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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.

Mar 12

Brackets For Good, Research for All

By Sponsor Insight

By Leslie Wells, Assistant Director of Communications, SPEA at IUPUI

Huddled around a kitchen table, Cali Curley, Jamie Levine Daniel and Marlene Walk discuss their latest research project. They’re focused on the innovative concept of competitive philanthropy.

“We typically don’t talk about nonprofits in terms of competition, despite the fact that they are competing for resources,” Levine Daniel says. “While nonprofits often have a negative view of competition, we wanted to explore its true impact.”

A SPEA research team now has its chance, thanks to the charitable organization Brackets For Good. Each March, the nonprofit hosts March Madness bracket-style online fundraising tournaments in cities around the country.

Since its inception, Brackets For Good has helped nonprofits raise more than $6 million. The Indianapolis-based nonprofit got its start in 2011 and has now expanded to 13 cities and states. Participating organizations try to out-fundraise the others. Each nonprofit keeps its donations, while each tournament’s winner receives an additional $10,000.

With so much on the line, organizers at Brackets For Good wanted to ensure their program was setting up participants to succeed. In 2015, Matt Duncan, co-founder and deputy director of Brackets For Good, and his team turned to the School for Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI for help in designing evaluation questions that would create a more balanced bracket.

“We really needed an academic-research approach,” Duncan says.  “We knew SPEA could help us design questions that would help us better evaluate which organizations would be best suited for this tournament. That’s why we turned to SPEA.”

“The academic perspective allows them to say their process has been vetted through research scholars at a university, increasing credibility and notoriety in both the nonprofit and academic sectors,” Curley says. “This collaboration also allows Brackets For Good and SPEA to be on the leading edge of what’s happening in the nonprofit world with competitive philanthropy.”

Curley began reviewing the application survey for the tournament three years ago. She soon brought Levine Daniel and Walk on board, relying on their nonprofit research expertise to advance the project.

“We saw this as an excellent opportunity for research,” Walk recalls. “Current nonprofit literature already tells us how individual characteristics – such as gender, race, or religion – impact philanthropic giving. What we want to know now is whether there are softer forms of identity, such as a sports-identity or being competitive, that could drive or promote giving as well.”

The team began analyzing data and developing new application surveys. They examined features such as a nonprofit’s mission awareness, its number of employees and volunteers, how much the organization had in its unrestricted fundraising budget, as well as the nonprofit’s social media habits.

IUPUI students were also able to take advantage of this unique research and evaluation opportunity. Curley and Walk use the project in their classrooms as a learning tool for students spanning several majors, including Sustainable Management and Policy, Media and Public Affairs, Policy Studies, and Civic Leadership. Levine Daniel discusses the research in her courses, as well.

“This project provides students with an opportunity for experiential learning,” Curley adds. She points to the fact that students not only get hands-on experience in data and evaluation, they also learn about local nonprofits. “We approach it from this dynamic space of teaching students to learn about their community and be more engaged and involved, while also doing an evaluation for Brackets For Good in a meaningful way.”

The research team led by example, showcasing SPEA’s commitment to community partnerships. The team says this project allows them to keep their finger on the pulse of the nonprofit sector in Indianapolis, while getting a better sense of what makes it tick. The selection paper only used data from Indianapolis, allowing the research team to model selection statistically and provided a model that Brackets For Good could ‘scale up’ to other communities. BFG applies the survey and evaluation tool to all participating organizations.

While the research is still in the peer-review process, the initial findings from their research show commonalities among organizations that made the cut into the tournament. They rated higher on being tech savvy and were more active on social media. They had a higher amount of unrestricted funds and larger volunteer bases. In addition, organizations that had more community awareness of their mission were more likely to make it into the tournament.

These findings have allowed Brackets For Good to revamp its application survey, ensuring that divisions, rankings and match-ups are more evenly paired.

“SPEA took the competition to the next level,” Duncan says. “They created a much more fair and robust bracketology than what we had developed on our own.”

But can that bracketology predict which organizations will make it all the way to the end?

