Skip to main content
Category

Feature

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 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 12

“Drug czar” steps up efforts against opioid crisis

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

When Jim McClelland retired after 41 years at the helm of Goodwill of Central Indiana, he didn’t envision an encore career. He was looking forward to traveling with his wife and serving on several boards.

But when Gov. Eric Holcomb signed an executive order and tapped him for a cabinet position, McClelland relinquished his daily flexibility. Last January, he became Indiana’s first Executive Director for Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement and reports directly to Holcomb. He also chairs the Indiana Commission to Combat Drug Abuse and coordinates the activities of nine Indiana agencies.

It’s a position that several other states have created.

For nonprofits that want to support the state’s efforts, here’s McClelland’s advice:

  • Learn all you can about the issue.  The more you learn, the better you will be able to see where and how your organization can help.
  • Become part of a local coalition focused on prevention, treatment and recovery.  In Indiana, every county has a “local coordinating council” that might offer such opportunities or be able to suggest how your organization can contribute to the overall effort.
  • Address some of the underlying root causes of substance misuse and abuse by working with others to improve all of the social determinants of health.

While at Goodwill he supported the concept and developed programs around the idea that so many of our social problems are interrelated and tend to reinforce and compound each other, rather than treat them in isolation.

“What we were trying to do at Goodwill in efforts to reduce intergenerational poverty was to bring pieces together. And conceptually that’s at least in part what needs to be done here,” said McClelland.

Since then, McClelland has seen the opioid crisis up close and although he has a lengthy nonprofit working history, he had not realized the complexity of the epidemic. While it got its legs in Southern Indiana, it’s now everywhere.

“It is in small towns in rural areas, it’s in the cities, it’s in the suburbs, and it now cuts across all socio-economic groups. There are many pieces to this, and there are many steps that need to be taken simultaneously. You cannot do it sequentially and there are no quick or easy solutions,” McClelland said.

In 2016, the opiate scourge killed 785 Hoosiers, according to the Indiana State Department of Health, and the state’s emergency rooms handle more than 400 overdose visits weekly.

“This isn’t a recent problem. It’s been developing gradually over two decades,” McClelland said.  “What is recent is the awareness of the magnitude and the complexity and how many lives and families it’s affecting. It’s almost as if it had to reach a certain, critical mass awareness before people started saying, ‘We have to do something about this.’”

“We use words like ‘epidemic crisis’ to describe it for two reasons. One of those is this one got started from the overuse of legally prescribed pain medications. People thought because the doctors were prescribing these medications that they were safe. It turned out they were much more addictive than a lot of people believed,” he said.

Doing something about it is just how McClelland spends his days.

The state now has three broad priorities to reverse the epidemic.

The first is keeping people alive. To support that effort, one change is that naloxone, the reversal agent, is not only available to first responders, but can be purchased over the counter. Another initiative is a pilot project at Eskenazi Health. When someone overdoses and is rushed to the hospital, peer recovery coaches encourage them to seek treatment. The state plans to use some 21st Century Cures Act grant money to replicate this program.

The second priority is to expand treatment capacity and access. Ultimately, McClelland hopes that no one is farther than a one-hour drive for treatment.

And the third is stopping the flow of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, which is in part the reason for spikes in overdoses and deaths. Heroin’s cousin, fentanyl has many times heroin’s potency, but looks identical.  Most fentanyl sold on the street is made in clandestine labs, is less pure, and its effect on the body can be more unpredictable.

McClelland said a lot of what he did in his first year was to put things in place that will really start paying off this year. He believes in a deliberate, strategic plan to attack the problem, and compiling and sharing data is critical. In the past year, he has worked to get state agencies that report to him to sign agreements to share data with each other, giving a more comprehensive picture.

“Now, they can start looking at this data in different ways and enable us to see things that we wouldn’t otherwise see. Hopefully, we will have data that is going to be converted into more useful, actionable and timely information,” he said.

Another is sharing this information with Pew Charitable Trust that is analyzing Indiana’s data and policies at no cost to the state. Pew will continue its work this year.

“They have just a wealth of talent and resources and a national perspective and a lot of national data. So they can look at policies across the country and they can say, ‘These really seem to be effective. Indiana, you ought to take a look at this.’ I will tell, what we’ve seen is we’re really on the right track in a lot of this,” McClelland said.

