News and Views

What Can the Rockaways Can Teach Us About Collaboration?

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:39:00 GMT

By Pamela Dicent - The Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition was created nearly three years ago by a core group of nonprofit service providers that recognized the value of coming together to address common issues in the Rockaways, particularly around engaging and developing young people on the Peninsula. From the very start of CRE’s involvement as facilitator, it was clear that this was a new kind of collaboration in town – one that has already fulfilled its promise of strengthening the network of nonprofit organizations.

This network has made a world of difference for those involved and the people they serve, breaking down years-old barriers and creating a space for exchange, communication, and growth as community leaders. Those unfamiliar with the Peninsula community may wonder why this accomplishment is so noteworthy – but when you recognize that the struggles and divisions which plague the community as a whole have also been reflected in the nonprofit community, it is no easy feat to have changed the dynamic. As someone who is both a long-time resident of the community and a part of the CRE team working with the Coalition to remain sustainable, I have been moved by the vision and passion which has enabled the Coalition to accomplish such an incredible goal.

Earlier this month, the Coalition hosted their 2nd Annual Far Rockaway Youth Summit. While the task of planning such an event was not easy during a critical period of rebuilding in the Rockaways, the Coalition made it clear that no matter what the circumstances, they needed to deliver on their promise to the Peninsula’s youth to create a dynamic partnership and space where youth have a voice. Though it is just one small piece of the Coalition’s larger vision, the Summit (and the months of planning that preceded it) really demonstrated how powerful the years of work as Coalition members has been. The Coalition is much more than collaboration: It is rooted in trust, accountability, and support. It transcends the differences in budget sizes or years of experience across Coalition member agencies. And most importantly, it is driven by the deep knowledge that these nonprofit leaders possess about what the community’s needs are and how to best address them.

CRE recognized early on the advantages of bringing together nonprofits working in the Rockaways to help strengthen the infrastructure of the community, but perhaps ultimate value of their work has become more evident, at least to me, in recent months. From coordinating relief efforts and addressing client needs in the days after Sandy, to influencing each other’s leadership, the Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition has come a very long way during a time when collaboration has been needed the most.

Read more about CRE's work with the Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition:
Far Rockaway Leaders Look Ahead
An Update on the Rockaways
Far Rockaway Nonprofits Speak Out on Post-Hurricane Needs

CRE Search - Executive Director - The DOME Project

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:05:00 GMT

The DOME, an acronym for Developing Opportunities through Meaningful Education, was founded in 1973 to challenge the myriad threats to youngsters who had fallen through the cracks of the traditional school system by creating an alternative school program. Our mission is to assist young people and their families who are economically, socially, and academically challenged to focus on their education as a means to success. Over the last forty years, The DOME has evolved into a multi-faceted organization designing and implementing a variety of programs and services geared towards educational success that integrates social services, academic intervention and support, career exploration, leadership development for young people, advocacy, and criminal justice.

The DOME Project is a 501(c) 3 organization with 7 full-time staff and a budget of over $700,000. For more information, please visit our website at www.DOMEproject.org.

Position Summary: The Executive Director is responsible for the organization's achievement of its mission and will lead the organization into its next phase of growth through expanded programming, and innovative partnerships that ensure the effective delivery of high quality programs to young people served in The New York City area with a special emphasis on the Upper West Side. The primary responsibilities include leading and managing the staff and Board of Directors in developing strategies and ensuring execution of program planning and evaluation initiatives, development and fundraising plans that support the program, effective financial management practices and managing public, community, government relations. The Executive Director is also responsible for developing and maintaining organizational partnerships including the West Side Neighborhood Commons - a new venture of with the New York City Housing Authority and Strycker’s Bay Neighborhood Council at the DeHostos Community Center located on the Upper West Side.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Leadership
- Promote agency vision and mission, and build support for programs and initiatives within and outside of The DOME Project
- Provide strategic leadership for the agency by working with the Board of Directors and the management team to establish long-range goals, strategies, plans and policies, keeping in mind the goals of organizational growth and sustainability
- Lead, motivate and inspire The DOME Project management team to achieve the agency’s mission
- Foster a client-focused, community-oriented, and accountable environment at The DOME Project

Fundraising and Development
- Oversee development and fundraising efforts with an eye towards diversifying The DOME Projects funding streams to include Government, Private and Family Foundations, Individual Donors and Corporate Sponsorships
- Plan and oversee the execution of special events
- Grow the development function to appropriate staffing levels for the agency
- Create and implement annual fundraising plan with Board and development staff
- Cultivate and maintain relationships with major donors and key funders

Program Management
- Ensure the quality of The DOME Project programs and the agency’s ability to effectively respond to changing environments and clients’ needs
- Lead and mentor staff in the development of new, fundable programs that meet the needs of special needs populations
- Ensure that programs are in alignment with The DOME Project values, vision and mission

External Relations
- Represent The DOME Project with clients, funders, organizational partners, the community, industry, media, government, and other agencies
- Raise The DOME Project visibility as a leader in our field of expertise, and promote the agency’s activities, programs and goals
- Cultivate relationships and more formal partnerships with community organizations and other service providers who complement the service offerings of The DOME Project
- Respond to policy and political initiatives that impact The DOME’s constituents and advocate to policymakers on their behalf

Financial Management
- Develop and maintain sound financial practices
- Work with management team, Finance Committee and the Board to prepare agency’s annual budget and ensure that the organization operates within budget guidelines
- Monitor the financial health of the agency and its programs and develop plans to ensure that adequate funds are available for The DOME Project to carry out its work

