Blogs

As a generation of nonprofit leaders approaches retirement and the economic climate continues to stress financial resources, organizations in the social sector should shift their approaches to planning, governance and investment, according to a new report presented Tuesday, September 15. 

The findings of the report, Leadership New England, Essential Shifts for a Thriving Nonprofit Sector, were presented to about 100 directors, Board members, and staff representing a wide range of organizations that deliver basic needs, youth, health, education, arts, and other social programs in the New Haven region. 

“You are the heart of Greater New Haven. Consider this to be a report from your cardiologist,” said William W. Ginsberg, President and CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, which funded the report along with Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, The Boston Foundation, Barr Foundation, and other foundations and charitable organizations in New England.

While nonprofits have proven to be resilient in the face of an economic downturn, many rely on operating models that are not sustainable, according to the report, based on surveys taken from 1200 nonprofit leaders and Board members throughout New England. 

The survey results show: leaders are overworked and stressed about cash flow; staff is underpaid and not given adequate professional development; and directors and Boards do not share an understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

A lack of planning for a new generation of leadership is one of the biggest issues facing the nonprofit sector, according to the report. Overall, more than half of the nonprofit leaders responding to the survey (53%) are 55 or older. In the New Haven region, 63% of the leaders are over 55.

Hez Norton, co-author of the report who presented its findings, said that executive directors don’t discuss succession planning because they are afraid of giving their Boards the false impression they want to leave. Likewise, Boards don’t raise the issue out of a fear of upsetting their directors.

“It’s a third rail conversation,” Norton said.

Norton proposed shifting the framework for the discussion away from succession planning, which focuses on an individual, and toward creating a sustainability plan that examines the vulnerabilities of the organization and its choices for the future. 

Other findings included shifting the vision of Board governance beyond short-term fundraising and investing in leadership development and high-quality staff. 

Shaye Roscoe, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, said the findings resonated with her experience during a panel discussion following the presentation. Shortly after assuming her leadership role in 2013, Roscoe said she identified the need for a strategic plan and staff training and secured private funding to support the efforts. 

“That was a game changer for us,” Roscoe said. 

Andrew Eder, a philanthropist who has sat on many nonprofit Boards, said that better training is needed for Board members.

“Most Board members don’t know what their roles are. They don’t see staff as equals, which they are. It requires training,” Eder said.

The panel moderator, Shelly Saczynski, of United Illuminating Holdings and a Board member of The Community Foundation, concluded the event with The Foundation’s longstanding commitment to strengthening nonprofits in Greater New Haven.

“The Community Foundation believes in and will continue support capacity building, leadership training, and general operating funding for the important work of our local nonprofit organizations,” Saczynski said.

On Saturday, October 3, 2015, Family Centered Services of CT will be hosting the 5^th Annual Walk Against Domestic Violence in East Rock Park in New Haven, CT.  Family CT expects over 200 to participate in the walk.  October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Family CT is committed to fostering hope and help to survivors of domestic abuse and empowering these individuals to heal and thrive.  Through the Walk, Family CT aims to raise awareness about domestic violence and to celebrate survivors. 

Opening Ceremonies will begin at 10:00 am at the Park’s Pavilion hosted by Jessica Carl, from WYBC-FM in New Haven.  Featured guest speaker will be Derek Poundstone, 3 time winner of the World’s Strongest Man competitions.  Poundstone, a police officer in the Naugatuck Police Department, will be speaking about the importance of engaging men and boys to break the cycle of domestic violence. 

Family CT’s mission is to work with families to ensure that they are safe and nurturing places where children can succeed.  At Family CT staff work to prevent abuse, neglect and victimization across the life span and to serve those affected by providing home visiting and outreach, parenting education, family strengthening activities, counseling, youth empowerment and advocacy to children and adults. Its goals are to strengthen and preserve vulnerable families and improve child health and developmental outcomes.  Since its inception over three decades ago, Family CT has helped thousands of women, children and families live safe, happy and violence-free lives.

In one of those "render under Caesar" (check your New Testament for greater understanding) and what appears to be a NIMBY challenge, the Tampa officials are basically on-attack of a homeless shelter that by many standards, appears to be doing its job--providing shelter to the homeless of Tampa. But it's clear from the Tampa Tribune article, that not everyone is pleased with the job the Shelter is doing and for the moment, using the courts and law enforcement to solve their perception of the problem.