McClelland shared stories about two young men who were prescribed medications after surgery, one for a football injury and the other after an appendectomy. Both found themselves addicted and searching the Internet for more. Both had stable homes.

“A lot of people developed opioid disorder, which is the technical term. And regardless of how someone develops a substance-use disorder of that type, once you got it, you’ve got a chronic disease. It changes the structure of the brain. It’s treatable, but few people can recover without treatment,” he said.

Dr. Jennifer Walthall, secretary of Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration, groups the people being treated into thirds. A third with treatment are on a maintenance dose of one of the FDA-approved drugs and taper off, another group needs to be on maintenance for life. For a third treatment doesn’t work. Compared to other addictive substances, treatment for an opioid-use disorder takes longer and the risk of relapse is higher, something that can take years even if in treatment.

In order to provide better access to treatment, the lawmakers approved five additional FSSA-approved, licensed and monitored opioid treatment programs that will open this year. The additional five are in Greenwood, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Bloomington and, through the federal 21st Century Cures grant, FSSA is working with addiction services providers across the state to create other new residential treatment programs or expand their existing programs.

Currently lawmakers are considering whether to add nine new treatment centers around the state in H.B. 1007. If the bill passes, the new treatment centers would be operated by hospitals.

In October, the state launched its Next Level Recovery website, www.in.gov/recovery. The site includes a geo-location feature designed to help Hoosiers find Division of Mental Health and Addiction-certified addiction treatment providers throughout the state.

Additionally, two improvements to treatment access are on the horizon. Next month, the state will launch an open-beds platform linked to the 2-1-1 system. It will enable someone looking for a residential treatment to find an empty bed. Until now, calling sites individually was the primary method.

“This is really innovative, and it’s going to enable us to make more efficient use of existing capacity. We know how many beds are out there but at any given point in time, we haven’t known where an empty one was without calling. So this is going to change that,” McClelland said.

Another change is approval of a federal waiver from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to use Medicaid dollars for residential treatment and recovery support services.  Approximately $80 million in annual funding was recently approved.

But one of McClelland’s continuing concerns is that those who get arrested have to be treated, and unfortunately with a lack of treatment access, the jails are the de facto detox centers.

“In most counties in the state, jails don’t want to be in that position, but they are. We need some better solutions to dealing with that situation. DOC is the largest treatment provider in the state of Indiana,” McClelland said. They are working together to offer more comprehensive services.

This month, the state will launch Project Echo, a training developed in New Mexico. It is a medication-assisted treatment training that is available to providers. Primary doctors can apply for and receive a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) waiver to allow them to dispense methadone and buprenorphine for opioid use disorder.

In January, the state announced with the state Department of Health and the Indiana State Medical Association for the management of acute pain to include post-surgical pain. Over the next couple of months, six webinars dealing with various aspects of the opioid situation and pain management will be available.

McClelland said that another significant change is a way to integrate the prescription drug-monitoring program with electronic-medical records and pharmacy management system statewide.

“This will give prescribers and dispensers of prescriptions a tool that’s fast and very user-friendly and enable them to see a controlled substance history of a patient. They will also know if someone is doctor shopping. They will know if somebody is taking something in combination with an opioid that would be really dangerous. Up until now, the system has been clunky but the state’s paying to fix that,” he said.

There is a bill in this year’s General Assembly requiring prescribers to check INSPECT before issuing a first prescription for an opioid.  It passed 47-1 in the Senate, and in February moved to a House committee. If it passes, practitioners will be phased in, but by 2021 will be mandatory.

Other innovations include locations on where to dispose of unused opioids, which are listed on the state’s Next Level Recovery website. Walmart has taken a step to help with disposal. When a prescription for a controlled substance is filled, the customer also receives a DisposeRx packet. When disposing of unused pills, the customer adds warm water and the powder, and it is converted into a non-divertible and biodegradable gel.

There is some positive news. In January, Clark County had overdose deaths drop by a third, from 90 to 60.