Board of Directors
- Act as liaison to Board and provide staff support to the Board and its committees
- Work closely with Board Leadership to ensure bylaws are up to date and to manage Board member terms
- Provide financial, program and operational reports to the Board
- Engage the Board in fiscal, program, and policy oversight, and in strategic planning, fundraising and public relations
- Keep the Board abreast of relevant legislation, policies and protocols, client issues and needs, and emerging trends

Human Resources
- Attract, retain and develop a high quality staff
- Ensure that The DOME Project compensation, benefits, and career opportunities are comparable with our peer agencies
- Provide managers and supervisors with guidance, mentoring and training in effective management practices
- Ensure that sound human resource practices and systems are in place such as performance management processes , career planning and succession planning for key roles throughout the agency

Management and Administration
- Provide direction to the management team in implementing strategy and monitor progress against agency goals
- Align agency resources with organization vision and mission in order to maximize productivity, maintain service quality, and promote the financial health of the agency
- Collaborate with management team to build agency capacity, infrastructure, processes, systems and staff capability to support the growth objectives of The DOME Project

Experience and Background:

Direct experience in the sector or in a related field (New York City experience a plus)
Familiarity with city and state governments, particularly with regard to contracts for housing and social services
Politically aware and savvy to respond to initiatives/ issues that affect The DOME and its constituents
Familiarity with federal initiatives that impact the sector
Experience with Direct Service work in the areas of Education, Juvenile Justice, School Based and Community Based programming
Demonstrated capability in leading and implementing strategic plans
Minimum of 5 years experience in a management role. Including supervising staff and working with a board of directors
Working knowledge of non-profit fiscal management, including fund accounting and budgeting
Demonstrated ability in public speaking, written and oral communication and interpersonal relations
Experience and success in public and private fund raising
Master’s degree in a related field desired
Bi-lingual desirable

Salary: Commensurate with experience.

Application Process:
The DOME Project is working in partnership with Community Resource Exchange (CRE – www.crenyc.org) to fill this position.

It is strongly advised that you submit a cover letter indicating why you think you are a fit for the Executive Director position at The DOME project in addition to your resume that details your qualifications and experience by e-mail to dome.ed@crenyc.org.

Leaving the Projector Behind: CRE’s Community-Based Training Efforts

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:42:00 GMT

By Jeff Ballow, Senior Consultant - Is training more valuable for participants when you bring the training experience to their communities? This is one question that has emerged during the last year as part of our Neighborhood Based Capacity-Building Initiative funded by the New York Community Trust. So far we’ve taken this mountain-to-Mohammed approach to management development in East New York in Brooklyn and Far Rockaway in Queens, and in early May we launched a similar training series in the High Bridge section of the Bronx. Here’s what we have learned so far:

Many communities have under-trained talent: In both Brooklyn and Queens we were able to engage supervisors who hadn't enjoyed as many past opportunities for training in management and supervision. Many had been encouraged to develop their program skills through training, but their management skills had received less attention. This issue is not unique to these neighborhoods; our sector has long churned out accidental managers with solid technical abilities but undernourished supervisory skills. When left unaddressed, this gap can hasten burnout among managers (and their staffs!) and impact program effectiveness.

Location mattered, but physical environment didn't: In both communities participants expressed their appreciation for having the workshops near their work sites. This allowed many to actually participate (tacking on three additional hours for travel would have excluded the vast majority) and brought increased resonance to the work at hand. People seemed to get grounded and comfortable faster than I have seen in other training cohorts.

In both communities we used free space offered up by local nonprofit. One space was the basement of a rarely used former Catholic school, and the other space, a bustling public high school. Neither was rich in the tools often seen in training rooms; often we didn’t even have access to wall space for flip-charting and visual aids. At the high school we met in four different rooms. None of this seemed to matter much. Participants were more focused on their own learning and interactions with one another and less concerned about the physical space and aesthetics.

Bringing the training directly to the community means broader community participation: New York’s neighborhoods have rich and diverse nonprofit communities that bring together churches and small community-based organizations with larger, better-resourced groups. We tend to see the participants from the latter category at our trainings in Manhattan. These larger groups were well represented in our community-based training series as well (thankfully), but were also joined by staff from smaller outfits, faith-based and otherwise. This gave me the sense that we were serving a fuller spectrum of nonprofits rather than just one or two larger players.

In its 2008 scan of leadership development programs (“Building Capacity, Changing Neighborhoods”), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation describes a trend of relevance here – leadership development programs that intentionally cast a wide net beyond the “usual suspects,” those very visible and obvious leaders in a community. While this training work is focused less on developing leaders and more on enhancing the management skills of frontline supervisors, our success to date has relied on our ability to reach deeply into a neighborhood’s community and provide an opportunity for growth and self-reflection to those who have fewer opportunities to do so in the past. These dedicated managers are indeed on the frontlines of providing services to many people in need, and by supporting them, we help the very people they – and their teams – serve.

Interested in bringing a CRE training series to your neighborhood? Contact CRE using our online Become a Client form.

Accountability Versus Effectiveness

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:50:00 GMT

By Valyrie Laedlein, CRE Co-Director - Nonprofit leaders are hard-wired for accountability.

The tax-exempt sector was structured to assure accountability to the public since its very beginning. Nearly all the leaders whom CRE has had the privilege to work with drive themselves to be sure they are doing right by their communities. And in this moment of terribly constrained resources, all of us are conscious of how important it is that we make every dollar matter in terms of its rightful and effective use.

