The Community Foundation is pleased to share the following information to help strengthen your organization and our local nonprofit sector. Please note the survey is to be completed by nonprofit executives and Board members:

Third Sector New England is launching a new study on the state of nonprofit leadership.

The survey is designed for executive directors and board members to:
• help investigate your current challenges
• discover where your organization is headed
• document what your organization needs to move forward

The executive director survey will take approximately 40 minutes and the board survey will take about 30 minutes. Both surveys are divided into sections that focus on you, the organization, leadership support needs, the board and the staff.

Your participation is critical so that the needs and opportunities of our local nonprofit community are understood. Results and recommendations from the survey will be discussed at a local forum in 2015.

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO TAKE THE SURVEY:
http://j.mp/1yveHer

The magic is back!   New Haven's magicians bring magic to the Elm City for the 8th year.

All shows are free and open to the public

Saturday 10/25/2014 2:00 pm

Cyril the Sorcerer presents "Escape from the Goblins"
Main Branch, New Haven Free Public Library

133 Elm Street 

203-946-8130

Sunday 10/26/2014 3:00 and 4:00 pm

Cyril the Sorcerer presents "Fair Trade Magic"

Ten Thousand Villages

1054 Chapel Street

203-776-0854

Tuesday 10/28/14 5:30 pm

Cyril the Sorcerer presents "Escape from the Goblins"

Wilson Branch, New Haven Free Public Library

303 Washington Avenue

203-946-2228

Wednesday 10/29/2014 4:30 pm

The Amazing Andy

Mitchell Branch, New Haven Free Public Library

37 Harrison Street

203-946-8117

Wednesday 10/29/2014 6:00 pm

The Amazing Andy

Stetson Branch, New Haven Free Public Library

200 Dixwell Avenue

203-946-8119

Thursday 10/30/2014 5:30 pm

Fair Haven Branch, New Haven Free Public Library

"Magic Moments with Bryan Lizotte"

182 Grand Avenue

203-946-8115

Friday 10/31/2014 11:00 am - 2:00 pm

Cyril the Sorcerer will be performing strolling magic

The Hill Farmers' Market

CMHC parking lot, 34 Park Street (corner of Park & South Streets)

203-773-3736

Magic Week New Haven

is in its 8th year!   As part of a new and growing tradition among magicians, New Haven's magicians bring magic shows to the public during the last 7 days of October.   This not only honors the art of magic at a magical time of year, but also honors the life and memory of Harry Houdini.  Houdini passed away on Halloween 1926.  

Magic Week New Haven

is brought to you by the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, Ring 59.   Those with a sincere interest in the magical arts are welcome to learn more about learning and performing magic!   203-737-0475 / cyril.may@aya.yale.edu /www.ibmring59.com

Magic in New Haven

For more information on magic in the New Haven area visit www.magicnewhaven.com

"Magic, by its ability to capture the imagination, can change the world." 

- Cyril the Sorcerer

For more information contact:

CJ May - Resourcerer

Cyril the Sorcerer

Greening the Planet One Magic Show at a Time

www.betterworldmagic.com

www.cyrilthesorcerer.com

203-737-0475

The annual "Women on Boards" is out and the dissapointing findings about Philadelphia area publicly traded companies and nonprofit boards include learning that:

Nearly four in 10 - 39 percent - of top executive positions at 18 area colleges are held by women. Yet women make up only 14 percent of executive ranks at public companies.

At public companies, females fill 12 percent of the board seats, but they more than double that - at 26 percent - at 17 of the region's health care systems.

All of the nonprofits examined by the forum have women on boards and among the top executives. By contrast, there are 21 public companies among the region's top 100 that have no women in any top spot.

In discussing the findings, the organizer noted:

You wonder what it would take to have organizations wake up to the fact that they need the talent and perspective women bring. Women constitute half the workforce. It continues to be frustrating and a bit shocking."

Schick, who serves on several nonprofit boards, says there's no difference in the skills needed to lead large organizations - profit or nonprofit.

In both cases, she said, "you have to have vision and articulate it, and then you have to organize a team and execute it.

"You look at some nonprofit boards that don't pay attention to the finances of [their organization] and that's a mistake," she said. "And you look at for-profit [firms] that don't pay as close attention to their mission, and that's a mistake as well."

The lesson from this Philly.com article should be clear: there is more to be lost than gained when excluding "difference" on board.  But, difference is not the singular factor that makes an effective board.  A nonprofit has needs and the best board member uses their lens for perspective while honing their skills and experience to ensure that the fiduciary and strategic needs are addressed effectively.

FISH OF GREATER NEW HAVEN, INC.
for immediate release
October 15, 2014

FISH of Greater New Haven, Inc., is currently recruiting new members to serve on its Board of Directors.  Ideal candidates will be self-motivated team-players with a strong sense of civic responsibility and a commitment to serving the community.

FISH of Greater New Haven is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit food pantry, delivering groceries and foodstuffs to low- and no-income households in New Haven, Connecticut.  FISH is the only food pantry in the area that delivers directly to clients’ doors and is staffed almost entirely by volunteers.  Additional information can be found at fishofgreaternewhaven.org.