“Any good news is welcome, believe me,” McClelland said. “There hasn’t been very much to this point. Here’s the problem, if you could magically prevent anyone else from becoming addicted, we still have tens of thousands of people, maybe even hundreds of thousands who need treatment. And we have to deal with that. They will not recover without treatment, and abstinence-only treatment only has about a 10 percent success rate. We are focused on expanding the availability of medication-assisted treatment and the recovery support systems or services that people are going to need, and we’re going to be doing it for a long time.”

McClelland also talked about the Fairbanks Foundation’s prevention initiative — $12 million over three years.

“Fairbanks has been interested in this for a long time. We have had a lot of conversations with them over the last year, but this is their initiative and they really stepped up to the plate here. They are focused on evidenced-based prevention programs and there are some programs that have been around a while that have shown through randomized control trials, real solid evidence, significant long-term impact, introduced in substance use and misuse among young people.

“And that’s what we want to see more of. I’m always been interested in innovation and trying new things, but here with the problem that we’ve got now and the limited resources to deal with it, we need to focus our resources on what we know work,” he said.

“When it comes to preventing substance abuse and helping those who have a substance use disorder achieve and maintain recovery, there’s a quote from ‘Dreamland,’ by Sam Quinones that I particularly like:  ‘Nobody can do it on their own.  But no drug dealer nor cartel can stand against families, schools, churches, and communities united together.’”

Jan 29

EARN Indiana program pays off for nonprofits, college interns

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

As Teachers’ Treasures executive director for the past four years, Margaret Sheehan works with volunteers daily. The Eastside nonprofit volunteer-run store, which opened in 2000, provides teachers access to donated educational supplies and other materials.

And while volunteers have been critical to the store’s efforts, late last summer Sheehan added an employee to her staff — a paid intern. It was the nonprofit’s first paid intern.

But the benefit was not just to the organization, but also to the student who is gaining professional experience in the workplace. The college student has taken on additional projects that a nonprofit would not have tackled as readily.

Recognizing that experiences like these develop workplace skills, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education took over the former summer work-study program, and it was renamed the Employer Aid Readiness Network (EARN) Indiana program in 2013 under Indiana Code 21-16-2. Last year the legislature approved $606,099 for each of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 fiscal years.

The program pays 50 percent of the intern’s pay and is administered in partnership with INTERNnet, a free internship-matching program managed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. The goal is to help create or expand high-quality experiential opportunities. HB 1312 in 2013 expanded the program to allow for-profit employers to also access the matching funds. Previously, only government agencies, colleges and universities, and nonprofits were included.

For more information about EARN Indiana, check out INTERNnet’s website.

And for an employer guide on internships in general, visit INTERNnet’s website.

In order to qualify for this practical experience as a paid intern, a student must be a full- or part-time college student with financial need.

Teachers’ Treasures is not the only nonprofit providing students with these workplace experiences. Last year, 113 nonprofit positions were filled, including an environment residential center, library and a municipality and rehabilitation center. In 2016, there were 102 interns hired by nonprofits.

Erin Crofton, the education director at Dunes Learning Center in Chesterton, said it didn’t take long for her board to endorse applying to the program, and it has had a positive impact on the bottom line.

“We’re always looking at budgets, and I thought ‘Wow, it says that they will reimburse 50 percent of the salary for your interns for the time that they’re here.’ That sounds too good to be true,” she said.

EARN Indiana interns can be hired during the summer or school year for at least eight weeks. Crofton hires naturalists during the school year, all of whom have graduated from college, so those program interns are not eligible for EARN Indiana dollars.

But in the summer, Crofton hires 10 residential environmental program interns who are still in college. While not all her summer counselors qualify, for the past two years she’s had at least two. According to the guidelines, no more than 50 percent of a nonprofit’s workforce can be interns.

But Crofton has found that not only does EARN Indiana help fund the intern program, it helps her draw applicants from a wider geographic region with the positions advertised on INTERNnet, which has a statewide reach.

For students, the database is searchable and includes a hotline for questions.

Both Sheehan and Crofton said the online application is straightforward.  Once a nonprofit applies and submits a position description, it receives a response within five business days. After approval, the employer receives an email from the commission verifying the position title, work hours, pay rates and the employment timetable. A second email contains an employer agreement and the position is posted.

At Teachers’ Treasures, Sheehan completed the application this first time, and the director of operations is taking care of the communication and reports. Crofton does both. Both said the customer service is great support. As long as the employer is in good standing, there is no limit to the number of times an employer can apply for EARN Indiana internship dollars.

