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May 2022

May 31

Dress for Success rapidly adapts to meet changing needs of women in the workforce

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

When Dress for Success Indianapolis started serving its first clients in 2000, a polished professional women’s suit became closely tied to the nonprofit’s mission of equipping jobless women for the workforce. It became integral to the brand.

During the past two years, in the wake of the pandemic, Dress for Success is now working to shake up that image and address a mix of challenges that prevent women from finding job satisfaction and pay equity. A recent Facebook post stated, “So, there’s a myth that we only have business suits. That’s FALSE. We do have suits, but we also have scrubs, uniform wear and even jeans …”

Dress for Success quickly realized that it needed to change its focus — particularly after actively listening to the women attending their online programs during periods of pandemic shutdowns and social distancing, said Shayla Pinner, director of marketing and development. 

The organization’s clients were confronted with myriad challenges and opportunities, including navigating childcare while working from home, adapting to flexible and hybrid work schedules, and researching ways to further their careers.

Also, Dress for Success increasingly realized that their typical client was no longer typical.

“We’ve always been the place for women who are looking to either enter or re-enter the workforce,” Pinner said. “But over the last two years, we’ve seen more than 50 percent of the women coming in are actually employed. They already have a job but they’re either looking for a better job or a career job. We are trying to continue to meet the needs of women in that space. And a lot of women are just having a hard time with the obligations of life plus work.”

Pandemic paving the way to more opportunities

Although women were struggling to find work-life balance as a result of school and daycare closures following the pandemic, it also proved to be a catalyst for women to assess what they truly want for their careers, Pinner said.

“The pandemic has changed the workplace. There are a ton of opportunities for growth, especially for women who want to do something different,” she said. “Women are starting to re-evaluate things and asking questions like, ‘What do I want to do?’ ‘Where do I want to be?’ and ‘What are my needs?’ As women, we’re starting to advocate for ourselves more. We’re starting to say, ‘OK, this does not work for me.’”

As the workforce evolves, Dress for Success will continue to find ways to meet the needs of women who continue to face inequities, according to Julie Petr, CEO of the organization.

“We strive to give women the tools that they need to thrive in business and in life,” she said. “In five years, it would be our hope that access to professional opportunities is more equitable for all women and that the gender wage gap is reduced.”

Supporting all women in an evolving workforce

Throughout its history, Dress for Success has evolved to address the complex challenges women face in obtaining gainful employment, including offering programs focused on interviewing skills, identifying their clients’ strengths through a Strengths Finder certification course, career assessments, and goal setting.

Over the years, the approach has become increasingly comprehensive, Pinner said. “We recently hired a success coach who is a licensed social worker to work with women in overcoming barriers to employment, such as transportation, housing, food, stable childcare and other barriers to stable employment. We’ve really evolved in trying to meet women through holistic wrap-around services so that we are the one-stop shop for women who are looking to either enter the workforce or level up in the workforce.”

Dress for Success, which will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of its signature fundraiser, Stepping Out in Style, on Sept. 16 at JW Marriott, also has had to consistently dismantle misconceptions about its mission, according to Pinner. 

With an increasing number of women seeking career advice from the organization, it appears that the team is making inroads with that goal. 

“One of the major misconceptions is that we only serve a particular group of women — low income, disadvantaged or lack of education,” Pinner said. “That’s not true. A lot of our women are high school graduates and college graduates. We also have some with master’s degrees. They want help to succeed and move up in the workplace and they don’t know how to do it.”

Dress for Success also has expanded its programming to include topics that help women negotiate for higher salaries, more PTO, and flexible and hybrid schedules, Pinner said.

“Those are things that we didn’t talk about much before the pandemic but now we’re starting to see an increased need,” she said. “The pandemic has given employees more power and more confidence to ask for what they want in a workplace and from an employee. Women have often accepted things as they are. We don’t typically push or ask for things.”

Envisioning an equitable future for women in the workforce

Dress for Success will continue to explore ways to support women as the job market evolves, Pinner said.

“Over the next five years, I think the workplace is going to change rapidly,” she said. “I would love to see women be paid equally as their counterparts, but also play big. I hope women continue to advocate for themselves, to get to where they want to be, explore all opportunities, and have a network of support as they go after those opportunities.”

May 31

The impact of IT on your customers’ experience

By Sponsor Insight

by Cody Lents, partner and customer steward, COVI, Inc.

What is every company’s primary product? The customer’s experience. IT has an enormous impact on this overall experience. It begins with trust. A company’s trust is built upon the 3 C’s: consistency, emotional connection, and communication. Employees are critical in building that trust between the company and its customers.

Employees who are consistently empowered by processes and are ready and able to communicate will easily stay connected with their customers. They will be able to follow established guidelines to ensure the customer receives the best experience possible.