Responsibilities:

1. Help establish a clear organizational mission and purpose.
2. Oversee the organization’s Executive Director.
3. Approve the organization’s programs and services.
4. Attend monthly Board meetings.
5. Assume a leadership role on behalf of the organization.
6. Participate in standing or ad-hoc committees.
7. Support fundraising efforts.
8. Ensure sound financial management and stability.
9. Assume shared fiduciary and legal responsibilities for organization.
10. Establish standards for organizational performance and hold organization accountable.
11. Serve occasionally as a representative on behalf of the organization and as an ambassador to the community.

Qualifications:

1. A passion for serving those in need.
2. A strong sense of responsibility and community leadership.
3. A desire and willingness to learn and investigate how best to serve the community.
4. An eagerness to implement change when needed.
5. An ability to work as part of team.
6. Flexibility, creativity, energy, and vision.
7. Spare time to commit to and take on the above responsibilities.

Interested?  Please submit a brief cover letter and résumé via email to Steve Werlin (swerlin@fishofgreaternewhaven.org).

FISH of Greater New Haven, Inc., does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, or unfavorable discharge from military service.  We especially encourage those from underrepresented groups to apply, as we embrace the notion that diversity of voice is essential to sound governance.

The decision by Susan B. Komen For the Cure to accept a pretty large (by most nonprofit standards) gift from an oil fracking company appears to be creating for other nonprofits a stir akin to drilling teeth. You can read a "bit" about the issues here.

Included among the "issues":

a) tainted money -- when is it tainted and when/if should a nonprofit not accept such resources

b) public perception - when/if should a nonprofit respond to the "noise"

c) board position -- is this not a nonprofit board decision to determine what and when money is tainted

d) the losses or gains to the donor - can they lose from the fall-out

So many questions but interestingly, Komen in particular does not appear to be feeding the frenzy which I am guessing is certainly one answer to b) what to do with public perception. Certainly, no response means that the argument must be carried by those who object which in itself dims the bling of the story.

I'm guessing also that in taking the gift, the Komen board, not a stranger to controversy, has indeed already set in policy when it believes money is acceptable. Afteral, I could imagine the board recognizing another convert to the cause as a victory.

And, for the donor, the chatter is mostly coming from those who don't approve of them anyway and their shareholders, who already approve of the company's work, can be cheerful about the commitment to attacking breast cancer, in this case.

So, in the end, hasn't everyone just succeeded in pursuing their respective missions? Isn't this basically a win:win:win outcome? The fracking company has contributed to what it believes to be an appropriate cause (I mean really, anti-breast cancer and education in a way few other organizations can copy). The tainted money folks have gotten to use the opportunity to discuss the related risks and anti-environment issues. And Komen gets to pursue its work. Oh, and the media has a gossip story.

Kudos to all the players!

Follow this link to see video and pictures of the launch event of New Haven's My Brother's Keeper initiative by Ficklin Media.

http://tomficklin.blogspot.com/2014/10/ficklin-media-city-of-new-haven-my.html

Many find sports to be a good source for life lessons and so I found the following interview in the Washington Post and by Howard C. Fero, the co-author of “Lead Me Out to the Ballgame: Stories and Strategies to Develop Major League Leadership” and an executive coach and director of graduate leadership programs at Albertus Magnus College in Connecticut quite useful and pertinent for the many folks who serve as the chair of their nonprofit board. Fero spoke with Tom Fox, a guest writer for On Leadership and vice president for leadership and innovation at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. Fox also heads up their Center for Government Leadership.

Fero describes his leadership model as follows:

We came up with 10 dimensions (or bases) of leadership after interviewing more than 100 Major League Baseball managers, players and executives. The first base is find your passion. As a leader, you need to show everybody else how excited and enthusiastic you are about whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish. The second base is leading by example. The next base deals with respect and trust. You have to generate trust and respect from the people on your team and also you have to be able to give it back. The fourth base is know your people, whether it’s the utility player, the person who works in the back office or the star salesperson — and know what it is that drives each one of them. The other bases are cultivating relationships, supporting your people, communication, knowing your game, fostering teamwork and creating a winning culture.

I do like these dimensions with passion and leading by example (numbers one and two) perfectly applicable to nonprofit board chairs. Is it not often that the path to selecting a chair is demonstrated passion and pursuit of that passion? Certainly respect and trust, while I'm not sure they would have been third for me, rank very highly and again, passively or actively, represent criteria I would observe as essential to the board members who choose their chair.

And, while I would like to think that chairs do know their people, (this is akin of course to Jim Collins' getting the right people on the bus), I believe chairs could do a lot more with this area. And with the remaining six "dimensions" absolutely, again, not necessarily in this order, but I believe all six dimensions to be essential to being an effective chair.

Good stuff!

