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Nov 13

Partnering to measure poverty

By Feature

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Poverty in America. It’s a problem that has been analyzed and dissected by many sources. It’s been the subject of books, TV documentaries and combatted by a host of social services agencies.

But do we really understand the ins and outs of poverty?

A complete answer likely remains elusive, but a local university and a national nonprofit have been working together to get a better grip on the changing needs of America’s poor.

The resulting product is the annual Human Needs Index (HNI), a multidimensional report that stems from a partnership between IUPUI’s Lilly School of Philanthropy and Salvation Army USA. The index is a more comprehensive in-depth look at our nation’s poor, according to Una Osili, the Lilly School’s assistant dean for research and international programs.

Traditionally, poverty has been measured in a narrow vein: income level based on government figures. The HNI goes beyond that and uses data the Salvation Army has been collecting on its own since 2004 based on the services it provides.

The first HNI was released in 2015, but the project was seeded four years prior, when the Virginia-based Salvation Army invited the Lilly School to a conversation at its headquarters. While reading the latest U.S. poverty statistics in USA Today in 2011, one of the agency’s board members recognized that the Salvation Army had more up-to-date data on poverty than what he was reading, and together with the entire board, suggested a potential partnership with the Lilly School.

The meeting led to the partnership where both entities benefit: the Lilly School is able to disseminate information helpful to the nonprofit sector, and the Salvation Army gets validation that its data and work are valuable tools to better serve the public.

While often associated with urban work, the Salvation Army’s safety net programs have a presence in every ZIP code, including mobile outreach in rural areas. For years, the organization had amassed data from more than 7,000 sites. Four statisticians oversee the collection of its data, one for each territory. Most of Indiana is part of the Central Territory, which covers 11 states and has 2,342 operations centers; the exceptions are the seven counties that comprise Indiana’s northern border.

The HNI tracks need in seven areas: meals, groceries, housing costs, clothing, furniture, medical bills and energy bills.  The need is also compiled seasonally. A score is assigned to the nation as a whole in addition to scores for different regions. Scores were assigned retroactively back to 2004. Upward and downward movements in the scores often reflect economic conditions such as a recession or even natural disasters.

When first approached by the Salvation Army, Osili said the School of Philanthropy was intrigued but it was too early to tell whether the data was relevant.

First the university conducted a validation process, doing a rigorous analysis comparison of Salvation Army data with other local, state and national figures on poverty. In addition, multiple calls with the territorial statisticians helped the Lilly team understand the story behind the data. Working alongside the Salvation Army,  the Lilly team better understood its collection process and had the opportunity to raise lots of questions.

“I’ll give you one example. We noticed that energy orders that the Salvation Army was providing spiked in March, April and May. That was a bit of a surprise to us, because you would have expected that people would have needed assistance in the winter, not needing energy in the spring when temperatures tend to be more moderate,” said Osili.

What they learned, through conversations with the Salvation Army’s team, was that many cities and municipalities have ordinances that prevent winter heat shutoffs for low income or elderly residents. Even with unpaid balances, the heat stays on. But come March when temperatures were more moderate, the needs inflate, resulting in higher assistance requests from the Salvation Army.

“We wouldn’t have found that out on our own. Salvation Army had the data, and so that’s why the collaboration and the partnership made a lot of sense. Clearly, they were the content experts. It was basically taking all that information and then distilling into what we thought were the basic aspects of human needs,” Osili said.

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Sharing the knowledge

Filling an information void about local safety net programs, the Human Needs Index can be more just a cool data visualization tool or source of information inquiry into the measurement of need.

It can model how communities and philanthropy might collect, share, and use data to improve outcomes for clients, organizations, and community residents.

To that end, the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy has begun to share the lessons of HNI through workshops and webinars.

And while encouraging, Osili cautions that an organization needs to have a process to validate the data, and compare to other figures in order to establish a benchmark.

Another challenge for some nonprofits is that some are just present in rural areas but not in urban.

“The other big lesson that nonprofits can take away is kind of the power of collaboration. We’re used to thinking about universities doing one thing, and national and local nonprofits doing another,” said Osili.

She said this is an example of how you can actually bring together different sectors together. Nonprofits don’t always have the expertise in-house.

“So it’s thinking about all of our resources whether it’s our own data as an asset or community around us as far as the power of collaboration.”

“I think it would be great to also do something locally, so that our local nonprofits here can better understand,” said Osili.

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Natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, were another example. It wasn’t just the communities where the disaster occurred that needed assistance, but extended well beyond Louisiana, into Texas and Arkansas. With its boots on the ground, the Salvation Army was able to provide a detailed picture of needs, and expand the geographical need beyond the disaster.

Osili  agreed that we tend to look at poverty based on income. But that changed when Angus Deaton, the 2015 Nobel Prize-winning economist, noted that to understand poverty, it needed to also be looked at through a consumption lens.
“Basically that is, what are people having trouble with, where are families struggling, what kinds of areas are they needing assistance,” said Osili. “Because the HNI views things more through a vulnerability lens, you can actually see how households struggle to meet energy needs, get assistance in health care or access to clothing. Those are things that are general poverty and statistics aren’t really going to tell us.”

The tool can be useful both at the local, state and national levels to help determine if poverty is improving and how needs and access to services are changing.

Locally, Susan Solomon, the Salvation Army’s divisional social services director,  believes the index helps to give a broad picture of what is happening.