My takeaway from the article: what is the board's position on all this? I am of course presuming there is a board and that it plays some role like having at some point agreed to pursue a lawsuit. So if there is a board, how are they involved in supporting the work of the shelter? Have they established the policies that inform shelter related decisions (like standards for the physical space and the roles of volunteers)? Are they actively advocating/communicating with publicly elected officials over the issues? Are they communicating with the neighborhood folks who appear to be affected by the shelter activities. Re they offering or getting financial support?

There's a number of activities the board could be doing to address the shelter's challenges. These challenges should certainly not be on the lone shoulder of the founder/director.
Homeless charity to close by Tuesday

By Elizabeth Behrman | Tribune Staff
Published: September 3, 2015 | Updated: September 3, 2015 at 10:18 PM

TAMPA — A well-known homeless charity that filed a lawsuit resulting in the partial overturning of the city’s panhandling ban will be shut down by Tuesday, the charity’s founder and code enforcement officials said.

Code enforcement officials told Adolphus Parker, who founded Homeless Helping Homeless about seven years ago, that he has five days to clear out the homeless men and women from a makeshift shelter behind the non-profit’s headquarters at 106 E. Floribraska Ave.

“We’ve got to move everybody out of here, the office and everything has got to be shut down,” Parker said. “I don’t know how to pull this one off.”

Parker founded Homeless Helping Homeless in 2009. The non-profit organization offers beds to homeless people in multiple locations throughout the city and supplies showers, hygiene kits and about 3,000 meals each month. The charity’s homeless clients fill key staff positions.

Parker said code enforcement officials were called out to the Floribraska property while Tampa police were executing a search warrant there Wednesday morning.

According to the probable cause affidavit for the search warrant, investigators were looking for evidence that Parker and two of his employees were violating Florida statutes regarding towing and storing vehicles, scheming to defraud, failure to return leased vehicles and unlawful subleasing of motor vehicles.

While police were there, code enforcement officials determined the property is in violation of several zoning laws and that the makeshift homeless shelter behind the main building is “unfit for human habitation,” said city spokeswoman Christina Barker.

The city housing manager will work with the nonprofit to arrange assistance for the displaced occupants, she said. Including those in the main house, makeshift shelter and annex, 16 people will be without housing, Parker said.

Earlier this summer, the organization filed a federal lawsuit against the city arguing that its panhandling bans violate free speech rights and shut off a major source of revenue for the charity, which relies heavily on the private donations collected mostly through roadside solicitations. In June, the City Council voted to repeal part of the ordinance that banned solicitation on public roads.

The lawsuit is still pending.

Parker said he spoke with lawyers Thursday about filing a motion to suppress some of the evidence seized during the raid Wednesday because it relates to the ongoing lawsuit.

More than a dozen police cars were outside the charity’s headquarters Wednesday morning as investigators seized all electronics and tax and financial documents.

According to the search warrant, investigators were looking for evidence that Parker and two others were violating Florida statutes regarding towing, storing and leasing vehicles.

Parker said the only connection his title business and charity has to Cheap Towing is that the woman running the company is also one of his “heavily involved” volunteers.

“You can’t put that link together because there’s no connection other than she’s a volunteer,” he said.

The code enforcement violations just compounded his problems, Parker said.

The city said the storage units he had on the property were illegal, and he was also cited for operating a possible rooming house in a residential area.

Several months ago, zoning violations shut down the charity’s Bargain Center Thrift Store on Florida Avenue, which helped fund the emergency women’s shelter and transitional shelter, he said. He was forced to relocate beds to the Floribraska property, which he put in a temporary, covered structure behind the main building. He even built it on wheels to avoid further code violations, he said.

But that structure was deemed “unfit for human habitation,” the city said, prompting the order to vacate.

Jim McPike has been sleeping on one of the makeshift shelter’s 10 cots for a little more than two weeks.

“This place has helped me a lot; I feel bad about it being shut down,” said McPike, who is disabled. “I wasn’t really prepared for this.”

Staff Reporter Mark Wolfenbarger contributed to this report.