Makayla is a shy, sweet two year old who loves to learn. “She likes to play tea party and read books,” her mother Katina tells me. “She’ll copy anything you say.” A few months ago, Katina and Makayla’s father Jeremy contacted All Our Kin about enrolling her in an Early Head Start (EHS) program. Katina had been staying home with her daughter for the first few years of her life, but now she wanted to go back to school. Were there any open spots for Makayla?

A grandmother’s legacy

Although it was Makayla’s first time enrolling in a child care program and she doesn’t have any older siblings, her parents Katina and Jeremy were already familiar with All Our Kin’s work. Jeremy’s mother Elizabeth Fain had been a beloved family child care provider in All Our Kin’s network until her death in 2013 after a long battle with cancer. Ms. Fain participated in All Our Kin’s associate credential classes and the New Teacher Mentor program, and when our Early Head Start program got off the ground, she was one of the first providers to apply. “Even though she knew that Early Head Start had high standards and required a big commitment, she was determined to give kids the best start possible,” said Paula, All Our Kin’s senior educational consultant. “She worked tirelessly; she always went the extra mile.”

Ms. Fain was a source of wisdom and guidance for many in her community. Other providers looked to her for advice on running their own child care programs, and parents relied on her whenever they had questions about their children’s health and development. “We all admired her completely at All Our Kin,” Paula told me. “She taught the kids in her program to be good listeners, respectful, ready for school. She was a kind, wonderful person.”

To continue reading, click here.

Good Day To All!!!!!

Just a quick reminder - the cemetery in the autumn is just a splendor to view. To take a lovely stroll around and breath in the fresh cool breezes and admiring the array of colors is just wonderful.

Public Tours will still be given until the end of November - if you would like a private tour please call me at 203.389.5303 or email at p.b.i.newhaven@att.net.

All the very best,

Patricia Illingworth

Chief Docent 

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has introduced to the ALS board a challenge: more money that it dreamed of. Now, the board must, in accordance with its fiduciary duty of care, determine by policy or strategy, what it must do with its newfound wealth.

I believe that the Wall Street Journal did a fine job describing the choices unexpected prosperity introduces.

As far as challenges go, too much cash is a good one to have. But small organizations that land big money face a host of pitfalls, say charity watchdogs and management researchers. Those who ramp up hiring too quickly or spend the new funds without a clear strategy can risk their long-term financial health. And a rush of capital brings new stakeholders and higher scrutiny, ratcheting up expectations and putting a premium on communication and transparency. That is especially true when negative news can travel just as fast as ice-bucket challenges.

In August, Facebook FB -0.13% feeds were filled with people dumping buckets of ice water over their heads, and challenging others to do the same, or else donate to an ALS charity. Many people did both. The level of participation in the Ice Bucket Challenge has been staggering to charity watchers, not least the ALS Association itself, which didn't originate the challenge, but was the chief beneficiary of its popularity.

"It just became craziness. Good craziness, but craziness," said Barbara Newhouse, president and chief executive of the ALS Association since June, of the flood of financing. Revenues last fiscal year for the ALS Association's national office and its 38 affiliated chapters around the country were $64 million, far less than this summer's haul.

Such a large influx of cash can easily overwhelm an organization, said Ken Berger, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, which rates charities on their financial health, accountability and transparency. The jump in wealth often casts a brighter spotlight on the organization and tests the experience of the management, he said.

It can also bring conflicting opinions about how to spend it. Poetry Magazine in 2002 received some $200 million from an heiress to the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune. At the time the literary magazine had an annual budget of less than $500,000. Several years after the gift, the Poetry Foundation, which was set up to help manage the donation, faced board discord over the future of the organization, such as investment in a new website, with several trustees resigning.

Today the foundation has an annual operating budget of more than $9 million and the group's $21.5 million new headquarters opened in Chicago in 2011. Caren Skoulas, its chief financial officer, said that the group's board and staff have been committed to using the gift to bringing poetry to a wide audience, including a website that now reaches 36 million visitors a year.

Management experts recommend taking time to create a strategic plan before rushing into spending or hiring, especially for groups that don't face the urgent time clock of a disaster-relief charity.

The ALS Association's goal is to spend the money carefully, not just quickly. "The possibility of spending $100 million by end of January [the firm's end of fiscal year] is slim to none," said Carrie Munk, the group's chief communications and marketing officer.

Because the annual budget, which includes staffing, requires approval from the group's 23-member board, the ALS Association has relied on a handful of temps and a crew of volunteers from a senior center to help handle call volume and donations. Some of the nonprofit's 54 staffers have been pulling 14-hour days and working on weekends, according to Ms. Munk and Ms. Newhouse, who count themselves among those ranks.

Even before the Ice Bucket Challenge went viral, the association's board had planned to meet in Denver in October to plan for next fiscal year. But given the extra work the group now faces allocating the funds, it set up an extra teleconference on Monday to get a head start formulating a plan. Out of last year's budget, 32% went to education and public policy, 28% to research, 19% to patient services and 21% to fundraising and administration, a breakdown lauded by charity watchdog groups.

Meanwhile, it is important to let donors know what's going on, said Thad Calabrese, assistant professor of public and nonprofit financial management at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Press releases and direct outreach will help maintain ties with contributors and spur them to keep giving, he said.