“There may be some things that we may miss in a given community, and then when we look at it collectively and have discussion, it raises awareness.”

Solomon said the Salvation Army, founded in 1865 in London, is a large old organization, and it is easy to continue to offer services because of tradition. With the reality of fewer dollars available, reviewing the data challenges the nonprofit to look at particular services to determine if they are still needed or perhaps duplicated by another agency. The result, hopefully, is to collectively meet more needs, she said.

“Has it had a fairly radical effect on the services we offer? I cannot say that’s happened, but it does raise our awareness of what do we do and do well and where needs are not being met as we plan and move forward,” said Solomon.

Spearheaded and funded by dollars raised by the Salvation Army USA’s board, the initial cost was designing and creating the infrastructure, and the annual upkeep is not as expensive. After each territory applies its checks and balances, the Lilly School receives quarterly data, releasing the HNI once a year.

Osili said while it would be easier to only report if the needs went up or down, the project teams decided to investigate more deeply to include what specifically was different in each wave of the data collection and to ask new questions. For this year’s index, they posed: What were the vulnerabilities that rural households were facing and how did the solution differ?

This year’s HNI has illustrated persistent pockets of poverty in rural America that might not have been apparent from traditional government measures like unemployment data, SNAP usage and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Poverty Report. Osili said things like Indiana’s low unemployment or what economists call full employment can mask poverty. For example, the state’s opioid epidemic has contributed and changed the levels of assistance and needs.

“How does that show up in the Salvation Army data? What we see is that even though other measures like unemployment are showing declining patterns, we also see that they’re starting to show up in health care needs. People are coming to Salvation Army for assistance with substance abuse and drug treatment facilities. What you can actually unpack is the particular challenges that households are facing,” she said.

Osili believes the HNI has been a bit of an inspiration for many organizations, leading many nonprofits wondering if they could do something similar. And while many nonprofits are starting to collect this type of data, not many have the comprehensive, historical and geographical reach of the Salvation Army USA, said Osili. Two — Catholic Charities and Feeding America — are starting to look at their own data footprint.

“I think there are a lot of lessons to learn. The first one is that nonprofits are often consumers of data and use data in making decisions, but they can also be part of the leadership on what data is collected and how we share that information. Data can be really powerful in helping to shape decision-making and then for policy makers, too, to better understand very complex issues facing a given community.

“The second take away is that nonprofits can be part of shaping how society understands the problem. You know just beyond the service delivery side, you can also be part of the generating new insight and knowledge,” she said.

Oct 23

Impact of rising benefit costs

By Sponsor Insight

By Mike Harrington, president, Synergy

A business encounters many costs, but the most volatile expenses are those surrounding employee benefits.

Last year, employers spent an average of $8,669 per employee, an increase of nearly $500 from the year before. Multiply that rising number by each staff member and the costs can significantly pile up. There are a number of ways the rising cost of benefits negatively impact your business, but there are also several methods for alleviating this major issue.

Hurts your bottom line

The initial implications of this trend are clear. The more your organization spends on employee benefits, the less profits it will make. One of the biggest culprits hurting your bottom line is the price of prescription medication. Already taking up 30 percent of an employer’s health care costs, prescriptions are set to rise 7.3 percent in 2017, with specialty meds rising 16.8 percent.

The bill employers have to foot for healthcare is rising overall, with 77 percent of organizations seeing increases, and nearly a quarter of those employers seeing an increase of 16 percent or more. These numbers provide hard evidence that profits will rapidly shrink if action is not taken.

However, any action must be approached carefully and strategically. One area where making a wrong decision can be especially devastating to a budget is in compliance. A single slip-up can cause lingering legal issues and attract hefty penalties and fines.

As healthcare reform continues to hang in the balance and confuse business leaders across the country, cutting corners to skimp on costs in this area is not a viable option. During these confusing times your business needs an expert versed in compliance, whether it’s a cost-effective outsourced partner or a higher-priced in-house talent.

Damages retention and recruiting

One increasingly-common way organizations are circumventing profit loss is by passing employee benefit costs to employees through higher deductibles, co-payments, and premiums. While this can look good on financial statements, it is resulting in decreased employee morale. Some workers may brush off increased healthcare costs, but many others will be motivated to look for a new job that offers more affordable benefits or a higher salary. After all, if costs go up once, employees will expect them to go up again.

Similarly, the rising cost of employee benefits is impacting the hiring and recruiting of businesses. Even if you’re able to attract an in-demand candidate into an interview and entice them into considering a formal job offer, it won’t take much to push them to a competitor. When you’re offering a similar salary and responsibilities as someone else, being able to tell a candidate that they will get great benefits at a low cost can be the deciding factor in securing their talent. Additionally, only 20 percent of employers continue to offer a retiree program. Candidates who see such a program in your job offer will take notice and view your organization as a career destination.

Ways to lessen the impact

Despite the gloom and doom surrounding the rising cost of benefits, there are a number of strategies that can lessen the negative effects.

  • Consumer-directed health plans such as HSAs are one option that allows employees to have more involvement. Such a plan provides tax incentives while also encouraging participants to consider the cost of healthcare services more deeply, meaning they may not go to the emergency room for minor health issues.
  • Utilizing virtual doctors and health hotlines can deliver an affordable alternative to employees going through costly office visits when they just have one or two questions. Not only does this save money, but it takes the anxiety out of a visit to the doctor and can help employees catch bigger illnesses before they fully develop.
  • Wellness programs are a popular option, and for good reason. Encouraging employee health with a trained coach/leader can promote healthy lifestyle choices that lessen the potential of preventable diseases and injuries. Rewards for certain milestones and regular checkups are typically included in such a program.
  • Audit your healthcare programs regularly. Whether due to confusion or ill intent, it’s often discovered that ineligible dependents are being covered when they should not be. Searching for costly inefficiencies such as this is necessary for those serious about accurate and legal benefit administration.