At Teachers’ Treasures, Maryann O’Connor, an IUPUI sophomore who has been employed since August, managed two projects – a STEM and an upcoming gala auction, as part of her experiential internship. For the auction, she met with board members one-on-one to ascertain where they might have connections, and then followed up with them.

After Eli Lilly learned that 60 percent of fourth graders in Indiana had never had a STEM activity, the pharmaceutical company approached Teachers’ Treasures to connect to area teachers. The EARN Indiana intern had experience in this area and worked with Teachers’ Treasures staff and teachers to determine what type of kits would provide teachers. As a result the nonprofit built 2,000 kits to make slime, complete with Borax, glue, beakers and a teacher demonstration kit. O’Connor identified what was needed, and coordinated Lilly employees through an Indy Do-Day at Gleaners to assemble the materials.

“I am grateful for the real responsibility I’ve been trusted with,” O’Connor said. “The STEM project allowed me to actually interact with teachers and see the results of this effort. I was able to take on a leadership role, which included writing the teacher instructions, managing the assembly and taking overall responsibility for the project.”

Sheehan said that while this was a little outside the scope of what the nonprofit typically gives away, without an intern she would not have attempted it. She said there is always going to be an interesting project that you wouldn’t take on without an intern.

“We had the right intern in place,” she said. “She took responsibility. They were her projects — both very different.”

And while Teachers’ Treasures has gained, so has O’Connor.

“This internship has helped me better understand my career path. It applied my course work to a nonprofit and has been a valuable hands-on experience. I am interested in continuing to work with nonprofits,” said O’Connor who is double majoring in international studies and Spanish and is working to complete the nonprofit management certificate. She said this internship was an opportunity to see a nonprofit up close.

“It’s been great working with a small staff, which allows you to see the key components of the operation at work. The organization has an executive director, volunteer coordinator, events coordinator and operations manager and you can see how they function together.”

O’Connor said that it is important that those not in the nonprofit sector apply for nonprofit internships. She has friends who are business majors, and are having difficulty finding one. Her advice is that business managers can see all sides of an operation on a smaller scale.

Reporting the EARN Indiana’s intern’s hours can be on an ongoing basis or be a one-time payment.

“You just have to have all of the reporting done by a certain date, and you can just get a check then or you can do it ongoing. I like to do it ongoing just so I make sure, I don’t have to dig for stuff. The program provides that flexibility,” said Crofton.

If a nonprofit is considering applying, Crofton offers simple advice.

“Absolutely do it. There’s nothing you could lose from it.”

Key is to keep in mind why you’re doing it.

“My major recommendation for any internship is always keep in mind, why are you doing the internship and what are you providing the student. I believe that internships are not for the organization itself necessarily. It’s really you’re helping move this individual along in their career.

“Provide a good experience. I think EARN does that because it has to be experiential, and an intern cannot just get coffee and make copies all day,” said Crofton.

Dec 18

Tax bill could impact Indiana’s charitable giving

By Feature, Legislation

By Charitable Advisors staff

At this time of year, we are reminded that Americans are generous people. Last month, for example, an estimated $274 million was raised online during the sixth annual Giving Tuesday event. And much of that total will be written off on people’s taxes.

By the end of this week, Congress is expected to approve changes to the U.S. tax code, and it’s important for nonprofits to understand their potential effects. Dissecting what we know about the pending bill can help put it in perspective.

The details of the fast-moving tax code rewrite released on Friday indicate that the standard deduction will temporarily be increased from $6,350 to $12,000 for single taxpayers and from $12,700 to $24,000 for married couples filing jointly. In 2025, those deductions will revert to the current law.

One consequence of roughly doubling the standard deduction would be to significantly lower the number of filers who itemize. Currently, only taxpayers who itemize can deduct charitable contributions.

This change has the potential to affect middle-income families, according to Una Osili, professor of economics and associate dean for research and international programs at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She estimates roughly 30 million households making between $50,000 and $100,000 will be less likely to itemize their deductions on their taxes.

According to IRS data, over 500,000 donors in Indiana claimed the charitable deduction, accounting for $3.2 billion in donations. But without seeing a direct link between their contributions and their bottom-line tax obligations, fewer potential donors are expected to open their wallets.