For a growing nonprofit with a small board, those interested summer students are a crucial revenue stream. And getting the Academy’s studios ready by the first day of the program was imperative.

“We don’t have board members donating $100,000,” said board chair Andre Tchelistcheff, an architect who led the renovation. “The school is financially viable.”

These three sentences in a Wall Street Journal article on the Gelsey Kirlkland Academy's new space and future highlights that having a well-healed board need not be the end-all for a nonprofit. It certainly helps however that the nonprofit's director has her own connections (from what I can glean) and that what the nonprofit offers, "prestigious dance instruction" attracts a paying student.

But with the departure of the director and a board that is not that well-healed. Should not more work be put into developing a board, say from the student's parents, that can be equally passionate and raise money?

Nonprofit sustainability planning is not for the faint of heart nor for the immediate. What might work well now might not work well in the future. There are variables to be considered. One of those variables is what board composition will help ensure a future.

Of course future is a goal that needs be established by the current board. But maybe it really doesn't matter that there might not be a future? Capable qualified and talented students who love what they do may be enough

Cheers to All!!!

The Fall will soon be upon us. Now what about a great tour to add to the brilliance of the autumnal sparkle of the trees in New Haven.

My recommendation is Mat Duman and his wonderful tour on the Gargoyles of Yale. He is an expert to the meaning and carving of this wonderful creatures adorning the University.

So, without further ado:

An Education in the Grotesque: The Gargoyles of Yale University
by Mathew Duman
info@yalegargoyles.com
www.yalegargoyles.com  

This tour is really wonderful - not to be missed!

All the best,

Patricia Illingworth, Curator

203.389.5403

p.b.i.Newhaven@att.net

Are you interested in serving a year with AmeriCorps as an AmeriCorps VISTA? Click here to apply to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) Member with PAVE New Haven. Partnering to Advance Visions in Education (PAVE) is an AmeriCorps VISTA Project that aims to reduce the youth achievement gap in New Haven, CT. VISTA Members serve in 7 different non-profits, community organizations and the Mayor's Office to improve children's literacy outcomes, increase access to college-readiness programs and to strengthen wrap-around services available to our city's youth and their families. 

To learn more about AmeriCorps or PAVE, email awildes@aoascc.org 

Once again, nonprofit CEO salaries are in the news. This time the focus is not on the traditional nonprofits but the religious nonprofits and more specifically, pastors. And, as much as I must honestly grit my teeth to say this, given the focus, this salary "issues" is a subject the media loves to rattle about but if they want to point swords, they should be doing so at the boards who approve these salaries.

I remain a firm believer that the media would serve the taxpayer and donor best not by focusing on salaries (as insane as they may feel about "some" CEOs) and instead raise the questions about results. The question is not, is $800K an unfair salary, but, are the folks who support this salary, in the case of a faith practice, truly better off (using whatever measures apply)?

CEO salaries will for the most part never "feel" fair to the majority of folks who don't earn the level of pay nonprofit CEOs do. For many, these folks won't ever make this kind of money because that's the way the capitalistic system works. But CEOs, when they are great, can produce results and that's what the salaries pay for and that in turn is what we should be asking the media to tell us about.

Meanwhile, it's up to the boards to determine what's right for their institutions. And, it appears that for the ministers in the Graham category, $800K+ is what they feel is correct. Harrumph but so what!

So, from the Washington Post:

Why Franklin Graham’s salary raises eyebrows among Christian nonprofits

By Christine Wicker | Religion News Service August 18 at 5:42 PM

Franklin Graham’s annual compensation of $880,000, revealed in a Charlotte Observer story, has some worrying that too many top Christian nonprofit leaders as well as pastors are seeing themselves as CEOs instead of as God’s servants.

Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is head of Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief agency based in Boone, N.C.

“Basically they are saying if Satan pays well, God should pay better,” said Maria Dixon, a Southern Methodist University professor of corporate communications and public affairs. Dixon, a United Methodist Church deacon and a minister’s wife, specializes in studying and helping nonprofit religious organizations.