The rising cost of benefits

It can be difficult to take action and implement new strategies for combating the rising cost of benefits without experience, and especially when you have other pressing core business concerns. That’s why the greatest solution of all could be engaging with an expert PEO. The right outsourced HR partner can provide strategic direction and instantly save money by connecting your organization to a larger employee base providing better and cheaper benefits.

Mike Harrington is the president of The Synergy Companies. Joining the organization in 1995, Harrington has held several leadership roles within the company working to ensure its effective delivery of human resource and PEO services. Prior to joining Synergy, Mike spent five years with Safeguard Business Systems in direct sales and sales training and support. He holds a BS degree in marketing from Eastern Illinois University.

Oct 23

A terrorized British city turns to an all-American play for healing

By Programming

By  Matt Trueman, reporter, The New York Times

In the wake of the May terrorist attack at Manchester Arena, which killed 23 people, including the attacker, the space outside the nearby Royal Exchange Theater became a site of public mourning. St. Ann’s Square slowly filled with flowers and other tributes – soft toys, football jerseys, balloons — covering an area the size of a swimming pool. Every day for three weeks, the theater’s staff walked past on their way to work.

At the time, the artistic director Sarah Frankcom was facing a gap in her autumn schedule, the result of a leading actor’s clashing commitments. One play kept coming to mind: Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” An all-American classic, Wilder’s 1938 portrait of small-town life at the turn of the century nonetheless seemed to Ms. Frankcom to chime with the atmosphere in Manchester at that moment.

“All over town, there was a real sense that people were meeting each other in simple, everyday actions,” she recalled. The scene in St. Ann’s Square was a case in point. “We suddenly all went, ‘Oh, that’s why we have town squares, isn’t it?’ It wasn’t about looking at flowers, but about needing to be together.”

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Oct 16

Important considerations for establishing major gift metrics

By Sponsor Insight

By John T. Keith, J.D., consultant, Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates

Fundraising success is increasingly a vital component of an organization’s ability to fulfill its mission.  Campaigns have increased in prevalence and frequency and often are dependent upon 90 percent of the dollars being contributed by 10 percent of the donors.  (In higher education, this can reach 95 percent of the dollars from 5 percent of the donors, a threshold nearly unheard of 15 years ago.)

This leads many organizations to rely upon major gift fundraising at all times, rather than merely for special projects of need.

At the same time, it has become more common for board members to have backgrounds in businesses that foster a sales culture and therefore look for data-driven accountability from the nonprofits they support.  How can we modernize our approach to goal-setting and accountability without sacrificing what makes philanthropy so different from sales transactions?

The art of fundraising focuses on fostering support for your mission by developing relationships with donors and aligning their philanthropic goals with organizational needs. Yet, in philanthropy it is important that we focus on both the art and science of fundraising by tracking the metrics behind those relationships.

Here are a few things to consider as you explore incorporating metrics into your major gift program.

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Oct 16

How to recognize employees without a promotion

By Sponsor Insight

By Mike Bensi, advisor, FirstPerson

“Let’s promote him!”

This is unfortunately a very common response by leaders when they have a great performer within their company. He’s been with the company “long enough,” and now the leaders find themselves wondering what they’re going to do so he doesn’t leave the company.

What are some signs that making the person a manager might be a bad idea?

  1. He’s not good at managing. Sure he’s great at what he’s doing right now, but does that mean he’ll rock at managing other people?
  2. Your company is just too young or too small. Within flat organizations, you’ll find limited available management and leadership roles. At larger firms, you’ll find more opportunities for advancement, but it could take years for the person to get there.
  3. The person just doesn’t want to manage. Recent research is finding fewer people who have leadership aspirations.

So what can a company do to recognize the work the employee is doing, without handing out a promotion?

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Oct 16

Finding adequate shelter for families can be challenging

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

A little over a year ago, Mike Chapuran’s first day at Family Promise in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood didn’t go quite as planned.

Trying to get a sense of his new position, he started his first day answering the nonprofit’s phones. The first caller was a family, which he had to turn away because the shelter was full. Then came another call, and by 9:40 a.m., he had turned away five families seeking shelter.

Twelve minutes later, he suggested the caller call 211 or one of the other two family shelters – Dayspring or Holy Family.

“The mom told me, ‘I’ve already called all of them, I’ve been calling them for weeks. I’m staying in an attic and it’s 80 degrees and my infant won’t stop crying. Do you know how hot it gets in an attic?’ I felt powerless, but imagine her powerlessness. I’m just in a job. She’s has a kid. My point is on the day I arrived here, I was like ‘I didn’t know this was a problem in Indianapolis.’”

Unfortunately, Chapuran’s first day was not unusual. Every day, about 10 families are turned away. Other family shelters in Central Indiana – Dayspring and Holy Family — have similar experiences.  According to Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention (CHIP), 6,000 school-aged children will experience housing instability. Dayspring, Holy Family and Family Promise will take dads, but Salvation Army and Wheeler only take mothers and children.