Once the ice-bucket effort started picking up steam, the group very quickly created an ice-bucket information site on its main website, with lots of details and press releases. It also deployed its social-media manager to help defuse false information about its operations on Facebook and other sites, since there were various rumors circulating around about the group's operations.

Many donors were outraged after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the American Red Cross received over a billion dollars in donations for immediate disaster relief but diverted some funds for future reserves and other operational needs.

A Red Cross representative said all of the 9/11 funds have been spent, including $700 million in the first year, and provided relief to more than 59,000 families. The group now is rated highly by Charity Navigator on "accountability and transparency."

Lessons to be remembered if your nonprofit board is so challenged.

I frequently hear nonprofit board members express their frustration about their inability to attract new and maybe even different kinds of prospects to become board members. True, they may not actually have a recruitment plan and they don't have a governance committee whose job it might be to think very intentionally about what needs the board has and where individuals might be identified and wooed to joing and they may not even have opportunities for prospective board members to lend their skills and acquire an interest in being a board member (like working on a task force or volunteering) but all of these "lacks" doesn't mean the frustration isn't real.

Businesses apparently have their own challenges in recruiting new and younger talent (and I think "talent" is a good word to describe what nonprofit boards might be looking for) that's. A September 2, 2104 Wall Street Journal article indicated that some businesses are using charitable programs as recruitment tools. With millenials (1980-1995) as the target, the Journal states:

CFOs are finding that giving away money, time and products to charitable causes is a good way to attract young talent. Charitable programs, they say, can help lure job candidates away from high-tech startups with potentially lucrative stock options, and other socially minded entrepreneurs. At the same time, millennial workers and social media are forcing companies to rethink how and what they donate.

The shift in millennial thinking accelerated during the financial crisis. Companies fired thousands of workers and did meager college recruiting, which pushed many graduates to become entrepreneurs. Though the economy has recovered, that trend hasn’t reversed, according to Fiona Murray, associate dean at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Innovation Initiative.

“It challenges employers. When they recruit they have to have a very different message for our students,” Ms. Murray said.“We now see the world’s problems up close. There is a sense of impatience and a sense that we have a lot of tools at our disposal—not just software, but also hardware and access to funding through crowdfunding. They will build their own organization or work for an operation that is impacting the world.

Philanthropy is important to many nonmillennials too. Carolynne Borders, 43, said her desire to help underserved communities was “a big factor” in her decision almost two years ago to join Henry Schein Inc., a health-care and dental products and services company, which donates $10 million a year in cash, products and services.

The takeaway? Nonprofit boards that truly seek to attract "new and different" individuals to their boards to help ensure mission is accomplished, should first be clear about exactly what its needs are and equally important, utilize the basic marketing principle: know what your prospect wants and needs and offer that to them. Additionally, as this article suggests but does not specify, board service could well be the opportunity where corporate employees can gain experience, make a contribution of their time and energy and knowledge, and link a business closer to that nonprofit: win, win, win.

ChildSight® Connecticut is a school-based vision screening- eyeglass distribution program, which has been providing services to students within the New Haven schools since 2000.   Since our launch, we have received generous support from a local church through office space.  The church has provided our program with administrative space either as a donation ( free) or at a rate less than market value.  This has allowed our program to direct our resources to eye glasses for students as oppose to rent.  We are a locally supported program through the grants that we receive from community, family and/or corporate foundations.  

Recently, the rental fee for our space at the church as increased dramatically and while it is still less than market value- it is a great deal more than what we have budgeted for in our current grants.  This has led us to seek alternative space to support our ongoing work in the New Haven Schools. 

Please direct any suggestions or leads for office space to nprail@hki.org.

Thank you.

Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity Awarded to 7 Students for Projects Involving Science, Health, Education, the Arts, and Social Action; 

Honorable Mention to 8

Next Deadline for Applications April 30, 2015

New Haven, CT (September 4, 2014)- The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the region’s largest grantmaker and charitable endowment, announces the winners of the Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity.

A total of $84,000 in college scholarships (payable over four years of college) was awarded this year to six high school students and one college freshman who came up with distinctive solutions faced by their schools, their communities and the world. In addition a total of $4,000 was awarded to six high school students and two college freshmen receiving honorable mentions.  

A large number of extraordinary applications were received this year. While each application submitted for consideration highlighted a creative project, scholarships were awarded to the candidates who demonstrated the greatest innovation and whose projects had the greatest potential impact.  

The winners and honorable mentions were recognized for projects involving science, the arts and social action. All completed (or are currently enrolled in) high school in Connecticut or the New York metropolitan area or will be attending (or are currently attending) a college in Connecticut or the New York metropolitan area. 

The Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity was established in 2003 at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven by the Reneé B. Fisher Foundation. This scholarship is not a traditional scholarship focused on rewarding academic achievement. Its specific goal is to reward and encourage innovative and creative problem solving. Financial need does not affect the judges’ decision about winning projects, but it does determine the amount of funds the winners of the four-year scholarship receive each year. High school juniors and seniors and college freshmen from Connecticut and the New York metropolitan area are eligible to apply, along with students from elsewhere who plan to attend colleges in the New York metropolitan area or Connecticut. The application deadline for 2015 is April 30th.

