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Jun 04

New study reveals funding intentions of budding nonprofit entrepreneurs

By Sponsor Insight

By Michael L. Jackson, Director of Marketing and Communications, SPEA at IUPUI

During his time as a senior fellow at the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership in Missouri Fredrik Andersson has counseled hundreds of nonprofit professionals on how to improve performance and organizational effectiveness.

He has also met with countless entrepreneurs who have great ideas for new nonprofit ventures. They all want to know the same thing: “Where can I find money for it?”

That ongoing query sparked Andersson’s most recent research into the funding intentions among nascent nonprofit entrepreneurs. His latest journal article, published this spring in the Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, examines anticipated funding sources and amounts that budding entrepreneurs believe they’ll need as they formally launch their new nonprofits.

“I would make the argument that one of the most difficult things there is for anyone who wants to start a new organization is how to hayamix.com obtain and allocate resources,” said Andersson, an assistant professor of nonprofit management at the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI. “There are so many different options for funding – individual donations, earned income, foundations, grants – and careful consideration of those sources is a key thing.”

Andersson collected data over the course of a year from 103 budding nonprofit entrepreneurs who were participants in seven “Planning a New Nonprofit” workshops at the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership. He found that the average number of sources in a funding portfolio was 3.12, with philanthropic grants (67 percent) and donations (57 percent) listed as the top two potential sources.

As for estimated start-up capital needs, 9 percent of respondents indicated they would need less than $5,000, 46 percent expected needs to fall between $5,000 and $10,000, 31 percent in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, and 14 percent estimated start-up capital needs exceeding $20,000.

While philanthropic grants and individual donations are clearly considered an important source of start-up funding among emerging entrepreneurs, they emerged as critically important for those entrepreneurs who expected start-up costs to fall within the range of $5,000 to $20,000. Nearly two-thirds of respondents in this group expected the two sources to cover a majority of their capital needs.

“There is a perception – and the idea must have been shaped somewhere – that a lot of start-up money is coming from (foundations),” Andersson said. “The reality is that a lot of these nascent entrepreneurs intend to compete for philanthropic grant dollars they are unlikely to get.”

Andersson and American University professor Lewis Faulk investigated foundation grants made to new nonprofits in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, between 2003 and 2012 and discovered that new nonprofit startups receive grants at significantly lower rates than already established nonprofits.

“Research shows that the greatest predictor of getting a grant from a foundation is getting a grant previously,” Andersson said. “Foundations generally want to know that something is making a difference before they invest. They want to see evidence that this is a risk worth taking.”

With his latest research, Andersson also discovered that previous start-up experience appears to play an important role when determining funding options for a new organization. He says those individuals who have prior experience starting a nonprofit are more likely to draw from personal savings, income, loans and credit.

These entrepreneurs’ intentions to utilize personal means and other funding sources like angel investors or crowd funding is a tactic that minimizes the need for external funding to allow the emerging organization to get going, according to Andersson.

“One interpretation of this finding is that that experienced nascent nonprofit entrepreneurs are more aware, through learning, of just how difficult it can be to obtain funding from external financiers,” Andersson said.

Regardless of the funding source or amount, Andersson says it’s important for nascent entrepreneurs to think beyond money. He cautions them to be prepared for what happens if they don’t get the start-up capital they expected and to make contingency plans.

“If you’re going to charter your success on whether or not you can obtain financing, then I think you disregard the fact that you can muster resources in other ways,” he said. “That is sometimes what is referred to as boot-strapping.

“Instead of buying a new building you work out of your home,” he continued. “Instead of buying equipment you borrow it from another organization. You partner and collaborate. Obtaining resources that are beyond finances is a critical element to startup success and should not be overlooked in the process.”

Michael L. Jackson joined SPEA as its Director of Marketing and Communications in 2015 following two years at the Kelley School of Business, where he helped launch the school’s physician-only MBA program in 2013. Previously he worked for The Indianapolis Star.

May 29

The art of major gift fundraising

By Sponsor Insight

Editor’s Note: Gene Tempel, Ed.D., Founding Dean Emeritus of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI and president emeritus of the Indiana University Foundation, contributed content for this article.

By Abby Rolland, Content Coordinator, the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI  

“Fundraising is the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving.”
— Henry A. “Hank” Rosso, founder of The Fund Raising School

For Angela Gill, sharing the joy of giving is one of the best parts of her job as Executive Director of the Major Hospital Foundation in Shelbyville.

That’s a good thing, because the health-care system her foundation serves is expanding. In the past few years, it has opened a new hospital and health campus and partnered with Veteran Health Indiana to open a new garida.net veterans’ clinic. And this year, it will begin building a new nephrology center to focus on kidney health, thanks to a donor’s generosity.

Gill is aided in helping donors find the joy in giving by her extensive professional experience — including holding key roles at the Blue River Community Foundation and Shelby County United Fund before joining the Major Hospital Foundation in 2006 — and her graduate education. She earned her master’s degree in philanthropic studies from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI in 2011.

Since graduating, Gill has applied that knowledge, including an understanding of the art of fundraising, to her work. Recently, the foundation was awarded a major gift from a generous donor to build a freestanding nephrology center. Gill spoke about the process of securing this gift – a years-long process that began with a small gift from an interested individual.

“I had hoped this gentleman might be interested in the work of the hospital and the foundation,” she said. “He’s pretty savvy – he started by making a small gift to see what we would do about it, how we would respond. I stayed in touch with him and let him know everything we were doing.”

