lesson learned: It’s not about how your message is delivered, but rather how it is received that makes all the difference.
“Fact is most organizations shoot from the hip when it comes to talking about themselves. They don’t pay enough attention to the messages they send out and often have no idea how those messages are resonating with the very audiences they are seeking to reach.
“Gain control over your messages.
“Gain control over your messaging process by creating a “messaging package,” namely by compiling the core messages you want to convey to your target audiences. The purpose of your messaging package is to help everyone affiliated with your organization stay on message.”
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Faith & Money
Being true to belief is always admirable, and as reported by the Catholic Sentinel, that is what an Oregon nonprofit organization has done.
Bravo!
An excerpt.
“EUGENE — Catholic Community Services of Lane County will no longer accept money from United Way . That's because the secular charity clearing house also funds Planned Parenthood.
“Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Portland made a similar decision more than a decade ago in Portland.
“Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon, though it says it does not offer surgical abortions, recently began offering RU-486, a drug that terminates a pregnancy, taking a nascent life.
“Planned Parenthood has eight centers in Southwest Oregon and dispenses RU-486 in Eugene and Ashland.
“Archbishop John Vlazny advised the Catholic Community Services board to tell United Way about the objections to funding the nation's largest abortion provider.
“United Way chose to continue funding Planned Parenthood, so the Catholic Community Services board voted to unlink itself for moral reasons.”
Bravo!
An excerpt.
“EUGENE — Catholic Community Services of Lane County will no longer accept money from United Way . That's because the secular charity clearing house also funds Planned Parenthood.
“Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Portland made a similar decision more than a decade ago in Portland.
“Planned Parenthood of Southwest Oregon, though it says it does not offer surgical abortions, recently began offering RU-486, a drug that terminates a pregnancy, taking a nascent life.
“Planned Parenthood has eight centers in Southwest Oregon and dispenses RU-486 in Eugene and Ashland.
“Archbishop John Vlazny advised the Catholic Community Services board to tell United Way about the objections to funding the nation's largest abortion provider.
“United Way chose to continue funding Planned Parenthood, so the Catholic Community Services board voted to unlink itself for moral reasons.”
Friday, November 19, 2010
Knowledge of the Forest & the Trees
Perusing a recent article (Building Programmatic Capacity at the Grassroots Level: The Reaction of Local Nonprofit Organizations to Public Participation Geographic Information Systems) in the Journal, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the publication of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) — an association I have found to provide valuable information over the years — I was struck by the importance of system thinking combined with mission thinking.
Though they seem incompatible, being able to understand and work effectively within the advocacy environment — including needs of funders — most grassroots survive or die in, while remaining true to mission and serving clients at the highest level of expertise and heart, is fast becoming mandatory.
Here is the first paragraph of the article.
“The philanthropic and charitable underpinning of social service nonprofit organizations creates a unique environment in which these entities function. In the past, contributors assumed that nonprofit entities spent funds in an accountable and efficient manner and trusted that public good resulted from their activities. As a result, contributors commonly expressed fewer expectations in terms of reporting requirements or measures of accountability. Not so today. The effects of government downsizing, devolution, and new public management now require nonprofits to explain, if not justify, their financial decision making to contributors. As nonprofit organizations struggle to serve more clients with static or declining resources, they too realize that sound management practices have become critical to their success.” (Volume 39 Number 6 December 2010. pp. 992)
Though they seem incompatible, being able to understand and work effectively within the advocacy environment — including needs of funders — most grassroots survive or die in, while remaining true to mission and serving clients at the highest level of expertise and heart, is fast becoming mandatory.
Here is the first paragraph of the article.
“The philanthropic and charitable underpinning of social service nonprofit organizations creates a unique environment in which these entities function. In the past, contributors assumed that nonprofit entities spent funds in an accountable and efficient manner and trusted that public good resulted from their activities. As a result, contributors commonly expressed fewer expectations in terms of reporting requirements or measures of accountability. Not so today. The effects of government downsizing, devolution, and new public management now require nonprofits to explain, if not justify, their financial decision making to contributors. As nonprofit organizations struggle to serve more clients with static or declining resources, they too realize that sound management practices have become critical to their success.” (Volume 39 Number 6 December 2010. pp. 992)
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Criminals Becoming Entrepreneurs
Though it seems counter-intuitive (but also has application to other marginalized groups) this is the centerpiece of the rehabilitative approach used by several nonprofit organizations—profiled by the Cleveland Plain Dealer—and by being congruent with the operating mantra of many professional criminals, will probably continue to work, as this article in the Plain Dealer notes.
An excerpt.
“CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For nearly 10 years, Augustus Turner had a lot of time to ponder an American dream that he refused to believe was out of reach because of a big mistake and a permanent label.
“Turner was a prison inmate, hoping to run his own business after serving time for drug trafficking.
“He knew the odds weren't good. Although 97 percent of prisoners are eventually released, only 53 percent find work, and a far smaller share start their own businesses.
"What I learned from the streets is how to hustle," said Turner, 39. "You can dream. You can pray. It all starts there. But you have to actively make it happen."
“And he did. Today, Turner operates Masterpieces, a 10-year-old art studio, tattoo shop and silk-screening business on the West Side of Cleveland.
“Turner made his dream happen through sheer perseverance, but a growing movement across the country is trying to train released convicts to achieve success as entrepreneurs.
“Northeast Ohio might be lagging behind the trend. A few people here are trying to make a difference, but no coordinated effort has emerged to help parolees stay out of prison by starting businesses.
“More than 700,000 people will be released from the nation's state or federal prisons this year. About two-thirds will wind up back behind bars within two or three years.
