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Date Wed, 10 Jun 1998 100155 EDT
From RSHawkins@aol.com
Subject Re build-com Re Welcome to Neighborhoods USA Groups
In a message dated 98-05-30 191437 EDT, you write
<< Scott
Perhaps you could expound a little on the concept of "full time staff" for neighborhoods. Just thethought is enough to make many of us delirious.
It is strange to me that neighborhood groups can get along without staff. The Powderhorn ParkNeighborhood Association has five full time staff. They are
1) housing organizer
who assist residents find resources to track and solve vacant housing,assists residents in finding housing resources to assist individual housing needs, brings residents together to organize on housing policy issues, and helps organize rental property owner andneighborhood tenants groups.
2) arts organizer helps organize artists in the neighborhood to use arts to bring attention to neighborhood issues. They host a series of cultural events, a training program to give artists
business skills, and involve neighborhood youth in devloping community
3) Community building organizer who doorknocks for block clubs, supports block clubs to combat crime, organizes community events like the neighborhood rummage sales, flower plantings, litter
pick-ups, and national night out
4) Executive Director (me) Fundraise, administration, I also assist the residents in recruiting new businesses, edit our newsletter, help keep the board up on all general policy issues we
should be undertaking
5) Office Manager who also doubles as the organizer on Park issues and is working to increase our volunteer recruitment and management systems.
Although we have staff, neighborhood residents are still the core. About 150 people volunteer each month on organizing projects and help set our calander and programs. Another 100 people
volunteer for events or one time projects.
Our budget is around $500,000 mostly from governement sources but increasingly from foundations and individuals. In 1998 about $30,000 will come from neighborhood residents from a variety of
events and projects.
Powderhorn neighborhood is about 7,700 people and 3,500 households with an average household income of about $22,000 and 1/3 people of color.
In Minneapolis many neighborhood groups have staff. Much came from a 1990 city program that is investing lots of capital money in neighborhoods with neighborhood associations able to tap into
some of that money for operations.
The program is due to end shortly and we are all worried.
Hope this helps
Scott Hawkins,Powdehorn Park Neighborhood Association
check out our in progress web page at www.mtn.org/~ppna
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Date Wed, 10 Jun 1998 115312 -0500
From CAFE <cafe@my-company.com>
Subject Re build-com Re Welcome to Neighborhoods USA Groups
Scott
I am really interested in hearing more about the $30,000 you raise from residents and events.
Do you do solicitation mailings? How do you reach donors? What types of events do you do? We have on large annual event, and are looking into doing a special event that would raise money. I would love to hear how you have reached $30,000, and any suggestions/tips/etc. you have.
Thanks!
Anne-Marie Predovich
Resource Development Director
Community Alliance of the Far Eastside, Inc. (CAFE)
cafe@my-company.com
(317) 890-3288
(317) 898-4397 FAX
------------------------------ Date Thu, 11 Jun 1998 093628 EDT
Scott Hawkins, Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association Minneapolis 29648
Subject build-com Raising $$ From Residents
Two years ago, as we started reading tea leaves about government funding, our board wanted to create a culture of giving to our
organization. After talking to many of their neighbors we found two main reasons that people did not give us money. 1) People do not think we need it since we get some government funding 2) People said we never
asked them for donations. To address the first point we started including articles in our newsletter mentioning the limitations of government funding (ie we can not buy refreshments for meetings).
At all our monthly meetings we actively talked about the need to diversify our funding including the idea that individual donations assist our ability to raise significant foundation
dollars. This helped people believe that their $25 donation really helped our $300,000 to $400,000 budget. We also included more people (about 200 this year) in developing our budget and asked everyone to think
creatively about how to raise money from inside the neighborhood After a year of the education campaign we started asking for donations. We ask often and at every opportunity. We send hand written thank you notes to
everyone who gives a check, and of course, we keep track of names and donation amounts.
Our programs are still new and I do not know if the sudden increase in giving can be sustained but I have yet to hear of any complaints. For 1998, we have the following plan to raise money
from inside the neighborhood
1) pass the hat at about 25 neighborhood events/ large meetings $4,000.