CEOs at the top 50 U.S. charities, including Samaritan’s Purse, earn in the $350,000 to $450,000 range, which makes Graham’s $622,000 salary from his aid organization alone about 40 percent to 50 percent higher than average, according to a Forbes story. He receives the rest of his $258,000 compensation as CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

A spokesman for Franklin Graham said his compensation was determined by independent commissions that compared similar organizations’ top salaries. Graham was not available to answer questions.

By contrast, pastor salaries at the nation’s biggest Christian churches are much lower for all but a select number. Only 3 percent of churches with more than 1,600 people in attendance pay senior pastors more than $300,000, said Warren Bird, research director at Leadership Network. At the other extreme, a recent study by the National Association of Church Business Administration found that the average American pastor with a congregation of 300 people earns a salary of less than $28,000 a year.

In a 2011 comparison of megachurch pastors’ salaries, two senior pastors made $1 million and $1.1 million. Others were a fourth to less than half of that.

Among the exceptions: Southern Baptist the Rev. Ed Young, senior pastor at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, pulled in well over $1 million, according to a 2012 Dallas television news report. And in 2013, his last year as pastor at Seattle’s Mars Hill Church, the Rev. Mark Driscoll was drawing a $607,000 package, with a $150,000 raise promised.

Click here for more information!
The word “CEO” is often used when speaking of megachurch pastors who oversee multimillion-dollar budgets, manage media empires and publish best-selling books. “He could have been a CEO in any corporation in America” is an oft-repeated phrase among proud church members.

Pastors make sure well-heeled businesspeople are on their boards, said Jim Henderson, co-author of “Question Mark,” a new book tracing the downfall of Mars Hill’s Driscoll.

“These guys make phenomenal amounts of money. So when it comes time to set the pastor’s salary, what seems like an ungodly amount of money to the rest of us, seems normal to them,” Henderson said.

A prosperous church with business executives on its board might ask “How embarrassed would we be to pay our pastor a lot less than I make?” said historian Joel Carpenter, director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College.

But donors to Christian charities may think differently.

Grant Wacker, author of “America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation,” said he had just read the Observer story about Franklin Graham’s compensation when he received a solicitation for money from Samaritan’s Purse.

Compensation in the mid- to high-six figures “is on the generous side for anyone who is asking for other people’s money,” the professor emeritus at Duke Divinity School said a bit wryly. “It’s eyebrow-raising.”

Mainstream evangelicals generally expect money they give to be used frugally, Wacker said. Big salaries come with questions.

“Does he live ostentatiously or does he give it away?” asked Wacker.

Franklin Graham, who is 63, has said he wants to make enough money to be able to work for free when he turns 70.

By contrast, California megachurch pastor Rick Warren has been giving away 90 percent of his income for years, as part of a strategy he calls “reverse tithing.”

Such outside comparisons are considered good practice for nonprofits, but the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability asks for more.

“Compensation-setting practices should be consistent with generally accepted biblical truths and practices,” according to its guidelines.

“It’s a moral issue particularly for a man of faith,” Pablo Eisenberg, a senior fellow at the Georgetown University Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership, told the Observer. “And also you have to remember that (compensation is) partly paid for by the taxpayer. In a sense, we the taxpayers are subsidizing Frank Graham’s salary and his relatives who are paid.”

Nonprofits are governed by the federal nondistribution constraint, which specifies that in return for tax-exempt status, they will use donations for the good of clients and not distribute excessive amounts to those who oversee the organization, Dixon said.

“I don’t have a problem with people like Franklin making so much money as long as the janitor is making $60,000 to $80,000, a good living wage,” she said.

Not all of the big Christian charity CEOs are making huge salaries.

Lutheran Charities, a $21 billion organization, pays $181,858 to its highest-paid employee. At Cru, the college campus ministry, the highest salary is $150,787, according to Forbes magazine.

CEO Steve Stirling at MAP, a $349 million international Christian aid organization, made significantly more than his current $200,000 total compensation at other jobs, both for-profit and nonprofit.

“I did take a reduction in salary from my previous job,” he wrote from Ghana, where he is working this August.

Why? “Because MAP is a Christian organization, and I strongly believe in the mission.”

Copyright: For copyright information, please check with the distributor of this item, Religion News Service LLC

In my experience, nonprofit board composition is pretty homogenous - that is to say that I find that nonprofit boards tend not to stray in composition from the folks who first organized the organization. This would lead one to suggest that nonprofit board diversity doesn't matter that much. Possibly.

