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Jun 29

Nonprofit start-ups give former inmates new options

By Feature, Programming, Uncategorized

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Last year, nearly 10,500 adults were released from Indiana Department of Correction’s custody. In Marion County alone, 2,485 adults, of which 203 were females, rejoined the community.

While some find programs that help with their re-entry, other former inmates struggle. According to research, however, adults who find immediate, comprehensive support that focuses on transitioning ex-offenders back into society, have dramatic reduced rates of recidivism.

In Marion County, the Re-entry Coalition run by Community Solutions provides a connection and network for county re-entry programs. Lena Hackett, president and founder of Community Solutions, a community development consulting firm, has worked with well-established nonprofits that do this type of work, but has seen start-ups get in the game in the past several years. The coalition convenes monthly working groups and a two-part, large-group quarterly meeting that opens with work groups sharing results, and then sharing information and providing education.

“I know that there are people who have different beliefs or different values, but we’re still all working, using our resources, our networks, to say, ‘How do we make this change?’ It’s pretty exciting,” said Elizabeth (Liz) Wallin, founder of Project Lia, which supports women exiting the correctional system.

Wallin is one of several founders of start-up efforts. Ericka Sanders works with dads inside Putnamville Correctional Facility and founded YouYesYou! to keep dads and daughters connected. Nick Greven is interim director of FOCUS Initiatives, which began as a correspondence project in Bloomington and is just getting started in Indianapolis. His group, which is not yet a part of the Marion County Re-entry Coalition, will provide former inmates with a range of services and eventually will be run by the four inmates instrumental in getting the program off the ground.
All believe in the importance of building trust.

Project Lia

Wallin, who grew up in Queens, New York, came to Indianapolis in 2016 for an internship at Mundell and Associates. Her quest was to learn about the Irvington company’s profit-sharing model. As a member of the Economy of Communion network, the environmental company divides its profits in thirds, a portion going to the community, a portion back into the business and the remainder to a general global fund. During her time in Indianapolis, she also volunteered with a group involved in a mosquito netting project at the Indiana Women’s Prison.

As a result of that connection, she started doing research into the root causes of female incarceration. She also started mapping the re-entry programs available in Indianapolis for women.

“I was very much looking at it like an analysis and trying to dig for data (to determine) would that be a sustainable project to take outside of the prison walls, so that when individuals return to the community, they would have that skill set and could plug right in as they gained some sort of stability. I was looking at it purely in a data-driven way.”

And that’s when the idea of Project Lia developed, said Wallin, founder and executive director. When her internship finished, Wallin stayed in the city, and with some of Economy of Communion funding, jumpstarted the program which is named for an Argentinian woman who dedicated her life to building bridges between races, cultures and religions.

Just under 10 percent of America’s prisoners are women. While men and women returning face some common challenges, some other barriers vary by gender. Women are statistically more likely to be expected to care for children or other family members. The basic premise is to help women rebuild their lives after incarceration.

The program’s length is designed to be six months to a year. As advancements are made through technical skills and the life skills program, job titles and pay can also advance. The goal is to make a successful transition to a long-term career opportunity. Along the way, program participants receive instruction in financial literacy, communication, business ethics, and health and wellness, and receive support for a future job search. As part of the process of rebuilding their lives, the women reuse discarded materials to design and build furniture and other items that contribute to the nonprofit’s revenues.

Word of the program is shared at the Women’s Prison, and last fall, “New America” produced a piece for the Atlantic that shared its mission and plans for scaling.

“It’s a pretty exciting moment. I think it also helps us in building our credibility as an organization and the work that we do. Because many times, it’s a hard sell — that very emotional, relational work that happens in community organizing and community development,” said Wallin.

Atlantic: Rebuilding after incarceration by James Fallow.
(Oct. 7, 2019)

“We’re creating taxpaying individuals, productive individuals, but that work only is sustained through relationships. It only really changes a long-term impact if you build those relationships and invest in the other. And that story’s hard to sell because it can be expensive and it’s messy. It doesn’t look like what you want it to look like, it looks like what it looks like.”

Besides funding from Economy of Communion, the nonprofit has received funding from the Plus Program, and is working with the Department of Correction to determine if a grant is feasible. Revenue from products and projects has been another source of income.

Just before the shelter-in-place order, Timesia Keys was hired as the full-time operations manager. During the pandemic, Wallin said it has not added any participants to the program, but applied for and received assistance from the Paycheck Protection Program through LISC and its landlord has provided some rent relief.

Some of the ways Wallin said the program measures success is to look at savings and checking accounts and financial management before and after the program.

“The career pathway we take is on a very individual basis. It’s like: ‘Where do you want to go? What do you want to be doing?’ and then we work on that,” Wallin said. Wallin also tries to connect women to community resources.

Joyce (using only her first name here) has been in the program for about six months and found it through PACE. Besides upholstering, she’s learned to fix windows, since a revenue generator for Project Lia is repairing all the transom windows in the Circle City Industrial Complex where the program is housed. But at her core, Joyce is a true leader. She is hungry for knowledge about the administrative side of a nonprofit, because she wants to start a transitional home for former women inmates.

Wallin said the program’s first employee is now a manager at a Bloomington beauty salon and has just purchased her first house.

“It’s exciting to be part of her life. She was at that point in the program helping us, more than we were helping her, it felt like. Love her story.”

But at the core, Wallin, who has grown up with people investing in her development, believes it is about social justice.

“I believe strongly in our ability to create a united world and peaceful communities. In loving the other, it is hard and simple at the same time — simple concept, radical implementation. So that’s sort of what’s my guiding post and how do we fight for equity for all,” she said.

Project Lia

WHO SERVED: Women over 18 who have been incarcerated.

WHAT: Social enterprise, started in 2017, working to address economic barriers to re-entry success. Participants develop workforce skills by repurposing discarded material into furnishings and accessories. Participants are paid $10 an hour to start, and after a three-month evaluation, earn $11, and eventually top at $12, and get help opening savings and checking accounts. The John Boner Neighborhood Center offers participants financial literacy and management support.

PROGRAM GOAL: Help women become self-sufficient, build a resume and. According to Project Lia’s mission statement: “We exemplify an inclusive local economy and ultimately help our participants become self-sufficient and valued members of society. We aim to create a space of understanding and mutual respect – a space where transforming material, transforms lives. Using excess materials growing the business and organization step-by-step.”

LOCATION: 1125 Brookside Avenue, Suite C1, Indianapolis, IN 46202.

Before Covid-19, purchasing items designed and made by the women were available in a small shop onsite during the week, and at area farmers’ markets and festivals. In the interim, online shopping is available.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Volunteers have shared skills, like woodworking and sewing, donated building materials like lumber, tools and fabric and glass jars.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.projectlia.org/

YouYesYou!

Every year, Ericka Sanders and her husband start their year setting goals. But 2014 was different. That year, she decided this would be her year to “to do something.”

A friend read a story about a father-daughter dance at a Virginia prison. That project idea didn’t go away. Sanders had grown up without her father actively in her life and was driven by a desire to help daughters have an experience that she didn’t have. She decided that a father-daughter dance could be her “do something.” According to a 2017 Incarceration to Reentry study in Indiana, 70 percent of people coming out of prison are parents, and the collateral consequences are often intergenerational.