“Government, private-sector officials and academics seem to agree that a job helps keep an ex-prisoner from returning to the penitentiary. And nobody disputes the challenges of becoming employed.
“For instance, studies in Milwaukee and New York found that a criminal record reduces employment opportunities by 50 percent for white people and 64 percent for black people -- at a time when jobs are already scarce.
"More than 60 percent of employers surveyed in the 2002 Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI) reported that they would "probably not" or "definitely not" hire applicants with criminal history records.
“The answer might be entrepreneurship, according to a 2007 national report from the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Venturing Beyond the Gates" is considered the most extensive recent study on successful re-entry to society through entrepreneurship.
“Only a handful of entrepreneur-loan programs exist for ex-prisoners. And communication is virtually nonexistent among them, according to the study.
“The most notable and biggest prison entrepreneurship program is in Texas, with offices in Houston and Dallas. Former Wall Street investor Catherine Rohr founded the program in 2004 after she toured a prison and decided that executives and inmates had more in common than most would think. Both know how to manage others, and even the most unsophisticated drug dealers understand business concepts like competition, profitability and proprietary sales channels, said David Joekel, executive relations manager at the prison program.
“Hardened criminals including murderers, thieves, drug dealers and gang leaders from more than 60 jails in Texas are invited to apply each year. Those selected are transferred to one correctional facility, where they learn entrepreneurial skills as well as strategies for finding a job. With private funding, MBA students as mentors, a highly selective admissions process and stringent pre- and post-release programs, ex-prisoners have started about 60 businesses in the program's six years.
“So far, 600 inmates have graduated. In the last two years, 98 percent of the graduates have found decent jobs within three months of release, with an average starting salary of $10.75 an hour. The program continues to gain momentum and interest from volunteers including business, government leaders and dozens of MBA programs, because of a return-to-prison rate of less than 10 percent for the graduates.”
An excerpt.
“CLEVELAND, Ohio -- For nearly 10 years, Augustus Turner had a lot of time to ponder an American dream that he refused to believe was out of reach because of a big mistake and a permanent label.
“Turner was a prison inmate, hoping to run his own business after serving time for drug trafficking.
“He knew the odds weren't good. Although 97 percent of prisoners are eventually released, only 53 percent find work, and a far smaller share start their own businesses.
"What I learned from the streets is how to hustle," said Turner, 39. "You can dream. You can pray. It all starts there. But you have to actively make it happen."
“And he did. Today, Turner operates Masterpieces, a 10-year-old art studio, tattoo shop and silk-screening business on the West Side of Cleveland.
“Turner made his dream happen through sheer perseverance, but a growing movement across the country is trying to train released convicts to achieve success as entrepreneurs.
“Northeast Ohio might be lagging behind the trend. A few people here are trying to make a difference, but no coordinated effort has emerged to help parolees stay out of prison by starting businesses.
“More than 700,000 people will be released from the nation's state or federal prisons this year. About two-thirds will wind up back behind bars within two or three years.
“Government, private-sector officials and academics seem to agree that a job helps keep an ex-prisoner from returning to the penitentiary. And nobody disputes the challenges of becoming employed.
“For instance, studies in Milwaukee and New York found that a criminal record reduces employment opportunities by 50 percent for white people and 64 percent for black people -- at a time when jobs are already scarce.
"More than 60 percent of employers surveyed in the 2002 Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI) reported that they would "probably not" or "definitely not" hire applicants with criminal history records.
“The answer might be entrepreneurship, according to a 2007 national report from the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Venturing Beyond the Gates" is considered the most extensive recent study on successful re-entry to society through entrepreneurship.
“Only a handful of entrepreneur-loan programs exist for ex-prisoners. And communication is virtually nonexistent among them, according to the study.
“The most notable and biggest prison entrepreneurship program is in Texas, with offices in Houston and Dallas. Former Wall Street investor Catherine Rohr founded the program in 2004 after she toured a prison and decided that executives and inmates had more in common than most would think. Both know how to manage others, and even the most unsophisticated drug dealers understand business concepts like competition, profitability and proprietary sales channels, said David Joekel, executive relations manager at the prison program.
“Hardened criminals including murderers, thieves, drug dealers and gang leaders from more than 60 jails in Texas are invited to apply each year. Those selected are transferred to one correctional facility, where they learn entrepreneurial skills as well as strategies for finding a job. With private funding, MBA students as mentors, a highly selective admissions process and stringent pre- and post-release programs, ex-prisoners have started about 60 businesses in the program's six years.
“So far, 600 inmates have graduated. In the last two years, 98 percent of the graduates have found decent jobs within three months of release, with an average starting salary of $10.75 an hour. The program continues to gain momentum and interest from volunteers including business, government leaders and dozens of MBA programs, because of a return-to-prison rate of less than 10 percent for the graduates.”
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Fulfilling Mission
The mission social entrepreneurs embrace when they decide to put their energy and passion towards bettering the world, need not always—though almost always—be fulfilled through nonprofit status.
This article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog notes another way.
An excerpt.
“I recently bumped into Debbie Reck, founder and executive director of Writers’ Express, a youth writing program.
“Her organization has had real success with its curriculum and has seen increasing demand for its programs from other markets in recent years.
“Debbie and I have spoken a few times over the past year about the quality of the group's programs and how it has been trying to find the right funding partnerships to help it expand.
“It had relied on a couple of committed funders and some supportive board members. But it had never connected with significant “equity investors” that could provide the capital necessary to help grow and support its infrastructure. As a result, it hadn't yet been able to scale up—to replicate its work on a larger scale.