Excellent customer service is becoming more and more challenging now that customer expectations and 24/7 workforces are increasingly becoming the standard at the same time our capacity is diminishing amid the great resignation.

So, to understand IT’s impact on the customer experience, we must first understand its impact on culture.

“The customer is always right, right?” At the end of the day, for customers to come first, our culture must come first.

An exceptional customer experience wins and retains loyal customers. So how do you make your customers feel valued and listened to? A lot of it relies on your organization’s culture. Companies must build organizational cultures of treating employees well — as if they are customers, too. Finding a solid tech balance for employees and customers means checking some boxes before you decide to adopt another solution.

When is too much tech a problem? Being inundated with tech is a common problem in today’s marketplace. Finding a way to balance tech and customers’ experience is about creating an intelligent technology plan that aligns with your industry and mission. Tech can no longer operate successfully without such alignment.

Not including these processes can make a great experience for your customer impossible, and happy customers are the lifeblood and beating heart of any organization and organic, word-of-mouth referrals.

Many people will be inclined to leverage their technology to fill the gap, but is that really the best way? The problem we face is that the more tech we use, the more tech we must continue to manage, which requires expensive skill sets and nuanced management skills. IT plays a pivotal role in your customer’s experience.

Technology may increase efficiency, but it doesn’t necessarily improve effectiveness. As companies continue to look for ways to reduce costs and gain process efficiencies, they shouldn’t do so at the expense of the overall customer service experience and ultimate customer satisfaction.

These companies must realize that customers are individuals, with varying appetites and tolerance for technology. We must adapt to the customer’s platform and ensure that the technology we use does not get in the way of that overall experience.

May 09

Wheeler Mission CEO Rick Alvis reflects on decades of nonprofit service

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

When Rick Alvis took over as CEO of Wheeler Mission in 1990, the challenges of homelessness seemed clear cut.

Alvis, who had previously served as CEO of an Evansville homeless shelter for 10 years, recalled the profile of the typical client at that time. “During the late ’70s and ’80s, a homeless person was really just an alcoholic,” he said. “We weren’t dealing with drugs. We weren’t dealing with mental health issues. If somebody would ask me to describe what a homeless person looks like, I could quickly say it was a white male that had an alcoholic problem and actually had a skill.

“Today, you not only have alcohol challenges, but you also see drug addiction and mental health issues,” said Alvis, who recently announced his retirement from Wheeler Mission. “It has significantly shifted over the past 40 years from being a simple problem to a very complex problem because you must deal with all three of those issues.”

Under Alvis’ leadership during the past 32 years, Wheeler Mission has undergone significant changes, many of them to address the increasingly complex challenges involved in alleviating homelessness. The nonprofit organization, which had 17 employees and a budget of $700,000 in 1990, now has the distinction of being Indiana’s largest nonprofit that serves people challenged with homelessness. Wheeler Mission, which currently has 175 employees and a budget of nearly $16 million, has navigated three mergers, expanded its reach to include women and children, implemented comprehensive programs to address the challenges of drug addiction, and launched a capital fundraising campaign that resulted in the development of the Wheeler Mission’s Center for Women & Children, a state-of-the-art building in Indianapolis that serves up to 367 women and children a day.

Leading through constant change

The ability to adapt to change, as well as proactively pursue change through innovation, has been at the core of Wheeler Mission’s growth, according to Alvis.

“As I look back, it helped me to continually look at our ministry and our programs through new eyes,” Alvis said. “One of my chief program officers always says, ‘Rick’s never satisfied with our programs. Well, that’s true. I’m never satisfied because I want to make sure that our programs are on the cutting edge. Leaders today can get bogged down with protecting the programs they created. I tell our team that it’s open season (on programs) when it comes to strategic planning. Nothing is sacred, even if I created it.”

One of the most challenging tests of that philosophy came when the organization faced a financial crunch in the midst of the Great Recession throughout 2008 and 2009, Alvis recalled. “We had to cut a huge chunk of our budget, which meant we had to cease some programming,” he said.

For an organization that dates back to 1893, determining which programs needed to be canceled was tough, Alvis said. “We had programming here at Wheeler since the Depression years that I decided I needed to go. That probably was among the hardest decisions that we had to make.”

As a leader, making decisions like that, which included cutting a youth outreach program, can also be unpopular, Alvis said.

“One of those programs was what had attracted me to Wheeler 32 years ago,” he said. “For me to let that one go was very hard.”

Throughout his tenure, Alvis said, it was key to make sure that donors’ dollars were being maximized and used appropriately. “We wanted to make sure we are doing the best possible thing that we can with programs. And if there’s something that I created that needs to go, then it must go.”

