In one of the workshops at the May Tutor/Mentor Conference, media reps were criticized for mostly telling stories of bad news, and not enough of the good things kids are doing in neighborhoods.
One suggestion was that on media web sites, links could point to sites like the Chicago Program Links, which host nearly 200 web sites of youth organizations in Chicago. I was contacted by Tracy Schwartz of Red Eye this week, who was following up on that ideas. I hope it happens.
However, unless tutor/mentor programs are using blogs, or some other media, to tell of the work that is taking place in their organizations, this strategy won't have the intended benefit.
At Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, we encourage all of our staff and interns to write blogs. Last week we had a lot of things happening, so here are links to the stories that were written.
Edgewood College visit - Karina Walker, our new Northwestern Public Interest Fellow wrote this.
Golf Benefit stories written by Willow Yang Liuqing and Jenny Liu Chong, our interns from China,
One year reflection- Bradley Troast, our 2009-10 NU PIP fellow, summarized what he has learned from one year
Follow up to golf benefit - El Nix wrote this story
These stories change each week, based on what is happening at Cabrini Connections, and what is happening in the world. Each writer has a different perspective, and a different network of friends, family and alumni who will read these stories and pass them on to others, expanding the network of people who support Cabrini Connections even when the media don't point at our work.
If other tutor/mentor programs learn to tell their own stories this way, we all are building more understanding of what happens in a tutor/mentor program, and why volunteers and donors should help us.
If Red Eye and other media point to the Chicago Program Links, readers who are motivated to do something because of bad news stories, will find plenty of reasons and places where they can help turn bad news in to more good news.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Recession Taking Toll on Non Profits
Just received my Listening Post eNews from The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies
The title of this news was "RECESSION TAKING A TOLL ON NONPROFIT WORKERS AND PROGRAMS"
One statement in the summary said "Nonprofits have been stretched to the breaking point," noted Peter Goldberg, chair of the Listening Post Project Steering Committee and president and CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families. "It is crucial to take steps now to help sustain the vital work of America’s nonprofit organizations."
We're holding our annual Golf Benefit tomorrow, and it's great to see that many of the golfers and sponsors are people who have supported us in past years. However, many are sponsoring at lower levels, and there are not enough new donors to help us offset losses from grants and other donors.
Today was the third day of our annual 3-day workshop with graduate students from Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin. I encourage you to read what some of our interns and staff wrote about this.
These experiences are invaluable, yet at risk because of the recession and its impact on donations.
You can help change that by telling people you know to visit our web sites and see how we're not just helping kids in one neighborhood via Cabrini Connections, but trying to help kids in many neighborhoods via the Tutor/Mentor Connection. If we expand the network, we expand the donor base.
We keep doing this work.
The title of this news was "RECESSION TAKING A TOLL ON NONPROFIT WORKERS AND PROGRAMS"
One statement in the summary said "Nonprofits have been stretched to the breaking point," noted Peter Goldberg, chair of the Listening Post Project Steering Committee and president and CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families. "It is crucial to take steps now to help sustain the vital work of America’s nonprofit organizations."
We're holding our annual Golf Benefit tomorrow, and it's great to see that many of the golfers and sponsors are people who have supported us in past years. However, many are sponsoring at lower levels, and there are not enough new donors to help us offset losses from grants and other donors.
Today was the third day of our annual 3-day workshop with graduate students from Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin. I encourage you to read what some of our interns and staff wrote about this. These experiences are invaluable, yet at risk because of the recession and its impact on donations.
You can help change that by telling people you know to visit our web sites and see how we're not just helping kids in one neighborhood via Cabrini Connections, but trying to help kids in many neighborhoods via the Tutor/Mentor Connection. If we expand the network, we expand the donor base.
We keep doing this work.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Reflections of Northwestern University Fellowship
I encourage you to read Bradley Troast's one year reflection article, showing what he has learned from the year he has been with Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.
Our goal is that many adults, young and old, go through this process of learning and reflection, and that they continue to stay involved for many years. I've been involved in leading a tutor/mentor program for 35 consecutive years. That's what gives me the perspective, and the passion, that I bring to this work.
This animation shows how volunteers and staff who stay involved in a tutor/mentor program for multiple years grow in their understanding, and in how they serve as leaders, to expand the number who get involved.
We need benefactors who understand the value, and the potential, of a network of leaders with this depth of experience, who will provide the operating dollars at Cabrini Connections, and many other programs, to enable this.
Our goal is that many adults, young and old, go through this process of learning and reflection, and that they continue to stay involved for many years. I've been involved in leading a tutor/mentor program for 35 consecutive years. That's what gives me the perspective, and the passion, that I bring to this work.
This animation shows how volunteers and staff who stay involved in a tutor/mentor program for multiple years grow in their understanding, and in how they serve as leaders, to expand the number who get involved.
We need benefactors who understand the value, and the potential, of a network of leaders with this depth of experience, who will provide the operating dollars at Cabrini Connections, and many other programs, to enable this.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
How to Honor Fallen Officer
Today Chicago mourns another police officer killed in a Chicago neighborhood. According to the editorial in today's Chicago SunTimes, the wife of slain officer Thor Soderberg "took a moment to call us to a higher purpose."
She said, "Here is what you can do. If you have the opportunity to do something and change someone's life for the better, do it.
Start by taking care of every child. Thor and I knew that each young person needs five important adults and one strong adult to provide a positive influence in their lives.
Everyone one of us can do a tremendous amount of good to impact a child, even one that isn't ours."
This is what the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been saying for the past 16 years. Every child needs a range of extra adults in their lives, and kids in high poverty neighborhoods need churches, community centers, local businesses, and/or non profit organizations to provide organized, structured spaces, where those extra adults can connect, and stay connected, with kids for many years.
Volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, like Cabrini Connections, and many others who have web sites in the Chicago Programs Links Library, offer such structure. However, we can't do this without more donors stepping forward to provide the money to pay for the rent, insurance, staffing, technology and other basic costs of these programs.
If you use the T/MC Program Locator, you can zoom into different parts of the city where there is high poverty, and too many poorly performing schools. You'll see that there are far to few places in these neighborhoods where kids and extra adults can connect. Furthermore, in many of these neighborhoods, there are too few extra adults because everyone is dealing with the impacts of poverty and violence.
Thus, it's up to the greater Chicago region to respond. I encourage you to look at this transportation map, showing high way and Metra routes, linking the LOOP with the suburbs. Every day thousands of potential volunteers and donors pass through poverty neighborhoods on their way to, or from, work.
Heed the call from Jennifer Loudon, wife of Thor Soderberg.
The articles on this blog, and the links we point to, provide information that can be used by anyone who wants to do more to respond to this call for involvement. Form a learning group. Make time every week to read a little, talk about these ideas with friends, family, and co-workers. Then build an action strategy, and stick to it.
Learn more about how you, your church, your business, and/or your alumni and social group can make these networks of extra adults more available to youth in the high poverty areas of the Chicago region, and to all other youth who need extra help from structured tutor/mentor programs.
She said, "Here is what you can do. If you have the opportunity to do something and change someone's life for the better, do it.
Start by taking care of every child. Thor and I knew that each young person needs five important adults and one strong adult to provide a positive influence in their lives.
Everyone one of us can do a tremendous amount of good to impact a child, even one that isn't ours."
This is what the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been saying for the past 16 years. Every child needs a range of extra adults in their lives, and kids in high poverty neighborhoods need churches, community centers, local businesses, and/or non profit organizations to provide organized, structured spaces, where those extra adults can connect, and stay connected, with kids for many years.
Volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, like Cabrini Connections, and many others who have web sites in the Chicago Programs Links Library, offer such structure. However, we can't do this without more donors stepping forward to provide the money to pay for the rent, insurance, staffing, technology and other basic costs of these programs.