Applications and a complete of set of guidelines are available at www.rbffoundation.org. Applicants may apply online, but transcripts and letters of recommendation should be submitted in hard copy.  Further information about applying may be obtained by calling Jermell Knotts, Administrative Associate at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven at 203-777-7084.

Milton Fisher, born and educated in New York City, was a Connecticut resident from 1960 until his death in 2001. He was an attorney and an investment banker who also taught a unique course for adults called "Applied Creativity" for over 25 years. His deep interest in the roots of creativity, and the many the exercises he developed to help people become more innovative and creative in their lives also led him to write the book Intuition: How to Use it in your Life, which has been translated into several languages. Fisher also served on the boards of several public companies and wrote two books about Wall Street. 

Thanks to the generosity of three generations of donors, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven awarded $21 million in grants and distributions in 2013 from an endowment of approximately $430 million and comprising hundreds of individually named funds. In addition to its grant-making, The Community Foundation helps build a stronger community by taking measures to improve student achievement, reduce New Haven’s infant mortality rate, promote local philanthropy through www.giveGreater.org^® and encourage community awareness at www.cfgnh.org/learn. The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s 20 town service area includes: Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven, Woodbridge. For more information about The Community Foundation, visit www.cfgnh.org, find us on Facebook at www.facebook.org/cfgnh or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cfgnh. 

2014 Winners

Paige Alenick (Woodcliff Lake, NJ): Aware of the fact that poor oral health leads to a range of serious medical problems that negatively impact the lives of more people around the world than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, Paige created an organization to address this problem one toothbrush at a time. “Donate-a-Toothbrush” has collected donations of over 101,000 new toothbrushes from individuals and manufacturers that have been distributed by an NGO to over 60 countries. She is a freshman at New York University, where she plans to major in Cognitive Science.

Devin Gund (Ridgefield, Connecticut): Hurricanes and storms frequently cripple power lines and halt communication in Devin’s hometown, leaving students and their families literally in the dark about emergency measures and scheduling changes. Devin used his passion for programming to create a mobile application for the school system that provides families with a constant link to emergency alerts. The app he designed also provides access to teacher websites, student and sports schedules, grades, attendance, and homework, in addition to providing notifications of alerts and closings for every school. The software company he created is customizing the app for other school systems around the country. He is a recent graduate of Ridgefield High School and plans to study Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Janine Kerr (Danbury, CT): When Zebra Mussels began invading lakes in Connecticut, causing negative environmental and economic consequences, Janine was concerned, since the only method of controlling the infestation involved putting environmentally dangerous chemicals into the water. The independent research she undertook made her aware of a kind of sponge found off the coast of Indonesia on which mollusks didn’t grow, despite the fact that they grew on coral reefs and other sponges all around them. Janine designed a controlled experiment to test whether a chemical derived from the mollusk-free sponge could inhibit mollusk growth in Connecticut waters; she designed another experiment to determine whether the chemical was environmentally safe. Her positive results could serve as the basis for a plan to rid Connecticut lakes of this invasive species. A senior at Danbury High School, she plans to study Environmental Management in college.

Angus MacMullen (New Haven, CT): How do you get ten- to fourteen-year-olds excited about learning electronic circuitry? Angus met this challenge by designing a class at the Eli Whitney Museum around a creative project that captured their imaginations: building a simple modular analog synthesizer whose components could be randomly connected and knobs turned at whim to create some “wonderfully annoying sound effects.” He is a recent graduate of Hopkins School, and plans to study Electrical Engineering at MIT. 

Eve McNally (San Mateo, CA): As she walked home from school on a sunny California afternoon, Eve was struck by all the oranges and lemons lying in people’s yards, at the base of the trees from which they had fallen; she knew that much of this surplus fruit—more than the families could consume—would simply rot. She also knew first-hand how scarce fresh produce was at local food pantries. Eve founded “Picking for Hunger” to match people whose trees produced more fruit than they needed with high school students who would pick the fruit before it spoiled and deliver it to local food pantries. The idea took off and is spreading to other schools. A senior at Aragon High School, Eve has not decided yet on what her major in college will be.

Matthew O’Connell (Commack, NY): How does one communicate proper instructions for taking a medication to people who do not speak the language of the prescriber, or who are illiterate, visually-impaired or hearing-impaired? Matthew combined his interests in computer science, health, and medicine to address this problem. He developed an innovative computer program that utilizes translations, audio instruction, and pictograms to better relay medication instructions. The International Pharmaceutical Federation has put a link to it on their website, and hundreds of prescribers around the world have used it. A senior at Commack High School, Matthew plans to major in Software Engineering in college.