Research by the Lilly School shows that itemizers are much more likely to donate to charitable causes. A recent report showed that 83 percent of itemizers reported donating any amount of charitable giving at all, compared to 44 percent of non-itemizers. And non- itemizers contribute less than 20 percent of total giving. Lilly’s Osili predicts at least a $13 billion annual drop in charitable giving if the new standard deduction becomes law.

One remedy this fall was a universal charitable deduction introduced by U.S. Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) that would have incentivized charitable giving for low and middle income earning individuals and families. The Universal Charitable Giving Act (H.R.3988) would have established a universal charitable deduction for individuals and married couples who did not itemize, and be in addition to the standard deduction.

According to Marissa Manlove, president and CEO of the Indiana Philanthropy Alliance, it is disappointing that it was not considered.

“This solution would have allowed taxpayers at all income levels to take advantage of the 100-year-old charitable deduction. Without such an incentive, I fear charitable giving could decrease dramatically, placing underserved Hoosiers at greater risk. I encourage our nonprofit sector to monitor the effect tax reform has on their organization and to share stories of people affected with their policymakers,” she said.

 

Dec 04

Nonprofits: Taking a productive break

By Feature, Governance

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

The advice is often well-intentioned, and it’s something that hard-working, driven individuals may hear a lot: Stop and smell the roses, get away and clear your head, or take a sabbatical to rest and rejuvenate.

When one person in a company takes a break, the work can still go on. When the whole company takes a break, there’s an inherent danger that the vacation will be permanent.

Nonprofits, many of which operate on limited budgets, are no exception. Out of sight, out of mind? A temporary shutdown could be considered a gamble, but it could also be just what a struggling organization needs.

Several years ago, two area nonprofits  — the Indianapolis Opera Company and the Martin Luther King Community Center — announced they were taking a break. It raised many questions in the community over the future of the two organizations.

Both nonprofits resumed operations in about a year and from all indications, appear to have used their “downtime” wisely.

Both nonprofits had funding issues that needed to be resolved, but beyond trying to shore up their financial shortcomings, both used the time to figure out their roles and how they stood in the community. One tactic for both boards was to carve out time to listen to their constituents, to understand what services were important to them, or in the case of the Opera, what performances did their patrons prefer.

To help with the process, both organizations had funders who were willing to keep the process moving.

Kimberly Sterling was Martin Luther King’s board president when the decision to temporarily close was made in early 2014. The board’s goal was to temporarily transfer programming to other agencies, and within six months be back up and running. Early on, the board hosted a town-hall meeting, and according to Sterling, there was a great community response. Attendees shared which services were critical and which could go away.

“So as we began to work on a strategic plan for both the short term, and more importantly from a sustainability perspective for the longer term, we were able to heed the voice of the community,” Sterling said.

United Way of Central Indiana offered the center financial support to hire a consultant, Pat Gamble-Moore, to serve as a kind of interim director and keep things moving, things like paying bills and working with the board to design a plan. She worked with the board for nearly a year, and after taking a position at PNC, joined the board herself.

During its pause, the center’s building was never unoccupied. While there was no staff, tenants and agencies were using the building. And while it had to revamp and transform the organization, the board formed strategic partnerships with other groups such as the Edna Martin Christian Center and Kaleidoscope to provide youth programming.

Matt Mindrum, the Opera’s current board chairman, had just signed on to the board when the announcement to shut down was made. He noted that not only was the environment changing here, but opera companies were changing in many places and moving away from large performance spaces to more intimate ones and adding variety to their repertoire.

“So the business model was changing on a macro level at the same time that our circumstances were changing at a micro level. I think that combination really required us to press the reset button. Not only did we need to pause so we could pay our bills, and figure out how to get moved into the Basile Opera Center building and do all the things that we talked about doing for a long time, but we also needed to pause to figure out where we were going.”

After the company canceled the final opera of the 2013-2014 season, a funder provided a grant to assess the future of the Opera, hiring a consultant and market research firm. Together, Steven Stolen and Smari helped the board identify what audiences wanted and determine what various future paths could look like.