If you use the T/MC Program Locator, you can zoom into different parts of the city where there is high poverty, and too many poorly performing schools. You'll see that there are far to few places in these neighborhoods where kids and extra adults can connect. Furthermore, in many of these neighborhoods, there are too few extra adults because everyone is dealing with the impacts of poverty and violence.Thus, it's up to the greater Chicago region to respond. I encourage you to look at this transportation map, showing high way and Metra routes, linking the LOOP with the suburbs. Every day thousands of potential volunteers and donors pass through poverty neighborhoods on their way to, or from, work.
Heed the call from Jennifer Loudon, wife of Thor Soderberg.
The articles on this blog, and the links we point to, provide information that can be used by anyone who wants to do more to respond to this call for involvement. Form a learning group. Make time every week to read a little, talk about these ideas with friends, family, and co-workers. Then build an action strategy, and stick to it.
Learn more about how you, your church, your business, and/or your alumni and social group can make these networks of extra adults more available to youth in the high poverty areas of the Chicago region, and to all other youth who need extra help from structured tutor/mentor programs.
Friday, July 09, 2010
Have fun. Help Kids. Cabrini Connections Golf Benefit
Next Thursday, July 15, is our annual Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection Golf Benefit, which will be held at Highland Park Country Club. This event helps raise money to fund our programs, and helps recruit new leaders and volunteers who will help us in the coming school year. We're still accepting sponsors, golfers and donors and dinner guests. If you can help us, please do.
We've some great items for our silent auction, such as Notre Dame football tickets, a huge TV, golf packages at The Glen Club, Olympia Fields Country Club, tickets to the BMW Golf Championship etc. And there are dinner packages at Schubas, Lincoln Hall, the Dana Hotel and Spa, and much, much more.
You can see the full list at Cabrini Connections Silent Auction List
We've started an on-line auction for those who cannot join us next Thursday.
Without the help of our donors, golfers and sponsors we could not offer the programs of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Thank you.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Think of all the people who helped you
We have a new member on our team. She is Karina Walker, a recent graduate from Northwestern University. I've asked her to review the other articles on our blogs and see how we are visualizing strategies that help kids move from poverty to jobs. This graphic is from a blog article Karina posted today.I encourage you to read Karina's introduction article and follow her progress as she gets to know us, and begins to share what she knows with people in her own network.
If you're reading this, why not map your own network, and connect those who helped you to us, or other tutor/mentor programs, so you can help future generations.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Map your Network. Nudge your Network.
One of the books I've read is titled Jesus, CEO. It talks about how one person, with just a few friends, and no high level connections (on this earth)was able to change the world.
I'm one of those grains of sand on the beach that you never notice. Yet, my goal is to change the future for kids born in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago, not just the kids who participate in the Cabrini Connections program that I've led since 1993.
So, without any high level friends, no wealth, and only 24 hours in each day, how can I have an impact on the world. How can YOU have an impact on your world?
Below is a map of one part of my network.
If you click here, you can see this live.
This map shows places hosted by Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, where we share our ideas and try to help people get involved with what we do.
The map shows places such as Social Edge, where we participate in discussions hosted by others. It shows links to our blog list, where there are more than 100 blogs where I've shared ideas, and where smarter people than me are writing about the same issues that I care about.
It shows the social media where I have friends and where I connect with many others. It also shows some of the fund raising portals where we try to raise money.
I spend time every week, visiting most of these sites, posting messages that I feel add value, and which I hope will encourage people to visit the CC, T/MC sites to learn more.
In this graphic, the goal is to illustrate a funnel, with the narrow end pointing to the information hosted on T/MC web sites. Imagine how many people in the world care about the same issues we care about, who could be mapping their own networks, and spending time every week, encouraging the people they know to look at the information we host, and find some way to help tutor/mentor programs connect with kids as part of strategies to help those kids move through school and into jobs and careers.
Everyone has a network. Anyone can map their network. Anyone can nudge their network.
You can have a greater impact on the world than you think, if you are following some of these ideas and pointing your network to information that they can use to support the cause you are focusing on.
If you're doing this, why not share you maps with us so we can learn from you.
I'm one of those grains of sand on the beach that you never notice. Yet, my goal is to change the future for kids born in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago, not just the kids who participate in the Cabrini Connections program that I've led since 1993.
So, without any high level friends, no wealth, and only 24 hours in each day, how can I have an impact on the world. How can YOU have an impact on your world?
Below is a map of one part of my network.
If you click here, you can see this live. This map shows places hosted by Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, where we share our ideas and try to help people get involved with what we do.
The map shows places such as Social Edge, where we participate in discussions hosted by others. It shows links to our blog list, where there are more than 100 blogs where I've shared ideas, and where smarter people than me are writing about the same issues that I care about.
It shows the social media where I have friends and where I connect with many others. It also shows some of the fund raising portals where we try to raise money.
I spend time every week, visiting most of these sites, posting messages that I feel add value, and which I hope will encourage people to visit the CC, T/MC sites to learn more.
In this graphic, the goal is to illustrate a funnel, with the narrow end pointing to the information hosted on T/MC web sites. Imagine how many people in the world care about the same issues we care about, who could be mapping their own networks, and spending time every week, encouraging the people they know to look at the information we host, and find some way to help tutor/mentor programs connect with kids as part of strategies to help those kids move through school and into jobs and careers.Everyone has a network. Anyone can map their network. Anyone can nudge their network.
You can have a greater impact on the world than you think, if you are following some of these ideas and pointing your network to information that they can use to support the cause you are focusing on.
If you're doing this, why not share you maps with us so we can learn from you.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Freedom. The Vision of a Few. Benefit to Many.
As we celebrate this weekend, think of how the ideas of just a few people can change the world. This video illustrates the power of a few who are joined by many others.
We hope Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection is a vision that has the same power.
We hope Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection is a vision that has the same power.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Map your Twitter connections
I encourage you to visit this Mentionmap site and put your twitter name in, then see who you're most connected to. Try @tutormentorteam and you'll see how we're connecting with.
This blog shows how to use the Mentionmap site.
This blog shows how to use the Mentionmap site.
Connecting Conferences
While the National Conference on Volunteering is taking place this week in Chicago, most people who are involved in volunteer-based organizations, are in their local programs trying to find ways to keep their programs in business, and improve the impact of what they do.
This video is from the May 27 and 28 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, held in Chicago. More than 140 people attended, and shared ideas. On the conference web site you can see some of the presentations, photos, and an attendee list that enables people who attended, or did not attend, to connect with each other.
Below is a map, showing the range of organizations that were at the conference. All of these are groups with a common goal of helping connect youth in high poverty areas with extra adults, and extra learning, primarily in non-school hours and non-school locations.
Imagine if network maps like this were being created at big conferences like the one in New York City, showing how people are connected to each other, and how they might stay connected in the weeks and months between now and the next conference a year from now.
We're planning for fall 2010 Tutor/Mentor Connection activities, including a Tutor/Mentor Jam Concert to be held August 29th in Chicago, and another conference in November. For us to make these a success, we need a network of donors, sponsors and volunteers to step forward to help. We can shape the future in the image we want it to be, but not without the full support of resource providers, volunteers, students, peers and many other people.
Monday, June 28, 2010
National Conference on Volunteering and Service This Week
This week leaders from business, philanthropy, media and the non-profit sector are gathering in New York City to share ideas on volunteering and community service.
I attended the conference twice in the past, so I'd like to share some thoughts while this event is gaining national attention.
First, if we want to help more kids from high poverty and minority neighborhoods succeed in school and move to jobs and careers, we need to connect them with volunteers who can mentor different types of jobs and careers, because they are already holding these jobs.