But, ironically, our obsession with accountability puts us on a collision course with effectiveness, as too many parties perpetuate a charade about just how well we are doing in achieving our missions. We’d all be delighted if we could be 100% successful with each of our clients – but the reality is, we often achieve a mixed bag of results.

One wouldn’t know as much by listening to nonprofit leaders, however. Senior staff leaders prepare for Board meetings with well-polished reports that highlight success cases. Board members expect to be assured that things are going well and that the organization is successful. And the same pattern is repeated to an even greater extreme in our interactions with those who invest in our work – our donors and funders. Nonprofit leaders are all too aware that there are other programs and organizations that may lure away our funders if they can “show better results.”

The reality is, we are not getting it right all the time. Work in the social sector is seldom so clear cut. Nor is the data collection process that is increasingly expected of us. But our own expectations – and that of our stakeholders – to demonstrate success at all costs, removes key stakeholders from the honest dialogue we need to consider how things work (or don’t) and what we need to do to improve our outcomes.

Could we even imagine a situation in which we engage Board members and funders in examining whatever data we might gather – anecdotes, qualitative descriptions, and metrics – to learn where the challenges are and speculate alternative approaches? Boards and funders need to invite honest examination of program and outcomes information, and they have to allow for the challenges and failures along with success cases. And Executive Directors need to let go of their fears and step boldly into an honest dialogue with stakeholders about what isn’t going well, along with celebrating their successes.

We all need to embrace a more honest interpretation of accountability – in which we’re seeking to learn from our mistakes and discuss our uncertainties, so that we can ultimately be more successful.

CRE’s role? To bring our client and funding partners to a new way of interacting, to bring this dialogue into the open, and legitimize the need for failures and likelihood of mistakes on this journey to find and implement solutions to society’s most intractable problems.

We are looking for executive leaders, funder partners, and board members willing to grapple with the messiness of social service and social change, with whom we might explore new ways of interacting. Contact us if you’re willing to join us.

CRE Seeking Summer Interns for 2013 - SEARCH CLOSED

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 05:00:00 GMT

CRE is seeking to recruit a graduate student or a rising junior or senior college student for a summer internship. The applicant for this position should have a specific interest in learning about management and capacity-building for nonprofit organizations. As a part of this learning experience, the intern will support CRE’s Consulting Team, assisting with client work as well as providing administrative and project support.

The intern will be responsible for research, writing, data analysis, notes development, and client communication. The intern may also be asked to support various internal agency processes and operations, including, but not limited to: data entry, project/contract management, as well as knowledge and performance management systems support.

In all, interns stand to gain substantial exposure across a breadth of nonprofit management issues including board training, strategic planning, fundraising, human resources planning, financial management, and more.

Required Skills and Competencies:

Graduate student OR rising Junior or Senior college student;
Organized, consistently accurate and attentive to details;
Superior research, writing, and communication skills;
Proficient in Google Apps and Microsoft Office 2010 (including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). Working knowledge of Publisher and Acrobat a plus;
Superior interpersonal skills, including tact and diplomacy;
Ability to work under pressure and meet multiple deadlines (comfortable trouble-shooting and problem solving);
Ability to work both independently and as a member of a team;
Experience working and/or volunteering in the nonprofit sector;
Interest in the nonprofit sector or in pursuing an advanced degree in public administration or related field; and
Willing to travel within the five boroughs of New York City.

Organizational Background:

CRE is a nonprofit consulting firm that helps New York City’s nonprofit organizations become stronger and more effective in fighting poverty and advancing social justice. We advise our clients in all areas of nonprofit management including fundraising, board development, financial management, planning, administration, personnel, marketing, leadership, and everyday problem solving.

Our hallmark is one-to-one guidance and training. We boast a unified, committed staff of consultants who have a wealth of experience in nonprofit management and a shared commitment to community change. Through our Consulting Practice, we empower programmatic success by targeting critical organizational needs and fostering relationships with community leaders.

To Apply:

Although this is an unpaid internship, the intern will be reimbursed for travel and lunch, as well as any other out-of-pocket expenses. Preferably, the intern should be available 4 days per week, for 25-30 hours per week. The internship would last 10-12 weeks.

To apply for this opportunity, please submit a resume and cover letter explaining why you would want to intern at CRE and what you hope to learn from this experience. Please submit your applications to Anna Gorman, Executive Assistant; agorman@crenyc.org.

No phone calls, please.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until May 3rd, 2013.

Far Rockaway Leaders Look Ahead

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:07:00 GMT

By Maria Mottola, Executive Director, New York Foundation - A half hour into a January 31 meeting with leaders in Far Rockaway, I realized we were not talking anymore about Hurricane Sandy. We were talking about disasters, but not of the sort you can blame on the weather. Somehow the hurricane lost its potency as leaders described how isolation, poverty and incidents of violence persistently disrupt life on the peninsula.

I was part of a small delegation (that included staff from the United Way of New York City, the New York Foundation and The New York Community Trust) who visited Far Rockaway to hear from local leaders. But rather than hearing stories about hurricane heroics, we listened to their

ideas about youth leadership, public education and community-police relations. They described the challenges they face being so remote from the rest of the city and they presented their vision for how things could be done differently. Mostly, they wanted to be heard.

The Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition came together with support from the Community Resource Exchange and funding from The New York Community Trust. Cited by one leader we met as “the only meeting I attend that I actually get something out of,” this group of Far Rockaway nonprofits has worked together for a year collaborating and sharing ideas. Their mission became to attract more resources, particularly youth programs, to what they felt was a neglected part of the city.