Fundraising, Gill said, depends on developing trust and mutual understanding over time.

That echoes advice that Dr. Gene Tempel, founding dean emeritus of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and president emeritus of the Indiana University Foundation, shared in a recent podcast for The Fund Raising School.

“The art of fundraising,” Tempel said, is “the creativity and engagement that are part of the way that fundraising has to be done.” It’s the art that must accompany the science and the technique of fundraising.

For one thing, Tempel said, fundraising is “about listening more than speaking, so that one begins to understand the donor. Listening is about 75 percent of the interaction. One needs to have empathy for the donor, to be able to see the world in which the donor lives from the donor’s point-of-view, to identify with and engage with the donor.”

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“The First Day from The Fund Raising School” is a weekly, 10-minute podcast that provides fundraisers and philanthropy professionals with current news, ideas and research. Hosted by Bill Stanczykiewicz, director of The Fund Raising School at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, it is available through The Fund Raising School App as well as iTunes and Google Play. A video version is also available on The Fund Raising School’s LinkedIn page.

Thinking about making a master’s degree a reality? The Master of Arts in Philanthropic Studies degree can be earned online, in person, or by combining those options.

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“Hank Rosso, the founder of The Fund Raising School, frequently said, ‘Fundraising is the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving,’” Tempel said. “The joy of giving part is really important – one can sense when the donor might find joy in the gift that is being sought. And when the donor finds joy in the expression of a gift, that’s when we have the possibility of a major gift.”

For Gill, collaborating with the major donor to find that joy involved relationship building and exploring how the donor’s interests and the mission and needs of her organization might line up. As the relationship progressed, the donor shared that he would be interested in making a major gift.

“We showed him the drawings and gave him an explanation of what a nephrology center would do,” Gill said, noting that the new center will serve thousands of people every year and will provide a continuum of care to people living in Shelby County. “He was interested and agreed to support it and put his late wife’s name on the center, which we’ll be building later this year.”

Tempel’s insights underscore the value of such collaboration for the donor as well as the organization.

“So often we think of transformational gifts as gifts that transform the organization somehow and have a major impact on the organization. And certainly that’s a valid way of thinking about a big idea, a big gift might help fund a big idea that changes the organization,” he said.

“But it’s most important to think about how the gift might transform the donor, how the gift might make an impact on the donor’s life and see the possibility of something happening that the donor could not or did not have the thought of doing before. When one can help a donor make a transformational gift, a gift that transforms the donor’s life, that’s when we have complete satisfaction and perhaps joy in making the gift from the donor’s perspective.”

Gill shares some additional thoughts for fundraisers to keep in mind when collaborating with major donors:

  • Make sure you have a good relationship with people within your organization. “For me, keeping the door open with the administration and the board of the hospital is extremely important so that both parties know what is going on and are on the same page about both the project and the prospective gift.”
  • Know your donor. “If you go in to a meeting about a gift without knowing what the donor supports, it can be difficult.” Listen carefully and do your research so you know from the outset that what you’re proposing is likely to be a good match.
  • Do the right thing. “If you treat people the right way and listen to them, good things can come your way. They learn to trust you, like what you’re doing, and want to become a part of that work.”

Abby Rolland is the content coordinator at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, and a current student in the philanthropic studies graduate certificate program. She has plans to enroll in the full master’s degree. Prior to her current role, she served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Second Helpings, Inc. She is passionate about nonprofits and the impact they have in local and global communities.

May 21

Branding with heart

By Sponsor Insight

By Chad Stuckey, founder and Chief Creative Officer and Blair Wieland, Chief Strategic Officer and Partner, BIG

Brand Innovation Group — BIG, to our friends — specializes in branding for nonprofits. We know you have more than just goals. You have a mission, driven by a passion to help others.

We speak your language, understand your challenges and already have a roadmap to find the right solutions. You want to work with people you trust, and we love being those people — an extension of your own team.

With offices in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, BIG has over 20 years of extensive experience partnering with Indiana-based nonprofits including United Way of Allen County, Matthew 25 Health & Dental Clinic and The Fort Wayne Rescue Mission. Our marketing and branding expertise also extends to international organizations, including work with David C Cook, The Navigators and Compassion International.

We know running a nonprofit presents a unique set of challenges, and we understand that every dollar spent should produce hayamix results. You can’t afford to put out a message that falls flat. With every branding initiative, our dedicated strategy team speaks to employees, donors and volunteers to capture deep insights into what makes your organization so special. We develop target audience personas and customer-experience maps based on primary research to guide and strengthen our understanding of your unique brand. Armed with these insights and strategic positioning, our creative team develops messaging and supporting visuals that deliver compelling brand stories. And because a great story deserves to be told well, we build traditional and digital tactics that make a real impact.

The BIG difference is the creation of a living brand — a flexible expression of your organization that adapts to changes in the marketplace, communication channels and donor engagement.

Our world is changing, and it’s changing fast. Your mission is too important to be lost in the crowd.

Let us handle your brand, so you can focus on lending a hand.

Chad Stuckey, founder and chief creative officer,, is a creative thinker and graphic designer with more than two decades of experience crafting memorable brands and head-turning ad campaigns. He founded BIG in 1995 after earning dual degrees in organizational leadership and technical graphics from Purdue University. But he owes much of his career success to his allergy to horses. If not for that, he might’ve fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a cowboy.