For over 24 years, Family Promise of Greater Indianapolis, initially called the Interfaith Hospitality Network, has been part of the network supporting homeless families. It began with a talk given at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church by the founder of a Hospitality Network program in New Jersey. Dr. Dean Lindsey was at the talk, researched the program and problem, and then formed a local outreach group to connect with congregations. Working as volunteers, they persuaded eight congregations to split the effort that first year, each hosting four families for a week.

Since 1994, volunteers and congregations have helped over 750 families with children. Today, two different congregations offer hospitality every week, serving a total of eight families. The network now includes 36 churches, and another 18 that support the effort of a church close to them.

Congregations provide overnight lodging and meals for up to four families. Families daily arrive daily at the church at 6 p.m. and stay until 7 the next morning. On Sundays, volunteers wash sheets, and then transport the rollaway beds to the next congregation.

“If a parent has a job and works until 6, we don’t want to be an obstacle to employment so we have the Uber and Lyft fund. We will have volunteers go pick them up for the week.  We don’t let our model get in the way of what actually matters, which is working,” said Chapuran.

Host congregations serve dinner and breakfast and plan activities for the children. Members of the congregation spend the night at the shelter, and then each morning transport families to the Family Promise Day Center. Children go to school or daycare.

The Day Center, located behind St. Rita’s Church on Indy’s Eastside, provides support for adults who either cannot work or are seeking work. They meet with a case manager to build skills such as budgeting, while applying for housing or employment. Adults can use the computer lab to prepare resumes, research jobs and apply for jobs online.

“We have success stories. We have the mom who comes back seven years later, and we don’t know she stayed in the program. She’s wearing nursing scrubs, and she donates food to us and says, ‘Seven years ago this program saved my life.’ She then talks about the volunteers and how they doted on her children and how she got a job as a CNA at $15 an hour and the program helped her get that. And that now she’s has an apartment.

“We have another mom who says after she puts her kids to bed and turns off the lights, she loves it because she has to get mad at her daughter for turning on the lights and reading a book at 9 o’clock at night,” he said.

When a family leaves, support continues. Four years ago, the program added an AfterCare home-based case manager who continues to work with families. The belief is that INH helps people find housing and AfterCare helps them keep it. The nonprofit’s name was changed when it added the program, and is now part of an affiliate network of over 200 Family Promise branches.

The case manager visits families at their houses or apartments, and currently serves 32 families.

“That’s scary because that’s a lot. So she has to prioritize those most in need. Families will do a monthly budget with her one meeting, and then next month when she’s back, revisit it. There may be a meeting in between to work on things like providing a connection for a school uniform resource. But it’s really budgeting on the first of the month, and then coming back the next month to try to help create long-term goals as motivation,” said the executive director.

And it is making a difference. Two years after leaving the IHN shelter program and working with AfterCare case manager, 82 percent of families have retained housing.

In the past year, the case manager has connected six families to the Boner Center IDA program. The family starts an account and saves a minimum of $25 a month. When they hit $3,000, it’s matched and can be used for school, entrepreneurship or buying a home, according to Chapuran.

“So we’re hoping that through that program we’ll have some homeowners here in a few years,” he said. “Housing is the key. There’s no panacea. Right? But housing affects employment, affects school, affects every thing.”

Most families, according to Family Promise, stay about 60 days to save up the first month’s rent and security deposit.  The nonprofit now has a donor to provide a family’s security deposit, which according to studies, reduces the average family stay.

“We just gave a fighting chance to the family. The family did the work. It’s not a homeless person, it’s a mom who has three kids. One of them was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, she had to do appointments, lost her job and then it snowballed from there. It could happen to anybody,” said Chapuran. “We can stabilize those parents so that the kids’ lives hopefully are stable and in school. So we’ve got to take the long view.

Family Promise of Greater Indianapolis phone tally for two months.

Permanent housing for families, particularly with multiple bedrooms, is rare to find.

“Your family of five with dad, mom and three kids is shot. They wait. We’ve had a family that’s come back here twice despite our best efforts and getting social security and some other supports, and despite a part-time job has come back here twice. The mom has significant disabilities, retaining a job is hard. She’s half blind to be honest, and a permanent support-housing unit is necessary for her and her twins. But she’s been waiting nine months now.”

Besides family permanent housing, Family Promise is working to fill a 17-week gap from December to February. At that time, one rotation serving four families at a time closes. The nonprofit continues to recruit congregations.

Chapuran is hopeful that he will find new congregations and maximize the nonprofit’s existing resources.

But most importantly, he knows that volunteers getting to learn a family’s story can realize that it’s all shared experiences.

“Read the stories, but even more important than serving a meal at Dayspring, is talking to a family at Dayspring, learning a story. Learn that’s a mom, who went through 24-hour childbirth just like you, who then was worried about getting the baby to latch. It’s all shared experiences. “

Oct 16

Battling homelessness relies on dedication, collaboration

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

The thought process in itself is pretty elementary. Identify a problem, and then get smart heads get together to find a solution. On paper, it sounds good, but real life can be another story.

The problem of homelessness is an issue that has vexed politicians and social service agencies for a long time. It’s complicated because it is so multifaceted.

In previous nonprofit positions at the Damien Center in Indianapolis and the Orange County AIDS Services Foundation in California, Alan Witchey has worked with marginalized populations and saw how their plights can spiral into homelessness. Since 2015, he has been the executive director of the Indianapolis-based Coalition For Homelessness Intervention & Prevention (CHIP), and housing has become his primary job focus.