“When I had last talked to Debbie at the end of 2009, she told me that she felt caught between funders who were asking her to adjust the Writers' Express goals to meet their own funding priorities and private-sector companies that saw real value in Writers’ Express programs. These companies were looking to commoditize the organization's programs for broader distribution.
“Debbie’s goal, though, was simply to hold on to the mission of Writers’ Express—to give all students the power to explore their ideas, the skills to communicate them clearly, and the conviction that the world wants to hear them.
“So when I saw Debbie earlier this month, I was anxious for an update. She explained that after many years of trying to scrape together philanthropic funding to keep Writers' Express moving forward, she had decided to take the private-sector route. She sold most of its programs to a national company, Wireless Generation, which provides tools and services to 200,000 teachers and 3 million students.
“Debbie had moved with the programs to the new company and when I asked her what the decision meant for her, I was struck by the response.
”It’s great," she said. "Finally I can focus on mission."
This article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy blog notes another way.
An excerpt.
“I recently bumped into Debbie Reck, founder and executive director of Writers’ Express, a youth writing program.
“Her organization has had real success with its curriculum and has seen increasing demand for its programs from other markets in recent years.
“Debbie and I have spoken a few times over the past year about the quality of the group's programs and how it has been trying to find the right funding partnerships to help it expand.
“It had relied on a couple of committed funders and some supportive board members. But it had never connected with significant “equity investors” that could provide the capital necessary to help grow and support its infrastructure. As a result, it hadn't yet been able to scale up—to replicate its work on a larger scale.
“When I had last talked to Debbie at the end of 2009, she told me that she felt caught between funders who were asking her to adjust the Writers' Express goals to meet their own funding priorities and private-sector companies that saw real value in Writers’ Express programs. These companies were looking to commoditize the organization's programs for broader distribution.
“Debbie’s goal, though, was simply to hold on to the mission of Writers’ Express—to give all students the power to explore their ideas, the skills to communicate them clearly, and the conviction that the world wants to hear them.
“So when I saw Debbie earlier this month, I was anxious for an update. She explained that after many years of trying to scrape together philanthropic funding to keep Writers' Express moving forward, she had decided to take the private-sector route. She sold most of its programs to a national company, Wireless Generation, which provides tools and services to 200,000 teachers and 3 million students.
“Debbie had moved with the programs to the new company and when I asked her what the decision meant for her, I was struck by the response.
”It’s great," she said. "Finally I can focus on mission."
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Movements, Nonprofits & Change
The great movements in America that have resulted in such wonderful change—such as that which gave the right to vote for women—take a long time, and this article from the New York Times notes the effort.
An excerpt.
“The story in American history I most like to tell is the one about how women got the right to vote 90 years ago this month. It has everything. Adventure! Suspense! Treachery! Drunken legislators!
“But, first, there was a 70-year slog.
“Which is really the important part. We always need to remember that behind almost every great moment in history, there are heroic people doing really boring and frustrating things for a prolonged period of time.
“That great suffragist and excellent counter, Carrie Chapman Catt, estimated that the struggle had involved 56 referendum campaigns directed at male voters, plus “480 campaigns to get Legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters, 47 campaigns to get constitutional conventions to write woman suffrage into state constitutions; 277 campaigns to get State party conventions to include woman suffrage planks, 30 campaigns to get presidential party campaigns to include woman suffrage planks in party platforms and 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses.”
“And you thought health care reform was a drawn-out battle.
“The great, thundering roadblock to progress was — wait for the surprise — the U.S. Senate. All through the last part of the 19th century and into the 20th, attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution ran up against a wall of conservative Southern senators.
“So the women decided to win the vote by amending every single state constitution, one by one.
“There were five referenda in South Dakota alone. Susan B. Anthony spent more time there than a wheat farmer. But she never lost hope. The great day was coming, she promised: “It’s coming sooner than most people think.” I love this remark even more because she made it in 1895.
“Sometimes I fantasize about traveling back through time and telling my historical heroes and heroines how well things worked out in the end. I particularly enjoy the part where I find Vincent van Gogh and inform him that one of the unsold paintings piled up over in the corner will eventually go for $80 million. But I never imagine telling Susan B. Anthony how well American women are doing in the 21st century because her faith in her country and her cause was so strong that she wouldn’t be surprised.
“The constitutional amendment that finally did pass Congress bore Anthony’s name. It came up before the House of Representatives in 1918 with the two-thirds votes needed for passage barely within reach. One congressman who had been in the hospital for six months had himself carted to the floor so he could support suffrage. Another, who had just broken his shoulder, refused to have it set for fear he’d be too late to be counted. Representative Frederick Hicks of New York had been at the bedside of his dying wife but left at her urging to support the cause. He provided the final, crucial vote, and then returned home for her funeral.”
An excerpt.
“The story in American history I most like to tell is the one about how women got the right to vote 90 years ago this month. It has everything. Adventure! Suspense! Treachery! Drunken legislators!
“But, first, there was a 70-year slog.
“Which is really the important part. We always need to remember that behind almost every great moment in history, there are heroic people doing really boring and frustrating things for a prolonged period of time.
“That great suffragist and excellent counter, Carrie Chapman Catt, estimated that the struggle had involved 56 referendum campaigns directed at male voters, plus “480 campaigns to get Legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters, 47 campaigns to get constitutional conventions to write woman suffrage into state constitutions; 277 campaigns to get State party conventions to include woman suffrage planks, 30 campaigns to get presidential party campaigns to include woman suffrage planks in party platforms and 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses.”