 

Blair Wieland, BIG’s chief strategic officer and partner, is a serial entrepreneur who is always looking for ‘what’s right, not what’s next.’ First he creates something the market wants, and then makes it something they can’t do without. After graduating from the University of Michigan and Notre Dame, Blair’s ‘strategy first’ approach to innovation made him a nationally recognized, award-winning product designer.

Visit gotobig.com to learn more, and say hi.

May 21

Children’s Commission gains a foothold

By Legislation

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Indiana, like most states in the country, has no shortage of vulnerable, at-risk children. Indiana’s kids, however, may be more fortunate than others in that they have friends in high places.

The state’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush and state Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle) have been strong advocates for Indiana’s children for a large portion of their time in public service. Both have spent significant time at the grassroots level learning about issues affecting this population.

For Rush, it included volunteering in the 1980s as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), making recommendations to a judge on behalf of neglected or abused children, and as a judge, visiting the institutions where she would sentence young people. Holdman has been associated with Child Protection Services in Indiana for over 40 years.

Five years ago, they worked in concert to affect state-level change. They advocated and tenaciously supported the creation of the Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana. Holdman saw a need and sponsored the legislation and said Rush and others worked doggedly to support the effort. Both believed there needed to be regular attention paid to improving the status of children.

 

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“There were so many different entities that touch children, but there was no coordination between the entities. When we did research for the children’s commission, we found 31 committees or commissions on the record books dealing with children and child-related issues,” said Rush who has served as chief justice since 2014. Over a year, they did a global overview and determined that a children’s commission could pull all these entities together.

Although Holdman said there was no one incident that led to the commission’s creation, the overarching reason was that with the many parts and pieces and different agencies, it often resulted in duplication of services and payment.

Established by Senate Bill 125 in 2013, the 18-member commission includes leaders from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government, but more importantly, its positions are specifically named in the statute. Five members form the executive committee and the commission chairmanship rotates among the three branches of government.

Holdman said from the start they were adamant that the leader of a division be the representative.

“Bill drafters wanted to add ‘designee.’ We said, ‘No, we’re not going to put that language in because they will never come to a meeting, if we do that.’ The commissioner of health, the superintendent of public instruction, and the attorney general, all of those leaders need to be personally involved so that we get their attention, and they help determine how to resolve issues for children.

“I think having all three branches is what makes it unique from other states,” said Holdman who rotated off the commission and was replaced by Sen. Erin Houchin (R-Salem). Not all states have commissions, and Indiana’s was scheduled to sunset in 2019. That, however, was changed to 2029 in the most recent legislative session.

Last September, Julie Whitman became the commission’s first full-time executive director. Previously she was Indiana Youth Institute’s (IYI) vice president of Statewide Engagement and Advocacy, and also served as a co-chairperson for the commission’s data sharing and mapping committee.

At the commission’s inception, Rush said that data-gathering was among the most important things it would do. And Whitman is well poised to help make that happen. For the past 24 years, one of IYI’s annual publications has been the KIDS COUNT data book, which provides easily accessible, reliable data regarding childhood well-being in five categories: families and communities, economy, education, health and safety. Whitman believes the commission takes it one step further.

“I think that the commission picks up where KIDS COUNT leaves off, in the sense that the data book gives a general picture of the state. Then these guys are tasked with researching, ‘OK, now what do we do about it? What are other states doing about it?’ So they’re doing a different type of research. Really looking at interventions and best practices and policies,” she said.

One of the first important tasks that the commission did, Holdman said, was to build an inventory of all the services around the state. It helped the commission learn where the gaps and holes in services were geographically.

The commission has also been able to raise the visibility of issues, like infant mortality.

“We brought that to light, got Governor Pence’s attention and the state held the first infant mortality symposium. So as much as anything, it’s not doing the work itself, but bringing the issues to light for the public to be aware of it. Folks in a lot of different communities have stepped up to the plate to address the issue locally,” said the senator who has represented his district since 2008.

Rush said a tangential effect is collaboration.

“You have people who have never sat around the table who are dealing with state-wide policies who have never communicated with each other. When you get different people who care, it’s really interesting to see how these partners help,” she said.

At the start, the commission met quarterly for four hours. When Whitman came on board, she did a listening tour. The majority mentioned the length of meetings. Now the group meets more frequently — six times a year for two hours. Meetings are held from 10 a.m. to noon on the third Wednesday of each month.

And they have made progress.

The commission is not doing this work in isolation. Four task forces provide insight and expertise, each representing one priority of the strategic plan — Child Safety and Services, Educational Outcomes, Mental Health and Substance Abuse and Juvenile Justice and Cross-system Youth.

“None of the commission members sit on the task forces. Altogether under the Children’s Commission umbrella, we have about 150 people working on issues, and that includes the commission members themselves,” said Whitman. The committees include individuals from both government agencies and nonprofit leaders. About 30 to 40 percent are non-governmental employees.

“The commission has really said to these task forces, ‘You are the subject matter experts, bring us your recommendations, we want to take action and create policies that really are driven by what works in the field,’” said Whitman.

“Even though they’re volunteers, they’ve agreed to do this work and hold each other accountable. We’ve started a process where every task force reports out at every commission meeting, so I think this helps them just stay invested in the work and really make sure these objectives are moving forward,” she said.

When the task force is ready to bring a recommendation to the commission, it asks to be placed on the commission’s agenda. At the commission meeting, there is a hearing that includes discussion and questions.

Whitman provided two concrete accomplishments since the fall.

One identified need was additional mental health therapists and counselors. The Mental Health and Substance Abuse Task Force was charged with researching what could be done at the state level to increase the available number. A subcommittee discovered a specific barrier to state licensing: Indiana law has an internship requirement of 1,000 hours, whereas most nationally accredited programs require only 700.

