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Holidays at Grove Street Cemetery

To All Readers Far and Wide -

The first snowfall at Grove Street Cemetery is a one of a mirific vista - to be enjoyed by all. It is a really nice stroll to view the niveous headstones. It is Arcadian.

However, I am sending to all - have a wonderful holiday with family and friends and enjoy this winter season as well!!!!!!!

All the happiest and merriest,

Patricia Illingworth

Chief Docent

p.b.i.newhaven@att.net

203.389.5403

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Nonprofit Executive Term Limits

Why don't CEO's have term limits like boards? Really, why don't they?

And, why am I asking? Because the Wall Street Journal noted today that the Anti-Defamation League has announced a replacement for its longtime national director who is leaving after almost a half century working for the Jewish nonprofit. The New York-based organization on Thursday said Jonathan Greenblatt will take the helm when 74-year-old Abraham Foxman steps down in July 2015.

If I'm doing my math correctly, Abraham Foxman was hired as CEO when he was around 26 or 27. The world has certainly changed in the years Mr. Foxman has been at the helm. And maybe there are some nonprofits where keeping the same director for fifty years makes sense. But would you keep the same board? Or is there not a double standard? That is, regularly turning over a board matters more than regularly turning over the executive? Anyway, I'm thinking ten years would be a good number but maybe 15 would be ok. How many years does it take to leave an imprint, a legacy as you would while creating an institution that can also bend and flow into the future?

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Yale University seeks applications from nonprofit and public sector agencies in the City of New Haven for the 2015 President's Public Service Fellowship. Since 1994, more than 700 Yale University undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students have contributed over 200,000 hours of community service to New Haven nonprofit and public sector agencies as President’s Public Service Fellows.

Each summer, the Fellowship places up to 35 student Fellows in full-time positions designed by community partners like you.  Yale University pays the student Fellows directly for their full-time work during the summer.  You can consider a meaningful employment opportunity for the summer of 2015 that would benefit from the work of a Yale student.

To apply to be a Fellowship site, you can obtain an Agency Application online at www.yale.edu/ppsfA completed application should be submitted by email to ppsf@yale.edu no later than Monday, December 1, 2014.  Please note the actual number of placements is limited.  Not all proposals will be chosen as potential sites to which students may apply, and not every placement will be filled.

We look forward to your application!  Please feel free to contact Karen King with any questions you may have.

Karen King

Director, Yale University President's Public Service Fellowship

Yale University Office of New Haven and State Affairs

Telephone (203) 432-8412

karen.king@yale.edu

 

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Nonprofit Board Policy

Today's Wall Street Journal article on corporate branding as a source of revenue for children's musuems introduces some great nonprofit board policy questions. Making policy to inform day-to-day decisions is part of a nonprofit board's fiduciary duty of care. Policy also reduces the need for a nonprofit's management to need board action on every single decision.

According to the article, corporate branding can play a significant role in the sustainability of a nonprofit. Children's museums offer particularly unique opportunities for corporations to "plant their seed" as you would for both the child and parent. But there are policy questions a board should consider ahead of taking advantage of these opportunitites.

The most simple question: is there any "tainted" money source a board would not accept? Usually tainted is derived from having a moral or political basis and may indeed counter the core values and mission of a nonprofit. I imaging that a board's clearness about its values should serve as a fine reference for deciding whether to accept money from some sources.

As sustainability is the root for accepting branding money, a board might establish a policy about just how dependent the organization should be on branding. Businesses tend to be fickle in their relationships; their bottom line income influences how long they may remain committed; and, sometimes they make decisions that result in not having an interest or desire in the relationship - like moving the factory to another state or country. I'm not saying that all businesses are unreliable but history might suggest...

Then there is the question of mission. Is the "what" a corporation want to brand compatible with the nonprofit's mission and program goals? The New Balance example in the article appears to be an example of consistency for the museum but I can imagine where such examples are otherwise.

So, a nonprofit board's policy work is complicated but can certainly make a difference for the nonprofit's future.

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Nonprofit Rogue Board

What happens when all the lines of governance and ownership and family and program and action and, well just about everything, get entangled with "issues"? The following story about a Charter School and its "arm".

MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

When Imhotep Institute Charter High School opened its new building in East Germantown five years ago, officials dubbed the $10 million facility "the Miracle on 21st Street."

Now, as the school with an African-centered curriculum fights to keep its charter, the building at 6201 N. 21st St. is at the center of a tug-of-war.

Sankofa Network Inc., a related nonprofit that owns Imhotep's campus, filed a Common Pleas Court lawsuit last week alleging the charter owes $1.2 million in rent, interest, and fees.

The court action comes after the school, which opened in 1998, was rocked by months of turmoil, including the ouster in late June of M. Christine Wiggins, Imhotep's founding chief executive.