“We treated the study, not only as an opera study, although it was opera-funded through the Lilly Endowment, but we included the IRT, the ISO, Butler, the Chamber Orchestra, the Phoenix Theater, the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Jazz Fest and Dance Kaleidoscope. We went out and talked to folks who weren’t just our core audience, but really the arts-inclined audience broadly speaking. And we heard a variety of things from them,” said Mindrum.

Among the findings: Sponsors’ expectations were not being met, the budget needed to be severely cut and reworked, the venues were too large, leadership had to change, and the board of directors needed an overhaul.

“Quality had been inconsistent, and that was probably the biggest takeaway, and quality if you’re a professional performing arts organization, is job one. It’s not that we didn’t have some really high-quality productions, but we had too much variability,” said Mindrum who inherited the chairmanship of the company’s first year back.

David Starkey, the Opera’s general manager and artistic director since March, says the Opera’s board did something more difficult than they realize — they didn’t let the quiet or dark period go on too long. According to Starkey, these resets have a national average of about 3 ½ years.

MLK changes

In its search for a new director, Sterling said the Martin Luther King board was looking for someone with leadership capabilities who had community center experience but not necessarily as the leader. It was also important to understand the uniqueness of how community centers work.

In June of 2015, the MLK board hired Allison Luthe. She had both a community organizing background, and a short stint at a community center. She came on board as managing director, an interim position.

With a short-term playbook in hand, Luthe worked with the board to change both programming and mission. The mission had focused primarily on providing programming, but now it was also trying to be more inclusive to the needs in the neighborhood.

“It was pretty clear to me that we weren’t connected to the neighborhood,” Luthe said.

She cites an example. On Labor Day, a couple of months after she arrived, there was a group of parents across the street from the MLK center on West 40th Street who were protesting chain-link fence going up around the adjacent Butler-Tarkington Park because of park improvement. Luthe met some of the protesters  — youth football coaches — who feared they would lose practice fields because of the park’s development.

Luthe found out the coaches didn’t know Martin Luther King was a community center to help serve some of the very kids they were coaching. No one had ever introduced themselves before, the protesters said.

“There was a disconnect,” Luthe said. I just spent a lot of time getting to know them, we had the town hall meeting at the school and they came to that. We ended up seeing each other in a couple of other places.  One of them, their brother was murdered, so we helped them plan the peace rally that they had. So really, we just spent time getting to know them and now they all bring their kids here, the football team works out of here.”

Luthe would become the center’s executive director and worked with the board to develop a long-term strategy.

Before the pause, United Way provided more than 60 percent of the funding for the MLK center. Today it’s at 23 percent and the center has a mix of funding from a variety of sources. Luthe secured a small grant from Meridian Street United Methodist Church to restart some youth activities, and the church has continued as a partner.

When Luthe began as managing director, there were 1.5 employees. Today, there are nine full-time, five part-time permanent employees and 10 temporary employees in the summer. The budget went from $300,000 to $1.2 million, with federal and state contracts.

One main question that the center had to answer: When does it make sense for the center to have its own programming and when should it collaborate?

And while programs and staff have returned, the center now offers its after-school K-5 programming at the neighborhood’s public school, School 43. The program is funded by a 21st Century Community Learning Center grant, which is highly competitive. Grades 6 and 7 meet at the center, but the center is submitting a proposal to expand the grant to add those grades to the school as well.

There is still a long list of partnerships, which won’t go away even with funding, said Luthe, since the partners excel at offering these programs.

The board realized that a signature fundraising event was needed to maintain community relationships. MLK’s grew out of conversations with community members during Luthe’s first summer. With four murders in the neighborhood in the summer of 2015, she had calls from former neighbors who were concerned and wanted to help.

Her response to each of them was simple.

“We’re in a renewal phase and doing better. What if we had a breakfast event and you come and talk a little bit about the history, so that we could stay in touch with our history?“

The Founders’ breakfast fundraiser was born and now happens the Friday before Martin Luther King’s birthday and is hosted by Meridian Street United Methodist Church.

Financially, there is a short leash. There are check limits and the finance committee meets monthly. Everything that is proposed has to have a funding source. The board is proactive, and asks tough questions.

Recently the center hired a wellness coach. The center already had employment coaching and a WorkOne mobile unit. For people who want a better way of life, no matter how much is in their bank account, the center wants to help them grow personally or professionally.