So the committee offered a recommendation to change that requirement, which was approved unanimously, and according to Whitman, also came up with an innovation.

“Once an individual has an initial clinical license, he or she has to have hours of supervision from a person with the same type of licensing. In rural areas, especially, it can be a challenge to find a supervisor who has a specialization to get the required hours of face-to-face supervision,” she said.

So the task force recommended that 50 percent of those hours be virtual to ease the burden.

Both recommendations were approved unanimously. That particular task force is chaired by Sen. Randall Head (R-Logansport), and he filed that bill with the Indiana General Assembly that made it all the way through.

“I thought that was a pretty exciting win for this past year,” said Whitman.

Another example was from the Child Safety and Services Task Force. One of its objectives is addressing teen suicide in Indiana. That task force researched Zero Suicide Academy, which is a policy approach and designed specifically for hospital emergency departments and community mental health centers to make sure that the safety net has no holes and that those contemplating suicide don’t fall through the cracks.

“After completing the research, the task force recommended that the commission endorse the academy. WFYI was at the commission meeting and broadcast a segment. There was greater public awareness. I was able to reach out to the head of the hospital association and say, ‘Hey, the Children’s Commission has just approved this, can you get this information out to your hospital members?” And he was very happy to do so. And that kind of power of collaboration and just raising awareness sometimes, can get an initiative a little further than maybe it would have gotten otherwise,” said Whitman.

Diverse perspectives can help clarification language. Recently at a meeting, there was a discussion about the words “wrap-around services.”

“Some folks who are steeped in the mental health field said ‘wrap-around’ has a very particular meaning within the mental health world, which we think actually is not what was meant here. We think it’s actually school-based services. So they re-worded that objective, and the commission said fine,” said Whitman.

“I think there’s a kind of deference and respect in both directions between the commission and the task forces, so when those subject matter experts come and say, ‘We just wanted to clarify and make sure this was your intent,’ the commission has a great respect for the expertise in those groups.”

So what’s next? Whitman said that the commission is waiting for the Department of Child Services assessment report in June and assumes it will affect what the commission is doing.

“I’m not sure we’re where we need to be, but at least we have a framework in place that we can use to monitor what’s going on to get a better handle on it,” said Holdman.

Whitman said she would love the state to get to a point where we have an overall vulnerable youth dashboard, children’s budget or fiscal map and match them up.
“Ultimately we need to say, ‘What’s the return on investment? What are we doing as a state for kids? Is it as effective as it can be? Is it as efficient as it can be?”

Apr 23

Connecting teens to jobs

By Feature

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Marie Mackintosh rises to challenges.

In 2016, when Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced a new focus on collaborative workforce development, he also named a new EmployIndy’s leadership team — Angela Carr Klitzch as president and chief executive officer and Marie Mackintosh as chief operating officer.

And while running the nonprofit that oversees multiple federal, state, and local workforce development activities for Marion County is a gargantuan task, a bigger hurdle was engaging and getting the city’s young people employed.

The data was challenging. In 2014, the Brookings Institution released a 12-year longitudinal study that examined youth employment rates in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. What they found was troubling. Labor participation for ages 16 to 19, had fallen from 49 percent to 28 percent. Added to that was another report by The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that teen employment had declined with every recession since 1979, and was projected to further decline through 2024.

Both reports raised concern for the future prospects of Indianapolis youth and the economic vitality and quality of life in Central Indiana. More importantly, jobs were changing.

EmployIndy was undaunted, and there was another reason to reverse that trend. The time was right.

“There’s another report by JP Morgan Chase about how much money people don’t earn because they start their work history later on in life. There is just a lot of evidence to show that employment as soon as young people are able to be employed is so critical not only for them but for the community and we hope employers as well. So lot of our effort is there,” Mackintosh said.

“There is a drastic change in the community. What we are aiming to do is to create more synergy especially in the youth employment space, youth opportunity space. Without question, we are absolutely trying to reverse the trend,” said Mackintosh.

The Jobs for American Graduates Program (JAG) is part of the agency’s dropout prevention strategy and an initiative for the younger end of the spectrum. In partnership with Junior Achievement, the program includes a day-long experience at the State Fairgrounds for all eight graders to be exposed to all the careers in the community.

Another effort is the mayor’s ProjectIndy, a youth jobs program designed to connect teens to employers. This is the third year for the online portal that EmployIndy oversees. According to Mackintosh, the mayor wanted a single application for teens because if an individual wanted to apply to the Parks and the Y, he or she had to do it twice.

“We have connected so many more of the dots for young people so they aren’t as confused about where to go to find opportunities. That’s been cool,” said Mackintosh.

“What we’ve done is create a common space where young people can see where the close jobs are and created a basic entry-level application. In some instances, it populates to individual applications, but we still haven’t yet solved that single uniform application for all employers.”

Last summer, 3,398 young people completed the application, and so far this year,1,866 teens have. The program is competitive because it offers not only jobs, but training and mentors.

Additionally, EmployIndy has made progress in becoming a partnering organization by joining with youth-serving organizations that work with this age group. Programs like TeenWorks, GroundWork Indy and Marion County Commission on Youth (McCoy) are part of the network.

Together this network, made up of a broad group of community organizations with varying levels of service-delivery models, has worked to determine the best investment. McCoy, for example, receives funding that is passed through EmployIndy to provide employability skills training for summer jobs.