One thing he has come to believe is that solving the problem of homelessness has to be a group effort.

“Coming to CHIP was a great opportunity to think about how to solve homelessness from a collective perspective. An agency cannot solve a community problem alone. It can help people, and do good work, but it takes people working together, especially on a large issue like homelessness. One of the things, I think, has been very exciting is that I have really seen evolution and change in philosophy in Indianapolis among the homeless providers,” said Witchey, a 1990 graduate of Indiana University.

And what are some of the changes?

One is agreement to use a coordinated entry system. Together with providers, CHIP is launching a common housing application and vulnerability assessment.

According to Mike Chapuran, executive director of Family Promise, a nonprofit family shelter on the city’s Eastside, local shelters have verbally agreed to the updated system. Before now, a family seeking shelter would have to call each shelter to find one with a vacancy. Now, those seeking housing will complete an application, and CHIP will manage the list and prioritize the need.

And while it won’t immediately solve the capacity problem in the city for homeless families and individuals, it will prioritize housing, and add data to better understand the extent of the problem.  “That’s an enormous change for our community,” said Witchey.

CHIP realizes that the actual homeless numbers aren’t always easy to quantify. Every January, volunteers go to shelters, transitional housing and encampments to gain an annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count. This year’s results found the amount of people homeless in the city increased by 10 percent – giving Indianapolis the highest homeless count since 2014. Currently, 1,787 people are without homes, according to CHIP.

“We don’t ever think that we get to everybody, but we think we’re pretty good at counting, getting to a lot of people, not everybody,” Witchey said.

For example, the Hispanic homeless population is well hidden in Indianapolis and across the state. And Witchey believes there are other populations that are missed from the count.  The LGBTQ population, as well as some other youth populations, frequently double up or sleep on somebody’s couch and would be missed.

In July, CHIP teamed up with Outreach, which has been working with homeless youth for over 20 years, and the Indiana University Public Policy Institute (PPI) to conduct the first Youth Count Indy of ages 18 to 24. The data will help build a case for federal funding, expand advocacy efforts and educate the public. Outreach, a faith-based nonprofit, opened a new program facility on the city’s Eastside in April and hopes to serve more than 400 to 425 annually.

CHIP is not a direct service provider, but is helping to lead the way and change systems.

“I think we’re going in the right direction, and we still have a ways to go. There are some communities that are way ahead of us, and we haven’t been acting this way for a long time.

“You cannot expect a homeless service provider to be thinking systemically because they are dealing with the immediate crisis. People are walking in the door homeless every day, and they’re trying solve having no place to live,” said Witchey.

Chapuran agrees that his staff is constantly responding to a family’s crisis. When a mom needs a ride to work, it’s difficult say “no” because a collaborative meeting takes precedence. But he also understands it is important work for changes to happen.

Collaborative work can be challenging. While an agency receiving HUD funding has a requirement to participate in developing collaborative solutions, many of Indianapolis’ providers are privately funded. Witchey believes it’s CHIP’s job to build a compelling case to work together.

One of those changes has been the work of street workers. In August, CHIP hired Tom Tuttle, a social worker with 10 years experience, to manage the Street Reach Indy program. While a similar program to give money to organizations rather than panhandlers started in 2014, this one has a full-time position dedicated to outreach Downtown and work with businesses.

There was a time when every agency did its own street operation, sometimes reaching the same person in the same day. But that has changed in the past five years. Now, Professional Blended Street Outreach (PBSO) combines 22 different agencies and has standards for the way services are provided.

These teams provide first-response services to the city’s homeless and are made up of organizations that include local law-enforcement, nonprofits, health providers and mental health entities. Horizon House does the on-the-ground coordination.

CHIP has begun hosting quarterly provider meetings and creating common outcomes.  At these sessions, providers talk about how individual programs and agencies are doing based on those agreed-upon metrics.

Chapuran believes that Witchey is bringing providers the best practices from HUD and randomized studies that help support all of their work. Statistics show that 93 percent of the homeless who are rehoused remain housed one year later, and 94 percent of those who receive homeless prevention do not fall into homelessness over the coming year.

And while providers have made changes, Indianapolis’ housing resources have lagged. In his annual State of the City address, Mayor Hogsett committed to provide 400 additional spots for homeless residents.

According to CHIP, last year the city had 1,059 shelter beds, and 26 beds in two shelters dedicated to youth. While the city’s homeless population is smaller than other large cities, a study concluded that faith-based groups provide 77 percent of beds for Indianapolis’ homeless. So the city’s involvement is key.

Hogsett directive was simple. “We need this challenge as a community to push ourselves. And this community can rise to help solve it,” he said.

As part of the solution, CHIP, together with United Way of Central Indiana and Eskenzi Health, created and funded a new position called the Senior Strategy Director for Homelessness. Since August, Rodney Stockment has been on the job. He is responsible for helping to align the city’s efforts around homelessness and to address the challenge of finding the 400 additional beds.

“He really is mapping it out and going through all the different affordable housing projects and programs. He is finding out where there are empty units, where there are upcoming units and identifying those, so we can actually place people in them. And then, we’re working with different funders to help fund either temporary rental subsides or ongoing subsides to help people as they move into those units. So it really is a collaborative effort, but it’s great that we were able to create this position at the city,” said Witchey.

The funders envisioned a two-to-three year position focused on how to identify potential units and connecting homeless people to those units. By the end of September, Stockment had identified 168 units of the 400.