The Imhotep board voted not to renew Wiggins' contract after the School District's charter office said in April that it would recommend not renewing the school's charter on several grounds, including poor academic performance.

Supporters of Wiggins, who have created an online petition at MoveOn.org to "Save Imhotep Institute Charter High School," have said her removal was the work of a "rogue board."

Wiggins, who is known as "Mama Chris," could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

George Gossett, Imhotep's lawyer, called the suit "frivolous." He said the building's future is not in jeopardy and the charter's finances were sound.

"It is not a correct lawsuit," Gossett said. "They are saying that the rent had not been paid. That is not correct. The rent is paid directly to the bank that has the mortgage on the property."

He said members of Sankofa's board are relatives of or have close ties to Wiggins.

"We believe that some of the actions are retaliatory in nature because [Wiggins'] contract was not renewed," Gossett said.

Tameka Thomas-Bowman, the president of Sankofa's board who signed off on the suit, is a daughter of Wiggins and a former Imhotep employee.

Sharon Wilson, a lawyer who represents Sankofa Network, said the nonprofit acted after it was told by the bank that as of Oct. 1 it was delinquent nearly $900,000 in repaying a construction loan and a line of credit.

The complaint, Wilson said, is an attempt to sort out the finances amid changing board members and administrative turnover at Imhotep.

As is often the case with charters in Pennsylvania, Imhotep created a nonprofit that obtained the mortgage and owns the building the school leases. It is often easier for a related nonprofit to obtain long-term financing than a charter, which is subject to renewal every five years.

Wilson said the complaint Sankofa filed last week, technically a "confession of judgment," was the best and fastest way to obtain an exact accounting of what the school has paid and when.

She said in the past that Imhotep and Sankofa "had less formality than was probably good for either of them."

Concerns about academic performance at Imhotep prompted the district's charter office to express reservations about renewing the school's charter.

Although Imhotep, which has 525 students in grades nine through 12, has been praised for sending a high percentage of its graduates to college, the school's records show that in 2013, only 9 percent of Imhotep students scored proficient on the state's Keystone exams in Algebra 1 and 5 percent in Biology 1. In literature, 37 percent were proficient.

The school is known as a local football powerhouse that also has strong basketball programs.

District spokesman Fernando Gallard said that in addition to academic concerns, the district has been awaiting results of investigations by the state Department of Education and Imhotep itself on irregularities on state PSSA tests.

"The [charter] renewal has been delayed, pending the outcome of the investigation of test irregularities," he said.

Imhotep was among several charter and district schools where examiners flagged erasure patterns and changed answers on standardized tests as part of a statewide cheating investigation.

Gallard said the district wanted to be able to review Imhotep's scores from 2012-13 and 2013-14 because its scores dropped "significantly" after the state instituted strict new testing procedures in 2012.

"As we do with every charter renewal, we are also going to be looking at the audit of the financials of the school, which goes directly to the question in regards to the current dispute between the school and the foundation," Gallard said.

He said that the School Reform Commission is expected to vote on Imhotep's renewal this academic year.

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The New York Times recently published a “Room for Debate” column featuring four different perspectives on the topic “Wages for Housework.” The premise of the debate: that housework – including child care – is generally unpaid labor, except when others are hired to perform it. A professional child care provider is remunerated for child care work, while a mother isn’t. Countries in vastly different parts of the world have considered proposals to pay housewives (as well as househusbands) a salary for their work, with advocates arguing that the wages would give millions of people financial autonomy and demonstrate that taking care of children, cleaning, and cooking meals are difficult tasks that are critical for national well-being.

All Our Kin’s work with family child care providers has made us passionate about increasing the status of child care in the eyes of the public. NPR recently featured a graph showing the ten most popular jobs in each income bracket illustrating how different jobs are remunerated; sadly, the bracket including child care workers falls dead last. Furthermore, a recent report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment highlighted the challenges of building a skilled workforce of early educators in a nation where “much of the public is averse to the idea that pre-kindergarten teachers require levels of knowledge and skill as rigorous as those of their counterparts who teach older children.” We must find a way to pay child care providers the wages that they deserve for educating our youngest, most vulnerable children.

To keep reading, click here: http://bit.ly/1prJ5GE

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“This work is my seed that I can plant in the world. I know that seed will grow, and it will be fruitful. We already see progress. But we also still have so much work to do. We can always do more.” -Nilda Aponte, All Our Kin's Bridgeport Network Director

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On October 28, 2014, The Community Fund for Women & Girls presented Nilda with the first annual Susan M. Lewin Women’s Leadership Award. The awards ceremony was part of an event called “Feminism’s Frankensteins” featuring feminist speaker Courtney Martin, held at the New Haven Lawn Club. To read more about Nilda and the event, click here: http://bit.ly/1ogzj9F

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