Second, we need to visualize this as a long-term strategy, that will take the involvement of many people, organizations, and leaders, over many years.
Thus, while leaders are talking about volunteering and service, we need them to think of the infrastructure of a non profit, that supports the involvement of volunteers as tutors/mentors, leaders, tech support, innovators, accountants, and every other role that any business needs to be successful.
How do we make this happen, not just in a few places, but in all of the high poverty places in every big city, where the high school drop out rates, and the crime/violence rates, are the highest?
After I attended the June 2008 national conference, I wrote some articles that share my thinking.
June 7, 2008 - Maximizing Value from Civic Engagement
June 9, 2008 - "Our greatest challenge is the gaps between rich and poor." Jimmy Carter
June 10, 2008 - War on Poverty Requires Sophisticated Battle Plan
June 11, 2008 - Expanding the volunteer workforce - capacity building
June 13, 2008 - Marketing Civic Responsibility
Note. Some of the links in these articles may be broken due to changing web sites. All of the essays that we've written can be found in the Tutor/Mentor Institute library.
If this year's conference results in a surge of reinforcements to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs strengthen their infrastructure, pay the rent, and keep staff employed, we'll start the 2010-11 school year with stronger organizations working to keep kids and volunteers connected for another school year.
If we don't ramp up the reinforcements, it will be like saying to your kids, "I gave you birth and have raised you to this level. Now you need to go out and find new parents because I've run out of money to keep helping you grow up."
I attended the conference twice in the past, so I'd like to share some thoughts while this event is gaining national attention.
First, if we want to help more kids from high poverty and minority neighborhoods succeed in school and move to jobs and careers, we need to connect them with volunteers who can mentor different types of jobs and careers, because they are already holding these jobs.
Second, we need to visualize this as a long-term strategy, that will take the involvement of many people, organizations, and leaders, over many years.
Thus, while leaders are talking about volunteering and service, we need them to think of the infrastructure of a non profit, that supports the involvement of volunteers as tutors/mentors, leaders, tech support, innovators, accountants, and every other role that any business needs to be successful.How do we make this happen, not just in a few places, but in all of the high poverty places in every big city, where the high school drop out rates, and the crime/violence rates, are the highest?
After I attended the June 2008 national conference, I wrote some articles that share my thinking.
June 7, 2008 - Maximizing Value from Civic Engagement
June 9, 2008 - "Our greatest challenge is the gaps between rich and poor." Jimmy Carter
June 10, 2008 - War on Poverty Requires Sophisticated Battle Plan
June 11, 2008 - Expanding the volunteer workforce - capacity building
June 13, 2008 - Marketing Civic Responsibility
Note. Some of the links in these articles may be broken due to changing web sites. All of the essays that we've written can be found in the Tutor/Mentor Institute library.
If this year's conference results in a surge of reinforcements to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs strengthen their infrastructure, pay the rent, and keep staff employed, we'll start the 2010-11 school year with stronger organizations working to keep kids and volunteers connected for another school year.
If we don't ramp up the reinforcements, it will be like saying to your kids, "I gave you birth and have raised you to this level. Now you need to go out and find new parents because I've run out of money to keep helping you grow up."
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Chris Bosh, Chris Zorich. What in Common?
I heard Chris Bosh, NBA basketball star, talking on the radio the other day about a youth charity he leads. He's shopping his skills to many cities, and will have a new contract at $16.5 million per year by the end of July. Any city that gets his services, might also get his support for youth programs.
I also saw an article in the Chicago Tribune about how Chris Zorch, a former football star at Notre Dame, and a "not so great" star with the Chicago Bears, started a youth charity, but that it's now "in disarray" with almost $850,000 in un-accounted donations that have not been distributed to help needed people, as was promised.
Zorich never made as much as Bosh, but $850,000 would do a lot to help Cabrini Connections, or other tutor/mentor programs, overcome the loss of donors caused by this depression.
The Tribune article goes on to talk about the charities of many athletes. Lots of good intentions, but not a lot of business experience. Too bad. That star power could do a lot to help us help kids.
I've written articles in the past showing the potential of athletes using their start power to draw more consistent attention to all of the tutor/mentor programs in Chicago than those programs can do for themselves. I encourage you to read these.
El Da'Sheon Nix, who leads our Cabrini Connections program, and is a former football player at Northwestern, also writes a series of articles using sports concepts to show how tutor/mentor programs work like sports teams, and need fans in the stands and boosters, to help them be great programs.
I tried to find the Chris Bosh Foundation with a Google search, and could not find it. I started "following" him on Twitter, to see if I can get his attention. If he comes to Chicago, he could be a great addition to the Tutor/Mentor Connection team.
If he goes to another big city, he could still use the ideas on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site to add some new plays to his game plan.
If you're in high school, college, or have been lucky enough to make it to the pros, I hope you'll take a look at these ideas.
I also saw an article in the Chicago Tribune about how Chris Zorch, a former football star at Notre Dame, and a "not so great" star with the Chicago Bears, started a youth charity, but that it's now "in disarray" with almost $850,000 in un-accounted donations that have not been distributed to help needed people, as was promised.
Zorich never made as much as Bosh, but $850,000 would do a lot to help Cabrini Connections, or other tutor/mentor programs, overcome the loss of donors caused by this depression.
The Tribune article goes on to talk about the charities of many athletes. Lots of good intentions, but not a lot of business experience. Too bad. That star power could do a lot to help us help kids.
I've written articles in the past showing the potential of athletes using their start power to draw more consistent attention to all of the tutor/mentor programs in Chicago than those programs can do for themselves. I encourage you to read these.
El Da'Sheon Nix, who leads our Cabrini Connections program, and is a former football player at Northwestern, also writes a series of articles using sports concepts to show how tutor/mentor programs work like sports teams, and need fans in the stands and boosters, to help them be great programs.
I tried to find the Chris Bosh Foundation with a Google search, and could not find it. I started "following" him on Twitter, to see if I can get his attention. If he comes to Chicago, he could be a great addition to the Tutor/Mentor Connection team.
If he goes to another big city, he could still use the ideas on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site to add some new plays to his game plan.
If you're in high school, college, or have been lucky enough to make it to the pros, I hope you'll take a look at these ideas.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Connecting the Network
The image below shows the range of different organizations who connected to each other at the May 2010 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference held at Loyola. This was the 16th year we've offered a May conference. It's only possible because so many people volunteer to be speakers and because we've been able to scrape together a few dollars to organize these.
One participant was Charles Cameron, who hosts discussions on the Social Edge forum. This week, Charles has taken the discussion from the Conference in Chicago, back to the Social Edge web site, where it is connecting our network with people from throughout the world who might use our ideas to help kids in their own community, or who might add their time, talent, or dollars, to help us provide these services in Chicago.
Join in and see how we're connecting networks. Then visit the Social Network Analysis group on our Ning site, and learn how we're trying to map network growth, showing the role of an intermediary like T/MC in helping connect people from around the city, and the world, with each other. As you browse this group, you can also see how we're trying to show how a tutor/mentor program expands the network for youth, and adults.
This article says "it's who you know, not just what you know". We agree, and we hope that investors will also agree, and provide the dollars that each tutor/mentor program needs to build and sustain this type of network surrounding inner city kids.
One participant was Charles Cameron, who hosts discussions on the Social Edge forum. This week, Charles has taken the discussion from the Conference in Chicago, back to the Social Edge web site, where it is connecting our network with people from throughout the world who might use our ideas to help kids in their own community, or who might add their time, talent, or dollars, to help us provide these services in Chicago.
Join in and see how we're connecting networks. Then visit the Social Network Analysis group on our Ning site, and learn how we're trying to map network growth, showing the role of an intermediary like T/MC in helping connect people from around the city, and the world, with each other. As you browse this group, you can also see how we're trying to show how a tutor/mentor program expands the network for youth, and adults.