Brook Peters (New York, NY): Brook’s second day of kindergarten was in a school located near the Twin Towers on 9/11. Ten years later, he shot, edited and produced a compelling and creative film that conveyed with immediacy and sensitivity what it felt like for his peers and their teachers to bear witness to that awful chapter of history. He also shot, edited and produced a series of sensitive documentaries about veterans. All of his films inspire people to appreciate the resilience of which they are capable. A high school senior, he is undecided about what his college major will be.

Honorable Mentions

Ahmed Abdelqader (Brooklyn, NY):  While in high school, Ahmed recognized that many middle-school children are often scared of math or convinced that they are “bad at it.” To spark children’s interest in math, he and a friend created “MathMatters!”—a program in which high school students design creative lesson plans that introduce middle-school students to Game Theory, Graph Theory, and Combinatorics in simple, enjoyable and easy-to-understand ways. The program has spread to several middle schools in Brooklyn, and Ahmed continues to develop it while studying Electrical Engineering at City College of New York.

Saliyah George (Brooklyn, NY): Do Brooklyn establishments have sufficient accommodations for the disabled? Saliyah set out to find out by conducting a community-based, participatory research project entitled “Barrier Busters,” in which she developed an assessment tool listing some 20 accommodations that establishments should offer people with disabilities and rated over 60 local businesses. Her presentations about what she found have helped raise awareness about health disparities in her community. A recent graduate of Nazareth Regional High School, she plans to major in Public Health at Franklin and Marshall College.

Razieme Iborra (Masillon, Ohio): Razieme wanted to use her passion for filmmaking and editing to help teenagers in foster care deal with the challenges that they face. In consultation with a therapist, she developed “The Action/Cut Project,” a ten-week-long film program exposing teenagers at a local center for teens in foster care to all aspects of filmmaking. The young filmmakers found the opportunity to create films about their lives empowering and therapeutic. A recent graduate of Perry High School, she plans to study film and television at Tisch School for the Arts at NYU. 

Thomas Kazi (Wilton, CT): Recognizing that children with serious physical and mental disabilities in a special needs class in his school had few opportunities to interact with nature, Thomas built a hydroponic therapy center in their classroom. Planting seeds, nurturing them, and watching them sprout and grow turned out to be a good way for these students to reduce their stress. The parents group for a class of children with autism in his school decided to duplicate the “natural cure for stress” that Thomas came up with in their own children’s classroom. A recent graduate of Wilton High School, he plans to major in finance at Roger Williams University.

Jeffrey Marano (Brewster, NY): The tremors that Jeffrey experienced as a result of a vitamin deficiency related to his Celiac Disease were successfully treated by a strict vitamin therapy; but he knew not all tremors could be treated or limited as easily. He developed an innovative brace for everyday use by patients suffering from essential tremors, the most commonly diagnosed neurological movement disorder. The distinctive mechanism of the brace he designed can provide effective and noninvasive relief. A recent graduate of Brewster High School, he plans to study Biomedical Engineering at Boston University.

Stefanos Tai (New York, NY):  Having witnessed the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Sandy and the ways in which it disrupted people’s lives, Stefanos was upset that people around him were not more concerned about the increasingly unpredictable weather New York suffered, and its connection to climate change. Stefanos wrote, shot and directed an imaginative film inspired by his concern about climate change and his desire to help people recognize themselves as the “vulnerable, dependent, and insignificant animals that we are”—a prerequisite in his view, for respecting the earth and ensuring our survival. It debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. He is studying Filmmaking at Savannah College of Art and Design. 

Suge Zhang (New Haven, CT): Suge creatively combined traditional Chinese storytelling (Pingshu), a representative art form of Chinese street culture, and techniques of modern western theatre to bring a well-known early twentieth-century Chinese play (Thunderstorm by Cao Yu) alive for a contemporary American audience. Her original translation, adaptation and imaginative staging of the play – in which she artfully portrayed five different characters – captivated her audience.  A recent graduate of Wilbur Cross High School and ACES Educational Center for the Arts, she plans to study Social Work and Theatre Studies at NYU.

Rachel Zwick (New Haven, CT): Inspired by the memory of a friend who shared her love of theatre but who died of bone cancer before graduation, Rachel created, directed and produced dramatizations of a series of popular young children’s books for hospitalized children at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. The performance gave patients and their families a welcome respite from the strain of dealing with childhood illness. A recent graduate of Co-op High School, she plans to study Theatre at Southern Connecticut State University.

The Renée B. Fisher Foundation congratulates all of these students for their innovative solutions to individual and community problems, and for demonstrating their creativity in a broad range of fields.

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Housing and Donations Coordinator (Part Time)

This is a part-time position- averaging about 30 hours per week. 

IRIS – Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (www.irisct.org), a dynamic nonprofit organization in New Haven CT, has an immediate opening for the part-time position of Housing & Donations Coordinator.  IRIS helps refugees—people fleeing persecution in their home countries who are invited to the US by the federal government—to start new lives and become self-sufficient, contributing members of their communities. IRIS currently welcomes about 220 refugees each year, from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, Eritrea, and Sudan.