HP' which is going to be splitting into two corporations (same CEO on both boards) has announced that its boards "will comprise leaders with some of the most diverse backgrounds and professional experiences I’ve seen in my career".

The article suggests that Operation Push has had something to do with this plan and that may well be but no corporation does anything without its own best interests in mind. So, my question, why does such diversity matter to HP. The article does not provide much additional insight into incentives but I'm certainly open to hearing other's thoughts on the topic.

At the same time I propose that while nonprofit boards may be gender diverse and in my opinion not all that connected with those they serve, there may well be a lesson to be learned from the HP shift.

HP will have the most diverse tech boards in the US, say activists

LYANNE ALFARO

Aug. 14, 2015, 11:45 AM
Hewlett-Packard is preparing to diverge into two companies this November, but it can also claim a new achievement for diversity in the national tech workspace.

HP now has the "most diverse" boards in the US, according to the nonprofit Rainbow PUSH.

The HP boards, announced earlier this week, will feature a blend of original members and new hires. Four women and two people of color will be placed on each board, reported Fortune.

Rainbow PUSH is an organization focused on social change and has been urging technology companies across the country to hire underrepresented minorities.

The nonprofit has especially ramped up its efforts in the past year, meeting with tech behemoths across the country, including Apple and Google, to discuss their diversity numbers. A survey conducted by the group last fall found only three blacks and one Hispanic among the 189 board members from 20 technology companies examined.

There were also "153 men and just 36 women. Eleven (over half) have all-white Boards," Reverend Jesse Jackson, who is spearheading Rainbow PUSH, said in a press release. He later added, "Certainly there is a long way to go."

Last March, the nonprofit met with HP at its shareholder meeting to talk about its numbers.

"We challenged them — and the tech industry — to confront the virtual exclusion of women and people of color in the tech industry," Rev. Jackson said. "HP committed to make demonstrable strides in expanding diversity and inclusion."

At HP Enterprise, Leslie A. Brun from Sarr Group, and Pamela Carter, former president Cummins Distribution, are both people of color who will be joining. The board has 13 members in total, according to an HP press release. Heading the team will be Pat Russo, who became a part of the HP board in 2011.

The board at HP Inc. will include Stacy Brown-Philpot, chief operating officer at TaskRabbit, and Stacey Mobley, former senior vice president at DuPont. Twelve people will help oversee HP Inc., which focuses on the printer and PC businesses.

HP CEO Meg Whitman will sit on both boards and serve as chairwoman for HP Inc.

“The post-separation Boards for both Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. comprise leaders with some of the most diverse backgrounds and professional experiences I’ve seen in my career,” Whitman said in HP's press release.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-will-have-the-most-diverse-tech-boards-in-the-us-2015-8#ixzz3j4WN0Fqk

Apply to PAVE New Haven to #ServeaYear as an#AmeriCorps #VISTA!

Citywide Youth Coalition, Inc., Common Ground High School, Urban Farm, and Environmental Education Center, Higher Heights Youth Empowerment Programs, Inc., Agency on Aging of South Central ConnecticutVolunteer and Training Dept. and Solar Youth, Inc are all excepting applications!

AmeriCorps VISTA - Volunteers In Service To America. Apply at http://bit.ly/ApplyPAVE

Starting in early September the City of New Haven will offer a nine-week course in city government, New Haven Democracy School. The purpose of Democracy School is to turn residents into more effective advocates for their neighborhoods and communities by giving them a holistic picture of how city government really functions. Students will meet department heads and public safety officials, look deeper into the city's budget, tour the Emergency Operations Center, and network with other engaged residents from all over the city.

This is an invaluable opportunity to develop new tools for becoming a more effective activist and organizer in your community.

Here's an article about a previous version of Democracy School.

Applications are due August 21. Eligibility is limited to New Haven residents 18 years and older, and only 25 students will be accepted. Classes will meet on Thursday evenings from 5:30-8:00pm beginning September 3 and going through November 5.

Click here for more information and click here for the application. 

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven has awarded $212,000 to 8 nonprofit organizations working with immigrants and $109,000 to 4 nonprofits serving formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. A total of 33 applications were received as part of a special grants process created by The Community Foundation this year; these grants are awarded in furtherance of The Foundation’s immigration and re-entry strategies which were adopted in 2014.