When Sandy hit, these Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition members benefited from having already created a working network of trusted partners that includes groups like the Rockaway Youth Task Force, Safe Space, Ocean Bay CDC, the Police Athletic League, the local Precinct Community Council, the Comprehensive Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention program, The Child Center of NY, the Queens Public Library, several faith-based groups, and others.

Driving to the meeting in the morning, we commented on evidence of Sandy’s aftermath in officious voices, the way a television news reporter might—the collapsed boardwalk, piles of debris, dismantled porches. On the drive back, though, we didn’t do much pointing. It didn’t seem as important to distinguish between before and after. Instead we wondered, what’s next?

Read more about CRE's work with the Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition:

An Update on the Rockaways

Far Rockaway Nonprofits Speak Out on Post-Hurricane Needs

The Impact of the Fiscal Cliff on Nonprofits

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:05:00 GMT

By Karen Erdos, Director of Development - As the President and Congress negotiate about how to deal with the fiscal cliff, the proposals on the table could have very different outcomes for nonprofits. The first, proposed by President Obama, is to have the Bush-era tax cuts remain in effect for households with incomes up to $250,000 ($200,000 for individuals) and to let the tax cuts for higher-income households and the estate tax rise back to levels last seen in the Clinton administration.

However, as they attempt to reach a federal budget deal, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have recommended alternative plans that limit high-income tax deductions as a substitute for rate increases. These plans propose to limit itemized deductions overall and/or limit specific deductions like mortgage interest and charitable contributions to achieve revenue targets. However, the impact of these types of plans on the nonprofit sector could be substantial.

If itemized deductions were capped at $25,000, it is estimated that 97 percent of households in the top 1% of income would lose any tax incentive for additional charitable giving. Essentially, people with high mortgage deductions in states with high income and/or property taxes, would lose the tax incentive for charitable giving. Of course, tax deductibility of charitable contributions is not the only reason people give, but it is a factor.

In its most recent “How America Gives” report, The Chronicle of Philanthropy demonstrates that tax incentives do matter in charitable giving. Policies that promote giving can make a significant difference. For example, in Arizona, charities are reaping more than $100 million annually from a series of tax credits adopted in recent years.

In a November 2012 survey, the United Way finds even more widespread impact of a potential loss of the charitable deduction at all income levels. Their public opinion poll indicates:

The vast majority of Americans (79%) believe reducing or eliminating the charitable tax deduction would have a negative impact on charities and the people they serve.
Of those who would reduce their giving, a majority (62%) indicate they would have to reduce their contributions by a significant amount (26% would have to reduce their contributions by 50% or more; 36% would have to reduce their charitable giving between 25%-50%).
Two out of every three Americans (67%) are opposed to reducing or eliminating the charitable tax deduction.
The charitable deduction is used by people of varying income levels, not just high income individuals. The percent of people indicating they use the charitable deduction is the same for households with incomes between $50K-$100K; $100K-$150K; and $150K+.

Currently and traditionally, individual charitable giving is directed first to faith-based organizations and secondly to public benefit organizations, followed by cultural and educational organizations. Human service organizations only receive about 12% of charitable dollars. These community-based organizations rely on relatively small gifts from individual donors to keep their budgets in balance as they struggle to provide services for people in need including homeless people, poor children and families, and the elderly. (Government contracts make up the largest part of most human services agencies’ budgets because the government pays nonprofits to provide services to people whose needs cannot be met within the traditional economy and then fails to fully fund the provision of those services.)

The nonprofit sector is still reeling from cutbacks following the recession of 2008. Foundation, corporate, and government funding have still not returned to pre-2008 levels. Nonprofits cannot afford the drastic cuts to individual charitable giving that are likely under the alternative tax plans. It is incumbent upon us – both nonprofits and nonprofit employees – to make our voices heard.

Check out the Independent Sector for advocacy information on preserving the charitable deduction and a list of various charitable incentives.

An Update on the Rockaways

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

By Barbara Turk and Pamela Dicent - The situation in the Rockaways is far from normal this week, but has improved since our last report on the status of CRE’s nonprofit partners in Arverne and Far Rockaway. Members of the Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition convened by phone on Wednesday and reported that collaboration between groups has been challenging, with duplication of efforts inevitable given the isolation created by initial communication challenges. Each organization is making progress in getting back in touch with its colleagues and clients, and is identifying opportunities to partner with their Coalition colleagues and others to best serve the immediate needs of their clients.

Organizations operating on Far Rockaway were largely working by word of mouth and limited access to social media about what was open and where to access services until this week. Electricity is more widely available, much of it via generators, providing light—though not always heat—and working cell phones. We expect these organizations to quickly regain the power that comes with information, as well as electricity. Public transportation options have improved, but it is expected that it will be several weeks and perhaps months before the A train to the Rockaways resumes service. In the interim, shuttle bus service is available to Mott Avenue/Far Rockaway from Howard Beach/JFK, and a ferry service is operating during morning and evening rush hours from Wall Street to Rockaway Park.