“And you thought health care reform was a drawn-out battle.
“The great, thundering roadblock to progress was — wait for the surprise — the U.S. Senate. All through the last part of the 19th century and into the 20th, attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution ran up against a wall of conservative Southern senators.
“So the women decided to win the vote by amending every single state constitution, one by one.
“There were five referenda in South Dakota alone. Susan B. Anthony spent more time there than a wheat farmer. But she never lost hope. The great day was coming, she promised: “It’s coming sooner than most people think.” I love this remark even more because she made it in 1895.
“Sometimes I fantasize about traveling back through time and telling my historical heroes and heroines how well things worked out in the end. I particularly enjoy the part where I find Vincent van Gogh and inform him that one of the unsold paintings piled up over in the corner will eventually go for $80 million. But I never imagine telling Susan B. Anthony how well American women are doing in the 21st century because her faith in her country and her cause was so strong that she wouldn’t be surprised.
“The constitutional amendment that finally did pass Congress bore Anthony’s name. It came up before the House of Representatives in 1918 with the two-thirds votes needed for passage barely within reach. One congressman who had been in the hospital for six months had himself carted to the floor so he could support suffrage. Another, who had just broken his shoulder, refused to have it set for fear he’d be too late to be counted. Representative Frederick Hicks of New York had been at the bedside of his dying wife but left at her urging to support the cause. He provided the final, crucial vote, and then returned home for her funeral.”
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Nonprofits & Transformation
Transformation, whether of individuals or communities, is often the animating drive of nonprofit formation, and when it is combined with individual talent, ample resources—which can be passion and persistence as much as money—the transformation desired can occur, and this article from Governing is about transformation from the ground up.
An excerpt.
“Government reformers often seem to believe that transformation is a matter of simply showing officials a better, proven way to "do government" better, faster and cheaper. As though all we need to do is spread the good word, provide technical assistance and then watch in delight as governments transform themselves across the country.
“Transformation doesn't work that way.
“Increasing the "supply" of government transformation is not enough. The Center for Creative Leadership posits that transformation happens when the combination of demand, vision, knowledge and belief exceed resistance. Reformers have worked hard on creating and sharing the vision, knowledge and examples of transformed government. Unfortunately, we have yet to significantly increase the demand side of the equation among the general public or the public workforce.
“Without a strong "demand," transformation will continue to muddle forward haltingly at best. Even with today's revenue crunch and drastic cuts screaming that we cannot incrementally improve our way forward, we continue to resist big change. Such is the power of the bureaucratic paradigm. Too often, demand for change is low and resistance wins.
“Most observers also realize that simply railing at government and "starving the beast" does not produce better government, just less government, sometimes. A better option exists. Instead of painfully cutting money and people out of the way we do things now, transformation presents a better path -- though certainly not an easy one -- to closing budget gaps without raising taxes.
“So what does constructive "demand" for transformed government look like? A couple of examples come to mind.
“In Virginia, the business community became frustrated with state government's short-term thinking, exacerbated by governors limited to one term. Led by John "Dubby" Wynne, the Virginia Business Council approached the governor at that time, Mark Warner, and basically said that political campaign contributions would cease unless state government became more strategic and performance oriented.
“Warner responded and subsequent governors have built on that progress. The Council on Virginia's Future, Virginia Performs and the rest of the state's performance system are now award-winning national models. The business community still solidly backs these efforts, regularly seeking commitments from gubernatorial candidates to maintain a strategic and performance focus for the state.
“In Dallas, former CEO Don Williams illustrates how one person can create "demand." On stepping down from full-time leadership at Trammel Crow, a major real estate firm, Don launched himself into making Dallas a better place, particularly for those in South Dallas areas blighted by the legacies of segregation, poverty and neglect.
“He created the Foundation for Community Empowerment to be "a change agent to marshall people, data, ideas and resources to lift up South Dallas and make Dallas a whole city." Don's civic engagement and leadership have led to:
• Dallas Achieves, a strategy to improve challenged urban schools;
• Frazier Redevelopment Initiative, a community redevelopment arm for Dallas’s "Lower Ninth Ward;" and
• The J. MacDonald Williams Institute, gathering, analyzing and sharing data to "prove up" anecdotal claims of poor residents to guide and support improvements in housing, health, civic culture, economic development and political engagement.”
An excerpt.
“Government reformers often seem to believe that transformation is a matter of simply showing officials a better, proven way to "do government" better, faster and cheaper. As though all we need to do is spread the good word, provide technical assistance and then watch in delight as governments transform themselves across the country.
“Transformation doesn't work that way.
“Increasing the "supply" of government transformation is not enough. The Center for Creative Leadership posits that transformation happens when the combination of demand, vision, knowledge and belief exceed resistance. Reformers have worked hard on creating and sharing the vision, knowledge and examples of transformed government. Unfortunately, we have yet to significantly increase the demand side of the equation among the general public or the public workforce.
“Without a strong "demand," transformation will continue to muddle forward haltingly at best. Even with today's revenue crunch and drastic cuts screaming that we cannot incrementally improve our way forward, we continue to resist big change. Such is the power of the bureaucratic paradigm. Too often, demand for change is low and resistance wins.
“Most observers also realize that simply railing at government and "starving the beast" does not produce better government, just less government, sometimes. A better option exists. Instead of painfully cutting money and people out of the way we do things now, transformation presents a better path -- though certainly not an easy one -- to closing budget gaps without raising taxes.
“So what does constructive "demand" for transformed government look like? A couple of examples come to mind.