“The challenge with integration of services has been understanding the youth providers and their competencies and strengths, so that we can invest appropriately for the best outcomes for the individual, the provider, the community and the employers,” said Mackintosh.

Tammie Barney, TeenWork’s president and CEO, is one of those providers. Every summer, the nonprofit finds employment for nearly 500 teens. Working together with EmployIndy, the agency has submitted collaborative proposals, like one to the Department of Labor that resulted in $2.3 million grant.

Barney, who has been in her role for just over two years, said EmployIndy adds structure. Meetings with agendas are opportunities to announce EmployIndy’s Requests for proposals (RFPs), explain the mechanics of the application and field questions for participants.

Another benefit she said was learning about similar youth programs. Led by EmployIndy, the network comes together once a quarter to share goals, challenges, programming and trainings. One result was a workshop on Trauma Informed Care, a workshop that provides social work level training for youth workers who work with teens who have experienced trauma in their lives.

“EmployIndy brought it to all of us and said, ‘Hey, we have an opportunity for the community. Who’s interested?’ We all were able to take advantage of it,” said Barney.

Nonprofit partners’ teens and employers attend the fifth annual Youth Opportunities Fair hosted by U.S. Rep. Andre Carson D-Ind. at the Indianapolis Central Library in early March. – Photo courtesy of EmployIndy

“There’s value in not recreating the wheel, and there’s a huge amount of value in the power of a network. If you are new, all of the resources that are already around the table can help you get to your goal faster. You can decide which population you want to focus on and learn where others are finding resources to support their work whether it is monetary or intellectual capital. Those kinds of things make it very, very valuable to be a part of it.”

Another service is the portal. This year 1,300 teens applied for TeenWorks’ summer program by the time applications closed in February. And because not all applicants were selected or met specific criteria, they were guided to use ProjectIndy’s portal.

“If there is a kid who fits into another program, we can make that referral so that they may be be picked up by one of those programs,” said Barney.

Both Mackintosh and Barney are excited about the job ready employability skills badge and curriculum that the group worked on and will launch this summer.

“I believe that we can potentially make a real difference with a very simple concept, just making sure that people are understanding basic employability skills, but that could really help reduce some barriers to employment. So I’m really excited about that,” said Mackintosh.

There are still challenges. One is to get a handle on the number of employed and unemployed young people in the city. Mackintosh said the community dashboard is a work in progress. Currently nonprofits report their information in slightly different ways with slightly different data systems.

“I think when we counted data systems, it were something like 20 different ones that existed out there. We are working to streamline that for reporting purposes, so that we’re not duplicating individuals, which results in an inaccurate count for us as an intermediary,” said Mackintosh. Data is key for funders’ reports, and especially when the nonprofit subsidizes teens’ wages.

“So right now the ProjectIndy dashboard is the best way to get at some of questions like, Are we moving the needle on youth employment? The portal allows us to see how many employers and young people we have signed up, how many jobs are offered and how many are getting matched? We will continue to grow the dashboard and it will help to inform the broader community.”

An outreach campaign is part of EmployIndy’s plan, using all types of social media, using both traditional and untraditional communications. A street outreach team is another part of the approach to meet the goals set in the organization’s strategic plan.

“How do we just make sure young people know about the places where they can get help if they want it? We have the ability, to scale and promote on behalf of our network of partners that there is a place out there for you to come to and feel safe and get help to get back on track.”

There’s just such an obvious connection between generational poverty, unemployment levels and crime.

“I think that when you just look at where some of the community’s problems exist, that it all ultimately points back to people having sort of given up for hope for better opportunity, for that American Dream. And we have got to help them believe that there is again opportunity. That takes a lot of effort not only on the part of organizations but the private sector as well. I think that when people feel like they have opportunity in the jobs and then they can be economically mobile and make a better life for themselves, I think they will chose that over other options,” said Mackintosh.

Apr 09

About the film

By Education, Feature, Programming

“Eva A-7063,” the 120-minute documentary that premiered last week, is narrated by actor Ed Asner, features appearances by CNN journalist Wolf Blitzer, actor Elliott Gould and former NBA player Ray Allen, who share Kor’s influence in their lives. The original score was composed by Dr. Tyron Cooper.

Traveling nearly 90,000 miles, filmmakers Green and Brown followed the 84-year-old Terre Haute resident to the Romanian village where she first encountered anti-Semitism and to the lab at Auschwitz where she was subjected to medical experiments by the Nazi “angel of death,” Josef Mengele.

But harder even than those places, Kor said, were the documentarians’ probing into the bitter decades in the middle of her life —  before she had come to forgive her Nazi tormentors — that is a key aspect of the new film,  “Eva A-7063.”

Green, a former IndyStar journalist whose previous documentary efforts include “Attucks: The School that Opened a City,” (2016) about long-segregated Crispus Attucks High School, said Kor’s story has typically been told through the lens of her experiences at Auschwitz and her decision to forgive the Nazis.

“Each of those aspects is certainly worth full treatment,” Green said. “What’s been missing is that middle part, the half century between liberation in 1945 and forgiveness in 1995.”

“Our hope is that this new reporting will put into special relief how far this woman has come,” Green said.

Apr 09

“Eva A-7063” provides educational material

By Education, Feature, Programming

Editor’s note: Filmmakers Ted Green and Mika Brown in collaboration with WFYI Public Media are producing a 60-minute version from the original footage for educational use. It will be shown for the first time this spring at the Indianapolis Central Library. Partnering with Teach Plus, the film will be shown for 400 educators on May 2 @ 5 p.m. Register for the May event.