This article says "it's who you know, not just what you know". We agree, and we hope that investors will also agree, and provide the dollars that each tutor/mentor program needs to build and sustain this type of network surrounding inner city kids.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Don't Forget. Message from 1992,
In October 1992, when we started Cabrini Connections, the front page of the Chicago SunTimes demanded action, and responsibility, from all citizens of Chicago. We've responded to that call for 17 years with the services offered by Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection.The economy is causing past donors to cut funding, so we need help from many volunteers and friends to find new donors and sponsors to keep us in the business of mentoring for the coming year.
Please look for ways you can encourage people in your network to become donors, sponsors and/or benefactors. Don't "hope" that someone else will take this role.
Visit http://cabrinitmcfundraising.blogspot.com to see different ways that you, your friends, or your company, can become involved.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
$41 trillion in wealth transfer. Getting a Share.
I've been leading a non profit for 20 years. I'm tired of constantly searching for scarce dollars. I want to find ways to change the way we're funded.
So, when I read about $41 trillion in wealth being transferred over the next half century, with at least $6 trillion being allocated to charity, I want to find a way that my organization, and other tutor/mentor programs, get a fair share.
I've learned to tell the tutor/mentor story every day, in many ways, so that we find the donors we need to keep Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connections in business.
However, this is not something others are used to doing. In many organizations, and businesses, the sales team, who generates revenue, is separated from the operations team, who spends the money.
In a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, the people managing the volunteers are not always the people responsible for raising the money. However, I believe it is absolutely essential that these roles be blended.
Why? I've just read a chapter of a book titled Death and Dollars. The chapter I read it titled How do People Leave Bequests: Family or Philanthropic Organization? It was written by Paul G. Schervish and John J. Havens.
The first part of this chapter suggests that "self-identification with others in their needs (rather than selflessness) motivates transfers to individuals and to philanthropic organizations and leads givers to derive satisfaction from those needs"
Furthermore, "identification with others develops and is applied primarily through networks of association that bring donors into contact with potential recipients".
Thus, the volunteer who becomes part of a tutor/mentor program, is beginning to form an association with that organization. If that relationship is sustained, and nurtured, and retained over many years, the organization is building a network of future benefactors.
This graphic is the first screen of an animated presentation done for the Tutor/Mentor Connection, by Li Li, an intern from the University of Michigan.
This illustrates that the support given to volunteers, so they are effective, satisfied, tutors/mentors, leads to their growth as an advocate for the youth, and the organization, if sustained for many years.
Thus, to anyone leading a tutor/mentor program, the strategies you use to recruit and train volunteers, can also be strategies to capture a share of this future wealth transfer, ensuring that you have the operating dollars essential for supporting the involvement of other volunteers in the future.
While this is a strategy at Cabrini Connections, we only have 100 volunteers involved each year. There are at least 100 other tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region that have between 50 and 100 or more volunteers each. If all of those programs were thinking the same way, and linking to each other, we would be coaching a pool of 5000 to 10,000 volunteers each year. If this were happening in 100 cities across the country, we would be mentoring the growth of over 1 million volunteers each year.
Why is this so important? We cannot operate effective, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs with the small pools of inconsistent funding that are available to us from the current donor population and/or from public dollars. Inconsistent revenue means that we cannot attract and keep high-quality leaders, who are the glue that keeps kids and volunteers involved. We cannot do the data management, learning and network-building that keeps us connected to our students and volunteers beyond the years they are active in a program. We cannot be connected to our peers the way we need to be.
And this means that we will not have the impact on youth aspirations and attitudes and learning habits, that is so essential to feed the 21st century economy with skilled, knowledge-centered, workers and informed citizens.
I hope that you'll take time to read these articles, and look at the previous blog articles I've posted related to leadership, network building, collaboration, etc. and think of ways your actions, or your organization, can combine with actions of many other people, so volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs earn a share of this $41 trillion dollar wealth transfer.
So, when I read about $41 trillion in wealth being transferred over the next half century, with at least $6 trillion being allocated to charity, I want to find a way that my organization, and other tutor/mentor programs, get a fair share.
I've learned to tell the tutor/mentor story every day, in many ways, so that we find the donors we need to keep Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connections in business.
However, this is not something others are used to doing. In many organizations, and businesses, the sales team, who generates revenue, is separated from the operations team, who spends the money.
In a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, the people managing the volunteers are not always the people responsible for raising the money. However, I believe it is absolutely essential that these roles be blended.
Why? I've just read a chapter of a book titled Death and Dollars. The chapter I read it titled How do People Leave Bequests: Family or Philanthropic Organization? It was written by Paul G. Schervish and John J. Havens.
The first part of this chapter suggests that "self-identification with others in their needs (rather than selflessness) motivates transfers to individuals and to philanthropic organizations and leads givers to derive satisfaction from those needs"
Furthermore, "identification with others develops and is applied primarily through networks of association that bring donors into contact with potential recipients".
Thus, the volunteer who becomes part of a tutor/mentor program, is beginning to form an association with that organization. If that relationship is sustained, and nurtured, and retained over many years, the organization is building a network of future benefactors.
This graphic is the first screen of an animated presentation done for the Tutor/Mentor Connection, by Li Li, an intern from the University of Michigan. This illustrates that the support given to volunteers, so they are effective, satisfied, tutors/mentors, leads to their growth as an advocate for the youth, and the organization, if sustained for many years.
Thus, to anyone leading a tutor/mentor program, the strategies you use to recruit and train volunteers, can also be strategies to capture a share of this future wealth transfer, ensuring that you have the operating dollars essential for supporting the involvement of other volunteers in the future.
While this is a strategy at Cabrini Connections, we only have 100 volunteers involved each year. There are at least 100 other tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region that have between 50 and 100 or more volunteers each. If all of those programs were thinking the same way, and linking to each other, we would be coaching a pool of 5000 to 10,000 volunteers each year. If this were happening in 100 cities across the country, we would be mentoring the growth of over 1 million volunteers each year.
Why is this so important? We cannot operate effective, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs with the small pools of inconsistent funding that are available to us from the current donor population and/or from public dollars. Inconsistent revenue means that we cannot attract and keep high-quality leaders, who are the glue that keeps kids and volunteers involved. We cannot do the data management, learning and network-building that keeps us connected to our students and volunteers beyond the years they are active in a program. We cannot be connected to our peers the way we need to be.
And this means that we will not have the impact on youth aspirations and attitudes and learning habits, that is so essential to feed the 21st century economy with skilled, knowledge-centered, workers and informed citizens.
I hope that you'll take time to read these articles, and look at the previous blog articles I've posted related to leadership, network building, collaboration, etc. and think of ways your actions, or your organization, can combine with actions of many other people, so volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs earn a share of this $41 trillion dollar wealth transfer.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Research shows connection of violence, academic performance
Thanks to Phil Jackson and The Black Star Project for sharing this story via their email newsletter. This study, By Deborah L. Shelton, Chicago Tribune reporter, "says academic performance suffers whether they witness the nearby violence or not" Read the full article.
One of the speakers at the May 27 and 28 conference was Deanna Wilkerson, a professor at Ohio State University, and an expert on urban violence and its impact on youth. You can find her presentation, along with those of other speakers on the conference web site. You can connect directly with her in the Tutor/Mentor Connection on-line forum.
Volunteers, in well-organized tutoring/mentoring programs, can provide a range of mentoring, coaching, tutoring and social/emotional support to help youth overcome the impact of violence in their lives, if the programs are available, and if the programs have the consistent funding to be as strong as they need to be, and to stay that way for many years.