This weekend I discovered a book that was published several years ago (April 2009) that strikes me as worth a brief mention here. The book, Owning Up...14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask by Dr. Ram Charan..strikes me as worth a discussion because it poses some questions that could be helpful in framing the work of the nonprofit board.
I'm not actually that familiar with Dr. Ram Charan, a kind-of guru in the for-profit governance world but he appears to be well regarded in the business community. I know, well regarded in the for-profit sector does not instantly translate to well-regarded in the nonprofit sector but for the moment lets accept that there is some value in at least reviewing the 14 questions offered in "Owning Up".
I recommend paying particular attention to Questions 10, 6, 9, 11, 12, 1 and 13 in this order. As a matter practicality, I propose that if a board asks and answers these questions, it can go far in significantly improving board outcomes.
Here's the questions:
1. Is our Board composition right for the challenge?
2. Are we addressing the risks that could send our company over the cliff?
3. Are we prepared to do our job when crisis erupts?
4. Are we prepared to name our next CEO?
5. Does our Boar really own the company strategy?
6. How can we get the information we need to govern well?
7. How can our Board get CEO compensation right?
8. Why do we need a lead director anyway?
9. Is our governance committee best of breed?
10. How do we get the most value out of our limited time?
11. How can executive sessions help the Board own up?
12. How can our Board self-evaluation improve our functions & our output?
13. How do we stop from micromanaging?
14. How prepared are we to work with activist shareholders & their proxies?
Yes, there are other questions a nonprofit board can ask and answer but imagine just getting through at least the questions I highlighted.

Matching Funds Program - Third Round of Funding Available

CIRCA: Nearly $100,000 to Support Climate Resilience Across Connecticut

The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) is pleased to announce its third round of funding through the exciting Matching Funds Program. CIRCA has made up to $100,000 available for matching funds for projects that will assist Connecticut towns and cities adapt to a changing climate and enhance the resilience of their infrastructure.

CIRCA will consider requests from Connecticut municipalities, institutions, universities, foundations, and other non-governmental organizations. To be funded, a successful Matching Funds request must have a commitment of primary funding within 6 months of the CIRCA award announcement, or have received a waiver from the CIRCA Executive Steering Committee. CIRCA Matching Funds will provide up to 25% of the primary funder's contribution other than municipal or State of Connecticut funds to enhance the likely success of project proposals that advance CIRCA research and implementation priorities. Requests are due to CIRCA by September 15, 2015.

Project proposals should develop knowledge and/or experience that is transferable to multiple locations in Connecticut and have well-defined and measurable goals. In evaluating proposals preference will be given to those that leverage independent funding awarded through a competitive process. Preference will also be given to those that involve collaboration with CIRCA to address at least one of the following priority areas:

• Improve scientific understanding of the changing climate system and its local and regional impacts on coastal and inland floodplain communities;
• Develop and deploy natural science, engineering, legal, financial, and policy best practices for climate resilience;
• Undertake or oversee pilot projects designed to improve resilience and sustainability of the natural and built environment along Connecticut's coast and inland waterways;
• Create a climate-literate public that understands its vulnerabilities to a changing climate and which uses that knowledge to make scientifically informed, environmentally sound decisions;
• Foster resilient actions and sustainable communities - particularly along the Connecticut coastline and inland waterways - that can adapt to the impacts and hazards of climate change; and
• Reduce the loss of life and property, natural system and ecological damage, and social disruption from high-impact events.

Those requesting Matching Funds should consult the CIRCA office via email at CIRCA_matchingfunds@uconn.edu with any questions. Matching Fund request forms can be found at http://circa.uconn.edu/funds.htm. All requesting funds must complete the form in its entirety on or before September 15, 2015. Matching Funds requests will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Notification of award: Requests will be acted upon every two months. The review will be held on September 15, 2015 and every two months thereafter.

August Greetings!!!

There has been some exciting news - Friends of Grove Street Cemetery now has a Facebook page.

So we invite everyone to take a peek and maybe you would like to follow us on Facebook. It has just been about 7 weeks since it has been in place for us.