“If we can provide Brackets For Good with data and studies on topics such as effective messaging and risk mitigation, that will allow them to improve the guidance they provide to organizations, which hopefully enhances the experience for everyone,” Levine Daniel adds.

“We have not yet found out what actually makes organizations successful in the tournament. That’s the next step,” Walk says.

The team is currently combing through the latest data and piecing together the characteristics of winning organizations that will allow Brackets For Good to develop a toolkit for nonprofits. At the same time, Curley, Levine Daniel and Walk also are using this project to boost opportunities for students and SPEA.

“We’re building expertise and laying the groundwork for future research,” Levine Daniel adds. “Now, when people think about competitive philanthropy, they will think about SPEA.”

[content_box box_type=”normal”]Brackets For Good runs from March 2 through April 6. To learn more about organizations in the competition, build your own bracket or donate, click here.[/content_box]

Leslie Wells joined SPEA 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.

 

 

Mar 05

Make your move

By Fundraising, Sponsor Insight

By Pamela Clark, director of student services and admissions, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI

Maybe it’s a faint but persistent thought that you’re ready for a new challenge. Maybe it’s the not-so-faint feeling that you want to give more of yourself to help others make meaningful change in their lives, or maybe it’s the conviction that you want to help the nonprofit where you already work have greater impact.

Julia Kathary, executive director of Coburn Place, and Kathi Badertscher, director of master’s degree programs and lecturer in philanthropic studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI, recognize firsthand those symptoms of the desire to change or advance your career path.

Since she was a child, Kathary has been helping people. “I really enjoyed giving back and making the community better.” She worked in an Evansville domestic violence and sexual assault shelter for nearly a decade. When she moved to Indianapolis in 2004, she faced a crossroads: Should she continue working in nonprofits?

“I decided to stay in the sector,” she says. “I had noticed, though, what difficult work it is to make a nonprofit sustainable over time.”

While working in a domestic violence shelter in Indianapolis, Kathary learned about the executive option in the master’s degree program at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, which allowed her to work fulltime while attending online and in-person classes part-time.

“It just clicked in my soul; I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she says. “I wanted to have that skillset and that education on how to build sustainability.”

Toward the end of the program, Kathary started her own consulting business, working on capacity building and a range of issues, from deepening the impact of an organization’s mission, to addressing organizational sustainability, to program effectiveness and strategic planning. When the executive director position at Coburn Place came open, it was the merging of her passion, experience and education, and she was prepared to step confidently into leadership.

Kathary was a seasoned nonprofit professional before assuming the top role at Coburn Place.  Badertscher, on the other hand, while philanthropically involved throughout her life, worked as a broker in corporate insurance for 26 years before making the leap into full-time philanthropy as her profession. “It was really good for a long time; I traveled, met people, and learned a lot,” she says.

About 12 years ago, Badertscher began re-thinking what she wanted to do. After serving on several nonprofit boards, volunteering in the community, and reaching a turning point in her insurance career, she realized it was time for a change. She found the Center on Philanthropy (now the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy) in a Google search and thought, “I can take a few classes and become a better board member, a more intentional donor, and overall be more systematic in how I approach volunteering and giving,” she says.

Those few classes rolled into a dual master’s degree and then a doctoral degree. Six months after she finished her Ph.D., the school had an opening for a director of master’s programs, and Badertscher was the perfect fit. She loves her new career, and encourages anyone who is thinking of a career change to follow through with it.

Think you’re ready to embark on a philanthropy career of your own? Here are some thoughts to consider:

  • Wondering if the philanthropic sector or a specific cause or issue area is right for you? Badertscher recommends activating your network from all parts of your life who are engaged with nonprofits. Ask about their experiences and conduct some informational interviews. She notes that you are “interviewing for a new field” as much as you are looking for a job.
  • “Do direct service and learn how the sector impacts the community,” Kathary says. Gain practical experience in philanthropy, whether through volunteering, interning or serving on an advisory or governing board.
  • Make a small donation to a nonprofit you may be interested in working with and see how they respond, Badertscher suggests. The thank-you and follow-up communication tell you a lot about the organization and its culture.
  • “Selling a product for a company is different than selling a mission,” Kathary says. “You’re developing a mission that matters and has impact, telling the story of that mission, and getting people to engage with their time, talent, and treasure.
  • “There are opportunities in the sector to utilize many different skill sets and turn them into something within civil society that gives back,” she adds. “So bring that skill set and then get innovative with it. The value of what you can do in the nonprofit sector is just as important to our economy” as what you may be doing in business or government.
  • Assess what knowledge you will need to acquire and explore educational, professional development and peer-learning groups.

