Grants are a big deal in the non-profit realm these days. Many organizations rely entirely on corporations/foundations/trusts to maintain sustainability. This helps create the environment in which non-profits are currently mired and out of which they must climb if they ever hope to really achieve their vision. Too often non-profits feel that they need to beg and barter for every cent because nobody out in the community cares or wants to donate. Harboring this attitude reflects the belief that you don't really think your cause is worthwhile because, if it were, wouldn't people want to jump on board and help?
I tend to think that this situation happens because non-profits are under staffed and this leads to initiative leaders losing sight of the passion that once brought them into the field. Administrators and capacity builders lose touch with the real effects of what they help build while direct service providers get jaded from the constant inundation of the same problems and issues. This creates an atmosphere thick with a lack of ingenuity and an inability to creativity problem solve. By reuniting members of your non-profit with what made them enter the field in the first place, productivity should rise and a happier workplace is the biggest benefit. This is especially important with direct service providers to youth.
Anyways, grant research isn't always fun. Searching google or grants.gov or the foundation center online is no more exciting than hitting up the nearest library with a funding consortium subscription. However, I have found that writing and editing grants is quite enjoyable - but just for me really. Many people around me find the task boring and very bang-my-head-against-the-wall kind of infuriating. These people probably never enjoy writing anything, may not know how to write effectively or concisely, or feel that, in the end, what was once lost does not equal what you could possibly gain. You are rarely ever assured receipt of a grant. The time you spend on it may not end up paying off with dividends. Though, I would posit that every time you do apply you should at least try to learn something. The more you write the better you get and the more (intelligent) things you read the better you'll write (you can't read romance novels all day and expect to get a grant because you used victorian language and the word 'member' a lot).
I've helped my program apply for two, $1,000 grants so far this year. We received the first one and now the high school dance team has cool uniforms, a foldable storage unit, and another music program to help them create mixes. I have yet to hear back about the second grant, but it could turn into funding for a guitar, bass, and drum set, with all the necessary cords, sticks, and even a microphone, to continue the School of Rock program at McLaughlin Middle School. Yesterday I started working on a Citizen's Bank Champions in Action grant that would actually be quite substantial. If awarded, your non-profit receives $25,000 in unrestricted funding, press coverage, and volunteer support. The deadline is next Friday... oof! The good thing, though, is that I plowed through half of the application yesterday and my boss was pretty amazed. The mere fact that I had answered almost three of the response questions was fantastic to her. I didn't think anything of it because, as a philosophy major, I had to write papers about any number of topics at the drop of a hat. Later today, after one my sustainability subcommittee meetings, I'm meeting with the district's grant writer to go over demographic information that should be included.
Showing posts with label meetings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meetings. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Meetings, meetings, all the time and not a... drop to drink?
Meetings, meetings, all the time and not enough time to think. Right now I'm on several committees. In fact, a good number of committees - some on which I just sit and give my input on occasion and some on which I must have a much more active role. Today at 3:30 the Advisory Committee for the program is scheduled to meet. I have serious doubts about the number of members who will be attending since the committee has utterly no power, means very little, and, it seems to me, was more useless in its current instantiation at the inception of the program. Basically, the only people on it are the principals of the schools in which the program resides. The meeting is at 3:30 in the afternoon so they seldom come. Sometimes a school board member would show up (I've been told), and a couple parents are in attendance per their availability, but I'm not really a big fan of this committee.
Generally, a nonprofit has a board of directors who either work directly in the program or have other jobs and bring their expertise to the table, from various fields, in order to better serve the program given that it is, believed to be, benefiting the community in some way. Such a board has powers over certain things, defined in some charter or something, and they meet regularly to vote on things and make sure the program is running as it should. In the case of the Manchester School District's 21st CCLC... there's basically none of that. The group only meets 4 times a year and I have to make name tags for some reason that people don't want to wear (that's my perception) and that you can't even see anyways once people sit down at the board room table. However, I do think there is some hope for this group if it can be revitalized and new members are taken on and the group actually has some sort of tangible purpose.
The other 21st CCLC committees that I'm on are basically ones for which I recruited all the members. There's the Results committee (which has met 3 times I believe now), the Finance committee (which has met once), the Community Engagement committee (first meeting on Valentine's Day), and the Operations and Management Committee (first meeting scheduled for early March). Generally, the "hey, let's create a legitimate sustainability plan for this program that reflects the conditions and causes inherent in the community that we are looking to address in thoughtful and intentional ways" process would happen with the nonprofit's board. But, since Manchester is out of control crazy and nobody really has time to do much, it was decided, by the Advisory Committee I believe, that there would be separate committees to tackle the varied parts of the path to a plan.
Aside from these I enter into the community and sit on the Weed&Seed Steering Committee, weed and seed is a department of justice, block grant that allows for the increased availability of resources for residents in low-income, high-crime areas (service providers and police). There's also the Violence Prevention Committee which, I believe, has just turned its focus over to bullying as a specific issue to approach. The Makin' It Happen Coalition runs the Dropout Prevention Workgroup that attempts to address issues related to the high dropout rate in Manchester. Apparently the most telling factor of whether or not a student will dropout of high school is whether or not the student passes freshman year. Any student forced to repeat 9th grade has a significantly higher chance of not achieving a high school diploma. I've been to the school district's Multicultural/Diversity Committee once, but I don't think the assistant principal who runs it really liked me being there seeing how he never responded to any of my emails, seemed to fear, with a possibility for a good reason, that I would be reporting confidential information to the greater community, and I've never been placed on the email list for the group.
As a VISTA, I feel, there are some battles you just can't win and it might not serve your greater purpose to really stir the pot as much as would be needed. However, credibility has come at a price for me and there are still several people with whom I interact that I feel do not respect me and perhaps, most humiliatingly, attempt to appease me out of pity or something.