Summary of Position Responsibilities:

IRIS is responsible for providing all newly arriving refugees with a furnished apartment on the day of their arrival.  The Housing & Donations Coordinator is responsible for acquiring safe, affordable, appropriate apartments for new arrivals; supervising the cleaning and furnishing of the apartment; and coordinating the pick-up and distribution of donated furniture and household goods.

Specific Duties:

 1.  Apartment Acquisition

• Liaise with local landlords, property managers, and real estate agents to identify apartment options for new refugee arrivals no later than 1.5 weeks prior to client’s arrival.
• Coordinate with case management department and others to select apartment.
• Conduct safety checklist to ensure home meets basic standards, and ensure that any outstanding issues are addressed.

 2.  Donations Coordination

• Encourage public donations of furniture and household items, either directly to IRIS or to an IRIS partner, a furniture bank/thrift store.
• Coordinate the collection and distribution of donations:  Respond to phone and email inquiries about donating furniture.  Schedule times when donors can drop off furniture, or when necessary, drive IRIS’s pick-up truck to homes around Greater New Haven to collect furniture from donors. 
• Manage the IRIS warehouse and storage spaces, and keep an inventory. 

  3.  Apartment Set-up

• Coordinate the housing preparation, and supervise volunteers who help with the process of cleaning the apartment, furnishing it, and supplying all necessary household goods. 

 4.  Program Administration

• Complete administrative paperwork necessary for IRIS compliance with funders and regulators- including safety checklist, checklist of the items provided in each apartment, and case notes documenting work performed. 
• Communicate needs for volunteer help to IRIS Volunteer Coordinator, and supervise a team of volunteers and interns.
• Arrange for maintenance of the IRIS pickup truck.

Position Requirements

1. Ability to multi-task and work on many priorities at once in a fast-paced environment.
2. Cultural competency and a desire to serve people of diverse backgrounds.
3. US driving license, and ability to drive IRIS’s pick-up truck around Greater New Haven.
4. Ability to lift and carry furniture and household goods. 
5. Polite, respectful communication (phone, email, in person) with many stakeholders including landlords, furniture donors, and clients.
6. Computer skills, including MS Office and email.
7. Superb organizational skills, and ability to anticipate needs and plan for them appropriately.
8. Ideal candidates will have experience supervising others. 

To apply, send an email to Deputy Director Kelly Hebrank, at humanresources@irisct.org by September 8^th with the following:

• A subject line that says “HOUSING & DONATIONS COORDINATOR: [Candidate first and last name]”
• A cover letter describing your relevant skills and experience, and why you are interested in this position
• An attached resume

**The article is from iMissionPartners

For those afraid to fly, a sometimes helpful piece of advice: the pilot has the same interest as you in arriving safely. Trust by passengers in the airline and pilot that all will be safe and secure and that both have the same interests is essential.

A recent contract agreement reached by the Metropolitan Opera raises for me the question: does the union (employees) not believe the board has the same interests as the employees? My initial answer: I don't think so. I should add, history would suggest that owners never really have the same interests as their employees but I sometimes like to hope that nonprofit owners (boards) are different.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a month of negotiations between the union and the management (representing the board) of the Metropolitan Opera will include lots of pay cuts AND "they stipulate that an independent financial analyst, paid jointly by the Met and its three largest unions, will observe the Met's spending in the future...and have full access to the Met's books and board members, and would oversee equal implementation of the cuts.."

Whew! Aren't nonprofit board members supposed to care about the welfare of their employees as much as the outcomes of their efforts? And isn't this "care" best demonstrated in the management they hire to implement mission? Did the Met's board hire managers whose job it was to not look-out for the interest of employees? If I were to wager, I might suggest that the corporate members of the board generally do have a different framing on how employees should be regarded and managed -- a framing that does not put employees at least equal in value to management. Thus, the need for a union and in the case, the need for an auditor who represents the interests of the employees.

This is about a social enterprise on a mission to reinvent the coffee supply chain, giving farmers a bigger and more equitable piece of the action.

Aimed at growers producing specialty-grade, premium, Fair Trade certified coffee, Vega hopes to enable farmers to roast and package their beans  and connect to customers directly via an online subscription marketplace.  As a result, they can make a lot more money than they normally do.

The company, which is based in Leon, Nicaragua, is launching a Kickstartercampaign today.

Eighty percent of coffee farmers- -or  20 million people– are trapped in a cycle of subsistence farming, according to co-founder Noushin Ketabi.  Often in remote areas, they have little access to markets and tend to rely on middlemen for exporting.  (The situation is similar to peanut farmers in Haiti. I recentlywrote about a supply-chain social enterprise aimed at them).

And we’re not talking about just a few middlemen.  As many as 20 may be involved in the coffee supply chain, according to Vega. In many cases, the farmers grow the beans, then sort, grade and polish them , among other steps. Then they take the  stuff to a cooperative, which sends it to a larger entity that’s an aggregation of cooperatives. It goes next to an exporter, various certification groups, coffee traders, and labelers, among many others. It takes six months to get coffee from the farm to the consumer.