Ready to advance? Consider these opportunities:

  • If you’re trying to advance within a nonprofit, it’s likely that you may be managing people in your next position, Badertscher says. “Look for ways to help other people grow” in their own roles and share your expertise, demonstrating your leadership qualities.
  • The nonprofit environment is highly collaborative. Identify and volunteer to work on projects in which you can collaborate successfully with others across your organization.
  • Many nonprofits don’t have time or capacity to revisit their policies on a regular basis. “Rules, systems and processes exist for a reason and have value, but it’s also good to question whether they are out of date or need to change,” Badertscher says. Raising questions and proposing appropriate solutions can show that you understand the bigger picture and have ideas that can help the organization move forward.
  • Evaluate the information and skills you will need at the next level and determine how you will develop the competencies you don’t yet have. Do you need different — or more — formal education? Can you learn what you need to know through professional development, training or workshops? Is there a professional certification that would strengthen both your knowledge and your credentials?
  • Consider membership in a professional organization or peer-learning group that can help you hone your abilities and bring new ideas to your organization.

Whether you want to embark on a brand new career in philanthropy or want to help yourself and your current organization advance, Badertscher advises, “Life is short, and if you have a chance and the desire to change something in your life, do it and you won’t regret it.” 

Pamela Clark is director of student services and admissions at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI. Clark, in the role since 2013, has worked at IUPUI for 19 years in various roles. While working at University College she developed the first online learning communities designed for freshmen students and specifically for adult learners. She enjoys working with students and supporting them in achieving their academic goals.

Mar 05

Are millennials rewriting philanthropy or is the general public?

By Feature, Fundraising

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

It’s now a ubiquitous headline: Millennials are the largest generation. In 2016, they surpassed boomers at 79.8 million.  By 2020, those born from roughly 1980 to 2000 are projected to make up half of the workforce.

For better or worse, millennials may be the most labeled, the most stereotyped generation ever. Millennials, however, are growing up, making waves, and making traditional institutions take notice.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Case Foundation, the millennial generation is a “tech savvy, entrepreneurial, educated and independent-minded cohort that is driven to ‘do good.’  They are actively reshaping advocacy, engagement, service and philanthropy on a scale that has never before been experienced. As a result, traditional models of engagement, movement building and measurement are evolving to keep pace with their new ideals.”

Derrick Feldmann, the founder and president of the Indianapolis- and Florida-based research firm Achieve, has seen the movement up close. He has led The Millennial Impact Project for 10 years funded by the Case Foundation. The youngest members of the generation are now 18.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Let’s get millennials involved because they’re going to solve it for us.’ At the end of the day, we have to move the general population from interest to deeper action,” said Feldmann, who is a 2001 graduate of the Lilly Family School on Philanthropy. “So that’s where I think we’ve got this challenge is whether this is a generational thing versus we’re in a new stage of how individuals get involved in social issues in our organizations.”

“Our future as a fundraising field is an organization’s ability to look at any individual who has any asset and say, ‘If you want to address this issue, we can do that with you, no matter what you have.’ So that’s the shift. And millennials are driving that shift, but it’s a shift that has started years before that. Millennials by sheer size and force are starting to implement it and make it happen.”

One arena where this plays out is the work environment. Millennials search for companies that are socially responsible and oftentimes check the company’s volunteer policy before applying for a job, according to Chris Herndon, United Way of Central Indiana’s chief marketing and engagement officer.