Generally, a nonprofit has a board of directors who either work directly in the program or have other jobs and bring their expertise to the table, from various fields, in order to better serve the program given that it is, believed to be, benefiting the community in some way. Such a board has powers over certain things, defined in some charter or something, and they meet regularly to vote on things and make sure the program is running as it should. In the case of the Manchester School District's 21st CCLC... there's basically none of that. The group only meets 4 times a year and I have to make name tags for some reason that people don't want to wear (that's my perception) and that you can't even see anyways once people sit down at the board room table. However, I do think there is some hope for this group if it can be revitalized and new members are taken on and the group actually has some sort of tangible purpose.
The other 21st CCLC committees that I'm on are basically ones for which I recruited all the members. There's the Results committee (which has met 3 times I believe now), the Finance committee (which has met once), the Community Engagement committee (first meeting on Valentine's Day), and the Operations and Management Committee (first meeting scheduled for early March). Generally, the "hey, let's create a legitimate sustainability plan for this program that reflects the conditions and causes inherent in the community that we are looking to address in thoughtful and intentional ways" process would happen with the nonprofit's board. But, since Manchester is out of control crazy and nobody really has time to do much, it was decided, by the Advisory Committee I believe, that there would be separate committees to tackle the varied parts of the path to a plan.
Aside from these I enter into the community and sit on the Weed&Seed Steering Committee, weed and seed is a department of justice, block grant that allows for the increased availability of resources for residents in low-income, high-crime areas (service providers and police). There's also the Violence Prevention Committee which, I believe, has just turned its focus over to bullying as a specific issue to approach. The Makin' It Happen Coalition runs the Dropout Prevention Workgroup that attempts to address issues related to the high dropout rate in Manchester. Apparently the most telling factor of whether or not a student will dropout of high school is whether or not the student passes freshman year. Any student forced to repeat 9th grade has a significantly higher chance of not achieving a high school diploma. I've been to the school district's Multicultural/Diversity Committee once, but I don't think the assistant principal who runs it really liked me being there seeing how he never responded to any of my emails, seemed to fear, with a possibility for a good reason, that I would be reporting confidential information to the greater community, and I've never been placed on the email list for the group.
As a VISTA, I feel, there are some battles you just can't win and it might not serve your greater purpose to really stir the pot as much as would be needed. However, credibility has come at a price for me and there are still several people with whom I interact that I feel do not respect me and perhaps, most humiliatingly, attempt to appease me out of pity or something.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Getting to a meeting...
So before I could actually meet with people I had to contact them. And, as a lowly VISTA member, this gave me some trepidation. I really wasn't sure how people would receive me and I wasn't sure the best way to actually explain what I was doing (as in, what the hell is a VISTA?). Because of this I turned to the least frightening media outlet available to me - email. It doesn't work for everybody but given how most of the business world believes it is far too busy to do anything other than what is already in their day planner I find that it cuts down on the amount of phone tag. Most people tend to check their email quite regularly as well.
Two of my previous jobs were sales related and that experience has really aided me as a VISTA. I used to sell credit cards for MBNA America (now purchased by Bank of America) and then I sold Cutco Cutlery for Vector Marketing. Selling knives taught me the importance of face to face meetings, you only do demonstrations in the homes of the people to whom you are trying to sell knives, and selling credit cards really taught me how to deal with rejection and making the most of as little time and words as possible. Both professions rely heavily on both scripted material and the ability to personalize conversations and discussions. With all that in mind, I created a protocol for myself.
First I had to figure out what my ultimate goal was. I'm a firm believer that you can't tell a story unless you know where it's going. Starting at the end, then, can make perfect sense. My goal is to get people on my sustainability subcommittees. In order to do that I need to get a face to face meeting with the person - preferably at his or her place of work because the person will be more comfortable. I chose to contact the "soft hits" first - those people already familiar with the program. The following is what I came up with.
Two of my previous jobs were sales related and that experience has really aided me as a VISTA. I used to sell credit cards for MBNA America (now purchased by Bank of America) and then I sold Cutco Cutlery for Vector Marketing. Selling knives taught me the importance of face to face meetings, you only do demonstrations in the homes of the people to whom you are trying to sell knives, and selling credit cards really taught me how to deal with rejection and making the most of as little time and words as possible. Both professions rely heavily on both scripted material and the ability to personalize conversations and discussions. With all that in mind, I created a protocol for myself.
First I had to figure out what my ultimate goal was. I'm a firm believer that you can't tell a story unless you know where it's going. Starting at the end, then, can make perfect sense. My goal is to get people on my sustainability subcommittees. In order to do that I need to get a face to face meeting with the person - preferably at his or her place of work because the person will be more comfortable. I chose to contact the "soft hits" first - those people already familiar with the program. The following is what I came up with.
1) I got out my list and figured out who the partners of the program are – who provides programming/volunteers/space/food/in-kind donations of any kind on some sort of regular basis – could be a non-profit that teaches a class once a month or a company that donates free tee shirts for a specific event once a year. I had compiled this information with the help of my site director.
2) I then wrote up a form to use for the email which I've generalized here:
a. Hi, my name is (your name) and I’m the (position: for example “new AmeriCorps*
3) I waited for a reply. It really shouldn’t be too hard to get to the meeting this way but I would sometimes encounter a question like “well what do you want to talk about?”
a. A good response could look like: “I would like to hear your perception of the program as a (whatever he/she/they are) and discuss the sustainability plan the program will be moving into. As a (something in the community) I feel it is important to get your feedback on things and include you as possible. (recommend a meeting time, day, or span – “is early next week good?”)
I've found that as long as I make things short and don't give too much information people don't really ask questions until the meeting - which is fine because that's what the meeting is about.
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