So, if you want to do something to help kids living in inner city war zones, pick one of the programs listed on this list of Chicago Program web sites, or Cabrini Connections, and send a donation today.
If you want to know what a "well organized program looks like" browse the web sites we point to, and compare them to each other. Some do a great job of showing what they do. Others make it difficult for you to know they have a mentoring program. Look at when they were formed. The longer they've been hosting a tutor/mentor program (not how long the agency has been in business), the more likely that the program is well organized (or it would not have lasted so long!).
Some use graphics to show their strategy, such as this page on the BUILD web site and this page on the Breakthrough Urban Ministries site.
Cabrini Connections shows its Success Strategy on its home page, and shows many of the other ideas we apply, on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site.
Don't penalize programs that don't look as good as other programs. Use the ideas from all of the web sites we point to, to help each program become a world-class organization. They all need to be great, because they are all serving different kids in different parts of the city. You can see this distribution using the interactive tutor/mentor program locator.
This information was provided by the Tutor/Mentor Connection, a part of the Cabrini Connections non-profit organization. There are hundreds of questions that could be asked about the tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, based on the database we maintain, but we barely have enough money to keep the database current and share the information on web sites.
If you want to help tutor/mentor programs grow in all poverty neighborhoods, and where violence is influencing student aspirations and learning, then provide dollars to the Tutor/Mentor Connection, as well as to individual programs.
One of the speakers at the May 27 and 28 conference was Deanna Wilkerson, a professor at Ohio State University, and an expert on urban violence and its impact on youth. You can find her presentation, along with those of other speakers on the conference web site. You can connect directly with her in the Tutor/Mentor Connection on-line forum.Volunteers, in well-organized tutoring/mentoring programs, can provide a range of mentoring, coaching, tutoring and social/emotional support to help youth overcome the impact of violence in their lives, if the programs are available, and if the programs have the consistent funding to be as strong as they need to be, and to stay that way for many years.
So, if you want to do something to help kids living in inner city war zones, pick one of the programs listed on this list of Chicago Program web sites, or Cabrini Connections, and send a donation today.
If you want to know what a "well organized program looks like" browse the web sites we point to, and compare them to each other. Some do a great job of showing what they do. Others make it difficult for you to know they have a mentoring program. Look at when they were formed. The longer they've been hosting a tutor/mentor program (not how long the agency has been in business), the more likely that the program is well organized (or it would not have lasted so long!).
Some use graphics to show their strategy, such as this page on the BUILD web site and this page on the Breakthrough Urban Ministries site.
Cabrini Connections shows its Success Strategy on its home page, and shows many of the other ideas we apply, on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site.
Don't penalize programs that don't look as good as other programs. Use the ideas from all of the web sites we point to, to help each program become a world-class organization. They all need to be great, because they are all serving different kids in different parts of the city. You can see this distribution using the interactive tutor/mentor program locator.
This information was provided by the Tutor/Mentor Connection, a part of the Cabrini Connections non-profit organization. There are hundreds of questions that could be asked about the tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, based on the database we maintain, but we barely have enough money to keep the database current and share the information on web sites.
If you want to help tutor/mentor programs grow in all poverty neighborhoods, and where violence is influencing student aspirations and learning, then provide dollars to the Tutor/Mentor Connection, as well as to individual programs.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
"It gave me my foundation" says alum
Tangela Smith Marlow attended Cabrini Connections from 1993 to 1997 when she finished high school. Since then she has finished college, become a mom, and holds a good job. She's now taking grad school courses. She is still connected to the Cabrini Connections network via Facebook and Linked In.
She was a speaker at the June 10 year end dinner.
Tangela is one of the co-sponsors of the Cabrini Connections Alumni Fund. Can you join her as a supporter of Cabrini Connections?
She was a speaker at the June 10 year end dinner.
Year-End Dinner 2010: Tangela Marlowe from Cabrini Connections on Vimeo.
Tangela is one of the co-sponsors of the Cabrini Connections Alumni Fund. Can you join her as a supporter of Cabrini Connections?
Friday, June 11, 2010
Miles of Smiles at Cabrini Connections
Here's a video of the Cabrini Connections year end dinner, created by Minsang Lee, an intern from Korea and IIT who is volunteering with us. Enjoy it.
Find more videos like this on Tutor/Mentor Connection
Find more videos like this on Tutor/Mentor Connection
"Thus is truly a divine organization"
Last night Cabrini Connections hosted it's annual year end dinner, with more than 200 students, parents, alumni, volunteers and leaders in attendance. We'll post photos and videos on the Cabrini Blog and other place over the coming week.
However, I want to share a few quotes while they are fresh in my mind.
One parent spoke for about 10 minutes, gushing with enthusiasm, and love, about the volunteer tutor/mentor who has worked with her daughter for six years. She said of the volunteer and Cabrini Connections, "they go the extra mile" and "This is truly a devin organization."
She ended by presenting a dozen roses to the volunteer.
Then one of our alumi, Tangela Smith Marlow, spoke. Tangela graduated in 1997 after being part of the program since it was founded in 1993. She has finished college, is a mom, has a good job, and now is in graduate school.
She said "I am super mom!"
She also said "This program was my foundation" and "when tutoring is over, that's not the end of it".
There's much more. The video club showcase four short videos. The tech club showed the pilot of a video game they are creating. The art club showcased art they did this year. The writing club presented a story/poem that they created.
These are all part of a Success Steps Strategy intended to help kids living in high poverty neighborhoods grow up to be healthy, contributing adults, who have a network of adults and friends who are still helping them many years past when they were active at Cabrini Connections.
When it was my turn to speak I thanked everyone for the work they do to make Cabrini Connections great, and to bring out the greatness in each student, volunteer and leader.
Then I quoted a frustration expressed by El Da'Sheon Nix, the leader of the Cabrini Connection part of this organization. "If we're doing such good work, why is it so difficult to find the money to pay for it?"
We're not "fixing" broken kids. We're trying to help good kids overcome the challenges of living in high poverty neighborhoods of a huge city. If you think this is important, you should help us do this. Or you should help someone else do this in other neighborhoods where similar programs are needed.
I challenged everyone to share the stories of last night's dinner, and of their experiences with Cabrini Connections, with friends, family, co-workers and anyone who might help with a donation, small or large.
You can still make a dinner donation. You can donate to the alumni fund. Or, you can become a sponsor for the July 15 golf benefit.
If you are a new donor, or if you increase your donation over 2009, your donation will be matched (up to $1,750) by a generous donor.
However, I want to share a few quotes while they are fresh in my mind.
One parent spoke for about 10 minutes, gushing with enthusiasm, and love, about the volunteer tutor/mentor who has worked with her daughter for six years. She said of the volunteer and Cabrini Connections, "they go the extra mile" and "This is truly a devin organization."
She ended by presenting a dozen roses to the volunteer.
Then one of our alumi, Tangela Smith Marlow, spoke. Tangela graduated in 1997 after being part of the program since it was founded in 1993. She has finished college, is a mom, has a good job, and now is in graduate school.
She said "I am super mom!"
She also said "This program was my foundation" and "when tutoring is over, that's not the end of it".
There's much more. The video club showcase four short videos. The tech club showed the pilot of a video game they are creating. The art club showcased art they did this year. The writing club presented a story/poem that they created.
These are all part of a Success Steps Strategy intended to help kids living in high poverty neighborhoods grow up to be healthy, contributing adults, who have a network of adults and friends who are still helping them many years past when they were active at Cabrini Connections.
When it was my turn to speak I thanked everyone for the work they do to make Cabrini Connections great, and to bring out the greatness in each student, volunteer and leader.
Then I quoted a frustration expressed by El Da'Sheon Nix, the leader of the Cabrini Connection part of this organization. "If we're doing such good work, why is it so difficult to find the money to pay for it?"