Shakespeare tells us that all the world’s a stage where from birth to death everyone plays a part. Eva Mozes Kor could tell us that all the world’s a classroom where through history, we learn about good and evil and a lot about ourselves.

When Kor, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, tells her story in the new documentary, “Eva A-7063,” fittingly, she begins at school in Portz, Romania, the small town where she and her twin sister, Miriam, were born. Theirs was the only Jewish family in town.

The Terre Haute resident said students who had been friends began taunting and calling her a “dirty Jew.” Her teachers were of no help, and even made matters worse. On one occasion, Kor said her teacher in the one-room schoolhouse had strewn corn kernels in the corner of the room and forced the 10-year-old sisters to kneel on them. She then allowed the twins’ classmates to viciously spew their prejudices against Jews.

Kor’s story has been well-documented in Indiana. As her parents and two sisters died in concentration camps at the hands of the Nazis, Kor and her sister were subjected to medical experiments by Josef Mengele, the Nazi “angel of death.”  Kor’s life, and other Holocaust victims, are chronicled at the CANDLES Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Terre Haute.

For decades, Kor harbored intense bitterness. She has since been able to forgive her tormentors and now wants young people to learn from her experiences.

In February, she spoke with third- and fourth-graders at the Peace Learning Center in Indianapolis. She was there to be inducted into the Peace Learning Center’s Wall of Peacemakers.

“Nine-, 10- and 11-year olds are the smartest kids in the world,” she said.  When she asked if they knew about forgiveness, a hundred hands eagerly were raised.

She told them, “In my opinion, every single one of you is very powerful and you can change the world. Did you know that? So don’t ever let anybody tell you that you are just little children.”

Her lessons for these schoolchildren were simple: Never give up; treat people with respect; and forgive your worst enemy. It will heal you inside.

And what the kids took away was even more poignant.

Here’s what several students from IPS/Butler University Laboratory School took away.

“I could imagine, but I don’t want to because it’s like a personal narrative horror story,” said Charlie.

“It was powerful meeting someone who survived a camp where almost everybody died. I felt like I’m not an ordinary kid. I can change the world. I can do something special. When you forgive someone, they might just be kind,” said J.J.

“Why would you, I get why you forgive them, but that’s like a really, really hard decision,” said Owen.

To see more of their comments, click here: https://media.wfyi.org/EvaPressKitAssets/Eva-Kids-at-Peace-Learning-Center.mp4

Educator film and discussion guide

So it’s not surprising given Kor’s impact, that filmmakers Ted Green and Mika Brown in collaboration with WFYI Public Media are producing a 60-minute version from the original footage for educational use.

It will be shown for the first time this spring at the Indianapolis Central Library. Partnering with Teach Plus, the film will be shown for 400 educators on May 2 @ 5 p.m.

Similar to the educators’ guide for Kor’s book, “Surviving the Angel of Death,” WFYI is producing a similar guide to accompany “Eva A-7063,” intended to “provoke students and families to discuss discrimination and forgiveness.” The WFYI educator discussion guide will be distributed at this screening.

To register for the May event, go to: https://teachplus.tfaforms.net/327879

Kor believes in the power of children.

Part of her legacy is the work she did with Indiana state legislators Clyde Kersey and Tim Skinner. It resulted in the Indiana General Assembly passing a law (20-35-7) in 2007 that requires Holocaust education in secondary schools as part of U.S. history courses. The legislation also requires public schools to teach the importance of respecting the rights and value of others.

“In teaching about the Holocaust, I am telling the story of the past. But I am also telling them that there is hope after despair and each one of us can make a difference,” said Kor.

The newest film can serve as a tool for discussing history, the filmmakers’ hope is that the lessons will go further and “embolden youth to take steps that make a difference in their schools, neighborhoods, and the world.”

To register for the educator toolkit, click here: https://www.thestoryofeva.com/education/

Kor worries about the Parkland students in Florida after the recent school shooting there.

“They have pain too raw to understand. They have to heal. What do you do with all the pain? What does a victim do? One power is to forgive? With time they will be able to do that. They have that ability. Teach the skill of forgiveness,” she said.

The 120-minute documentary will air on WFYI television on Oct. 25 @ 8 p.m.

Mar 19

Prevention Matters initiative

By Feature

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

[ also see our main story, Fairbanks Foundation focuses on its future ]

In January, the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation announced a $12 million initiative to support drug prevention education in Marion County schools over the next three years.

The Prevention Matters initiative will work to address the opioid crisis for the next generation by giving students tools need to avoid substance use. The foundation hopes it will also decrease the use of drugs such as methamphetamine and marijuana and tobacco.

Foundation President and CEO Claire Fiddian Green said the foundation did a lot of advance work to locate effective solutions for preventing people from getting addicted in the first place.

“There’s so much focus right now on helping people get access to treatment, which is incredibly important and valuable and worthwhile, but we couldn’t help asking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if people didn’t struggle with addiction in the first place. What’s going on with prevention?’

“So that’s what led us to launch the Prevention Matters initiative earlier this year,” Fiddian Green said.

The initiative is part of a multi-pronged effort by the Fairbanks Foundation to combat the opioid crisis. In addition to prevention, the broader initiative aims to expand access to treatment and other services.

Prevention Matters funding is divided into two phases. Planning grants, which are due at the end of March, were designed to help schools find a program that’s a best fit. The first phase is non-competitive, so any school that submitted an application received a planning grant.