By November, she had pulled together a first event at the Indianapolis Re-Entry Educational Facility on the Near Eastside. At that dance, 26 estranged fathers got the chance to reconnect with 37 daughters, as young as 2 and as old as 29.

By 2016, Sanders established a nonprofit, YouYesYou!, and began building relationships between incarcerated fathers and their daughters, which now includes programming inside prison facilities. A former Indianapolis Recorder reporter, now working full time for Simon Property Group, she has found the time to grow the program beyond the dance.

Besides the father-daughter annual dance, there are Halloween parties for families and their dads, monthly book clubs and workshops designed for the incarcerated fathers that introduce them to organizations focused on re-entry, rehabilitation and other activities. Additionally, on the outside, families build relationships by attending events like basketball games.

Those monthly Saturday book clubs allow time for the dads to talk and learn to build relationships with each other. She arrives with three or four questions about the book and inspirations that can be drawn from the text and asks if the inmates see themselves in the book’s characters.

“A lot of the times, the stories that we read are stories of triumph. Stories of people who have been dealt the most terrible hand but somehow, some way, they made it through. We talk a lot about the future and about dreaming. They don’t like to think much about that. But I kind of force them to do that because it’s important,” Sanders said.

But mostly she said, they just talk and learn a lot about each other.

“They’re pretty vulnerable at this point. By the time they’re in book club, they know me and they trust me. We know what each other is going through, so when we’re reading these books, we’re drawing from all of those different things.”

Sanders also encourages participants to thank whoever is taking care of their kids while the participants are incarcerated and to advocate for each other. Many guys, she said, are so much closer and are friends who hold each other accountable to stay out of trouble.

“The fathers in my program have made terrible, terrible decisions, multiple, multiple times. But they are human beings, and they are people, and sometimes if you just sit and you listen to their stories and you listen to their life and the brokenness that they come from and the things that they’ve had to deal with, you can kind of understand why they made some of the terrible decisions that they made.

“I really think that connecting them with their kids is the push that they need to be on good behavior and the push that they need that when they’re released, they will not come back. That is the basis of what we do.”

“A YouYesYou! father who getting out of prison has confidence, they believe in themselves. They’ve healed some relationships. They’re just different people. I hear that all the time. Basically, it’s just believing in them. It is so important that I get across that what we do is that we just believe in them,” Sanders said.

Earlier this year, she received a $50,000 United Way’s Innovation Award and is using part of the funds to hire a consultant to strengthen and grow her board. Plans are also underway to grow the program with the addition of the program at Plainfield, but the Department of Correction requires programs to be similar. So Sanders started her year honing the activity specifics, re-entry organizations’ workshops and the book club. Christamore House has plans to add a re-entry program, and YouYesYou! will collaborate and handle the family-engagement workshops to keep families of incarcerated engaged and connected.

She is still in communication with the Plainfield facility and Christamore House, but with the pandemic, expansion plans are on hold. The time has afforded her the opportunity to recruit a three-member working board which is scouting for additional members, and fine-tuning the program’s syllabus.

“Families of incarceration are often forgotten about. I think often people don’t realize the impact that incarceration has on families. What I’ve found, just the communication that the kids have with their dads, it helps the family all the way around,” Sanders said.

In five years, she sees the program expanding to more facilities and doing more family engagement activities in community centers.

“(The key is) to be able to just keep those families connected,” Sanders said. “The easy part is being in jail, if you want to be real about it. You know some guys are terrified to come out of prison. I would love to be able to share my blueprint with other individuals in Indiana and with other prison facilities and other states. It doesn’t have to be me running this program, it can be done anywhere, everywhere.”

She doesn’t want anything in return, she just wants them to be great dads. “Because by being a great dad, you’re not only helping yourself and your kids, but you’re helping their future.”

YouYesYou!

WHO SERVED: Fathers at Putnamville Correctional Facility, a medium security correctional facility. First father-daughter dance in 2014. Started at Putnamville in 2018 with 20 dads and ended up with 10; in 2019, 23 dads in the program, ended up with 21; and in 2020, the prison had 225 applications and selected 30. Those 30 are still involved. To date, eight have been released from prison and have not returned.

WHAT: Two-year project. Features workshops provided by re-entry organizations, like PACE, Recycle Force, EmployIndy, Goodwill’s New Beginnings and CareSource, which provide connections on the outside to employment and services. Fun activities with kids – father-daughter dance, Halloween party for daughters and sons and a family back-to-school event in August to maintain connections to family. A monthly book club that begins in November. When the program wraps up, the majority of dads are either out or on their way out when the program wraps up.

PROGRAM GOAL: To support the relationships between incarcerated fathers and their children by offering fun and engaging programs inside prison walls.

LOCATION: Putnamville Correctional Facility, 1946 W. U.S. Hwy 40, Greencastle, IN

FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.facebook.com/youyesyouproject/
http://youyesyouproject.com/?fbclid=IwAR1IMdkbcb-1RKcVNu3hupiF9kk9Z8pgoVEDzQK1ymMEX7KwOAPL6qugAno

FOCUS Initiatives

Nick Greven has had firsthand experience with prisoners who struggle outside prison walls. His involvement started five years ago when he helped start IDOC-Watch. It’s a watchdog group that corresponds with inmates, particularly those who have been incarcerated for lengthy periods of time. While IDOC-Watch started in Bloomington, it now has about 50 people involved in chapters in Indianapolis, Gary, South Bend, Evansville and Fort Wayne.

Through contact, the group came to a greater understanding of incarcerated life and potential need for increased support. And what it also learned was that for individuals who have been incarcerated for decades, there are enormous challenges to reacclimate to life outside prison walls. Often, they have lost contact with their prior support systems, particularly if they were incarcerated at a young age. For those with little experience outside of prison, navigating the world is new and finding stable housing and employment are among their significant hurdles.

The urgency of creating FOCUS Initiatives became clear when Faheem Shabazz (formerly Jerry Smith), incarcerated as a teen, was released from prison in 2018, and efforts were made to help him navigate the hardships of re-entry. He had been corresponding with IDOC-Watch.

“I was trying to help him get on his feet,” Greven said. “He was locked up in adult prisons when he was 14, and been in prison for 20 years, actually growing up in prison. He was ill.

“It was just really hard for him to get on his feet. Impossible to find a place to rent and was really hard to find a job. Unable to find consistent work, he was staying with his mom, and it wasn’t going well. He just didn’t really know how to exist in the world.”

What he needed, the group realized, was sustainable support until he got to a position where he could take care of himself. This experience to help Shabazz resulted in FOCUS Initiatives that was designed by a team of current and former incarcerated individuals in collaboration with community allies. Not created in isolation, it drew on models like San Francisco-based Planting Justice and a Los Angles program for women, A New Way of Life. FOCUS Initiatives launched in 2019, and stands for Forever on Course United in Solidarity.

Shabazz is currently incarcerated on a technical parole violation at Westville Correction Facility in Westville, Indiana. Greven’s hope was that he would be more involved if he was released in March, but parole was denied.

“He’s been involved to the extent that he’s able to while incarcerated, but it’s pretty difficult. Anything that is time sensitive or detailed is pretty challenging,” said Greven, who is serving as interim director until the men are released from DOC custody.

“I’m the interim director until people are ready to take it over fiscally. We have people who are planning on doing that and get on their feet. Four people who are close collaborators on the project are getting out (of prison) between now and June,” said Greven.