We're not "fixing" broken kids. We're trying to help good kids overcome the challenges of living in high poverty neighborhoods of a huge city. If you think this is important, you should help us do this. Or you should help someone else do this in other neighborhoods where similar programs are needed.
I challenged everyone to share the stories of last night's dinner, and of their experiences with Cabrini Connections, with friends, family, co-workers and anyone who might help with a donation, small or large.
You can still make a dinner donation. You can donate to the alumni fund. Or, you can become a sponsor for the July 15 golf benefit.
If you are a new donor, or if you increase your donation over 2009, your donation will be matched (up to $1,750) by a generous donor.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Becoming Great. Learn from Others.
In 1975 when I first began leading the volunteer-based tutor/mentor program at the Montgomery Ward headquarters in Chicago, an officer said to me "You don't know much about this. Why don't you find other programs in Chicago and invite them to lunch. See what you can learn from them."
I've been doing this network-building and learning for the past 35 years. It's the reason I'm still in this work. It is advise I share with anyone else starting, or leading, a tutor/mentor program.
One of the keynote speakers of the last Tutor/Mentor Conference, was Catherine Gottfred, Founder, LEAP Learning Systems I've known her for almost 20 years, since she began her work with the Chicago Youth Center in Cabrini Green. Catherine talked about "Youth Brain Development and Literacy"
Michael Levesque, Executive Director, Leap Learning Systems, did a workshop titled "Race, Language, and the Achievement Gap in America". Here's the PDF of Michael's presentation.
What's great to see at these conferences, is the networking of speakers and participants, after each workshop, and during the lunch session.
You can find more pictures, more of the workshop presentation PDFs, and a list of attendees on the conference web site.
This conference, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, have been made possible since 1994 because the leaders of one small non profit have raised the money to cover the costs, while operating their own Cabrini Connections program. This has become more and more difficult with the deepening recession. We need your help.
You can make donations to support the Tutor/Mentor Connection and the Conference at this link. And, you can become a sponsor of the conferences, at this link. Please help us continue to do what we do to help hundreds of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs learn from each other, so they can do more to help kids living in poverty.
I've been doing this network-building and learning for the past 35 years. It's the reason I'm still in this work. It is advise I share with anyone else starting, or leading, a tutor/mentor program.
One of the keynote speakers of the last Tutor/Mentor Conference, was Catherine Gottfred, Founder, LEAP Learning Systems I've known her for almost 20 years, since she began her work with the Chicago Youth Center in Cabrini Green. Catherine talked about "Youth Brain Development and Literacy"
Michael Levesque, Executive Director, Leap Learning Systems, did a workshop titled "Race, Language, and the Achievement Gap in America". Here's the PDF of Michael's presentation.
What's great to see at these conferences, is the networking of speakers and participants, after each workshop, and during the lunch session.
You can find more pictures, more of the workshop presentation PDFs, and a list of attendees on the conference web site. This conference, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, have been made possible since 1994 because the leaders of one small non profit have raised the money to cover the costs, while operating their own Cabrini Connections program. This has become more and more difficult with the deepening recession. We need your help.
You can make donations to support the Tutor/Mentor Connection and the Conference at this link. And, you can become a sponsor of the conferences, at this link. Please help us continue to do what we do to help hundreds of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs learn from each other, so they can do more to help kids living in poverty.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Good to Great. How do we get there, and stay there
How many of you have read the Jim Collins book titled "Good to Great and the Social Sectors"? Here are some links to blog articles where the writers summarize this book
http://ericswanson.blogspot.com/2006/02/good-to-great-and-social-sector.html
Good to Great: Lessons for the Social Sector - click here
I’ve applied Good to Great concepts in the leadership of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection (and before that in my leadership of the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini Green Tutoring Program) since 1977 when I learned about Total Quality Management (TQM) while working as an Advertising Manager at Wards.
The key to constant improvement, is a commitment of leadership, and members of the organization to constantly look for ways to improve. I describe this in the Operating Philosophy, posted on the Tutor/Mentor Institute web site.
However, I'm convinced that the only way non profits can become great, and remain great for many years, is if they can develop consistent revenue streams that enable them to hire and retain talented people, and that give these people time during the work day for expanding their network and learning from others, reflecting, and innovating new ways to improve from year-to-year.
Thus, I'm constantly working to teach our volunteers, Directors, friends, and leaders of other tutor/mentor programs, to take on roles where they become agents, and advocates, for tutor/mentor programs.The Major League Baseball draft is going on right now. The first round pick is represented by an agent named Scot Boras, who is known for negotiating multi-millions dollar contracts for the talent he represents.
Each volunteer who wants to help Cabrini Connections and other tutor/mentor programs make a difference in the lives of kids needs to view him/herself as an "agent" working to build the best support possible for one, or many, tutor/mentor programs.
With this type of help, we can be great, and we can stay great.
That will result in more youth through school and into jobs and careers, which is the focus of this Forbes magazine article.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Network Mentoring Model - Conference Ideas
This is one photo taken during the May Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. See the album here.In this photo, Bill Curry, Chief Operations Officer, Breakthrough Urban Ministries, is describing The Breakthrough Network Model which suggests an innovative approach to growing mentoring relationships among a community of students and community of volunteers.
View Video showing the Breakthrough Model
View PDF of this presentation
In the coming two weeks I'll profile more of the speakers from the conference and point to their presentations and web sites. You can see the entire agenda here. By doing this I'm demonstrating a leadership role that thousands of people, who are not directly involved with any single tutor/mentor program, can take to help people become supporters of different programs, or to borrow ideas from one program to apply to many other places.
This is a network-building role that Tutor/Mentor Connection has taken since being formed in 1993. When you point your friends and business partners to tutor/mentor programs, point them to intermediaries like the T/MC, too. In this economy we all need help finding donors and sponsors.
Friday, June 04, 2010
D-Day. Make this a Weekend to Remember
As we remember the the WWII landing on Normandy on June 6, 1944, can you also make this a weekend when you make an extra effort to be a "hero" for Cabrini Connections?On June 10, Cabrini Connections will celebrate the end of its 17th full year.
We will have 9 seniors graduating from high school. Seven are already accepted to college. We will have more than 60 7th to 11th graders who expect to participate in this program again next year. We need help from you and many other heroes to make this happen.
This weekend, can you ask one or two people you meet to make a donation to support the continued operations of our army of youth and volunteers? Can you make a donation, a bequest, or be a sponsor?
Please send a D-Day Donation to:
Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection
800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642
Donate Online: http://www.cabriniconnections.net/donate-online1
Use this form to send a donation.
http://www.cabriniconnections.net/images/PDF/may10request.pdf
Visit Cabrini Connections at http://www.cabriniconnections.netLearn about the Tutor/Mentor Connection at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org
Read the blogs and see how your donations are being put to good use.
http://cabriniblog.blogspot.com
http://cabrinitmcfundraising.blogspot.com
Thank you! Please forward this request to others.
Daniel F. Bassill, President, CEO
312-492-9614 tutormentor2@earthlink.net
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Help a Tutor/Mentor Program
This video was created by one of the Interns who have worked with the Tutor/Mentor Connection over the past few years.
Find more videos like this on Tutor/Mentor Connection
As programs are celebrating the end of this school year, they are looking for dollars to help them provide services in the coming school year. Make a donation. Be a sponsor. Make a bequest.
Create a legacy.
Find more videos like this on Tutor/Mentor Connection
As programs are celebrating the end of this school year, they are looking for dollars to help them provide services in the coming school year. Make a donation. Be a sponsor. Make a bequest.