Here is a brief status report on some of the Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition members:

The Queens Public Library has re-opened the Teen Library in Far Rockaway and the Far Rockaway Branch library. The Far Rockaway library is sharing a generator with the newly-opened New York City Restoration Center, and is open seven days a week, in addition to distributing coats and meals to community residents. There is internet service at both locations and each has 25 computers available for use by community-based organizations and the public. The other libraries on the peninsula are closed for the foreseeable future.
The Action Center and Rockaway Youth Task Force have been doing food distribution in Arverne. RYTF has received national exposure for its emergency response organized by local youth leaders, many of whom are themselves still without heat and hot water.
Safe Space re-opened their office at 1600 Mott Avenue today. They are surveying 500 of the students in their programs to find out where they are residing and what the conditions are. So far, Safe Space has found that out of 106 children surveyed to-date in their elementary school and middle school after-school programs, 95 are living on the Peninsula. Their families report that they are living in very difficult conditions without heat and hot water. Safe Space is also offering mental health services for those impacted by the storm. Their family support services department has been linking people to these services. Queens Legal Services, which is co-located with Safe Space, is providing Safe Space families with legal support and advice to guide them through the FEMA application process.
The North Shore-LIJ School Based Health Center, which coordinates mental health services for teens, is back on site at Far Rockaway Educational Campus as of this week. The Beach Channel High School campus remains closed, and students have been relocated. Schools on the Peninsula are providing students with bus service from their school campuses to their temporary relocation sites. P.S 105 in Arverne is slated to open as late as January 2nd.
Ocean Bay Community Development Corporation is located in the Ocean Bay houses, a public housing development in Arverne. The lights are back on in their office this week, but there is still no heat. The van they use to transport up to 300 seniors a month to shopping and medical appointments was destroyed. Still, Ocean Bay CDC has told us they want to continue the planning work they began with CRE before the storm with a renewed sense of possibility.

Check out CRE’s Hurricane Sandy Nonprofit Resources page to get more information for helping your nonprofit and communities recover from the storm.

Far Rockaway Nonprofits Speak Out on Post-Hurricane Needs

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

By Barbara Turk, Senior Fellow – CRE has been visiting our clients in areas most affected by the Storm to understand their immediate and long-term needs, and to start the process of helping these community-based organizations recover. Since last week, I have made three visits to Far Rockaway and Arverne, Queens. CRE has been fostering the formation and development of the Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition for nearly two years.

Community-based organizations in the Rockaways have been pitching in to clean up flooded homes and debris-filled streets and distribute food and supplies to residents; at the same time they face immediate challenges in maintaining basic services. Yesterday, more than a week after the storm, the fundamental immediate needs the staff and volunteers face continued.

1. Power. The usual nonprofit sites where communities gather were seriously damaged and have no light or heat. Without reliable land or cell phone service, communication about progress is an issue for nonprofits, as well as residents. Service coordination is limited. The peninsula is serviced by LIPA, not Con Edison, and no one can say when power will return. I was told, "it is dark, we are in prison, and we don't know how long our sentence is."

2. Transportation. The only subway line to the Rockaways, the A train, is currently out of service, and public buses are only running during daylight hours due to the power outage. Staff members with cars that were not destroyed by the flood are down to their last half-tank of gas, due to the gas shortage.

A CRE client based in Staten Island told me that a man from Minneapolis drove his 10,000 gallon tanker from there to Staten Island, and started passing out gas five gallons at a time. That would be a hit in Rockaway!

The buses to and from the Peninsula, and up and down the Peninsula, are back to charging full fare, whether they can make it to your intended destination on the Peninsula or not. Metrocards would be great to help staff get where they are going.

3. Immediate sources of cash to replace damaged and destroyed equipment, vehicles, and furniture at nonprofit offices. Community-based organizations need the ability to operate their programs and services again, now more than ever.

4. The support of disaster relief organizations and city agencies to manage relief and food distribution efforts. Rockaway organizations aren’t just addressing the community needs highlighted in their missions; some have also taken on relief efforts and can’t do it all without the funding support. Organizations not set up for hurricane relief tell us they won't be doing this after today. The Rockaway Youth Task Force, the community’s only youth organizing group, is shutting down its phenomenal operation at Nordeck on Beach 57th starting Wednesday because those in high school need to go back to school, and they have stopped taking any donations at that site. The Rockaway Waterfront Alliance has shut down its extraordinary relief operations at the Firehouse on Beach 59th.

In addition, nonprofit staff are personally affected by the storm. Staff members are displaced. They too lost cars and homes, and are living without power. Their families are managing great stresses. Students who attend Beach Channel and Far Rockaway High Schools are not expected to return any time soon, and many students have been reassigned to schools in Maspeth or Long Island City that require unreasonable commutes.

The Far Rockaway nonprofit community, along with those in Red Hook, Staten Island and Coney Island, will need more than the above to continue to operate and deliver their services beyond the weeks following the hurricane. We are at a critical moment to build on the momentum they need to come back stronger than before and to help sustain and grow these vital communities.

Check out CRE’s Hurricane Sandy Nonprofit Resources page to get more information for helping your nonprofit and communities recover from the storm.

Coaching: A Critical Skill for Effective Nonprofit Management

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 04:00:00 GMT

By Mohan Sikka, Managing Director - Corporations – including nonprofit organizations – are not people, as the Supreme Court seems to believe. But they are made up of people: boards, leaders, staff teams, volunteers, clients. In all aspects of leadership, management and operations, these people have to deal with each other, quirks and all. What gets overlooked sometimes by managers is that they, not a strategic plan or a tracking form, have to be agents of change and accountability. In other words, there's no getting around the reality that relationships are key to management success, and that what we think, feel, say and do, our presence as human beings, and how we communicate and relate, are the primary tools we have to organize, motivate, and influence others.