“They have like some time to adjust, get their feet under themselves. A period of months to get used to be in a world outside of prison before there’s any financial pressures. The first step is getting people what they need to survive without having to be under a lot of stress when they first get out. And then also having a supportive community, especially of people who have been or had similar experiences around them to where they can consult with each other about what they are going through. There’s all kinds of PTSD and prison has all kinds of psychological effects. People who have not been in prison cannot understand how it affects someone,” said Greven.

The first phase is to buy a house that will be available for two to five former inmates. The house will have a group counseling space with a re-entry circle. It can also host formerly incarcerated or family members for get-togethers. It will be a place for several to live and work to organize the rest of the program. The group has been looking at the Eastside, east of Rural Street, to find affordable property that meets the program needs. The group has plans to start a business in the second phase.

“They’re going to establish a prototype or test run for the project to see what we need. It’s long term, and we’re trying to do it in a way so that we’re not dependent on big grants, so it’s an independent organization,” said Greven.

FOCUS Initiatives

WHO SERVED: Individuals returning to Marion County/Indianapolis from prison.

WHAT: Four-phase project that takes into account the underlying or “root” causes of mass incarceration.

PROGRAM GOAL: Launched in 2018 by a group of community allies and incarcerated individuals to build a Marion County community for former inmates. Plan is to include counseling services, a business, a legal clinic and medical services.

LOCATION: Seeking to purchase a house for two to five former inmates on the Eastside of Indianapolis.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.focusreentry.com/about

Jun 15

In today’s environment is strategic planning still valid?

By Sponsor Insight

By Jan Breiner Frazer, managing member, Planningplus, LLC

In this country, we have experienced a number of events during the last two decades that resulted in immediate impact on business and industry, beginning with 9/11, followed by the 2008 recession and the far-reaching Affordable Care Act.

But in those cases, we could somewhat foresee the horizon and plan accordingly – we had end goals in sight. But in this world of the global pandemic with various levels of quarantine, shifting guidelines and re-opening dates, and bombardment of news (often conflicting), we are not sure we can even plan on next month.

While strategic planning is still valid, it is not as we’ve always known it. Planning Plus’ expertise has long been in designing and facilitating strategic planning, generally for three-year periods. However, we are revising our methodology during this extraordinary time to remain flexible and adaptable.

As we enter the post-COVID office environment, we are shifting to assist our clients with 18-month micro-planning cycles accompanied by some of the following critical recommendations:

  1. Break down the mission into priorities. One of the challenges in planning with nonprofit agencies is that, by their very nature, they want to help everyone within their sphere with multiple programs, multiple stakeholders, and the requisite multiple funding streams. We are encouraging our clients to focus on the top three priorities as dictated by their mission statements – and then prioritize those. Get very, very clear on what you do and for whom, with a sharper focus on funding options.
  2. Build accountability checks into the plan. We need to keep as little as possible from slipping through the cracks, and following through on initiatives and meeting time deadlines is more critical than ever, particularly as funding sources are still fluid.
  3. Place more emphasis on searching out alliances and partnerships. After the dust settles, if it ever does, there will most likely be fewer nonprofits standing, and those that survive must work closer together.
  4. Build in scenario planning. While the global pandemic took many of us by surprise, there are possible scenarios we can begin discussing, particularly when facing funding reductions. Think through what could yet change and begin to create responses. For every goal or initiative, create a Plan A, Plan B and then Plan C along the lines of “if/then.”
  5. Establish a cash reserve, even it that would mean scaling back on services and/or programs. It doesn’t help your stakeholders if you can’t weather any future storms and go out of business.
  6. Tighten relationships with your board. This is the time when board members can no longer passively attend board and committee meetings. As staff has been trimmed, identify the skill sets the board can contribute to administrative and operational decision-making to make up for fewer staff members. We are certainly not condoning moving from a governance to a management role but boards need to increase help where they can.
  7. Most importantly, build in and utilize formal channels to ensure consistent communication with internal teams and external stakeholders – particularly donors. While communication may appear to an operational rather than strategic initiative, everyone is trying to make sense of what has happened, how it affected them, and what may come. Staying close to those who make the organization successful is imperative.

If your head is spinning on how to move forward, we can help structure a focused, effective, and realistic plan to continue to move forward in a world of uncertainly and unknowns.

Jan Breiner Frazier, managing member of Planning Plus, has been a consulting professional since 1987. She has designed and facilitated strategic, annual, and operational planning sessions for a multitude of organizations, often bringing together diverse philosophies, opinions, and perspectives to help groups collectively meet stated objectives. Often, her planning projects have resulted in assisting with organizational design and process improvement initiatives. Her work with nonprofit boards and associations has ranged from strategic planning, board development and committee structure to identifying organizational competencies. She can be reached at
jfrazier@planningplusllc.com.

Please contact us to discuss how we can help you.

Jun 08

Where tax-exempt plans are focusing in uncertain times

By Sponsor Insight

By Sandy McCarthy, president of Retirement Services, OneAmerica

In the face of these uncertain times, we’ve seen new-found levels of appreciation and respect for the organizations providing vital assistance to our communities and citizens. As you know, hospitals and healthcare systems, social and community-service organizations, and religious institutions have stepped up to provide care, support and relief to those in need. These tax-exempt organizations are the foundations of our communities and have always been a top focus for OneAmerica®.

Though 2020 – with the SECURE Act, the COVID-19 pandemic and the CARES Act – has presented challenges for all plan sponsors, tax-exempt plans have some unique concerns and considerations.
Here are a few things we’re urging tax-exempt employers to keep top-of-mind as they navigate the current environment.

Responding to the SECURE Act: This landmark legislation provides the most significant changes to the retirement industry in more than a decade and makes investing for retirement more accessible to millions of Americans. Though the most dramatic changes are for 401(k) plans, there are also provisions impacting 403(b) plans and participants. From tax credits to distributions and more, it’s important for your plan to work with a company that understands the ins and outs of this legislation.

Benefiting from the CARES Act: Aimed to provide relief in crisis, the CARES Act has a number of provisions that benefit tax-exempt organizations. Depending on each unique situation, organizations may want to take advantage of specific provisions – loan resources, employee retention credits or deferring employer payroll taxes. It’s beneficial to work with a company that understands your challenges and helps you best utilize available relief.

Providing for participants’ needs: These uncertain times are challenging organizations and individuals alike. Ensuring your employees have the resources they need to understand recent legislation, market volatility and financial wellness in general will help support them to make the decisions that best align with their needs. And, employee education should cover more than just financial wellness. We recently introduced materials to focus on employees’ emotional wellbeing – understanding that the two are deeply connected.

Complying with the 403(b) plan restatement requirement: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has extended the 403(b) restatement deadline from March 31 to June 30, 2020. By restating plan documents onto an IRS-approved document, the IRS is essentially putting a seal of approval on the plan – providing it the type of protection that 401(k) plans have had for decades. Restatement or transferring the existing plan provisions also gives plans a chance to fix errors proactively, and may be an optimal time to review the plan itself. You can learn more about plan restatement here.

Maximizing plan design: Plan design can be vital to achieving desired outcomes, and it’s necessary to keep a constant pulse on whether the plan is operating as intended. COVID-19 has caused many organizations to reassess elements of their plan, like employer contributions, and make difficult decisions on other issues, like temporarily eliminating matching contributions. Your plan’s service provider should be able to work with you to ensure your plan is designed in a way that meets your goals and aligns with your mission.