For additional assistance, CHIP brought members of the Cleveland Mediation Center to Indianapolis for a two-day divergent training on how to mediate crisis situations.

Chapuran said the training can help with immediate needs.

“We’re excited about beginning the conversation to see how we can with modest financial support and in-home case management potentially keep a family that needs housing in the home where they’re staying and help manage a conflict. While doubling up is not a perfect solution, if there’s no shelter space, it’s better than the street,” said Chapuran.

CHIP has also developed program standards and strategies for outreach, transitional housing and permanent housing.

And it has piloted new models. Over the last year and a half, Indianapolis has invested in a Housing-First model and tracked its progress. Called Penn Place, the 38 furnished one-bedroom apartments opened last winter. Residents are surrounded by support services. Witchey said an evaluation of the facility was just completed.

“A lot of those pieces have existed for many years here, but there wasn’t a sort of consistent effort to bring it here and have fidelity to that model. So we did that when we opened Penn Place about a year and a half ago, which was a collaborative between BWI Developers, Insight Development Corporation, Indianapolis Housing Authority, Eskenazi, Midtown Mental Health and Horizon House.

Are we close to solving the homeless problem?

According to Chapuran, “Other cities have demonstrated what’s possible. Utah, especially Salt Lake City has addressed and “solved” the problem of homeless veterans.

“We know that individuals are going to be without homes. There will be family that kicks them out, there will be evictions, but can we make sure that they have a roof over their heads on the day that they become homeless. There are cities that have done that.

“So in that sense, we know the solutions are out there. But in Indy right now, we are working towards them. Thanks to CHIP in the last year, especially, we are finally implementing and having the working groups create policies and procedures around what other cities are doing, and so that gives me a lot of hope,” he said.

Sep 25

New nonprofit career resource

By Sponsor Insight

By Bryan Orander, president, Charitable Advisors

Most of us have frequent career conversations. These might take the shape of a friend seeking advice, contemplating our own future, or hiring a new person to join our team. As the employment marketplace tightens, people are becoming more comfortable changing jobs and considering options and alternatives.

In the career marketplace, there are employers, job seekers, and intermediary functions like job advertising, community networking, and job seeker support groups. One of our primary roles at Charitable Advisors is to help that nonprofit career marketplace function better.

Every week, thousands of individuals explore the Charitable Advisors’ Nonprofit Job board in search of career opportunities and every week, area nonprofits post 15-20 new job ads with Charitable Advisors and over 10,000 applicants for positions last year.

Over the years, Charitable Advisors has written articles about nonprofit careers and developed short handouts for presentations. Last spring, we concluded that it was time to develop a brief, yet comprehensive, resource to support both job seekers and the community leaders whom they often reach out to for guidance.

“Considering a career in the nonprofit sector” is a four-page publication designed to provide information and stimulate the thinking of anyone exploring a nonprofit career. It can support recent graduates, career changers or current nonprofit professionals to determine the next steps.

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How to use “Considering a career in the nonprofit sector.

As a resource for job referral partners, mentors, nonprofit employers – We receive positive comments from many of you who recommend the Not-for-profit News and the Charitable Advisors Nonprofit Job Board to job seekers.

In advance of meeting with a job seeker, you might direct the individual to Charitable Advisor’s new publication, “Considering a career in the nonprofit sector.” It is designed to respond to frequently asked questions by job seekers, provide valuable information and resources, and offer potential directions. We hope this resource will guide the job seeker to narrow his or her search and refine his or her questions before meeting with you.

This is our first resource of this nature and is born out of conversation with many of you who wished you had a readily-available resource to support a job seeker. Let us know how we can continue to enhance it and support you.

A resource for job seekers – We frequently hear from job seekers that our community is fortunate to have nonprofit leaders who are generous with their time and their willingness to meet with them and career changers.

Charitable Advisors has created a resource that we hope will help you on this job-search journey and prime your thinking. It is intended as a starting place to make the best of your conversations as you pursue your next opportunity.

As a job seeker, networking contacts expect you to do your homework so they can be helpful to you. One suggestion is for you to be as specific as you can about your target position and the type of organization that you want to work.

JOB SEEKER ADS – Beginning late in October, we will launch a new online job-seeker connection opportunity. Watch for more information or alert Julie@CharitableAdvisors.com if you would like to be contacted when details are finalized.

Bryan Orander is founder and president of Charitable Advisors. After 18 years of for-profit leadership in the Fortune 50 business world and a disability-related nonprofit, Bryan joined a large regional accounting and consulting firm. In 2000, he founded Charitable Advisors with the vision of going beyond traditional consulting to become a connector, advocate and problem solver for the nonprofit sector.

Sep 18

Nonprofits recognizing the value the diversity

By Feature, Leadership

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Historically, the United States has not always been inclusive, and workplaces have been no exception. But in today’s political, economic and global business environment, diversity has become increasingly important. It now impacts brand, corporate purpose and performance.

And while the business environment recognizes the value of inclusion, nonprofits seemingly have been slower to come to the table. Some state nonprofit associations, however, do collect data, and two years ago, GuideStar initiated an optional national survey, but all told, reliable statistics on the topic are difficult to find.

One fact appears to be clear: At the start of the decade, the vast majority of nonprofit non-executive positions were dominated by women. That’s according to the 2010 National Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey, a survey of over 500 nonprofits from around the country by Washington, D.C.-based Nonprofit HR Solutions and the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research.