Two entities, the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University School of Public Health and the Education Development Center worked with schools during the planning period to help each applicant identify a program that fit its needs.

“We have identified some prevention experts and asked them to identify what are the very best evidence-based programs that exist today for elementary, middle and high school that have been proven to help children either avoid using drugs or stop using them if they started using them. They developed a short list, which is available on our website and anyone who applies for this Prevention Matters grant opportunity has to select one of those programs,” said Fiddian Green.

Additionally during the planning phase, the prevention experts were able to provide technical assistance to schools to help figure out the best program fit. This included identifying places to visit to see the program in action and help envision what it would look like in their school or district.

After the planning stage, if schools want to implement and desire funding, they submit an application. Those that are accepted and selected will receive a three-year grant.

“This is a competitive grant-making process. The $12 million isn’t enough to fund every school, but it will help many schools in the county,” she said.

The selected schools will again work with the technical assistance providers to put together a feasibility plan to sustain the program after the grant period.

“As all of us in the nonprofit sector know too well that you can have a great program that goes away when the money goes away. We know that’s a challenge and we are hoping that these prevention experts can help schools come up with useable plans to find ways to sustain them,” said Fiddian Green.

“There are schools all around the country that have found a way to implement prevention programs and sustain them with their public dollars, so we hope that we can find some good models that be good examples for Marion County schools.”

Mar 19

Fairbanks Foundation focuses on its future

By Feature

This is one in a series of articles about area foundations and is intended to give readers insight into a foundation’s giving and designed to increase transparency and understanding in Central Indiana.

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors  

[ see also: Prevention Matters initiative ]

Who says you can’t go home again? Not Claire Fiddian Green, the president and CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation.

Fiddian Green is what is called a boomerang or a come-back employee. After nearly five years away, she returned to the foundation in 2015.

A Kronos and Workplace Trends study found that returning employees can positively affect workplace cultures and they have the advantage of knowing how the organization functions.

Fiddian Green agrees with that assessment.

During her first three-year stint, she was a program officer for the foundation. In 2010, she left to become president of The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that works to improve public education by encouraging entrepreneurs to develop or expand educational initiatives. Her next career move was to the public sector, first as executive director of the Indiana Charter School Board and then as the governor’s special assistant for education innovation and reform.

When Fiddian Green returned to Fairbanks, she brought with her vital background knowledge of grants, and previously established relationships with both grantees and staff.

She not only had a new title but a new charge – to work with the board to create a vision for the foundation’s future.

For nearly 30 years, the foundation operated under the guidance and leadership of its founder and president, Richard M. Fairbanks, who had established broad giving parameters. When he passed away in 2000, Leonard J. Betley stepped up as board chair and president/CEO.

In late 2014, winds of change swept over the organization. The board elected a new chair – Daniel Appel — and announced Fiddian Green’s hire. And there were other changes. Betley stepped down, but remained on the board, Roger Snowdon, board vice president and treasurer, left those two positions, and Betsy Bikoff, the vice president and chief grantmaking officer, who had been at the foundation since 2002, left to start a consulting practice.

Together with Appel, the new board chair, Fiddian Green dove in.

“It gave an opportunity for the board to take a step back and reflect. It was a great time to take stock of the past 15 years, and think about where we would like to be headed. We had most of that first year to plan,” she said, because Betley and the board had intentionally committed to multiyear grants.

“I think the board was excited to think about what our new direction would be, and they’ve been incredibly supportive,” she said describing the internal visioning process with her 10-member board.

In addition, Ellen Quigley, the foundation’s newly promoted vice president of programs, and Fiddian Green spent a lot of time talking to people in the community to get their perspective on what were the big challenges and opportunities facing Indianapolis.

In a concentrated three-month time period, they met with about 60 community leaders, some foundation grantees and some not.

“That was very informative to hear what people who represent different sectors were thinking about what’s going on in Indianapolis and where their minds were,” Fiddian Green said.

“And the number one thing, over and over again, was talent. That’s our biggest challenge as a community. We need to do a better job preparing our talent in schools, we need to do a better job attracting talent and then retaining that talent here. And people said it different ways, but that’s kind of what it boiled down to.

“And then the second big thing that people were just starting to talk about was the opioid crisis. They told us, ‘We’ve got this problem. And it’s impacting our ability to retain employees and hire people,’” she said.

Outside the city, they also talked with a number of foundations that were similar to Fairbanks  – city-focused with common focus areas. They also benchmarked with affinity philanthropic organizations, Grantmakers in Health and The Philanthropy Roundtable.

Changes made

“Our board went through about an eight-month process, and at the end of 2015, it adopted a mission statement, it codified values that the foundation had always operated by writing them down, and it established a third focus area. We had been making grants in education, but had not called it out as a focus area. We also reaffirmed health and the vitality of Indianapolis as giving areas and sharpened all the focus areas to increase impact,” Fiddian Green said.

For each of the three focus areas, the foundation determined goals and matched its giving to those priorities. Today the foundation has about $300 million in assets. What didn’t change was the application process, which is still fluid and requests can be made anytime. One staff member is the contact for all initial inquiries.

Research initiatives and advocacy were added to the foundation’s giving portfolio. During the planning process, staff had identified foundations that resonated — the Joyce Foundation based in Chicago, and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation in Houston, the Houston Endowment, and the Lumina Foundation. All are involved in policy work, which Fairbanks saw as an important role for the foundation to play.