“In Virginia, the business community became frustrated with state government's short-term thinking, exacerbated by governors limited to one term. Led by John "Dubby" Wynne, the Virginia Business Council approached the governor at that time, Mark Warner, and basically said that political campaign contributions would cease unless state government became more strategic and performance oriented.
“Warner responded and subsequent governors have built on that progress. The Council on Virginia's Future, Virginia Performs and the rest of the state's performance system are now award-winning national models. The business community still solidly backs these efforts, regularly seeking commitments from gubernatorial candidates to maintain a strategic and performance focus for the state.
“In Dallas, former CEO Don Williams illustrates how one person can create "demand." On stepping down from full-time leadership at Trammel Crow, a major real estate firm, Don launched himself into making Dallas a better place, particularly for those in South Dallas areas blighted by the legacies of segregation, poverty and neglect.
“He created the Foundation for Community Empowerment to be "a change agent to marshall people, data, ideas and resources to lift up South Dallas and make Dallas a whole city." Don's civic engagement and leadership have led to:
• Dallas Achieves, a strategy to improve challenged urban schools;
• Frazier Redevelopment Initiative, a community redevelopment arm for Dallas’s "Lower Ninth Ward;" and
• The J. MacDonald Williams Institute, gathering, analyzing and sharing data to "prove up" anecdotal claims of poor residents to guide and support improvements in housing, health, civic culture, economic development and political engagement.”
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Reforming Criminals
This jobs for ex-criminals idea, reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, has had some success in different places in the past, but is no longer as effective.
Nonprofits working with government to help reform criminals are attempting the most difficult work imaginable, in an environment where fully 70% of criminals being released from prisons, return within three years.
The only thing that will work, as is true with most service work involving a personal change in behavior, is an internal conversion to a way of life that is diametrically opposed to that of the criminal world, rather than just a delivery of a specific service—like a job—or two.
Internal conversion is the core of our criminal reformation work at the Lampstand Foundation.
An excerpt from the Inquirer article.
“It was an idea successfully peddled by Michael Nutter even before his mayoral election: Offer tax credits to businesses that hire ex-offenders.
“But with the program up and running for nearly three years now, the administration finds itself working to save it, acknowledging that while it earned Nutter national recognition early on, no employer to date has actually applied for one dime of the $5 million in tax credits available each year. And nobody has been hired.
"We try to fix a lot of things at once, and it does take time around here," said Everett Gillison, Nutter's deputy mayor for public safety, who oversees the initiative.
“Nutter had conceived of the program as a crime-fighting tool, anticipating that providing jobs to former prisoners would help keep them from committing crimes again.
“Businesses that participate can receive tax breaks of $10,000 a year, for up to three years, on the business-privilege tax they pay for each ex-offender they hire for at least six months.
“To pay for the program, the administration put aside $5 million annually, restricting participation to 500 ex-offenders yearly.
“Upon its implementation in 2007, media outlets invited Nutter to publicize the program. A national nonprofit, the Democratic Leadership Council, christened him as the "New Dem of the Week" for implementing it.
“But locally, employers and ex-offender allies alike complained about the program's burdensome requirements - requirements that the administration is now asking City Council to lift before recessing June 17.
"It wasn't working the way it was envisioned to work, so we had to figure out how to make it easier," Gillison said. New legislation was approved last week by Council's Committee on Commerce and Economic Development.
“Among the changes, the administration is hoping to remove a stipulation that employers provide $5,000 worth of tuition assistance to the ex-offenders they hire.”
Nonprofits working with government to help reform criminals are attempting the most difficult work imaginable, in an environment where fully 70% of criminals being released from prisons, return within three years.
The only thing that will work, as is true with most service work involving a personal change in behavior, is an internal conversion to a way of life that is diametrically opposed to that of the criminal world, rather than just a delivery of a specific service—like a job—or two.
Internal conversion is the core of our criminal reformation work at the Lampstand Foundation.
An excerpt from the Inquirer article.
“It was an idea successfully peddled by Michael Nutter even before his mayoral election: Offer tax credits to businesses that hire ex-offenders.
“But with the program up and running for nearly three years now, the administration finds itself working to save it, acknowledging that while it earned Nutter national recognition early on, no employer to date has actually applied for one dime of the $5 million in tax credits available each year. And nobody has been hired.
"We try to fix a lot of things at once, and it does take time around here," said Everett Gillison, Nutter's deputy mayor for public safety, who oversees the initiative.
“Nutter had conceived of the program as a crime-fighting tool, anticipating that providing jobs to former prisoners would help keep them from committing crimes again.
“Businesses that participate can receive tax breaks of $10,000 a year, for up to three years, on the business-privilege tax they pay for each ex-offender they hire for at least six months.
“To pay for the program, the administration put aside $5 million annually, restricting participation to 500 ex-offenders yearly.
“Upon its implementation in 2007, media outlets invited Nutter to publicize the program. A national nonprofit, the Democratic Leadership Council, christened him as the "New Dem of the Week" for implementing it.
“But locally, employers and ex-offender allies alike complained about the program's burdensome requirements - requirements that the administration is now asking City Council to lift before recessing June 17.
"It wasn't working the way it was envisioned to work, so we had to figure out how to make it easier," Gillison said. New legislation was approved last week by Council's Committee on Commerce and Economic Development.
“Among the changes, the administration is hoping to remove a stipulation that employers provide $5,000 worth of tuition assistance to the ex-offenders they hire.”