Part of United Way’s strategy was to find a way to help employers create an environment that offers community engagement, and at the same time introduce the age group to community issues. So three years ago, it started LINC — Lead.Impact.Network.Change — a membership group for young professionals ages 22 to 30. A fall event, called Plant it Forward, had members come together at Flanner Farms and build garden boxes for an urban garden.

LINC is designed to introduce its members to worthy causes and issues that United Way tackles, like poverty, mental health, financial sustainability, homelessness and childhood literacy.

“We hope that this exposes people to community challenges, helps them better understand how United Way is fighting some of these challenges, gives them an opportunity to see how they can connect through us to help address some of these issues. What LINC allows the participants is the try-before-you-buy approach,” said Herndon. “They want to volunteer or experience something first before they give, before they commit financial resources.”

Indianapolis was one of the first to implement this United Way national strategy, now with similar groups in at least 20 other major markets. With much of United Way’s fundraising done in tandem with corporations, the agency is the conduit for that engagement, and at the same time creating a consistent experience across markets.

“If you’re a company that employs in Indianapolis, and Atlanta and Houston, you want to be able to offer something that’s consistent across your company’s footprint,” said Herndon, who is himself a GenXer.

While Feldmann sees merit in courting millennials, he cautions nonprofits not to stray too far from their past initiatives. He urges all organizations to look at their entire supporter base over the past 10 years.

“We know that there are approaches to take with millennials that will work, but the first thing is you cannot go off segmenting unless you understand and have the foundational element figured out first,” he said.

“If anybody raises his or her hand no matter what age, and says, ‘I kind of care about the issue to work on,’ then you can take and move them along a journey of engagement. Get people active in many different ways beyond giving,” he said.

He cites Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and Relay for Life as nonprofits that have sound supporter models by engaging all age groups. These nonprofits help individuals see others who believe in the mission just like them. Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society’s collegiate level and lower has allowed individuals to create their own narratives, rather than define everything.

“Look at it and say, ‘I have to create an opportunity for anybody whether you’re 18 or 80 to care about this issue.’” Feldmann said.  “So I think our job should be, “How do we create campaigns — giving or not — that allow everybody to express their interest, their desire to help others, but yet all participate in the same action as well.”

“Once we get past the interest stage, there are approaches that make us get involved more. If you’re a women’s empowerment organization we need to make a message that works across all that focuses on a belief statement like, ‘This is the year to make girls impossible to ignore. Are you in?’

“Does it mean it’s a millennial message? They created a message based on the belief statement that anybody can get attached to it. So that’s where I think we’ve got this challenge between is this a generational thing versus we’re in a new stage of how individuals get involved in social issues in our organizations.”

And that strategy fits in with the largest cultural change in philanthropy – addressing issues together – according to Feldman.

Helping supporters understand an issue is key. Building Tomorrow, a locally founded nonprofit that builds schools in Uganda, helps its constituency understand its educational issues. On the organization’s website is a tool that helps a person calculate the difference in cost between his or her education versus a student in Uganda.

“If you’re invested in helping constituents understand the issue, to get them active on other things, and then have those opportunities to act, you’re in a pretty good boat. That’s the approach that organizations need to look at,” said Feldmann.

Today with technology, involvement in social-good initiatives is easier because it helps remove barriers. Added to that is that millennials were born with these platforms, so it’s a natural progression, and they should be leading the charge.

“Even though the same premise of doing good is present in all generations, it is that you have the tools and the resources to act upon the impulse and the idea and the notion in this minute that you want to do good.  Are millennials rewriting philanthropy? I would say technology has allowed the general public to rewrite philanthropy.”

Technology, especially social media, can help take charitable giving to higher levels.

“If I wanted to ask a friend for money, I used to have to go walk over, share the envelope and say, ‘I’m riding in a bike-a-thon. Would you sponsor me?’” Feldmann said.

“Now, the greatest thing today is that we have a technology that allows me to do that. The same premise is still there. So the way that we interact with technology has really advanced the philanthropic opportunities we have.”