Many executives and managers shy away from the human implications of what it means to run an organization or a program. In the midst of all the external and internal demands, they avoid difficult conversations and hard truths, allow sub-optimal board or supervisory situations to drag on, and especially resist facing their own shortcomings. The consequence is that plans sit on shelves because no one wants the hassle of managing resistance. Necessary changes aren't made until a crisis erupts and even then, reluctantly. People “assume” leadership roles on paper but don't actually step into them. Toxic relationships are allowed to fester and poison team morale.

Coaching, in my experience, is a way to deal with these human issues head-on.

So What Is Coaching?

Coaching is a high-impact style of working one-to-one with managers to help them clearly identify their current challenge or situation (especially their role in creating it), assess the costs and benefits of staying stuck, and create a desired state or outcome to move towards. At Community Resource Exchange (CRE), our coaching is grounded in data and assessment; most of our coaching work starts with a 360° evaluation of management abilities. For example, if my supervisory style is the challenge I want to work on, I first need to know how others perceive my behavior and its impact on them. If I am entering a role for which I feel poorly equipped, it would be useful to know what others think of my strengths and gaps and how closely this matches my own self-perception. If I am overwhelmed, I might want an accurate sense of how I am spending my time and attention, rather than how I think I'm spending them.

After a clarifying assessment, the coach helps the manager work systematically towards a desired change. Problems become useful material to help grow particular muscles: the muscle of exploration and discovery, for example, or the muscle of becoming more assertive in service of effectiveness, or the muscle of managing the anxiety of making unpopular decisions. It is important to note that coaching is distinct from mentoring, a much more personal and informal practice. A mentor provides perspective from life experiences to help mentees develop, while a coach helps a client come up with their own perspectives and strategies on given issues.

The coaching process holds accountability for both learning and doing, so that new behaviors are tried, their impact is reflected on, and any insights are incorporated into future action. While problems are solved during the coaching process, what the coaching is really doing is helping the manager become more adept at negotiating emotional terrain, their own and other people's, and figuring out what relationship behaviors work and with whom. We know from experience that managers who are more adaptable and nimble in handling people and situations are more likely to succeed and guide their teams towards impact.

Executive and management coaching has been an integral part of management development in the corporate world for many years. In fact, Bill Ryan, a leading nonprofit consultant and researcher, states in a recent report that 50% of North American companies use coaching, and of those that don’t use it, 40% say they will use it in the future. Contrast this with the 2011 “Daring to Lead” study by CompassPoint and the Agnes and Eugene Meyer Foundation that says only 10% of nonprofit executives surveyed currently use coaching, even though those who use it find it highly effective. Following this study, there has been renewed interest in coaching as a way to bolster leadership and managerial capacity, and get nonprofits to the holy grail of improved performance and effectiveness. Most management consulting groups either have coaches on staff or can connect you to a certified/experienced coach. There are also many individual practitioners who offer this service.

How Does Coaching Impact Nonprofit Leadership?

Coaching has impact in two ways. First, it gives executives and managers new skills of awareness, perspective, and positive engagement with others. An example of a recent successful client engagement involving coaching is a Brooklyn-based multiservice agency with a senior team that was challenged with making and executing decisions. Personal styles and differences were getting in the way of team cohesion and were ultimately affecting the development and rollout of needed programs. We first administered a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and 360° Feedback Survey to each management team member. Individual results were compiled to create team profiles. We then coached all senior managers, individually and collectively, to help them gain insight into which behaviors and ways of doing business were moving the team forward, and which were holding them back. The work brought the managers closer together, not in removing differences completely, but in helping them learn how to negotiate differences in a constructive and timely way.

We also worked with a board chair and executive director of a youth-serving organization who were forthright about their opinions and expectations in private but were challenged in sharing them openly with each other. The coaching allowed each one to test the waters with the other, slowly gaining trust and confidence in speaking their mind and testing their assumptions with each other. Over time, they transformed their just-getting-by relationship into a powerful partnership whose impact radiated out to the full board and the organization. As donors saw the board and executive leader speaking with one mind, more resources started flowing into the agency, reversing a long-standing trend towards deficit operation.

The second benefit is that coaching also helps managers become coaches, in turn, and makes them more adept at facilitating their staff’s growth and development. Thus effective coaching can be a critical supplement to traditional modes of managing, such as strategy setting, goal monitoring, and advice-giving. Instead of only a top-down approach and fixing problems for others, the manager can now support their staff become confident and self-reliant in solving their own problems, which is vital for developing people and teams for long-term success.

What Skills Will Coaching Help Me Develop?

Nonprofit managers, in my experience, are looking for strategies that work. They are short of time and resources, and the pressure to perform and show results in this environment is more intense than ever. In this context, it is vital that managers “get out of their own way” and engage in relationship practices that are more likely to motivate and influence others towards a shared mission, given that hierarchical approaches have limited efficacy in today’s world.

In a supervisory relationship, this means skills like deep listening, a comfort level with emotions (in fact, an ability to use them constructively), checking for agreement and dissonance over a command-and-control default, and making room for trial and error and for other perspectives. Many things about a coaching stance are intuitive, or can be learned with practice. The “manager as coach” practices inquiry over providing ready solutions; believes that people are naturally resourceful and creative, and able to solve their problems with support; and champions others in getting to their inner reserves of wisdom and experience.

Coaching, as we practice it at CRE, helps nonprofit leaders to strengthen these skills to more effectively manage themselves and their teams to greater results. It is a highly effective tool that can have a deep and lasting impact on the individual, their peers, and ultimately, their organization.

Develop your coaching skills in a 3-day intensive workshop sponsored by Community Resource Exchange and the Coaches Training Institute.