MLK spent the last year doing focus groups with the Public Policy Institute, which is getting ready to produce a report about gentrification, racism, neighborhood safety, and perception of where you live.

Visitors to the center tell Luthe the building has a sense of life, and she’s hoping to add an MLK Guild to help make it more of a welcoming community-owned place.

Sterling said one of the board’s goals was to see people using the facility.

“I think that’s always important when people who are coming for services feeling like it’s a place that they would want to be in. But I think most important are the services that are being provided are based on the needs that are assessed,” said the former board chair.

Opera changes

One of the changes that the Opera made was to its programming venue. It moved from Clowes Hall that had a capacity of 2,100 to the Schrott Center for the Arts, which seats 450. The Opera has also offered programming at Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre in Carmel, which is similar in size to Schrott.

In addition, the office’s move to the Basile Center at 40th and Pennsylvania streets, Starkey said, was a game changer and is helping it to become a center for community arts and culture with its additional tenants.

“It changed the Opera from being a producer to a community leader. And when you look at IMA, and IRT and the Symphony, those three nonprofits, they all have place.

“And now we’re in a place where we are daily giving to our community, and that changed the mindset,” said Starkey. “An arts organization that takes that more collaborative approach is a core of the 21st century model. I have found tremendous dedication to this neighborhood, this building, to this revitalization, how they shift and move has been really encouraging.”

But that’s not all that has changed.

“So, venue, programming, collaboration, and then maybe the final thing would be the type of artists that we seek to cast and to develop here. We’ve embraced the idea that we want to be a training ground for the next generation of world-class singers. We’ve got the best opera school in the country an hour down the road (Jordan School of Music at Indiana University), and we’ve got lots of other great programs nearby.  We’re a rich community when it comes to vocal arts,” said Mindrum.

“We believe we need to be the champion of the vocal arts, the champion of opera. And opera is automatically the top of the food chain. Our responsibility is to be the best professional company that does opera and theatrical representations of that,” said Starkey.

That now includes building a strong middle and offering shows that have ensembles.

“When you do a South Pacific, it’s an ensemble show, when you do Man of LaManchia, it’s an ensemble show,” said Starkey.

The Opera’s board has taken steps to try to ensure a pause doesn’t happen again, including shrinking the board. Mindrum said the board was somewhat unwieldy. The board, he said, now provides more detailed and regular oversight in a variety of places, especially financial. The budget changed, too. It was at $1.9 million and is now a little over $900,000.

“So we shrunk the board, but we’re now in a position where we’re ready to expand it again a bit. We went from a maximum of 45 in our bylaws to a maximum of 35 in our new bylaws. We’re at 23 or 24 right now. We definitely had to sort of narrow before we could broaden again,” he said.

Starkey said it’s a change of philosophy.

“It’s not about how big and bulky can you be. It’s about the nimbleness that you have in your leadership. So size shall represent philosophy and philosophy should represent size. The board has to have a more intimate relationship and understanding of its involvement, and it cannot be just oversight and check the boxes,” said Starkey who moved back to Indiana from Asheville, N.C. in March.

While Mindrum and Starkey believe the temporary suspension was necessary, Mindrum reminds that a pause is never going to be perfect on the other side.

“You feel like you’ve stopped, you’ve done the right things. You’ve taken stock of where you are, you’ve asked the marketplace where you should be going and you put the strategy together. You hired a new director, and you’ve gotten the board reconstituted. Everything is in where you think is the right spot, and then you press “go” and not as much audience comes back as you thought was going to come back. You run into funders who said, ‘I want to see a couple of years of history before I’m going to come back and provide funding.’”

The Opera didn’t have a surplus the first year back and Kevin Patterson, the general director serving both executive and artistic roles, was the “right guy” to get them back on stage. Now with Starkey, Mindrum believes the Opera has the guy who was going to get us to operate within our means.

“He did a great job with Man of La Mancha. We took what had been tracking toward another deficit year and turned it around and broke even in this last fiscal year, and now we’re on track for a solid surplus this year.

My two primary goals as chair were to continue to put on quality productions and operate within our means. That’s really it. And I think that will get us to a place where we’ll continue to build confidence and use this new programming model to develop new audiences, continue to build the education program that is been so strong and really fits nicely with our approach to develop talent, use this building in a better way.”