Expanding support through mergers and new programs

Seeking to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness also was central to the three mergers Alvis helped to lead during his decades of service to Wheeler Mission. He noted that the first merger with the Care Center in 2000 evolved from a need to better serve women and children. A merger with the Lighthouse Mission followed in 2006, and a 2015 merger with Backstreet Missions in Bloomington helped the organization strengthen services outside of Indianapolis.

“Those three mergers were very significant to Wheeler’s history. We wanted to do a good job of meeting people’s needs, not just men,” he said. “Prior to the merger with the Care Center, Wheeler didn’t have a residential program for women.”

In adapting to the changing needs of people experiencing homelessness, Wheeler Mission also invested in innovative offerings, including an addiction recovery camp on 300 acres. The Hunt Training Center in Bloomington, male participants undergo a six-month comprehensive program in which they cover topics such as anger, worry, biblical communication, relationships and change.

The program, which was launched in 2000, has been effective in helping the participants overcome their addictions, Alvis said. “It’s been great to see men come out of addiction and be productive people again,” he said. 

Although the COVID-19 pandemic limited the team’s ability to expand the program throughout 2020 and 2021, Wheeler is focused on increasing capacity and re-introducing a lodging component that allows family members to visit on weekends. “It allows us to minister to the entire family because the wife and children need just as much help as the man does,” Alvis added. “It helps them recalibrate their marriages and their relationships, which I think is key to the success of our program.”

In addition to providing a focus on addiction recovery at the camp, Wheeler also has made it an integral offering at its Center for Women & Children homeless shelter on East Michigan Street. 

As Wheeler Mission continues to evolve to meet the needs of people facing homelessness, it will always continue to rely on the generosity of its supporters, Alvis stressed.

“Individual donors contribute to 80 percent of our income,” he said. “We always encourage people to give, volunteer and donate food. Others can help by influencing the legislature in some ways to address homelessness throughout the state and in the city. And, of course, people can always pray for us because that’s our No. 1 need. That’s pretty cheap. Prayer doesn’t cost you anything.”

May 09

Considering a fundraising campaign? Key steps to ensure you are ready

By Sponsor Insight

by Andy Canada, senior consultant and director of data analytics, Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates

Many organizations are considering launching a campaign in 2022. Is your organization one of them?

An important undertaking like a campaign shouldn’t be entered into lightly. How do you know if your organization is truly ready to take this important step to fund the future aspirations of your nonprofit?

Here are some key steps to be thinking about as you are moving into campaign planning. It’s important to assess both your internal readiness as an organization to successfully execute a campaign and externally the receptiveness of the potential donor base to your campaign. Both aspects are critical to the success of the campaign. The goal in your planning phase is to ensure the internal readiness and external capacity are in alignment or you have a clear line of site on what needs to be addressed as campaign planning and the early phases of the campaign move forward.

What are key elements of organizational readiness for a campaign?

Organizational alignment around a shared vision: Does your board and leadership agree on a clearly defined mission? Can you articulate how philanthropic support will enable the organization to move closer to achieving that mission? Have you identified and achieved consensus on the specific campaign priorities and levels of support needed for each? Can you inspire donors with a transformational vision of how things will be improved with their support?

It is critical during the early stages of campaign planning that your board and leadership are engaged in the process and agree on the focus of the campaign. Many organizations utilize a strategic planning process to help identify the focus areas and then outline the role that philanthropy can play in helping to achieve each of the areas that have been identified. Creating a shared understanding and buy-in of the focus of the campaign is critical to the long-term success.

Internal fundraising operation: What is the overall health of your development program? Do you have the right structure, established policies and procedures, and a highly functioning CRM program to track donors and data?

Take time before you enter a campaign, to objectively look at your fundraising systems and operations and ensure you are positioned for success before the rigors of a campaign. You want to address any challenge areas in your operation prior to moving into campaign. This will allow the organization to focus its efforts on the campaign. Review your gift acceptance and gift counting process and ensure that your policies account for the various gift types that you will be soliciting. Will the campaign count deferred gifts or is it focused on liquid assets that you spend now for a building or launching a new program? Spend the time to think through the various opportunities so that you can clearly articulate the policies to donors when questions arise. This will minimize any challenging conversations or surprises along the way. Don’t forget to address the role of various gift options such as crypto currencies, real estate, etc.

Human capital — board and staff: Is your board engaged and willing to help open doors and assist with cultivation and solicitation of campaign donors? Will they make philanthropic gifts and be advocates for the campaign? Does your staff have the capacity to manage a campaign on top of current roles and responsibilities? Do you have the staff required to actively identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward campaign donors?