Friday, April 23, 2010
Vocation
Working in the nonprofit sector, especially as the founding leader of an organization, generally implies a sense of vocation that really is a calling to mission, and the modern Catholic expression of this is through the 1988 Apostolic Exhortation by Pope John Paul II, Christifideles Laici: (On the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World)
Dr. William E. May reflected on personal vocation in the Culture of Life Foundation Briefs.
An excerpt.
“Introduction
My question is whether everyone has a unique, personal vocation. To prepare the way for answering this question I will first summarize what Christians believe about their personal vocation to follow Christ. It is likely that a majority of our readers are Christians, but I apologize to our non-Christian allies in the struggle to make ours a culture of life for some specifically Christian reflections at the beginning of this essay. I do so because as I hope then to show we can speak meaningfully of a unique personal vocation for everyone, including non-Christians.
“Baptism and the vocation to “holiness”
Most of us were baptized as infants when we were unable to make free choices for ourselves. But others, our godparents, stood as our proxies, responding in our name to the call to die to sin and to live in a way worthy of God's own children, to be holy. And, as we grew in the household of the faith, we renewed our baptismal commitment when we received the sacrament of confirmation; and we are given the opportunity to reaffirm this commitment throughout our lives, particularly during the liturgy of the Easter vigil. Christians believe that in choosing to be baptized they have, through their faith and the redemptive work of Christ, “died” to sin and been raised to a new kind of life. They have now become truly “children of God,” members of the divine family and called to be "perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5.48). Baptized persons, like Jesus to whom they are united, are now those whose "food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work" (Jn 4.34). They have the God-given vocation to become holy, to become saints.
“This was a central theme of Vatican Council II, whose dogmatic constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, insists that "all in the Church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or are cared for by it, are called to holiness, according to the apostle's saying: 'For this is the will of God, your sanctification' (1 Thes 4.3; cf. Eph 1.4)” (no. 39). In this document the Council also affirmed: “The followers of Christ... must hold on to and perfect in their lives that sanctification which they have received from God” (no. 40). Moreover, the way lay people are to pursue holiness, the Council insisted in its pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et Spes, is in and through the commitments and ordinary activities of everyday life (see no. 43).”
Dr. William E. May reflected on personal vocation in the Culture of Life Foundation Briefs.
An excerpt.
“Introduction
My question is whether everyone has a unique, personal vocation. To prepare the way for answering this question I will first summarize what Christians believe about their personal vocation to follow Christ. It is likely that a majority of our readers are Christians, but I apologize to our non-Christian allies in the struggle to make ours a culture of life for some specifically Christian reflections at the beginning of this essay. I do so because as I hope then to show we can speak meaningfully of a unique personal vocation for everyone, including non-Christians.
“Baptism and the vocation to “holiness”
Most of us were baptized as infants when we were unable to make free choices for ourselves. But others, our godparents, stood as our proxies, responding in our name to the call to die to sin and to live in a way worthy of God's own children, to be holy. And, as we grew in the household of the faith, we renewed our baptismal commitment when we received the sacrament of confirmation; and we are given the opportunity to reaffirm this commitment throughout our lives, particularly during the liturgy of the Easter vigil. Christians believe that in choosing to be baptized they have, through their faith and the redemptive work of Christ, “died” to sin and been raised to a new kind of life. They have now become truly “children of God,” members of the divine family and called to be "perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5.48). Baptized persons, like Jesus to whom they are united, are now those whose "food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work" (Jn 4.34). They have the God-given vocation to become holy, to become saints.
“This was a central theme of Vatican Council II, whose dogmatic constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, insists that "all in the Church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or are cared for by it, are called to holiness, according to the apostle's saying: 'For this is the will of God, your sanctification' (1 Thes 4.3; cf. Eph 1.4)” (no. 39). In this document the Council also affirmed: “The followers of Christ... must hold on to and perfect in their lives that sanctification which they have received from God” (no. 40). Moreover, the way lay people are to pursue holiness, the Council insisted in its pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et Spes, is in and through the commitments and ordinary activities of everyday life (see no. 43).”
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Nonprofit Business Statements
A very good reminder that there is a lot about our work in the nonprofit sector that often relys on thinking like a business, from Blue Avacado.
An excerpt.
“Although every nonprofit has a mission statement that defines the organization's core purpose and work, many are unaware of its useful companion, the business model statement: a brief summary that spells out the organization's economic drivers. Like a mission statement, a business model statement acts as a touchstone: a reminder and a guide for the organization's focus and strategies.
“Nonprofit executives and board members usually have a good sense of the various types of funding that support the organization, but they may have a harder time explaining the organization's business model. Let's imagine a childcare center with the following mission statement: "We provide high quality child care in a cross-cultural setting." A first draft of their business model statement might read: "Our funding comes from government, parent fees, and fundraising."
“This statement lists all the types of funding, but doesn't speak to the strategy for financial sustainability of the center. A second draft may come out this way: "We provide high quality child care for children with diverse racial, cultural and economic backgrounds, by combining government subsidies for low-income children with full-pay tuitions, supplemented with some parent fundraising."
“Although this statement lacks graceful wording, it does explain the organization's strategy for financial sustainability, and it links that financial strategy with its program strategy. While mission statements are meant to be external messages as well as internal guides, a business model statement is primarily for internal use.
“A Latino theater offers another example of a business model statement: Their first draft stated, "We produce plays and conduct youth workshops, sustained through a mixture of ticket sales, foundation grants, workshop fees, and an annual benefit."