So, even though advocates of Fair Trade and organic coffee are trying their best, because they work within the usual supply chain, small-scale farmers end up with a paltry share of the pie, according to Ketabi. Each small scale farmer produces about 500 pounds of Fair Trade organic coffee  a year and gets around $1.30 a pound, or $700 a year.  The upshot: Farmers of specialty grade coffee beans earn $1 a pound for a product costing U .S. consumers maybe $20.

Vega’s aim is to cut out most of those other players. To that end, it would set up a processing, packaging  and distribution center located 20 to 30 minutes from farmers. There the coffee would be loaded in pallets, shipped overseas via a U.S. carrier, then  broken down and mailed to consumers.  Farmers would be paid when the processing is done, so it’s not contingent on supply and demand fluctuations. The  founders are still working out the details, but, ”We’ll match the Fair Trade price and pay for the value of the processing on top of that,” says Ketabi. The result would allow farmers to earn up to four times what they typically receive.

The plan also is to train the first group of farmers in how to do the roasting  using special equipment designed by Vega and engineers at a local NGO that uses 90% less fuel than the usual  roaster, according to Ketabi.  Then that first wave would train the next group.

The online site will allow consumers to drill down and get all sorts of information about the product, searching, for example, for a region or even specific farmers.  Customers can curate the coffee themselves, receiving two eight-ounce bags a month, or leave that to Vega, since two of its founders also are certified coffee roasters.

How did this all get started?  In 2005, co-founder Rob Terenzi (who is also married to Ketabi) spent two years in Nicaragua working with a women’s coffee cooperative to develop roasting capacity and build a national market for their coffee. Then he came back to the U.S. and studied law and international development at Fordham University.  There he met Ketabi, who was studying the same thing. He also started a group that took trips to Nicaragua to see the coffee world there.  Ketabi got involved  and, in 2011, won a Fulbright scholarship  to work in renewable energy policy  in Nicaragua, focusing on the lack of electricity and potential for solar energy.  After that she came back to the U .S., getting a job with the state of California in energy policy. In the meantime, Terenzi went to work for Wilson, Sonsini, the famed San Francisco law firm to startup tech stars, where he ended up gaining a lot of helpful insights into how to found a company.

All the while, the two pondered how to make an impact on coffee farming in a way that would have a  long-term  effect.  They decided, whatever the answer was, the best, most sustainable route was a for-profit, one that “could serve as a model for the whole coffee industry,” says Ketabi.  Finally, they pinpointed an overhaul of the supply chain as the key and, with their own savings and relying on their many contacts, moved to Nicaragua to start Vega early this year, also enlisting another co-founder, friend Will Deluca, to design and run the web site and technology side of the operation.

The effort is now in what Ketabi calls a “pre-pilot phase”, focused on Nicaragua, where the co-founders have deep ties; the pilot also will be in Nicaragua.  In its current ultra-early phase, the co-founders are working at 20 or so individual farms, where farmers sort the beans, then Vega packages them,  and sends out samples. The hope for the Kickstarter campaign is to raise $20,000 to buy coffee, install roasters, train farmers, and deliver a limited batch to customers—that is, test out the model  to see what works and needs to be improved in preparation for a full-fledged launch.

**The article is original from Forbes. Here is the link

4 Ways to Supercharge Your Social Enterprise Through Accountability

The social enterprise sector is hot—it may be worth well over $500 billion in the US alone. But if social business is to solve many of the world’s most pressing problems, we have to make sure it has both internal and external accountability systems in place to do so. What does that mean? It means, at its heart, getting the accountability relationships right between the people who make decisions — in governments, businesses, and all other relevant organizations — in order to ensure the outcomes are fair, inclusive, and sustainable.

Think of how we can best support governments in this, for example. At theAccountability Lab we are working with the government of Liberia to improve transparency through the simple tool of chalk billboards to convey critical information to its citizens (for example, how to register a business or get a passport). We’re also helping to build more effective justice systems throughcommunity mediation programs.

If people have information they can use to ask the right questions, and appropriate feedback mechanisms are in place, this process of external accountability of the government can unleash social, political and economic change to transform societies.

Read more: http://ow.ly/2KRx5z

What should nonprofits boards expect from foundations?

I propose: very little. There's a paradigm I recall hearing about the purpose of foundations: 1) identify "issues"; identify solutions to issues; test the solutions. Three years is a norm. After all this is done: the nonprofit should get supported by the public.

So, today's reality? Except for the public support, yes, I believe this is indeed what nonprofits who think foundation money is a great source, should expect. And of course, there are differences between community foundations, family foundations and private foundations but I think it's generally true that three years is a fair grant period length.

The lesson for nonrpofit boards: don't expect long-term support from foundations. More importantly, nonprofit boards, at any stage, would do well to always be thinking "beyond the foundation grant". This means thinking about what and how well their story is told and to who their story is distributed. This means providing lots of opportunity for the community, to become supporters, be it lemonade sales to big galas. This means that the full spectrum of sustainability sources should be annually examined with a three-to-five-to-fifteen year picture in mind.

Nonprofit sustainability is not achieved overnight and certainly not through foundation giving. Foundations kick-start. This is what should be expected of them.