Women are less represented among senior executives, where, according to the Nonprofit Times list of Top 50 leaders in 2010, 66 percent of those named were men.

Locally, however, Jeremy York, a Synergy human resources field representative, and Nancy Ahlrichs, United Way of Central Indiana’s chief talent officer, have begun to see a change.

York said part of it is a broadening of diversity’s definition, and a recognition that there is significant value in having diverse perspectives.

“I think people are finally starting to understand the value of having different perspectives on their team. In the past, diversity has been focused mainly on physical traits, whether it’s been ethnicity or color of your skin,” said York.

“We understand that people’s experiences, their upbringing, where they worked, their backgrounds, education, different people they work with, all help shape their perspectives, and we can utilize those perspectives and experiences,” he said.

Ahlrichs believes that a cross section of perspectives makes a nonprofit more effective.

“It’s impossible for an organization to have group think because they’re automatically bringing different ideas to the table. There are just simply things that with my particular background I couldn’t have insight into. I need a variety of people in order to get things done because I don’t know what I don’t know,” she said.

But also important to this change is that the U.S. continues to be more of a melting pot, affecting nonprofits’ current and future pools of volunteers and donors. The younger population is more and more diverse.

“It’s also a need on our side. If we’re going to have sustainability, we have to be more diverse. We have to learn how to be more inclusive,” Ahlrichs said. “If you serve people, you’re always going to have to strive to make sure that you have a good representation.” United Way of Central Indiana emphasizes diversity as part of the agency evaluation process.

Add to this need, according to York, is that studies have shown that for-profit companies that have diverse work teams outperform other organizations by 25 percent. He said this same school of thought applies to a nonprofit’s services, quality of the delivery of those services, and ultimately its mission.

“Part of the reason that companies are outperforming is because they’re more in tune with each other and because they respect each other for their differences of opinion,” said York.

And while nonprofits recognize that they need to embrace diversity, Ahlrichs said sometimes they look for assistance to begin or how to incorporate such policies. She has been approached by other nonprofits seeking help, and she advises them to examine their methods of attracting people who would be an asset to the organization.

“There are things that they can do that are not costly, that will make a difference in the ability to attract job candidates. I mean you cannot hire people if they don’t apply. How can you reach out to say ‘All are welcome?’ How do you get someone to think about coming to work for you or to think about being a volunteer if basically, in the nonprofit sector, the majority of employees are white females. The diversity that you may be pursuing is men, in fact I’m sure it is, men, as well as racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and other diversity,” Ahlrichs said.

According to Ahlrichs, while there are some simple ways to start, the key is to develop a diversity-and-inclusion policy and a plan.

“You have to have a plan. Without a plan, you aren’t going to get anywhere,” she said.

While York sees boards being cognizant of reflecting the people that the organization serves, they don’t necessarily see the need for a written plan.

“Some of my nonprofit clients don’t have a diversity initiative that they are specifically working toward,” said York. “They may consider themselves to be an inclusive environment, but a lot of the smaller ones don’t have a plan. It’s not because they don’t think it’s important, it’s just from a resource standpoint.”

Which local nonprofits are walking the walk? YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters were mentioned York and Ahlrichs and Kim Donahue, United Way’s director of agency services, lists the Children’s Bureau as being proactive. It has an internal group of employees who meet regularly, and they have been very purposeful in recruiting for their board with diversity in mind, Donahue said.

“United Way of Central Indiana is made richer by the array of diversity that we have. We have absolutely top-notch employees, and they come from all different backgrounds. And it just wouldn’t be the same without them. I think that more agencies are going to find it’s a level of quality that they increase in terms of their ability to serve the community that they serve by having diversity,” said Ahlrichs.

Ways to get started

Ahlrichs offers several actions that United Way has implemented that can help nonprofits get started, specifically to attract talent.

Website awareness — “United Way posts its diversity statement on the website,” she said. “I think it’s important that anyone who goes to our website, especially someone interested in a new position, knows that we have a policy.”

She said a nonprofit’s website tells a story to potential employees, volunteers and donors and that it’s important to consider what the website looks like.

Who is in the pictures? Does the site show a range of diversity?

“I want someone who goes to our website to feel like they have a sense of our culture. Whether it’s age, race, gender, we wanted to show as much diversity as we could, and you get to hear their real words. You know what is it like to work here,” said Ahlrichs.

Job postings — Nonprofits need to think about where they post job openings and ask themselves a simple question: “Can we expand where we send the posts so there is an opportunity to have qualified diverse candidate even apply?”

“You really can’t be complacent. You cannot say, ‘We’re just going to post a job on our own website and that’s good enough’ and have anything change,” Ahlrichs said.

Networking — Ahlrichs suggests reaching out and creating mini-relationships with diverse organizations. Perhaps an introductory phone call, or a coffee meeting.

“It would be nice if they actually knew more about your agency and could speak in a positive way about what you’re trying to do,” she said.

DIVERSITY RESOURCES

After the release of the 2004 study by University of Chicago professors that found Lakishas and Jamals were far less likely to get job interviews than Emilys and Gregs, some organizations tried masking names on resumes. It didn’t catch on as a trend, but Ahlrichs said she personally knows someone who struggled with her job search, in spite of the fact that she had two master’s degrees in human resources.

Her name was difficult to pronounce and potential employers were embarrassed to try. After using initials for her first name, and dropping the part of her hyphenated surname that was difficult to pronounce, she got job interviews.