Ensuring your service is customized: We believe tax-exempt employers do best to work with a company that understands the nonprofit sector and can offer customized solutions that meet each plan’s unique needs. With a 55-plus-year history of serving tax-exempt plans, the companies of OneAmerica have taken a unique approach to offering guidance in the COVID-19 era. Combining industry research with findings from virtual client focus groups, we created materials for our nonprofit and healthcare clients to outline industry issues and hot topics, as well as action items to consider. It’s important to keep in mind that off-the-shelf, cookie cutter solutions aren’t always best-suited for tax-exempt plans, and these employers should ensure they’re getting the customized support that meets their needs.

Connecting with a financial professional: When compared to the for-profit market, many tax-exempt organizations are underserved in this area – with approximately 46% of plans not connected with a financial professional. Now more than ever, these plans may wish to work with a trusted professional who can help them understand and react to changing conditions and legislation.

In these truly unprecedented times, we’re seeing more reliance than ever on the hospitals and nonprofit organizations that exist to care for and support those in need. As the foundation of our communities, tax-exempt organizations continue to be essential. These vital organizations deserve the support and assistance they need to thrive.

As president of Retirement Services, Sandy McCarthy leads the OneAmerica® team offering defined contribution and defined benefits services with a strong focus on customized retirement plans through highly personalized administration and recordkeeping services. She brings more than 30 years of industry experience, including key leadership roles at Mercer, ING (now Voya), and CitiStreet.

Previously she spent seven years in leadership roles as a senior partner at Mercer, where she served as North America Region Benefits Administration Business Leader, following a position as CEO and board member Asia Pacific Outsourcing Business living in Melbourne, Australia.

McCarthy graduated with honors from Tufts University, earning both her undergraduate in sociology/education and Master of Arts degree in education, then completing an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

She currently serves on the boards of the American Red Cross of Indiana (ARC), Junior Achievement of Central Indiana (JACI), Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and LIMRA LOMA Secure Retirement Institute (SRI).

OneAmerica is the marketing name for the companies of OneAmerica®. Products issued and underwritten by American United Life Insurance Company® (AUL), a OneAmerica company. Administrative and recordkeeping services provided by McCready and Keene, Inc. or OneAmerica Retirement Services LLC, companies of OneAmerica which are not broker/dealers or investment advisors. Provided content is for overview and informational purposes only and is not intended and should not be relied upon as individualized tax, legal, fiduciary, or investment advice.

Jun 08

Pandemic helps nonprofit see new path

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

By sheer numbers, very little good has come as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In the U.S., there have been more than 2 million cases, more than 110,000 lives lost, nearly 40 million people unemployed and no clear signs that better times are close.

But for two Indiana nonprofits — Carey Services and Second Harvest Food Bank of East Indiana — the pandemic has forced them to rethink their operations. For the leaders of both organizations, resilience is a key word in their vocabularies.

And maybe … just maybe, they will be stronger when life resumes as normal.

Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana

Muncie-based Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana is a hunger-relief organization started in 1983 that provides food through a network of 96 agencies and 35 schools in eight counties.

Tim Kean has been its CEO/president since 2012. During the pandemic, he said the agency is finding new ways to reach people.

“I think when circumstances present themselves, you can push back and try to resist,” said Kean. “But if you have the perspective of leaning into the circumstance and using that force that you’re feeling in your favor, then I think you can leverage a lot of benefit (for) the people that you’re trying to serve.

“(Second Harvest) has moved to the place where we are leaning into this and looking at it on some level as being transformational.”

So, what has changed and how has the organization adapted?

Its food supply has been interrupted. Consequently, with donations not coming from its traditional sources, it has had to find alternative ways to procure food said Kean. As a Feeding America network member, it has leveraged national food opportunities, but the bottom line is it has had to purchase food in the marketplace to give it away.

With the high demand, food banks have been forced to quickly ramp up their efforts. In Indiana, news reports have depicted long car lines waiting for mobile food distributions. And while Second Harvest has used this delivery method for over 20 years, what is new is the volume. Nearly double, for each distribution it now uses two loaded semis and serves 2,000 to 3,000 families, up from 800 to 1,000 a year ago. During June, 32 mobile distributions are scheduled.

Volunteers have been a mainstay for the nonprofit, and in a typical year, it relies on 4,300 volunteers to assist with food distribution. But in March, the organization sought to eliminate risk and curtailed access to the warehouse and headquarters, forcing it to find alternative ways to distribute food.

Local organizations have helped fill the gap. Now, rented cargo vans loaded with food are picked up by community groups and driven to underserved areas for pop-up pantries. In the first six weeks of the pandemic, 15,000 pounds of food helped 750 families. In addition to food, diapers, an often-overlooked item, are part of this weekly distribution.

Activated citizen soldiers have been part of its new crew. When the governor activated the National Guard, Second Harvest Food Bank was assigned 30 men and women from a Brigade Support Battalion (BSB). Kean said they are assigned only until June 24 if funding is not approved to extend deployment. If not, Plan B is in place – to hire temporary workers to continue the activity at the current level.

“Quite honestly, I don’t anticipate the need diminishing during that time period. So, we’ve got to figure out how to get that done,” said Kean. “

“We’re not doing it, the community’s doing it. We’re finding that there are new opportunities. So, it’s that kind of thing that I think lends itself toward stepping into the change and embracing it and figuring out how you can become something bigger and stronger than you were in the past and more effective. It’s not just about being bigger, but it’s about being more effective,” said Kean.

Kean noted that there are internal changes as well.

“We are transforming our organization internally in our staff structure, in areas of emphasis. We’ve been hiring people, and we’re going to continue to hire people. We’ve been acquiring new equipment because we’re in a different place.

“I don’t see us looking in the rear-view mirror saying, ‘I hope we can get back to where we were some point soon.’ That is over. We’re at a new place and we’re embracing that, and we’re looking at ways we continue to facilitate growth.”

“I am not at all driven down by the circumstance, if anything I’m energized because this has given us an opportunity to go and find some diamonds. You have to push a lot of things out of the way to get those diamonds, and we’re willing to do that.”

Carey Services

Marion-based Carey Services has served people with disabilities since 1954 with the mission of helping people “turn abilities and barriers into opportunities.” Since 2013, Jim Allbaugh has been its CEO/president. During the pandemic, he said he’s been constantly reminded that the answers to challenges were close.

“It’s almost always members of our team, our staff, our families and the people who we serve who are the ones that have the right answers. So (it’s important to) listen, understand and get perspectives,” he said.

“As we came into the pandemic, there was a clear recognition, and it became more evident during this pandemic that we are individually focused on the people that we serve, and on our employees. So what we realized more and more each day was that need to be aware of what each individual that we serve and each employee would require of us during this pandemic,” said Allbaugh.

Among the agency’s services are group homes, an early Head Start program, workforce development and day services. Over the past five years, the agency has worked to integrate its clients into the community.

Roughly, 61 million Americans are living with a disability of some kind, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the vast numbers are able to live at home, some live in residential placement. That is the case for 90 adults who live in Carey’s group homes that provide 24-hour supervision for six to eight people.