Liberty in North Korea, a nonprofit that resettles refugees, is one nonprofit that uses technology to connect its mission to millennials. With chapters at universities, it has one of the largest millennial bases in the country. It takes $6,000 to resettle one refugee, and this fall’s online campaign raised $580,000 from 3,800 millennials.

“They are always focused on elevating the individual in all of the narratives. The individual changemaker,” Feldmann said.

United Way’s Herndon knows that crowdfunding is a tool to use when there is an incredible need and sense of urgency, and not for ongoing needs. However, while there hasn’t been a disaster in the area in a while, Herndon said they have a draft plan and the tools in place together if needed. His agency is part of a group of about 30 United Ways nationally that have co-invested in digital strategies over the past two years.

In addition, United Way is working on a cloud-based program in partnership with SalesForce.org in San Francisco that will roll out this summer with some of its corporate partners. Basically an online philanthropy platform, it will allow individuals to manage all of their giving, volunteering and community interests. There will also be rich cause-related content.

But what’s not going to change, according to Feldmann, is sitting down with an individual and saying, “I’ve got an opportunity for you.

“That is never going to change. The person might have gotten to the table via technology, but I still have to use the practices I learned at the Fund Raising school to help you understand it and move forward.”

Feb 26

Ways for your Board to use a salary survey

By Uncategorized

By Bryan Orander, president, Charitable Advisors

Since 2010, Charitable Advisors has produced a bi-annual salary report for Central Indiana’s nonprofits to assist in determining competitive compensation and benefits for staff. Our methodology has relied on your support in providing raw data to provide our area’s actual compensation.  For that we are grateful.

This Thursday (March 1), we will begin the information-gathering phase of our 2018 Central Indiana Nonprofit Salary Survey, and it seems the ideal time to explore how the final product can be a tool to benefit area nonprofits.

PLEASE PARTICIPATE

We want to encourage readers to make sure your nonprofit is participating to help produce a comprehensive sector report. If your organization hasn’t received your link by Friday, March 2, please contact Kathleen@CharitableAdvisors.com.

As a thank you for your participation, the final report is free and will be sent in July.

General access to the report will be available in the fall on Charitable Advisors’ website.

While the HR department most often uses salary surveys or to provide useful benchmarks when hiring new staff, here are three more ways that board members and staff leaders can use this information to help their organizations.

  • IRS form 990: Every year, each nonprofit completes its Form 990 tax return and must explain how they set compensation for the chief executive (and other highly compensated staff, if applicable). Having a local salary survey that is targeted to nonprofits is an ideal tool and offers data support for completing this requirement.
  • Competitive Executive Director/CEO compensation: Executive Director/CEO compensation is the one position that the board has complete responsibility and control over. Too commonly, the ED/CEO receives some type of annual performance conversation followed by a cost-of-living increase without regard to the overall marketplace compensation.

In other cases, the board may identify a “pay gap” but defers addressing it. In our executive search work we often find that organizations are surprised that they will need to pay more for their new, less experienced ED/CEO than they have paid their departing, more experienced executive. Use the report to define your ED/CEO compensation goal and then assemble a strategy to help fund it – it can be a multiple-year process, if needed.

  • Compensation philosophy: While not the board’s role to review and approve individual staff compensation beyond the Executive Director/CEO, the board does have both a responsibility and an opportunity to apply their insight and expertise to help determine what benefits staff should receive and to understand where the organization fits in the overall nonprofit sector compensation scheme. Some questions to consider:
  • What positions are most difficult to fill and retain? How does compensation compare with similar organizations?
  • How does the organization compare in its offerings of health insurance, a retirement plan, and retirement match?
  • Do you want compensation to be at the 50thpercentile, the 75th percentile or the 25th percentile?
  • What resources does the organization have available and what are the trade-offs between paying less and managing more turnover versus paying more, and potentially hiring and retaining stronger staff?

Use these suggestions to spark a conversation at your next Executive Committee meeting about how your organization will apply the 2018 salary survey when it becomes available, perhaps as part of your 2019 budget discussions. The salary survey report can help provide perspective and data to support these types of conversations. And as you move forward, you will want to include your HR staff, PEO, or HR services provider.