Below are resources that Ahlrichs and York suggested can provide insight to trends.

Diversity Inc.

“Diversity Inc.” magazine is in print as well as online. It compiles a tremendous amount of information and articles from around the country, things going on that have to do with diversity trends, as well as, strategy trends.

  • http://magazine.diversityinc.com/i/686571-win-2016

There is a competition annually in the magazine called the Diversity 50. This year, Eli Lilly and Company was included for “conducting extensive research this year on the career progression of its female employees. With this knowledge, Lilly plans to solidify its best practices around talent management for women. The company also plans to conduct similar studies for its Black, Hispanic and Latino employees. Lilly is also planning to roll out a conscious-inclusion training.

  • http://www.diversityinc.com/diversityinc-top-50-survey-faqs/
Society for Diversity

Indianapolis is home to the Society for Diversity, a virtual professional association for workplace diversity and inclusion efforts. Leah Smiley is the founder and CEO. It certifies diversity consultants and provides education and resources to help professionals and organizations.

International Center

The International Center is willing to work with nonprofits to learn more about incoming populations. They bring a cultural representative.

“We had Muslim woman who wears a hijab, who came to speak to us, and she made a deal with us in the beginning, she said, “I want to have you ask me any question. I don’t want you to go away, saying, ‘I wish I had asked or I didn’t courage enough to ask.’ She said, ‘I want you to know me as a person and to understand whatever it is that you’re wondering about when it comes to the Muslim religion.’

“We brought in someone who is from the country of Columbia and she was so educational. She said, ‘So tell me the first three things you think of when you think of Columbia?’ People said, ‘Killing, drugs.’ It was all the negatives. She said, ‘The things that I think about are an enormous flower industry, high fashion and coffee.’ And she said, ‘It just depends on where your information is coming from and what has your experience been,’ and so we talked about stereotypes.”

The Human Rights campaign

The HRC Diversity and Quality Index is about diversity inclusion.

  • https://www.hrc.org/campaigns/corporate-equality-index
Sep 11

Improve on-boarding boards by applying Design Thinking

By Sponsor Insight

By Jenny Banner, director of strategic initiatives, SmallBox

Since SmallBox has been introducing nonprofits to a creative problem-solving methodology called Design Thinking, we often find that people think the creative framework is intimidating. But as we work with people and they learn about the Design Thinking process, they want to apply it to all their problems.

We are here to tell you it’s okay to be intimidated, and it’s okay to be excited. What you need to know is that Design Thinking shouldn’t be studied and put on the shelf, it requires that you take action and apply it. Even if it’s using one simple tool that you think can get to better insights for your team or outcomes for those you serve. We say commit to Design Doing (not just thinking)!

Let’s put the theory into practice and show you how you can apply a design thinking method to an ongoing nonprofit challenge: new board member on-boarding [aka orientation].

Tool: Journey mapping

In this exercise, the bigger your map, the better. Map the current new board member on-boarding process in a linear fashion on a big piece of butcher paper or a large white board. Flatten the process by mapping it in an order that makes sense, chronological typically works well. This means you need to create a beginning and an end of the on-boarding process.

As you are gathering insights about the current process in this exercise, it’s worth including as many informed stakeholders as possible. This may include new and former board members, staff, and anyone who has prepped, planned or experienced the current on-boarding process. What’s key to remember is that you are working to improve the process for the new board member, not for your nonprofit. Always keep the board member’s experience the focus.

Use colored Post-It notes to capture steps of the process. Post-Its create a visual aspect to the work that accesses the right brain, and allows you to change or add elements to the order of the process when needed. When completed you will have a visual diagram of all the touch points your new board members have during on-boarding.

Once you have mapped the current process, determine which parts of it delight new board members and which parts need improvement or confuse new board members. Ideally, you will ask board members who went through the process what their experience was. Where did they experience high points and low points? Highs and lows in the journey map can be identified using plus and minus symbols or any other creative way your team comes up with.

Once you have assembled all of your touch points and on-boarding highs and lows, you can start to assemble a list of what to capitalize on and what to improve.

Tool: oil change

This tool can be used in various settings, and we suggest applying it to the items on your journey map. This is a simple and quick tool aimed at creating efficient and participative communicate for a group about what people see in the journey map. It involves a group leader or facilitator asking a series of questions. Here are the ones we like to use:

  • Based on what you see on the journey map, what’s working?
  • Based on what you see on the journey map, what’s not working?
  • What’s missing from our board on-boarding journey?
  • What else?

The last two are purposely open-ended to encourage team members to bring new ideas to the group. We find that often when people start looking at on-boarding (or any journey) differently, it ignites creative ideas that deserve to be captured.

Once you have these questions answered, you can choose any number of voting methods to prioritize your areas of action and focus.

As Design Thinking gains more attention, we will continue to share our process so you can apply it to the work you lead.

Jenny Banner has been practicing amateur psychology since middle school. This interest in what makes people tick, led Jenny to careers sales, HR, and consulting as well as a graduate education in I/O Psychology (the psychology of the workplace). In her 15+ years of HR and consulting experience, Banner has worked with companies from Fortune 500 to start-ups, and observed similarities. As a consultant and coach her focus has been on leadership development, career transition, and training. She recently joined Smallbox as director of strategic initiatives and is applying her unique skill set to help organizations align their internal and external brand perceptions, and is working to refine educational offerings around problem solving using Design Thinking. jennybanner@smallbox.com