Allbaugh credits staff creativity for helping clients continue to make positive progress during the pandemic. Residents have struggled with understanding why their routines were being disrupted, and why going out in the community was curtailed, and why people are wearing masks.

“If you can imagine, people with intellectual development disabilities sometimes struggle to even say, ‘Why are you wearing this mask? I cannot see your lips, it just doesn’t make sense to me why you’re doing that,’” he said.

As they readied to reopen the main campus, one question drove their efforts: “How can we get back to whatever the new normal is to continue to maximize that level of independence for the folks that we serve? That’s kind of been the path or really the journey, if you will.”

On June 1, the facility reopened some of its services, and Allbaugh said his staff was pleased with the outcome.

“It is so great to see people engaging and turning abilities into opportunities back at our main campus. We look forward to next steps with our Phase II and Phase III, and in July, our Early Head Start classroom reopening,” he said.

During the pandemic employees in different departments advocated for alternative ways to deliver services to continue progress. When the agency furloughed the Employment Services team, Allbaugh said an employee challenged that decision. He presented a case for reinstating the team, using Zoom and other technologies to engage participants.

Allbaugh said his employee made a persuasive argument. “‘He said, ‘Jim, we’ve made too much progress with these high school-aged special needs kids who need to keep the momentum moving on their career goals. You need to let us come back and get back to work and do these things from a technology base.’

“The positive results from that effort are great. They’ve kept in contact, kept engaged, kept learning and growing,”Allbaugh said.

And while, staff were already investigating these methods, the pandemic jump started them. And Indiana officials have been open to learning what kind of alternative-service delivery is possible.

“One of our goals is figuring out how to tell the story to those that fund us in such a way to say, ‘You know we cannot go back. Here’s the success and certainly the data is proof.’ We’ve got to be able to figure out how to be allowed to continue to provide this kind of support,” Allbaugh said.

The internet has also helped in other ways. In 2016, the nonprofit started an arts program, Creative Hearts Art Studio. Besides individual expression and discovery, the project was also about integrating clients into the community. During the pandemic, however, that effort was thwarted, limiting the community’s access to the shop. So, plans to open an online store became a priority.

“Knowing that everybody was now on their computers and living virtual lives, our team got together and said ‘Now is the time. We’ve got to push this out because people are on their computers right now.’ This is another opportunity to tell our story in a world where folks are living in that online environment,” said Allbaugh.

Allbaugh said from the beginning of shelter-in-place, rather than wallowing in the challenges of the daily stresses, staff began planning for the “new normal.”

“Our team has not permitted that kind of culture to be here.”

A funder commented on the agency’s forward thinking, sharing feedback on an agency proposal that asked for dollars for plexiglass, duct tape and portal hand-sanitizing machines.

“On the surface those things are all kind of simplistic, but the thing the funder appreciated about those three simple tools is the sustainable nature of those items. Those are things that our team thought about that will be something that we may be using for years.

“We need to realize that we’re still in a situation where we still have the same virus, with the same risk, and what this last period has allowed us to do is build and learn and put together a toolbox of safe and health practices and build a sustainable behavior of our employees and the people that we serve,” said Allbaugh.

May 26

CICF commits to not returning to ‘business as usual’ after COVID-19

By Sponsor Insight

By Brian Payne, president/CEO, and Gregory F. Hahn, chair, Central Indiana Community Foundation

One year ago, you heard us pledge our commitment to this community. Central Indiana Community Foundation, The Indianapolis Foundation, Hamilton County Community Foundation, and Women’s Fund of Central Indiana came together and pledged to mobilize people, ideas and investments to make this a community where all individuals have the equitable opportunity to reach their full potential—no matter place, race or identity. That is our mission. And it has never been more critical than right now.

The uncertainty and vulnerability that has weighed on all of us for weeks have been an everyday reality for many residents, neighborhoods and communities in Central Indiana for generations.
We recognize the uniquely destructive impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on residents already made vulnerable by business as usual in an unfair and unjust system. We refuse to return to business as usual after this moment has passed.

As we all work to find a way to navigate this health and economic crisis, we are making another commitment:

  • To every family impacted by the loss of jobs and income, we are with you.
  • To small business owners and gig-workers navigating an uncertain future, we are with you.
  • To artists and performing arts organizations who have canceled exhibits and performances, we are with you.
  • To organizations reinventing themselves to accommodate a new reality, we are with you.
  • To students whose educations have been interrupted and those robbed of the safe haven and meals that school provides, we are with you.
  • To senior citizens and those with disabilities who are now feeling even more isolated, we are with you.
  • To our neighbors living without shelter or struggling to meet their basic needs, we are with you.
  • To the workers on the frontline taking risks to keep us fed, healthy and safe, we are with you.
  • To the immigrants and refugees separated from lifesaving resources by a language barrier or their undocumented status, we are with you.
  • To the Black and brown families devastated by disproportionate access to quality health care and a corresponding increase in illness and death, we are with you.
  • And to everyone grieving, we are with you.

The neighborhoods hit hardest by this pandemic are the very ones where we’ve worked with CICF Community Ambassadors to build meaningful relationships through listening and learning.

We are committed to continuing this work — especially in our communities of color who have been historically ignored. We will continue to invest in their futures because they are our future. We will hold to our mission of equity and continue our work to dismantle systemic racism, remove the barriers separating opportunity from so many of our neighbors, and create our Inclusive City and region. We will give residents the support they say they need. We will continue to fight for you and lead with you. Now and when the COVID-19 headlines have passed.

There are ways that every one of us can help our neighbors during this difficult time. Check on your neighbors — especially if they are seniors. Leave a note in the mailbox with a way to reach you. Before you take a trip to the grocery store or pharmacy, ask if your neighbor needs anything. Check the credibility of information and resources before sharing. (CICF is curating a list of resources available on our website at cicf.org) Our community’s not-for-profits need support now more than ever. Give to them if you can. Find ways to stay connected with loved ones.

Take care of yourself. Be safe. Be kind.

And remember that we are community. We are in this together. And we are with you.

May 18

Nonprofits rush to take advantage of PPP lifeline

By Feature, Governance

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Cindy Booth advocates for Marion County’s abused and/or neglected children through her work at Child Advocates.

Rosalyn Demares promotes state artists through Indiana Artisan.

Rachel Sahaidachny invests time and energy helping writers tell their stories at the Indiana Writers Center (IWC).
Julia Whitehead champions Kurt Vonnegut’s legacy at the museum and library that bear his name.

What these four nonprofit leaders have in common is that they applied for Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program loans. As of May 8, Indiana SBA-approved lenders helped complete 71,614 loans, totaling more than $9.66 billion, according to SBA.

What is not clear, however, is how many of these loans were approved for nonprofits.

Laura Schafsnitz, public affairs specialist at the Indiana District Office of the SBA, said that its priority is still processing funds, and has not yet differentiated between the two eligible groups – nonprofits and small business.

United Way of Central Indiana and the Arts Council of Indianapolis found some answers through a survey of local nonprofits concerning the status of PPP applications.

Denise Luster, UWCI’s vice president of impact research and analytics, said it reached out to 118 nonprofits in six counties ranging from grassroots organizations to those with multi-million dollar budgets. The target audience was the human services sector, but it reached beyond United Way’s network of accredited partners.