2) Vendor fees and donation cans at our big street festival $3,000
3) Donation jars at neighborhood businesses for our 4th of July $4,000 These cans are around for a month and circulated after the fireworks
4) Participation fees for holiday arts sale, Campout and Rumage Sale $2,500
5) Direct mail campaign to about 1,000 volunteers and board friends $3,500
6) Participate in a large walking event $2,500
7) T-Shirts, posters, books sales (designed by neighborhood artists) $6,000.
8) Random donations that just show up because we ask so much $2,000 We have done this without too much complaining in the neighborhood. In fact I have been surprised how often people
contribute to our donation jars and the number of residents that have contributed over $100 at a time. We even have five residents that have given over $250 each since last fall. If you don't ask you'll never know
what you can raise internally. We have also found that foundations are more apt to give when they see that residents support you financially. However, I have yet to find a good challenge grant to match donations
over a specific period of time. Hope this all helps give you all ideas. I would enjoy hearing what everyone else does to raise money from residents.
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Mike Hodge, Neighborhood Resource Center Nashville, TN
I'm amazed. In my experience in the south, it's a little unusual for a neighborhood group to have staff. However, it's absolutely unheard of for a group to have THAT much staff. I've helped
start neighborhood groups that went on to have one or sometimes two staff people. One group here has expanded to have about 4 staff, but they are dealing heavily with affordable housing, training programs for
welfare recipients, and running a community center. In many ways, they have become a Community development Corporation that is also a neighborhood group. All this reminds me of several threads of discussion on this
list or in other areas Can you do development AND organizing on issues? Can you really be independent and have a major part of your funding coming from the city government? Please understand, I'm not critiquing
anybody for being successful in attracting money to neighborhood work -- I think it's great!
But two thoughts keep nagging in the back of my mind (1) Don't put all your eggs in one basket (overworked but true); (2) "Low overhead equals high independence." (Saul Alinsky). I
suppose I'm responding because these thoughts are nagging at me regarding my own work in several ways. For example, we are also dependent on one funder (United Way) and that makes me nervous. In any case, thanks for
contributing to the discussion.
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Date Fri, 12 Jun 1998 123216 -0500 From "saramoor" Subject Re build-com Re Staff for Neighborhood Groups
Mike, Hi! This is Sara Moore with the City of Little Rock. Our CDCs have been in operation a few years and are only now reaching the stage of getting staff. To my knowledge none of our
neighborhood associations have staff. Aside from assuring you that I agree with your assessment of the need for staff, the point I would like to make is that non-profits or neighborhood associations must first gain
the capacity to implement projects of their choice (project selection, funding, development, management, etc.) before they have the capacity to hire, train, and oversee staff. I think any manager will agree that it
takes as much capacity, time and effort to manage staff as it does to develop projects. To provide staff to a new organization is doing a disservice to them since they never gain in capacity to effect change in
their neighborhood. They are still reliant on others to make things happen, and that is if they happen to have the good fortune to hire competent staff. - ---------- >
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Ed Schwartz, Institute for the Study of Civic Values, Philadelphia
In light of the exchange on fund-raising for neighborhood organizations, the following story--sort of buried on the business page of the Philadelphia Inquirer--deserves attention. The
PewMemorial Trust, located here in Philadelphia, is one of the country's largest foundations.
Small nonprofit agencies fear becoming extinct
At the Pew Charitable Trusts seminar, speakers were concerned about the strength of for-profit firms.
By Karl Stark
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
When the Pew Charitable Trusts gathered together executives from more than 100 loca nonprofit agencies yesterday, it wasn't the usual pleasantries that got everybody's attention.
It was the tough talk. Several speakers said that nonprofits are an endangered species. For-profit firms are increasingly cutting into traditional nonprofit areas such as mental retardation
care or operating drug and alcohol centers. For-profits are building prisons and even running welfare programs in some states.
Corporate giants such as Lockheed Martin are competing for welfare reform contracts in Florida.
Small agencies with several million dollars in revenues and only one or two large contracts could one day find their social mission snatched by a deep-pocketed for-profit, said the speakers.
"We believe the days of the small, local nonprofit are coming to an end," said speaker Michael Guard, a former investment banker and now a managing director of Nashville-based
SunTrust Equitable Securities Corp., which advises nonprofits on mergers, acquisitions and money-raising.
"Size matters."
Size, of course, isn't everything. But the Pew-sponsored seminar yesterday morning at the Holiday Inn on Market Street underscored the risk and opportunities many smaller agencies are facing.