Why Nonprofits Should “Bother” with Civic Engagement

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:28:00 GMT

By Louisa Hackett, Senior Managing Director - When talking about getting people to vote, I’ve frequently heard – “Why bother? People only pay attention to this every four years.” It’s true the frenzy dies down after the Presidential election and voter engagement issues diminish, but the reality is local, state and national elections happen way more often then every four years. A year from now New York City will be voting for a new Mayor, and a year after that we will have mid-term elections for seats to the House and Senate. These regularly occurring elections require more -- not less -- civic engagement.

Some Universities and Colleges understand the importance of making voter registration an on-going event. As recently reported in The New York Times, Northwestern University and University of Florida now include voter registration in their freshmen orientation. As a result, this year 89% of Northwestern’s freshmen are registered to vote in 37 different states.

What would happen if New York City’s nonprofits integrated voter registration within their daily operations? All together we employ 528,000 people and serve another 2.2 million. If our nonprofit community became civically engaged, got registered, and turned out to vote, imagine what could happen. Do you think the polling places could handle the increased volume of voters?

Fifty-eight colleges use TurboVote to help their students obtain absentee ballots, find voting locations, and track upcoming elections. TurboVote has signed up 100,000 voters to date.

While TurboVote may be a useful tool for nonprofits, its web-based system may not work for everyone. For additional information for how to get your nonprofit involved in getting out the vote: see www.nonprofitvote.org.

The Broken Machine

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:02:00 GMT

By Rashid Littlejohn, Program Assistant/Public Ally - My name is Rashid Littlejohn, a Public Allies Fellow and Program Assistant for Community Resource Exchange (CRE). Public Allies is a nonprofit organization that develops new leaders who are focused on strengthening communities, by partnering us with other nonprofit organizations advocating for social change. I started a nonprofit social justice and environmental leadership group called GCAMP (Genuinely Care About My Planet) in mid-2010 in Brooklyn, NY, which led me to Public Allies. Partnered with CRE for the next ten months, I’ll learn more about the nonprofit sector as Program Assistant and will also blog about some experiences at CRE. This first post, “The Broken Machine,” is a reflection of my first two weeks with CRE.

If you've ever sat in meetings with individuals from the nonprofit sector, one word which is often used is the “system.” What is the system? I speak confidently when I say I am here because I see a problem with the system as apparent as if it were a “machine” operating out of order. I’m in a space of examining what this machine is, how it works, and why it is causing problems.

My first thought was “is the machine the government?” After a discussion with a member of the CRE staff, I began to look into the capitalistic make-up of our country, asking myself “what is wrong with either the government or capitalism that has created such a need for the nonprofit sector?” I then started to visualize a gigantic machine that makes toys. The machine is broken so that every toy made is not working in some way; for each of these issues, repair stores are created to fix the toys. The repair stores represent the nonprofit organizations, the toys are the people who they assist, and the machine could be the government or capitalism. The next question that came to mind is “what is wrong with the machine that it keeps producing dysfunctional toys?” The last thing that came to mind is the rapid pace at which repair stores are opening up, many similar and many different. If you look at it from a “for profit” perspective, it would almost create a sense of competition of who provides the better (or cheaper) repair services.

With all of this bouncing around inside my mind, another member of CRE staff left a report on my desk titled, “Preserving and Developing Nonprofit Capacity in Four New York City Neighborhoods.” This report spoke to the importance of nonprofit collaborations. Keeping my analogy in mind, it means that these repair stores should begin working together to better fix the toys. Now of course this read and the work of CRE put a wide smile on my face, but it was short lived. After attending a Coalition meeting for one of our clients, I realized that so much of what needs to be fixed is uniform in a vast majority of communities that the repair stores serve. I’m now asking “where is the repair store for the broken machine?”

I’ll end by playing devil’s advocate to my own sentiments by saying it’s easy for me to say the government, capitalism, or anything else are the broken machines because it keeps me clear of blame. What if “we” are the broken machine and until we begin collaborating together – government, businesses, nonprofits, and individuals – we’ll never fix ourselves and will continue producing toys that don’t work well?

CRE Search - Executive Director - Coalition for Asian American Children and Families - SEARCH CLOSED

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 04:00:00 GMT

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) seeks a full-time Executive Director to lead the nation’s only pan-Asian children’s advocacy organization through its next stage of development. Founded in 1986, CACF successfully advocates for better policies, funding, and services to ensure that children of all backgrounds have an equal opportunity to grow up healthy and safe. Based in New York City, CACF has a $1 million budget and staff of 9 who oversee policy advocacy, youth and parent mobilizing, action research, and coalition building initiatives. This pivotal organization works in strong partnership with other advocates, community based organizations, and policymakers to accomplish its mission.

The ideal candidate is a visionary and strategic leader who champions the rights of Asian Pacific American children and families, effectively influences policymakers, promotes solidarity among diverse communities, and inspires stakeholders to advocate for equity and justice. The Executive Director should have a master’s degree and 7 years of significant nonprofit leadership, management, advocacy, collaboration, and fundraising experience. Salary commensurate with experience.

Download the full job description here.

Please submit a cover letter indicating why you think you are a fit for the executive director position at CACF and your resume by e-mail to cacfed@crenyc.org.

Every Vote Counts: Stepping Up Your Nonprofit's Role in Civic Engagement

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:00:00 GMT

By Louisa Hackett, Senior Managing Director - Community Resource Exchange is joining hundreds of other nonprofits across the country to promote National Voter Registration Day on September 25th. We support nonprofit civic engagement activities because we believe participating in our democracy furthers our mission of fighting poverty and advancing social justice.