Of the 118 respondents, 85 applied (72 percent) for a PPP loan. By the end of April when the responses were tallied, 68 nonprofits had received approval, and 17 had not yet received word. Of the 68 approved, 50 had funds in their bank accounts. The average amount applied for was $352,872. The April 30 report does not reflect second round of PPP loans application, which opened just three days prior.

Ernest Disney-Britton, the Arts Council of Indianapolis’ vice president of community impact, shared similar data.

“I can tell you that of the 76 organizations that responded to our survey, 84 percent said they had applied for the Paycheck Protection Program,” he said. “One mid-sized organization indicated that it had received $85,000 and another mentioned it received $329,000.”

Unlike the first round of the PPP program in which funds were depleted quickly, round two still has money to give out, according to Schafsnitz.

The PPP program was not without its well-publicized wrinkles and that’s among the reasons why early in the state’s shelter-in-place order, some nonprofit leaders tried to provide support for local nonprofits. The Arts Council, for example, convenes weekly sessions that include at least 90 CEOs and executive directors. United Way and the Immigrant Welcome Center do the same. In its latest Community Connect report, 53 agencies participated in the Welcome Center’s Partner Power call. These have also been opportunities for nonprofit executives to share information and pose questions.

Child Advocates’ Executive Director Booth said she heard about the PPP through emails from the organization’s state office, national CASA and United Way. These emails shared the opportunity, what it means and what to consider.

But applying for a PPP loan was not for everyone. Booth shared a story about a colleague from southern Indiana who sought her out as sounding board, explaining her thought process and her reasons for her decision.

“I think for the smaller (organizations), sometimes it’s just even talking to somebody. ‘Am I on the right track? Does this sound right to you?’

“She really was being very thoughtful, but when she got to the ‘no,’ she was like, ‘I feel like I should be say, ‘yes.’ There’s money out there, I should be saying yes.’” That director ultimately decided not to apply,” said Booth.

The biggest question for Demares, a one-person staff, was: Is it truly a forgivable loan?” Indiana Artisans has two stores with 13 part-time employees, one in Carmel and one in the French Lick Resort. “We’ve never had any kind of loans, so this was new,” she said.

As information about the program evolved, some had concerns about the reality of forgiveness. PPP loans can qualify for forgiveness, but if not, the loan has a 1% interest rate over two years, with no payments due during the first six months.

Booth figured, while it could be viable, her concern was any negative implications. So with her CFO, she conferred with the agency’s auditor who encouraged her to apply. Booth also talked with her national and state CASA colleagues. This all happened, she said, within a number of hours. Booth said they learned early that you needed to start the process with your local bank. For Child Advocates that was Huntington Bank, and the nonprofit’s board treasurer is a bank employee who connected them the correct staff person at the bank.

All had been in regular contact with their boards or executive committees. Board members, they all agreed, provided helpful information and advice.

There was also information coming from those weekly calls, oftentimes from an expert on a particular topic. The three arts leaders — Demares, Sahaidachny and Whitehead — were regulars on the Arts Council calls.

Sahaidachny said those calls have been a godsend.

“I definitely have learned a lot. It certainly helps because it’s so hard to keep up with everything; to be able to get that recap every week has really helped me through the last two months,” she said.

“The Arts Council really spearheaded this effort of communication which has been amazing. (It is) important for the information, but also important to feel like you’re all in this together, sharing and helping each other and not feeling competitive,” said Whitehead.

After conversations with their bankers, all four had the documents ready when the loan program opened on April 3. For the Writers’ Center that was Regions, for Indiana Artisan it was Old National, Child Advocates banks with Huntington and the Vonnegut Library and Museum banks with National Bank of Indianapolis.

When the SBA launched the Paycheck Protection Program, there were high demands and technical glitches that stalled loan processing.

That wasn’t the case for Whitehead who said the Vonnegut Museum and Library’s CFO submitted its application the morning the program opened.

“We worked closely with our bank. National Bank of Indianapolis worked that entire weekend to process the loans,” she said.

Booth said it was a simple one-page application. “I think our CFO had her finger hovered over the send button as soon as Friday came,” said Booth.

While the two others were ready, they weren’t successful submitting electronically on the first day.

Demares wasn’t able to connect to Old National’s portal to upload any documents. But her banker emailed that evening to say that the portal was open and functioning, but her application would have to be redone. While she Demares did this immediately and successfully submitted it to the bank, it took until April 29 to receive approval from the SBA.

Sahaidachny had a similar experience. Her bank’s online portal kept crashing and freezing. She was finally able to complete the PPP submission the following Monday. Later that week, she received an email from her bank that the SBA had quit taking applications because the dollars had run out. Regions, however, continued to process applications to have ready in anticipation of a second round of funds. The fund was replenished and opened again on April 27. After lots of handwringing, on May 5 the Writers’ Center executive learned the money was deposited in its account.

Two of these nonprofits applied for loans of under $50,000, and two over, reflecting the sizes of their payrolls. In order to receive forgiveness, at least 75 percent must be applied for payroll costs, while the remainder can be used for mortgage interest, utilities and rent. The loan is intended to cover eight weeks of these expenses, and the borrower must then complete forgiveness application and submit to its lender. Ultimately, the bank is responsible for assessing forgiveness.

Booth said Child Advocates learned on April 16 that the organization had been approved, and Whitehead said it was April 7. The next step is applying for forgiveness. Each has a different eight-week period that beginning on the date the lender made the first disbursement of the PPP loan to the borrower.

“We didn’t expect funding as quickly as we did. That was a wonderful surprise,” said Whitehead. “We took the money and put it in a restricted account. We’re using it for payroll, but it’s sitting in a restricted account as we deplete the funds over the next couple of months. We did it for ease of accounting and also just to really highlight that those are special funds.”

All had positive experiences with the local bankers. None of the four knew of any nonprofits that applied that were denied.

“The bankers that I worked with were so responsive to my questions in the beginning of the application process. They really helped us understand what we needed to show and with their help we were able to put that together,” said Sahaidachny.

If there is a silver lining, each was able to keep staff and had the chance to reflect and plan for a different future – delivering services virtually or planning for the safe re-opening.

Whitehead said since the museum and library opened at its new location in November, it’s been a breakneck pace.

“The PPP allowed me to take a breath, and to talk with our staff about what was going well, and what was not going well. We had this wonderful clearing where we can reset. We opened in November and we were operating beyond our capability. This gave us a chance to stop and think, ‘OK what really makes sense. Shat changes do we need to make, so that we can comply with whatever the new normal will be.’”

May 04

Where have ergonomics gone?

By Sponsor Insight

By Cody Lents, change manager, Covi

The past few weeks have sent us disruption after disruption and change after change. Most of us have experienced a massive shift in incoming business, a migration of our workforces from the office to work from home, and an influx of administrative tasks and emails. Not only has the work force made a shift, so have students and teachers and now home is the classroom with e-learning.

As we continue work and classes in home spaces, it may be beneficial to remember the ergonomics and body posture in the office and classroom don’t always translate to the home work spaces.