Successful campaigns require time and dedication from your entire organization. You need to ensure your CEO/President understands the commitment required to steward and solicit lead donors and can accommodate this important work. Evaluate your internal readiness to identify where you are strong and where you may need to improve. An internal capacity analysis can help ensure your current advancement staffing levels align with your potential donor pool. Prepare your board for a campaign by providing training on the impact they can have on the campaign and the ways they can be personally involved. You want your board and leadership team to go in with their eyes wide open to the important roles that everyone will need to play to make the campaign a success.

What are key elements of campaign readiness outside the organization?

Positive trends in current fundraising: Overall, you want to see your fundraising results on an upward trend. Ensure that you are raising the funds you need on an annual basis to fund your existing programs and operations before you look to move your organization forward. If that is not the case — evaluate why and determine what can be done to improve results. You should not only have a strong major gifts program, but also be hitting or exceeding your annual fund goals.

An engaged and informed donor base: Are your donors engaged in the life of the institution and do they know the organization’s direction? Make sure donors at the top and middle of the pyramid are informed and connected. It is critical that you have strong and established relationships with this group of supporters. Spend time before a campaign cultivating your donors, particularly the top 10% who could be lead donors to your campaign, showing them examples of what you are doing to fulfill your mission today and sharing your aspirations for the future.

Messaging and campaign components that resonate: Use your strategic vision and campaign priorities to develop a case for support. Test it with a sampling of your current and potential top prospects and incorporate their feedback. The campaign materials will allow you to share with potential campaign donors your exciting plans for the future and how their investment can help you get there. Donors need to understand the needs and your plan to meet those needs head-on with their help. If done well, you will go beyond, “We need a science building,” to describing its use and features as well as who will use it and what difference it will make in the future of the organization, those you serve, the community, and beyond.

Thoughtful planning for a campaign is an important benchmark for future success. Identify the elements you need to ensure are in place before launching this crucial fundraising effort. The time you spend up front to make sure you are prepared, pays off in greater success during your future campaign.

Andy Canada is senior consultant and director of data analytics at Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates, a strategic consulting firm located in Indiana that focuses on higher education. In his role, Canada focuses on campaign development and implementation, major and planned gift development, data analytics, and annual giving.

May 02

The tug-of-war of retirement

By Sponsor Insight

by Ann D. Murtlow, President and CEO, United Way of Central Indiana

My retirement clock is ticking. After more than four decades, it’s difficult to believe only a couple months remain for me as a full-time member of the workforce.

If I could describe what this feels like inside my head as of today, I would say it’s like the game tug-of-war. Two equally strong teams are pulling as hard as they can to force the other across the center line. On one side of my brain is Team Look Back and Reflect. The other is Team Dream On.

Team Look Back has been my focus since announcing my retirement early this year. I enjoy reflecting on my career — from my early days as a chemical engineer working in the utility industry to the leap from for-profit to nonprofit leadership at United Way of Central Indiana. Team Look Back is pulling with all its might and reminding me of so many United Way accomplishments, including how we built and strengthened relationships in the community, made important, data-informed decisions, advocated for strong public policies, increased funding to scale successful programs and initiatives and served our community during one of the most stressful times in its history. Personally, I’m also reminded of how lucky and proud I am to have worked alongside some of the brightest people who will now guide United Way into the future.

But in my head, Team Dream On is yanking on that rope just as hard as Team Look Back. I see a promising road ahead for United Way of Central Indiana. I’m energized thinking about the skills, passions, energies and determinations a new leader will bring to this organization and to our community. United Way is on the verge of a new strategic plan, and I have all the confidence in the world for the “Changing of the Guard” to jump in and set a new course for the years ahead.

In retirement, I am dreaming for some rest and more time with my family, but I will be cheering on my colleagues in the sector as they charge ahead and make an even greater impact in our communities.

By the way, this mind game of tug-of-war is exhausting. Until I turn in my office badge, I’ve decided to call a truce, put the rope down, and just be present during this unique time of my life and career. Most of all, I’m going to spend the rest of this time being truly thankful to hundreds of people in my career who believed in, guided, counseled, debated and energized me.

To the United Way board and team, thank you for the challenge, the comradery, and the many victories. To United Way’s community partners, thank you for your constant commitment to excellence and compassionate care for any person who needs help. To our corporate partners, donors, volunteers and advocates, thank you for your extraordinary generosity, your presence and your voice. To all of you, thank you for believing that when we put our brainpower and resources together, we can be successful in solving our community’s most complex and stubborn social issues.

Once the clock’s buzzer sounds on June 30, I’m turning it off. In fact, I’m turning off all the alarms. I imagine a new game of tug-of-war will begin in my head, but this time, it’ll be Team Sleep vs. Team Where Can I Be of Service?

Ann Murtlow