Why should nonprofits promote civic engagement?

Nonprofits are connected to people: Nonprofits employ 13.5 million people, we rely on 61 million volunteers, and we serve and engage millions more. Nonprofits serve underrepresented populations who have a history of lower voter participation; 90% of nonprofits have a social and civic mission. Gaps in who votes undermine democracy and our missions and goals.

Over the last 30 years higher-income, older, and more partisan people have voted and been civically engaged. If the underrepresented registered to vote, were educated about the issues, cast their votes, ran for and were elected to office, how might the circumstances we face as a sector change?

Nonprofits are working under conditions often described as the new normal. But really, is it normal to have a country with such a wide disparity of income that 1% of the population has 99% of our nation’s wealth? It is normal for a society to allocate fewer and fewer resources to help people living and dealing with the consequences of poverty? Is it normal for service providers to work with reduced funding while facing increased demand?

I wonder how "normal" would be redefined if more individuals and organizations were civically engaged. I actually still believe in democracy and the role citizens can play in improving our communities. However, democracy can’t work without more people participating. One failure of our democracy is the 51 million eligible voters who are not registered. An even greater failure is voter turn-out: only 35% of eligible voters in New York voted in the last national election.

What are permissible voter and election activities for nonprofit organizations?

On a nonpartisan basis nonprofits can legally:

Register voters
Educate voters on the process (where to vote and election dates)
Provide guides on candidates and ballot measures (from all political parties)
Offer candidate forums (ensuring representation from all parties)
Educate candidates about the issues your nonprofit/clients are most concerned about
Encourage voting. Get out the vote!

How to begin?

Share these resources with your colleagues, clients, and friends:

National Registration Day: nationalvoterregistrationday.org
Nonprofit Get Out the Vote: nonprofitvote.org/
New York Online Voter Registration through the DMV: my.dmv.ny.gov/crm/
Student Voter ID Requirements, by State http://www.headcount.org/student-voter-id-requirements/

NOTE: October 12, 2012 is the deadline to register to vote in New York City for the November 6th Presidential Election.

Join CRE and the Lawyers Alliance of New York for a webinar on civic engagement on October 3, 2012. Registration information is available at www.crenyc.org/calendar. And don’t forget to check out CRE’s Conference Center if your nonprofit needs a meeting space to carry out its civic engagement activities this fall!

What Do Invisible Nonprofits Mean For Community Leadership?

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 04:00:00 GMT

By Valyrie Laedlein, CRE Co-Director - Those of you accustomed to visiting this website know that CRE exists to support nonprofit organizations in becoming stronger and more effective in their work to fight poverty and advance social justice. So it came as a bit of a shocker to hear the director of a foundation who is a significant supporter of social services and nonprofit capacity building say in a meeting last week that nonprofit organizations are becoming increasingly “invisible.”

He explained that the New York City Mayor’s office and City agencies – and for that matter many private foundations – focus on contracting for programs. That is to say, programs delivered to best effect at the best price. What makes for an effective program, managed at peak efficiency, is not the concern of public or most private funders. Hence, specific interest in, or concern for, the organizations that deliver those programs is obviated.

My colleagues and I at CRE haven’t quite embraced this point of view yet. We’d certainly affirm that unless an organization is capable of delivering a program that gets results and can do so efficiently, it shouldn’t be funded. But we also recognize that organizations operating with extremely slim margins, high levels of accountability, delays in government reimbursements, and declining levels of public and private support, are often compromised in their ability to do so – and placed at serious risk of shutting their doors. I’ve been engaged in the process of supporting one agency’s board of directors as it decided to end operations, and yesterday I met with another board who is debating the same question of whether it can continue to operate as an independent entity or not. A major funder of theirs has essentially yanked support because it feels the organization is too focused and there’s not potential to “go to scale.”

Now what happens?

Should we be content that those programs fold, or at best that a large city-wide agency comes to absorb programming? Does community leadership of programs and organizations matter, or can any well-run, scaled organization take over a program and deliver what the community needs, regardless of where the agency is based or who leads it?

I worry – no, actually, I’m devastated - about what I see happening among CRE’s clients. The mindset of scarcity has consumed civil society and constraints in available resources to build that society have contributed to a set of assumptions now held by government and a distinct number of private funders that scale must trump all. It seems no longer to matter that an organization is by the community and for the community – or that the rise of community-driven leaders and institutions represents a significant stage in the process of community development.

In a city of communities – as defined by geography, affiliation, ethnicity and other - community institutions DO matter. If, and when, those institutions become invisible, we will have taken a giant step backwards and begun to undermine our progress in building community self-determination, which has been a bedrock of movement-building since the 1960s.

This moment seems to require new ways of thinking about our institutions and a new willingness to reconfigure them to retain community ownership. Like never before, boards and nonprofit leaders need to think about forging new relationships with similarly-situated partners – combining forces to build and maintain viable community-led organizations that will retain the qualities of and a commitment to community voice, direction, and self-determination. This is hard work that will challenge nonprofit leaders and their fundamental assumptions about defending their organizations. It will require that we shift our paradigm to focus on a goal that’s greater than preserving any single organization, in the interest of assuring the success and sustainability of key organizations that will be institutions capable of making change happen through services and advocacy for the community and by the community.

For more information on how CRE can help your nonprofit to remain sustainable in these tough economic times, please check out our services.