“Similar to the childcare center's model, this descriptive statement contains all the elements of the business model -- the methods by which the organization accomplishes its mission and generates revenue. But while it lists the programs and revenue streams, it's not specific about the drivers for either the programs or finances. The business model statement should help focus the leadership's attention on what keeps this organization sustainable. A more focused business model statement was developed: "We produce Spanish and English plays supported by ticket sales and foundation grants, and supplemented by net income from youth workshops and an annual gala."
An excerpt.
“Although every nonprofit has a mission statement that defines the organization's core purpose and work, many are unaware of its useful companion, the business model statement: a brief summary that spells out the organization's economic drivers. Like a mission statement, a business model statement acts as a touchstone: a reminder and a guide for the organization's focus and strategies.
“Nonprofit executives and board members usually have a good sense of the various types of funding that support the organization, but they may have a harder time explaining the organization's business model. Let's imagine a childcare center with the following mission statement: "We provide high quality child care in a cross-cultural setting." A first draft of their business model statement might read: "Our funding comes from government, parent fees, and fundraising."
“This statement lists all the types of funding, but doesn't speak to the strategy for financial sustainability of the center. A second draft may come out this way: "We provide high quality child care for children with diverse racial, cultural and economic backgrounds, by combining government subsidies for low-income children with full-pay tuitions, supplemented with some parent fundraising."
“Although this statement lacks graceful wording, it does explain the organization's strategy for financial sustainability, and it links that financial strategy with its program strategy. While mission statements are meant to be external messages as well as internal guides, a business model statement is primarily for internal use.
“A Latino theater offers another example of a business model statement: Their first draft stated, "We produce plays and conduct youth workshops, sustained through a mixture of ticket sales, foundation grants, workshop fees, and an annual benefit."
“Similar to the childcare center's model, this descriptive statement contains all the elements of the business model -- the methods by which the organization accomplishes its mission and generates revenue. But while it lists the programs and revenue streams, it's not specific about the drivers for either the programs or finances. The business model statement should help focus the leadership's attention on what keeps this organization sustainable. A more focused business model statement was developed: "We produce Spanish and English plays supported by ticket sales and foundation grants, and supplemented by net income from youth workshops and an annual gala."
Monday, April 19, 2010
Innovative Nonprofit & Deep Salvage
A nice story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about a nonprofit that has found a way to make money from selling construction salvage, not necessarily a new idea, but one this group is planning to take deeper.
An excerpt.
“One recent day along Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill, two workers for Construction Junction fed wavy ceramic roofing tiles down a makeshift chute from a porch roof into a box in a truck bed. Cardboard and other cushioning absorbed the tiles' landing.
“Original to the 1920s house, the tiles are "an excellent product" that could take another 50 years of wear, said Brian Swearingen, Construction Junction's crew chief on the job. It was the first "deep salvage" project Construction Junction has been able to do after years of lobbying private and public property owners.
“Terradime Development gave its approval to the crew, whose mission was to rid five properties of as much usable material as was financially practical to take. The Urban Redevelopment Authority granted $5,000 toward the effort. The properties -- a former beauty salon and four homes of similar vintage -- will be razed this spring to make way for a 14-unit condominium.
“Deep salvage, as opposed to the typical salvage CJ's crews do, can gut a house if everything is in good shape and salable, from floors and subfloors to floor joists and molding. The depth of the salvage depends on whether the expected return is worth the labor. Some houses yielded good sub-flooring, some didn't.
"You can only go so high on [pricing] used stuff," said Mr. Swearingen, adding that some materials aren't in demand.
"It's always a gamble. People in our company believe strongly in the mission, but we have to keep the doors open."
“Typically, Construction Junction takes what demolition contractors don't want and what it can sell to the public. Other contributions come from individuals who are renovating or clearing out their homes.
“Pittsburgh's 11-year-old nonprofit used-building-materials superstore in North Point Breeze has been trying to dig deeper in the salvage game, but it's tricky business, said director Mike Gable. Many properties are too ravaged to yield decent material.”
An excerpt.
“One recent day along Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill, two workers for Construction Junction fed wavy ceramic roofing tiles down a makeshift chute from a porch roof into a box in a truck bed. Cardboard and other cushioning absorbed the tiles' landing.
“Original to the 1920s house, the tiles are "an excellent product" that could take another 50 years of wear, said Brian Swearingen, Construction Junction's crew chief on the job. It was the first "deep salvage" project Construction Junction has been able to do after years of lobbying private and public property owners.
“Terradime Development gave its approval to the crew, whose mission was to rid five properties of as much usable material as was financially practical to take. The Urban Redevelopment Authority granted $5,000 toward the effort. The properties -- a former beauty salon and four homes of similar vintage -- will be razed this spring to make way for a 14-unit condominium.
“Deep salvage, as opposed to the typical salvage CJ's crews do, can gut a house if everything is in good shape and salable, from floors and subfloors to floor joists and molding. The depth of the salvage depends on whether the expected return is worth the labor. Some houses yielded good sub-flooring, some didn't.
"You can only go so high on [pricing] used stuff," said Mr. Swearingen, adding that some materials aren't in demand.
"It's always a gamble. People in our company believe strongly in the mission, but we have to keep the doors open."
“Typically, Construction Junction takes what demolition contractors don't want and what it can sell to the public. Other contributions come from individuals who are renovating or clearing out their homes.
“Pittsburgh's 11-year-old nonprofit used-building-materials superstore in North Point Breeze has been trying to dig deeper in the salvage game, but it's tricky business, said director Mike Gable. Many properties are too ravaged to yield decent material.”
Friday, April 16, 2010
Collaboration Can be a good Thing II
Following up on yesterday’s post, here is another excellent strategy, from Third Sector Resources about organizational collaboration—developed and sustained by weavers—and how it can enhance advocacy.