They may have to affiliate, merge or be acquired to flourish, said Lawrence L.Martin, director of the Social Administration program at Columbia University's School of Social Work. All
nonprofits are increasingly having to show measurable results, he said, not just financial efficiency.
In this Darwinian struggle, nonprofits can't rely on consumers choosing them for their tax-free status. Customers don't often appreciate the distinction, said William P. Ryan, a Cambridge,
Mass.- based consultant to nonprofits.
The aggressive expansion of for-profits into social services has been more prevalent in the South and West. But it's coming to the Northeast, Martin said.
Government is a main driver of this trend. Many people think the era of big government is over, but expenditures are still rising -- and even booming in some segments.Welfare reform -- the
business of getting people off the dole -- has become a $21-billion-a-yea business, Ryan said. Total government spending for mental retardation reached more than $20 billion in 1996, and is expected to hit $25
billion by 2010 -- up from $5 billion in 1977, Guard said.
Companies that build prisons and work in juvenile justice are suddenly Wall Street darlings with access to dramatic amounts of capital -- a clear advantage over nonprofits, Guard said.
The numbers of the mentally retarded and incarcerated juveniles are both rising sharply, heightening interest in such stocks as Cornell Corrections, Youth Services International, and Res-Care
Inc., Guard said.
Asked what nonprofit executives should take from all this, Frazierita D. Klasen, program officer for the Pew Fund for Health and Human Services, said each agency needed to assess its own
situation.
"Business as usual may not be appropriate," she said. "The world is changing. [Nonprofits should ask themselves ] 'How do we need to change to adapt?' "
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DateMon, 10 Aug 1998 155341 -0400
FromAlida Baker <ctac@city-net.com>
Subjectoperating support for CDCs
The City of Pittsburgh is interested to learn if and how other cities
provide direct financial support for the operation (staffing and
overhead) of community development
corporations (CDCs). Do other cities do this? If they do provide operating support, what type of work plan
ctivities are eligible? What is the application process? Who may apply? How are they
evaluated? If not, what other kinds of support and technical assistance is provided to CDCs. Is this support more than project financing? Some background information on Pittsburgh
Since the mid-1980's, the City has funded CDCs (as many as 30 in any given year) that pursue real estate development, or facilitate real estate development through planning, marketing,
and equity participation. The City provides this support through two separate funds, both of which have strict eligibility issues due to the source of
funds. Only community economic development activities may be funded, not public service, organizing and advocacy. The two funds are
1. PPND Pittsburgh Partnership for
Neighborhood Development (PPND), which distributes funds from the City, and the foundation and corporate community, has historically funded 10 fairly sophisticated CDCs. PPND applications are by
invitation only. Awards, based on performance, may vary each year. Recently, however, PPND has redesigned its grant
guidelines and will no longer fund operating support. Instead they will fund services such as real estate development, workforce development and so on. PPND has requested that the City distribute and administer its own funds.
2.
ACCBOAn advisory commission to the Director of the Department of City Planning distributes funds to the remaining 15 to 20 CDCs, through an annual competitive application process. The federal CDBG program is the sole source of ACCBO funds. The changes at PPND have inspired the City to take a comprehensive look at the way they, and other cities, provide support to local CDCs. ------------------------------
DateWed, 12 Aug 1998 174653 -0500
From"saramoor" <saramoor@alltel.net>
SubjectReoperating support for CDCs
The City of Little Rock, AR has been going through a similar evaluation process to determine the best method of providing financial support to
CDCs. Little Rock currently has only a few CDCs, some with more capacity than others, but they are growing in number every day. Because of our limited financial resources (virtually all affordable housing is undertaken by the City, CDCs, or non-profit special needs housing providers using CDBG and HOME funds), the City does not have sufficient funds to distribute financial support (competively or non-competively) in any amounts meaningful enough to be useful. The City has taken the position, like Pittsburgh, that when CDCs production levels become satisfactory, the City will try to identify and distribute funds for operational support. At present, the CDCs are not producing substantial numbers of single-family housing and the multi-family CDC housing developers have been successful in operating with developers fees earned on the completed projects.
Hope this information is useful. I would be interested to know of other comments you receive and any innovative ways identified to locate operating
funds aside from scarce and shrinking entitlement funds.
Sara Moore
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