To avoid discomfort in the upper and lower back and a pain in the neck adults and children alike should think about the following tips:

  • Eyes straight: If working from a laptop, elevate the device so that the screen allows your eyes to stay level (as opposed to looking downward…at your lap area). Keep shoulders back and down and top of the head towards the ceiling. This will avoid tension on the upper back (shoulder blade area) and the neck. You don’t have to purchase a fancy monitor or docking station to accomplish this. Be creative with a large, leather-bound book or riser from Amazon.
  • Elbows at 90-degrees: Try to keep your laptop or keyboard/mouse at a level where your arms can stay near a 90-degree angle to avoid tension in the shoulders and progress towards wrist pain. This also helps to keep your head level. If a laptop causes problems here, an external mouse and keyboard will go a long way to repositioning your hands, arms and shoulders. There are both wired and wireless options with plug-and-play simplicity that are inexpensive.
  • Feet on the floor: Keep your feet on the floor and leg space clear. This will help alleviate tension from the lower back.
  • Lumbar support: If you feel excess tension on your lower back, a lumbar support cushion or wearable strap will go a long way to relaxing the joints, muscles and disks that are hard at work supporting your new work-at-home habits.

A combination of these tips will help everyone stay focused, productive, and avoiding the chiropractor when the world swings back to normal.

Stay happy and healthy! We’re all in this together…

Here’s an additional resource: Ergonomics Recommendations for Remote Work
https://www.ehstoday.com/health/article/21127667/ergonomics-recommendations-for-remote-work

For nearly seven years, Cody Lents has been a changemaker at Covi. His pursuit of variety is relentless. From music to tech to business to his personal running routes, he’s comfortable with change. He seeks out growing companies and nonprofits because they evolve quickly, and they appreciate his adaptability. Cody works alongside visionary leaders, anticipating their needs and supporting their success. He’s a tireless advocate for his clients.

Apr 20

Help your team care for themselves and they will care for others

By Sponsor Insight

By Jodi Snell, vice president, Hedges

We work with some of Indy’s best at Hedges. Hard to believe, it has been five weeks since we all started working from home. While working remotely is not a completely new concept to our Hedges team, working from home 100% of the time while being surrounded by our loved ones is new to us.

Last week, we took the time to send out some extra communication via email to let Hedges employees know how much we value them. It was something we called Monday morning motivation. The response from our team told us that we were right on the money. They needed to be reminded that it’s okay to care for themselves during this time. As a result of this intentional communication, we received positive feedback from team members and learned that people felt relief, support, and gratitude for such open communication during this time.

We were inspired by how much this message meant to our team and during this time when collaboration and community mean so much, we wanted to give others permission to “borrow” our idea and hope that it can be a resource for those nonprofit leaders looking to communicate the value of self-care to their teams amidst COVID-19.

Here’s what we sent to Hedges employees

We have made it 4 weeks!! Thank you all for taking such good care of our clients. Each of you have gone above and beyond in so many ways. You have reflected the Hedges values repeatedly during this time and we appreciate you so much!

With that said, we wanted to touch base and make sure that you are caring for yourself as much as you are caring for our clients. Below are a few things that we want to reiterate and put out into the universe for each of you to read:

Let go of any guilt: We are so thankful to have a team of high achievers. That is what makes this transition to the full team working remote so easy for us. We know that you will take care of our clients and go above and beyond for them.

So…let go of the guilt about not being your most productive self right now or not getting in eight hours a day. We know you will take care of your clients and all client work will be completed. We aren’t counting hours and you shouldn’t either. Put that guilt on a boat and send it down the river!

Loved ones included: Dog barking? Cat walking across your keyboard? Kiddos popping in on a meeting? Partner walking in during a meeting? We are all in the same boat – all of us at Hedges and everyone else in the community. Try to remember those little windows into us as humans are okay – find the joy in those moments rather than worrying about them!

Give yourself a break: Hitting a wall? Can’t seem to finish that deliverable? Kiddos asking you to play? Want to have lunch with your loved ones? Feeling down? Need a nap? Have a desire to help and volunteer right now?

Give yourself permission to take a break. If you need to take part of a day away to just recharge during this time, please do so and don’t use your PTO. Consider it self-care and do it! You will be way more productive if you take a break and come back to your work. Please, please, please take the breaks you need to care for yourself right now.

You do you: Depending on your workload and the type of work you are trying to knock out you might need less or more face-to-face time with others. Please determine what you need each week and plan accordingly.

Need some heads down time or a break from Zoom? Let the team know, turn off Microsoft Team chat, and move unessential meetings to emails. Need a space to process and talk through a project with someone? Tap into someone on the team who has the space to do that with you! We all have different capacity levels each week, so let’s lean into that as a team.

It is our hope that these reminders will remove any stressors that you might be feeling related to work. In a time like this, we will each have good days and bad days. If you are feeling a certain way, someone else is probably feeling that way too. Check in on each other – take care of each other.

There are some videos about mental health related to identifying stress, your workspace, and practicing gratitude in First Person’s resource hub that might be helpful during this time. And, if you need additional supports or resources, please let us know.

With gratitude for all you do.

Focused on equity, justice, and serving others, Jodi Snell is leading the way to make Central Indiana a vibrant place to live and to strengthen the nonprofit sector. Jodi has worked and volunteered with an array of nonprofit organizations for more than 12 years providing leadership and strategy, serving on the front line of direct service, and leading fundraising efforts. Since 2014, Jodi has shared her valuable leadership skills as an essential thought partner and problem solver at Hedges. She leads the Hedges team and clients in a manner that transforms visions into impactful and measurable change.

Apr 20

O’Neill grad students put classroom lessons to work for communities

By Sponsor Insight, Uncategorized

By Leslie Wells, assistant director of communications, O’Neill School at IUPUI

As two teenage girls stood before the Batesville, Indiana, City Council, they waited to make their case for funding. The Batesville Mayor’s Youth Council had received $5,000 through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority’s (ICHDA) My Community, My Vision grant program (MCMV). If they couldn’t come up with another $7,000, they’d have to take their public art project back to the drawing board.

In the crowd at the council meeting was Stacy Robinson, a public affairs graduate student from the O’Neill School at IUPUI. She had been working with the Mayor’s Youth Council for months through her My Community, My Vision Fellowship at the O’Neill School. Her assignment: to help the teens develop a proposal that would bring national artist Kelsey Montague to Batesville to paint two interactive murals.

“The meeting actually was a little tense,” Robinson recalls. “Some of the city councilors didn’t like their idea.”

Former Indiana Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann started MCMV in 2014 to bring development to Indiana communities and engage young people. Every year, youth-led organizations from across the state apply to the program. Each group selected receives a $5,000 grant toward a community development project. They are also paired with an O’Neill IUPUI graduate student who guides them through the process. As part of the fellowship, each grad student receives $10,000 over the course of two semesters.

“Community engagement is the lesson plan at O’Neill,” says Marshawn Wolley, O’Neill’s director of community engagement and strategic initiatives. “This is a great example of the innovative partnerships we try to develop in order to advance student learning and impact communities at the same time.”

Wolley and O’Neill Associate Professor Adam Eckerd helped create the partnership with ICHDA and bring the MCMV grant program fellowship to the school.

“Students come into an MPA program eager to foster policy change and make communities better, but they don’t often get the opportunity to see that change actually happen,” says Eckerd. “The My Community, My Vision program allows our grad students to get hands-on experience using what they’re learning to lead real positive change in Indiana communities, while also having an influence on high school students who will be future public leaders.”

That combination is why Robinson applied for the fellowship. She came to the O’Neill School because of its reputation in the nonprofit world. Yet experiences like this one help her learn how to apply her education to any sector.