Create a legacy.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Network Building - Tutor/Mentor Conference
This is a photo from a workshop hosted by Alex Cornwell, Director, Chicago Lights Tutoring and Summer Day at Fourth Presbyterian Church, and Erin McPartlin, Executive Director, Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program, Inc.You can meet both in this video.
I received an email from one conference attendee which said, "Hi Dan - I want to thank you and your organization for providing scholarships for me and my staff person. I found the workshops to be insightful and the keynote speakers knowledgeable. I wanted to speak with you on several occasions but every time I wanted to approach you someone else would get your attention."
At every conference, I have a chance to meet and talk to just a few of the participants, and that's why we created the Attendee List and the Tutor/Mentor Connection on Ning. We want to have on-going discussions with every one of the 140 people who attended this conference, and the 3,000 or more who have attended conferences since we launched them in 1994. We also want to encourage this type of interaction between the people who come to the conference, and those who cannot come, so that we create a vibrant idea-sharing network of people who will work together to make sure we all have the tools and resources to keep kids and volunteers connected.
So, let's connect.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Connecting networks - Conference Follow up
This is the first of many photos taken at the May 27 and 28 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference that will be uploaded to our Ning photo gallery in the coming week.We'll also be posting the pdf presentations of many of the speakers and workshop presenters, such as this one, from Charles Cameron, who is a discussion facilitator on the www.socialedge.org forum.
The first speaker, Professor James Garbarino, Loyola University Chicago, author of "Lost Boys," on Violence and Young Men, provided a framework and focus for the conference.
He said, "it is essential to build a deeper understanding. Good intentions are not enough." And he said "It matters where you live", showing the connection between high poverty and high violence.
Then on Friday morning, Bill Curry, Executive Director, and founder, of Breakthrough Urban Ministries, introduced The Breakthrough Model for Tutoring and Mentoring. I'll post his presentation when I get it, but this video shows the model, and illustrates a vision that the T/MC fully supports.
More than 130 people attended the conference, and presented experience from many different types of tutoring and/or mentoring programs, as well as research on poverty and violence, that we can all learn from. I encourage you to browse the speaker list and visit web sites, and to use the attendee list to make contact and build relationships.
Follow this blog and the Tutor/Mentor Connection newsletter, and connect your ideas and strategies to the T/MC and each other, so we can do more to attract the resources, ideas and talent we need to implement and sustain these strategies for many years.
Finally, if you value what the Tutor/Mentor Connection is trying to do, to connect all of these organizations with a constantly expanding library of ideas, we need your donations and sponsorship to keep doing this work. You can sponsor the conference, or sponsor one of our fund raising events. Or you can just send a small donation.
I hope you'll help us help all of these organizations help thousands of kids living in poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Connecting the Network
I read a report produced by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and McKinsey and Company on a web site titled The NonProfit Marketplace: Bridging the Information Gap
In the introduction the authors write "Our hypothesis is that access to high-quality information will lead donors to allocate funds more strategically to organizations doing the best work. We also believe that having better performance information will help nonprofit organizations operate more effectively and better fulfill their missions."
In another section they propose to
"Aggregate and synthesize programmatic and performance information on nonprofit organizations... Segmentation of nonprofits by issue, geography, size, life stage, and goals will be essential both to enable meaningful performance comparisons and to create a level playing field for large and small as well as older and newer nonprofits.
and....
Push this information to places where donors are already seeking information and managing their money."
That's what the Tutor/Mentor Connection has been doing on a smaller scale for the past 16 years. We believe that until a city has a master database showing all of the organizations providing the same type service in different places, it won't have the knowledge needed of who is doing the work to be able to go to the next step of understanding what works, and innovating support systems to help existing programs improve and sustain their improvement for many years, while helping new programs form in areas where programs are needed (based on poverty, poorly performing schools, high drop out rates, youth violence, etc.) where our database show that few or no programs now exist.
This map was created by the T/MC's map make, Mike Trakan. He'll show it tomorrow at the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference at Loyola. Hopefully many of the tutor/mentor programs on the map will attend, and use the information provided by their network of peers, to learn ways to help their own programs become good, then great, then stay great.
Making the map is not enough. We need the ability to quantify the number of programs in each neighborhood, and the number of programs serving youth at each age level, in each neighborhood, We have that ability. You can use the Interactive Tutor/Mentor map to zoom into a community area, or section of the map. You can count the number of programs, just as we can. However, with a few more dollars, and the right talent, we can automate this, so it's easier to make sense of the information the map is showing.
Unfortunately, we don't expect anyone from the major consulting firms like McKinsey & Co or from the foundations, or businesses in Chicago who are demanding better outcomes from the public education system to meet the expected workforce shortages of the coming decades.
It's not that we don't want them to come. We just don't seem to be on their radar yet. And we don't have the advertising/PR dollars to get their attention.
However, if you're reading this, and you have browsed some of the other articles I've written, feel free to forward the invitation.
We accept walk in registrations to the conferee, and the real work is what happens in the weeks and months between each conference.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tutor/Mentor Conference. What Others Say.
Bradley Troast of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection interviewed leaders of four Chicago tutor/mentor programs who will be part of the May 27 and 28 Conference. View video at http://vimeo.com/12011074View this video and see how these leaders value the conference. Join them on Thursday and Friday, May 27 and 28, and build your own network.
If you can become a sponsor for the Tutor/Mentor Conferences, we'd appreciate your help.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Mission Impossible
I've led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program for 35 years. I believe the lives of youth and volunteers are enriched in many ways because of participation in these programs. The program I lead now is called Cabrini Connections. It operates in rented space at 800 W. Huron in Chicago and has 75 active teens and 90 volunteers. We have 9 seniors who will graduate from high school this spring and 7 are already accepted into college. 1/3 of our teens have been with us 3 to 6 years. More than 100 of our alumni, going back to the boy I first mentored in 1973, are connected to us on Facebook.
When we created Cabrini Connections in the fall of 1992, we had a second goal. We realized that tutor/mentor programs are needed in all high poverty areas, and that no one had a master database showing what programs were in Chicago, or where they operated. Thus, there could be no consistent leadership intended to help tutor/mentor programs reach more kids in high poverty areas. We called this new effort the Tutor/Mentor Connection. One of the tools we have created to show where programs are needed, and where they are located, are maps, like the one here.
By building a master database of programs, we not only can show where they are located, and where new ones are needed, we can invite programs to work together to generate more of the resources we all need to do this work.
That's where this becomes Mission Impossible.
While I read in many places how it is important to reduce the isolation of non profit leaders, and provide better information that parents, leaders, donors, etc. can use to know what services are available to young people, I've not been able to find the dollars needed to provide a consistent level of support to Cabrini Connections, or the Tutor/Mentor Connection.
The economy, environment, politics, terrorism all seem to work against us. While I have a passion for this work, there are high poverty neighborhoods all over the world where charity dollars are needed to support programs working with youth, the environment, health issues, etc. It seems an impossible task to draw consistent attention, and a consistent, on-going flow of flexible operations dollars to all of these places, on an on-going basis.
Yet, to me, this is the only way we can help our teens grow to adults, or others can make a dent in solving complex problems.
As I researched some ideas for this blog, I found a poem by: Edgar A. Guest, titled, It's Better to Have Tried
'Tis better to have tried in vain,
Sincerely striving for a goal,
Than to have lived upon the plain
An idle and a timid soul.
'Tis better to have fought and spent
Your courage missing all applause,
Than to have lived in smug content
And never ventured for a cause.
For he who tries and fails may be
The founder of a better day;
Though never his the victory,
From him shall others learn the way.
I share a wide range of information on the Cabrini Connections and Tutor/Mentor Institute sites, showing my thinking, and the strategies that I've developed over many years. While I hope benefactors step forward and help us fund this work, I also hope that even if I don't succeed, "others will learn the way" from me and find ways to make these ideas work in the future.