An excerpt.
“One of the many insights gleaned from Third Sector New England’s Capacity Building Fund (CBF) is just how vital building relationships and developing trust are to successful cross-organizational work within and across nonprofits. Begun in 2004, CBF provides funding, technical assistance and peer-to-peer support to 5 or more groups to help them learn effective ways to collaborate around a common cause. By supporting the formation of these networks, CBF seeks to strengthen the organizations’ ability to confront challenges and maximize opportunities more effectively than the groups could individually.
“In network theory, people who hold and develop relationships are called weavers. Weavers are people who span boundaries either within non-profit and other organizations or externally with other groups. They are the folks that people describe as “natural networkers” – they span both internal and external organizational boundaries….”
An excerpt.
“One of the many insights gleaned from Third Sector New England’s Capacity Building Fund (CBF) is just how vital building relationships and developing trust are to successful cross-organizational work within and across nonprofits. Begun in 2004, CBF provides funding, technical assistance and peer-to-peer support to 5 or more groups to help them learn effective ways to collaborate around a common cause. By supporting the formation of these networks, CBF seeks to strengthen the organizations’ ability to confront challenges and maximize opportunities more effectively than the groups could individually.
“In network theory, people who hold and develop relationships are called weavers. Weavers are people who span boundaries either within non-profit and other organizations or externally with other groups. They are the folks that people describe as “natural networkers” – they span both internal and external organizational boundaries….”
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Words and the Work
The work of mission, reaching into yourself and discovering a truth you care enough about to put the rest of your life into bringing it to realization in the public square, is a wonderful way to live--the only way for many of us to live--and using words well in the support of your work, is crucial.
This essay from Public Discourse is about using words well.
An excerpt.
“Marilyn Chandler McEntyre’s new book, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, is a warning against industrialized language prevalent in contemporary America, where words “come to us processed like cheese, depleted of nutrients, flattened and packaged, artificially colored and mass marketed.” To combat this, she advocates a strenuous connoisseurship that insists on “useable, flexible, precise, enlivening language.”
“While the author’s Christian commitment is clear throughout—Caring for Words grew out of her 2004 Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary—the book is focused on the “horizontal” dimension of language, on its primary role as man’s chief social tool. As she puts it, “caring for one another is not entirely separable from caring for words.” The state of English therefore concerns everyone—not just poets and English teachers like herself.
“McEntrye forthrightly identifies the villains: biased journalists and cynical advertisers, entertainers, and politicians. These usual suspects, she says, are the titans of the word industry who have inundated us with cheap language designed not to tell the truth, but to manipulate, evade, or sell. Public language is thus (to adopt McEntyre’s preferred, ecological metaphor) polluted and depleted by “thoughtless hyperbole, unexamined metaphors, slogans and sound bites, grammatical confusion, ungrounded abstractions, overstatement, and blather” which seep malignantly into ordinary speech and thought.
“Polluted and depleted language is obviously an inadequate medium for proper public debate. McEntyre agrees with George Orwell that last use of language leads to foolish thoughts, including foolish thoughts about urgent questions of the common good. When we lose the “subtlety, clarity, and reliability of language, we become more vulnerable to crude exercises of power.”
“McEntyre worries that the prevalence of bad English not only deadens our sensitivity to truth and falsehood but also spoils our taste for language as language, thereby denying us a pleasure “akin to the pleasures of music.” She wants us to be sensitive to euphony, layered meaning and double reference, allusion, ambiguity, and association, to relish words that are “not just meaning or reporting or chronicling or marching in syntactic formation, but performing themselves, sounding, echoing….”
This essay from Public Discourse is about using words well.
An excerpt.
“Marilyn Chandler McEntyre’s new book, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, is a warning against industrialized language prevalent in contemporary America, where words “come to us processed like cheese, depleted of nutrients, flattened and packaged, artificially colored and mass marketed.” To combat this, she advocates a strenuous connoisseurship that insists on “useable, flexible, precise, enlivening language.”
“While the author’s Christian commitment is clear throughout—Caring for Words grew out of her 2004 Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary—the book is focused on the “horizontal” dimension of language, on its primary role as man’s chief social tool. As she puts it, “caring for one another is not entirely separable from caring for words.” The state of English therefore concerns everyone—not just poets and English teachers like herself.
“McEntrye forthrightly identifies the villains: biased journalists and cynical advertisers, entertainers, and politicians. These usual suspects, she says, are the titans of the word industry who have inundated us with cheap language designed not to tell the truth, but to manipulate, evade, or sell. Public language is thus (to adopt McEntyre’s preferred, ecological metaphor) polluted and depleted by “thoughtless hyperbole, unexamined metaphors, slogans and sound bites, grammatical confusion, ungrounded abstractions, overstatement, and blather” which seep malignantly into ordinary speech and thought.
“Polluted and depleted language is obviously an inadequate medium for proper public debate. McEntyre agrees with George Orwell that last use of language leads to foolish thoughts, including foolish thoughts about urgent questions of the common good. When we lose the “subtlety, clarity, and reliability of language, we become more vulnerable to crude exercises of power.”
“McEntyre worries that the prevalence of bad English not only deadens our sensitivity to truth and falsehood but also spoils our taste for language as language, thereby denying us a pleasure “akin to the pleasures of music.” She wants us to be sensitive to euphony, layered meaning and double reference, allusion, ambiguity, and association, to relish words that are “not just meaning or reporting or chronicling or marching in syntactic formation, but performing themselves, sounding, echoing….”
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