Challenges to address

As a focus area, health was especially challenging to fine tune. Past giving had been mainly for infrastructure building, making grants to public health, and operational dollars for safety-net clinics. These included projects like the establishment of the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health on both IUPUI and Bloomington’s campuses.

As part of its process, the foundation brought in Paul Halverson, the founding dean of the School of Public Health, as an adviser and asked him: “What in your perspective is going on from a public health standpoint in Indianapolis?”

“Halverson helped us identify what were the big issues informed by data and from there we said, ‘What are the root causes of our poor health outcomes?’ The one thing we were really shocked by was that Indianapolis and the state of Indiana ranked at near the bottom of almost every measure of health. And so we asked the next question: ‘What are the drivers of that?’”

“The number one driver was addiction. Tobacco, opioids and obesity. We decided those were all really big challenges that we were just going to focus on two, and so we selected tobacco and opioids.

“We shifted from the 15 years of infrastructure building to say, ‘OK, there’s great infrastructure in place, but we still have really poor health outcomes.’ So what if we were to shift our grantmaking to focus on root causes and see if by directing some resources to target those two things, we can actually help to being part of the solution and make a difference in improving health outcomes for the city.”

Communicating these changes

Just over a year ago, the foundation formally communicated the changes and shifts at an open house for its new downtown offices in Regions Tower.

They had learned from focus groups that unless an organization was a grantee, members in the community thought the foundation was affiliated or an extension of Fairbanks Hospital. Up until this time, the foundation had been under the radar and had not proactively communicated its work.

If Fairbanks was going to be a thought-leader in the community and affect policy, there had to be a clearer community understanding of the foundation and its work.

The foundation spent nearly a year researching the issues, especially about tobacco and opioids.

“We knew they were problems, but we wanted to make sure we really understood the issues. We commissioned two reports from the School of Public Health, which were published in September of 2016,” said Fiddian Green.

So with a new brand, website and research reports, it started communicating the foundation’s work.

“That’s really step one, ‘OK, we’ve commissioned research, and we have some information that we’d like to share. And now that you know who we are, you understand where it’s coming from.’”

And communication was as important for their colleagues, and its added goal to collaborate and convene.

“When you’re talking about big problems like the opioid epidemic, there’s no one organization that can try to solve this problem on our own. Everyone has to work together, across sectors, certainly across funding partners from around the state and around the country.”

Evaluation and metrics

Internally, the foundation added capacity with one position focused on evaluation and research.

“We created and funded a full-time director of learning and evaluation. That has just been tremendous for us,” said Fiddian Green.

Alex Cohen is that staff person. He routinely scans the literature and reviews published research for studies and data that are relevant to the three focus areas. His work continuously informs the type of metrics the foundation should be tracking to determine if progress is being made.

For the focus areas, the foundation has created a dashboard, which is available on its website.

“The beauty of having the dashboard is that we’ve identified metrics that are going to tell us are we making any progress or not. In addition, we have metrics for each of our grantees and have committed to doing evaluations for many of our grants,” she said.

Adding evaluation capacity has added to time spent with grantees. Now, when the foundation make a grant, nonprofits are asked for the metrics they will use to track the impact of the work. That informs the reporting they provide and in turn informs the foundation’s board about the impact.

“We need to be really honest about the outcomes and if something is working, we should continue to support it, and if it’s not working then we probably need to try something new,” said Fiddian Green.

Mar 19

Getting comfortable — and compliant

By Sponsor Insight

By Kevin Kidwell, vice president, national tax-exempt sales, OneAmerica

If your organization has a 403(b) retirement plan, then you may have already received — or should be receiving — a notice from your plan provider regarding a new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) document requirement.

For the first time, the IRS has pre-approved prototype plan documents for 403(b) retirement plans, typically sponsored by 501(c)(3) organizations.

The plan restatement requirement is happening now, not because of the recent tax reform legislation, but rather is a long-overdue response to many years of lobbying by retirement plan sponsors and service providers.

We think this is a good thing.

The IRS’ goal is simple — to get a certified, model blueprint similar to what protects 401(k) plans and has been available to 401(k) plans for decades.

It doesn’t mean if you have a 403(b) plan that your plan is changing or was poorly planned; it just means there will be guardrails.

There are a variety of ways that providers (or a third party) will engage with sponsors and service providers to make them aware of the IRS request.

While completing the request, this is also a great time for the organization to review and re-evaluate whether your plan is accomplishing what it was designed to do; and whether the objectives of your plan matches your mission and aligns with your values. Is there a better way to structure employer contributions to increase participation? Are you operating the plan as it is written within the plan document?  Is the plan optimized to meet the desired outcomes while managing budgetary realities? And, if your plan doesn’t look right, maybe it is because your mission has changed, so does the plan reflect those changes?

At Indianapolis-based OneAmerica®, an organization that can trace its roots back to 1877, we’ve been helping organizations with their tax-exempt retirement plans since 1964. We believe a retirement plan should do more than help someone retire – it can help organizations recruit, retain and reward employees.

In Kevin Kidwell’s role as vice president of national tax-exempt sales, he works to provide ideas, knowledge, information – both technical and practical – in an effort to facilitate improved plan and participant outcomes. Since joining OneAmerica in 1988, Kevin has held various positions within the Retirement Services division. Beginning in 2000, his exclusive focus has been on healthcare and tax-exempt organizations.

What can we answer for you? https://www.oneamerica.com/campaigns/403b-informed/403b-informed-main

More: IRS’ FAQ section: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/403b-pre-approved-plan-program-faqs-what-is-a-pre-approved-403b-plan

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.