Here's a couple of other blog articles related to this:
Do a Mitzvah Every Day.. in honor of Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz
Many to One - strategy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection
Friday, May 21, 2010
How to respond to shootings in Chicago
If you've read any of the blog articles I've written, you know my goal is to help comprehensive, volunteer-based non-school tutor/mentor programs be operating in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities.This graphic illustrates that these programs all need the same resources to survive. If you read about challenges facing non profits, you'll see that money is a huge need. Thus, if you want to do something in response to the tragedy, go to the Chicago Program Links, and browse through the web sites listed there. Pick one or more programs that you feel do a good job, and send them a donation.
If you're a business leader, read some of these articles showing the benefits to business of volunteering and philanthropy, and form a team and build a strategy to support tutor/mentor programs in all of the areas where you do business, or where your employees live, or on the routes between work and home.
If you're in a neighborhood without any tutor/mentor programs, or with programs that need help to become the "best in the city", use these Steps to Start a Program guides as a blueprint for helping new programs grow.
If you're in media, or a network builder, or blogger, pass this message on to others who might be interested and connect with me on Twitter @tutormentorteam . If you use the hash tag #tmcon you can also help draw more people to next week's Tutor/Mentor Conference where the goal is to help people build constantly-improving volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs.
This map illustrates that people from many different backgrounds need to share the responsibility for helping tutor/mentor programs and other youth development activities be in every neighborhood, especially those with high concentrations of poverty and too few non-school supports helping kids move through school and to work.
Tragedy in Chatham. Look at the Map.
The front page of today's Chicago SunTimes and Chicago Tribune calls our attention to another senseless killing in a Chicago neighborhood. This time, the victim is a Chicago Police officer, who was also an Army Vet just returned from Afghanistan.
Read the story then look at the map below.
This may was created using the Interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator which you can use to zoom into the Chatham neighborhood, and learn if there are any volunteer-based, nonschool tutor/mentor programs.
I don't see any. I also see a neighborhood of relative prosperity surrounded by a sea of poverty. How could such a community expect to not be influenced by what was happening all around it?
There will be many editorials, speeches, and even marches in the next few days, calling for an end to violence, just as there have been over and over for the past 16 years as we have been building this database and inviting business, faith, meida and political leaders to look at it.
I hope that this time the result is the formation of "business planning teams" who look at the information in the Tutor/Mentor Institute and read the articles that I've posted on this blog for the past five years.
Begin learning ways to build birth to work mentoring programs around this neighborhood, and in this neighborhood, so young people have better opportunities to make different decisions on how they spend their free time.
Next week there will be a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference at Loyola, where the goal is to help people build volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in high poverty areas. I hope some of those who are reading and writing the editorials will attend.
Read the story then look at the map below.
This may was created using the Interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator which you can use to zoom into the Chatham neighborhood, and learn if there are any volunteer-based, nonschool tutor/mentor programs.I don't see any. I also see a neighborhood of relative prosperity surrounded by a sea of poverty. How could such a community expect to not be influenced by what was happening all around it?
There will be many editorials, speeches, and even marches in the next few days, calling for an end to violence, just as there have been over and over for the past 16 years as we have been building this database and inviting business, faith, meida and political leaders to look at it.
I hope that this time the result is the formation of "business planning teams" who look at the information in the Tutor/Mentor Institute and read the articles that I've posted on this blog for the past five years.
Begin learning ways to build birth to work mentoring programs around this neighborhood, and in this neighborhood, so young people have better opportunities to make different decisions on how they spend their free time.
Next week there will be a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference at Loyola, where the goal is to help people build volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in high poverty areas. I hope some of those who are reading and writing the editorials will attend.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
For Better Results, Talk about what people care about.
Bill Huddleston read the newsletter I sent yesterday and sent me an email with a link to this video. It's a great piece of advise, for me, and for everyone who is trying to draw volunteers and donors to help them do their work.I'm not quite sure how I'll translate this into my communications because with this blog and my email newsletter I'm reaching out to a wide range of people, sort of a constellation of "everyone" who might want to do something to end the poverty that causes the media stories about violence, poor schools, corrupt government, etc.
Each person understands the problem of poverty and poorly performing schools differently, and cares about it differently. Thus instead of a single ad campaign, I need many versions, appealing to many different people.
When I was an advertising planning manager with the Montgomery Ward corporation, we sent out one corporate ad each Sunday, and another in the middle of the week. However, these ads have many variations, for big stores, small stores, cold weather stores, warm weather stores, etc. The size, and the merchandise, changed to reflect the interests of shoppers in different parts of the country.
If I could do it, my home page would change to reflect the visit pattern of each person who came to the site. We would "learn" from the browsing habits of each person so the next time they visit the site, it would show them a path of learning based on what they care about, to what they can do to help the people we care about.
Creating videos like the one I've pointed you to takes a lot of talent. Creating the type of web browsing experience I envision also takes a lot of talent. That costs money. Or it requires volunteers. Or both.
If you've read this far, I've said something you care about. Now can you help us.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Challenges of Innovation at Nation’s Nonprofits
A new Johns Hopkins University survey has revealed widespread innovation among the nation’s nonprofits, as well as efforts by those organizations to measure their programs’ effectiveness. You can download the full report here.
One statement from this report says
Although innovation is widespread within the nonprofit sector, more than two-thirds of responding organizations also reported having at least one innovation in the past two years that they wanted to adopt but were unable to. The vast majority of respondents (86 percent) attributed their inability to adopt a proposed innovation to a lack of funding. Other key barriers included the inability to move promising innovations to scale due to lack of “growth capital” (74 percent), narrow governmental funding streams (70 percent), and a tendency among foundations to encourage innovations but then not sustain support for them (69 percent).
Lack of funding. Lack of "growth capital".
As I read these reports, I'm constantly looking for ways to INNOVATE strategies that connect the non profits, donors and researchers so we're talking about how we can overcome these challenges and make more and better volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs available to youth living in inner city or rural poverty.
Come to the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on May 27 and 28 and connect your ideas to those of the other people who will attend. Come to the on-line Tutor/Mentor Connection if you cannot come to the conference.
To paraphrase an old saying "It's hard to innovate when you're up to your neck in alligators." If we don't make more general operating dollars available to pay rent and hire and retain motivated people, we'll never build the human capital that it takes to innovate new solutions, then sustain those innovations for the many years it takes to have an impact.
You can donate to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection here if you want to help us with this problem.
One statement from this report says
Although innovation is widespread within the nonprofit sector, more than two-thirds of responding organizations also reported having at least one innovation in the past two years that they wanted to adopt but were unable to. The vast majority of respondents (86 percent) attributed their inability to adopt a proposed innovation to a lack of funding. Other key barriers included the inability to move promising innovations to scale due to lack of “growth capital” (74 percent), narrow governmental funding streams (70 percent), and a tendency among foundations to encourage innovations but then not sustain support for them (69 percent).
Lack of funding. Lack of "growth capital".
As I read these reports, I'm constantly looking for ways to INNOVATE strategies that connect the non profits, donors and researchers so we're talking about how we can overcome these challenges and make more and better volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs available to youth living in inner city or rural poverty.
Come to the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on May 27 and 28 and connect your ideas to those of the other people who will attend. Come to the on-line Tutor/Mentor Connection if you cannot come to the conference.
To paraphrase an old saying "It's hard to innovate when you're up to your neck in alligators." If we don't make more general operating dollars available to pay rent and hire and retain motivated people, we'll never build the human capital that it takes to innovate new solutions, then sustain those innovations for the many years it takes to have an impact.
You can donate to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection here if you want to help us with this problem.
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