“I liked the idea of learning more about how local government works while working with youth,” said Robinson. “They’re at an interesting time in their lives when they care so much about what’s happening around them, but they often aren’t given opportunities to make change happen.”

Once she was paired with the Mayor’s Youth Council, Robinson sat down with the teens to get a better understanding of what they wanted to do and why.

“They already had community surveys that told them there wasn’t a lot for young people to do,” she says. “They wanted to make Batesville feel like a more vibrant place that young people would want to come back to after graduation.”

Robinson taught the enthusiastic teens to think critically about how to turn their artistic dreams into reality. She worked with them on how to evaluate the project and get more feedback from their neighbors. That community buy-in, Robinson told them, was critical.

“If the community doesn’t like an idea selected by a small group of people, that’s not a good public art project,” she said. “You need to make sure the community is on board with it.”

Not only did the community support the project, but so did the city council. At the meeting, they agreed to cover the remaining costs and move the Youth Council’s plan from paper to paint. Since last summer, two murals now enhance downtown. The first is a tree swing painted on Miss Shannon’s Music Studio in the Batesville Shopping Village. The second, a butterfly mural, is on Hillrom’s Training Center on Walnut Street.

Kim Linkel, an advisor for the Youth Council, says Robinson’s guidance not only made the project better but also helped the teens develop leadership skills.

“Stacy always allowed them to drive the project,” Linkel says. “They’ve realized that they’re not just some club that doesn’t make an impact. They see that, even though they’re young, they can drive change in their community.”

Their newfound confidence came through in the City Council meeting. The teens presented a strong case and convinced councilors to provide additional funding to cover the remaining cost for the murals.

The My Community, My Vision partnership paid off for Batesville, its Mayor’s Youth Council members, and for Robinson.

“It was a really positive experience,” she says. “It was great to actually be able to put things into action that we learned in the classroom and I enjoyed working with the youth. They made me feel excited and hopeful about the future.”

To read the teens’ proposal, click here.

Leslie Wells joined the O’Neill School at IUPUI as its assistant director of communications in 2018. She previously spent more than a decade in broadcast news and three years as media relations manager at the Indiana Youth Institute.

Apr 13

How do women give of their time, talent, treasure and testimony?

By Sponsor Insight, Uncategorized

By Abby Rolland, communications project manager at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

For more than a decade, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) has conducted research to answer this question. Known for its studies that specifically focus on gender and giving, the institute doesn’t just report on the findings, but incorporates practical perspectives and applications in every study it conducts.

When Jeannie Sager joined WPI as director early this year, she was especially drawn to WPI’s mission to curate and disseminate research.

“Sager will be a dynamic new director guiding the next phase of our Women’s Philanthropy Institute, which is helping to understand the full potential of women in philanthropy and the potential of women’s philanthropy to transform the world,” said Amir Pasic, Ph.D., the Eugene R. Tempel Dean of the school. “Her experience working with women philanthropists as donors and volunteers will further inform the institute’s work, and her strategic, creative leadership style will help launch a new decade of excellence for WPI.”  

An established leader in philanthropy and fundraising, Sager brings a wealth of expertise and more than 25 years of nonprofit leadership and development experience in a variety of fields, including higher education, independent schools and healthcare.

At the Indiana University Health Foundation, she was part of the leadership team that created a flagship statewide foundation from several disparate hospital foundations that collectively exceeded its first-year fundraising goal by more than 330%.

Sager also built a full-scale development program from the ground up at University High School of Indiana, raising over $30 million in private philanthropic support by establishing a major gifts program focused on annual gifts.

She believes nonprofits must form deeper relationships with donors by creating community, establishing personal connections with potential donors, encouraging longevity and donor education and inspiring deeper engagement. Nonprofit practitioners, she said, should incorporate easy-to-understand research findings into their daily work as they help donors — women and men — discover their passions and reasons for giving.

She recently shared two donor anecdotes from her firsthand experiences that illustrate how WPI research can be embedded into practitioners’ daily experiences and help inform donor strategy.

“I worked with a woman on her first ever “major” gift. It was the largest personal gift that she ever made. She was inspired to make this gift as an opportunity to give back to her department in honor of two physicians whom she felt invested in her at the beginning of her career. So, she wanted to create a staff education fund to help other team members have the opportunity for professional development to hopefully inspire them to choose that area of healthcare as their specialty. 

“She was very adamant about the idea of an endowment and having these funds available in perpetuity and not subject to budget constraints. Moreover, she was resolute about finding others to match her gift and to achieve a goal of $100,000. She was willing to personally solicit her network of colleagues, both retired and current employees, her family and grateful patients.”

APPLICATION: Consider the various ways that women donors engage with each other in giving.

  • Women also appear particularly interested and involved in collaborative giving, especially compared to men. The donor in the story personally solicited her own network for donations to the staff education fund, illustrating her desire to engage others and give collaboratively to set up the fund.

Leveraging and maximizing dollars for greater impact can be seen in the growth of giving circles. From 2007 to 2016, the number of giving circles tripled, with women making up the majority of members in 70% of giving circles. It’s estimated that giving circles have given as much as $1.29 billion since inception to 2016.

  • Women also report needing first-hand involvement to increase their motivations for giving. The donor above felt a strong connection to the department that she dedicated her career to, and wanted to help support other nurses and staff long-term.

According to the report “Where Do Men and Women Give?” female-deciding households are more likely to give to health (like the woman above), youth and family, and international causes. In couples when the wife is the sole decision-maker, the household is more likely to be motivated to give by believing that their gift will make a difference.

“When working in the independent school space, we often engaged in discussions with spouses or adult children about considering a gift to the school that honored and equaled the time and talent that their spouse or mother had invested in the school — imagine hundreds of hours serving as PTO president, working open houses, organizing fundraisers and working concession stands, etc.

“Reframing their spouse’s or mother’s time in terms of value helped elevate a major gift conversation.

“Women philanthropists tend to give more than money. In addition to being more likely to donate than men, they also are more likely to volunteer — and volunteer more hours on average — compared to men. In other words, women give of their time and talent, for example as PTO presidents, board members, and fundraising committee members, in addition to giving their treasure.” 

APPLICATION: When approaching a woman donor or those close to her, consider the time, talent, treasure, and testimony she has given your organization.

  • Women tend to engage philanthropically beyond giving money. Fundraisers should keep in mind that potential women donors may desire a deep and first-hand connection to the causes that they care about. Women donors may require a deeper level of engagement from the organizations to which they donate — from serving as a volunteer or a board member, to requesting frequent communication and updates about their donation.

Women’s monetary donations are important, but keep in mind the many other ways women show their generosity. They volunteer, and they use their networks and their voices to galvanize further support for causes they care about. In an estimate of informal giving over the last 10 years, 72% of Americans said they helped a stranger, and 42% said that they volunteered. Women are also more likely to volunteer than men. As a result, there’s large potential to engage potential donors, including the woman herself as well as her family members, by illustrating the impact that she’s had on the organization.

The bottom-line is as development professionals, think about the last few times that you interacted with women donors. If you can’t think of those interactions, why not? If you’re speaking to only men donors, who or where are the women in their lives that might be involved in those giving decisions? Why are they important to include? Take the time to analyze and evaluate your donor solicitations, and think of how including women will help your fundraising grow.

Abby Rolland serves as the communications project manager at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, and is also working towards a master’s degree in philanthropic studies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Gettysburg College.