Come one - Come all!!!

All the best to everyone,

Patricia Illingworth

Chief Docent

What exactly should a nonprofit board do when it learns that its trusted Treasurer has redirected some of its funds?

Below is the Washington Post story about the theft experienced by the Talbot Watermen Association. The Treasurer helped herself to the nonprofit's funds and members of the organization called the cops. Presuming that the nonprofit has liability insurance, much of their loss should be recovered.

The good news. Below the Washington Post article is what the Association shared with its members. On the Association Website the item is simply titled "Talbot Watermen Association Official Statement. Clicking-on this title gets one to the statement. Fair enough.

Good step: once financial theft is learned or even perceived: call the cops! Next step, fix the systems and policies that enabled the theft. Finally, talk to your constituents. Kudos to the Association for moving forward in what I believe to be correct actions.

EASTON, Md. — Maryland State Police have charged the former treasurer of a Talbot County nonprofit with stealing from the organization.

Forty-year-old Lisa N. Gowe of Neavitt was charged Thursday with theft scheme, $100,000 plus.

Troopers say in January, members of the Talbot Watermen’s Association contacted state police and alleged that Gowe, then the group’s treasurer and event organizer, depleted the association’s bank accounts.

Investigators say bank records show that Gowe wrote numerous checks written, made withdrawals, debits and electronic money transfers that were not authorized.

Police say Gowe used the money for herself and not the Watermen’s Association. Washington Post

Talbot Watermen Association, Inc. Official Statement (Website)

POSTED ON JULY 25, 2015

As most of you are now aware, our past treasurer Lisa Gowe has been arrested for embezzling money from our Association. As a Watermen Community and a Association, we have pulled together and will overcome this setback. This is our official statement :

Lisa Gowe’s criminal charges are the result of an investigation by the Maryland State Police. The investigation was requested by our Association when we discovered discrepancies between information provided between Ms. Gowe and information provided by the bank. We were shocked and disheartened to learn that our once trusted treasurer was, in fact, untrustworthy. Since learning the details of the apparent embezzlement, we have consulted with attorneys and accountants, and have instituted new financial controls and oversight. We are saddened by our prior treasurer’s actions, for her family, for our members, and for our supporters throughout the community. We have asked the State’s Attorney to seek restitution as a component of the criminal process.

Outreach Nonprofit Consulting (ONC), a student organization at Yale School of Management (SOM), provides pro bono consulting services to nonprofit organizations in the New Haven area. For 20 years, ONC has brought together nonprofit leaders and Yale MBA students to achieve a positive impact in the New Haven community.

ONC is currently accepting applications from nonprofit organizations that wish to solve an important organizational challenge in one of these key areas: Financial Planning, Human Resources, Marketing/PR, Operations, Design & Innovation, and Strategy.

Selected organizations will typically work with a team of Yale SOM student consultants from January–May 2016.

To qualify, an organization must meet the following criteria:

• Have a clearly defined project with goals related to the client organization’s mission and a tangible deliverable
• Feasible project scope and timeline
• Strong potential to make a significant impact on the client organization
• Enthusiasm for the project within the client organization
• Commitment to assist Yale ONC leaders and teams during a semester-long project

Important Application Dates

Sat, Aug 22:  Application due date

Fri, Sept 5:  Finalists notified about their selection status

Fri, Aug 22-Fri, Sept 5:  Finalists meet with SOM Outreach Coordinator to further define their projects and discuss desired outcomes

Wed, Oct 8:

Finalists present their project at mandatory “Meet-the-Clients” evening session with student consultants

Apply here. Applications are due Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 11:59pm.  

Please craft your proposal carefully to communicate a well-defined project that will address a pre-existing need for your organization.

Learn more about ONC at its website.

Family Centered Services of CT is sponsoring a Back to School program for the children that we serve.  Our goal is to outfit 125 kids with all the necessary supplies from backpacks to markers to notebooks. 

The follow is a list of needed supplies:Backpacks, notebooks, pens, pencils, markers, crayons, rulers, binders, scissors and sharpeners. Donations can be dropped of at Family CT, 235 Nicoll St, New Haven CT or we will pick up.

For more information or to arrange pick up contact: Shannon Ryan at 203-624-2600 ext. 121