Story:
Change, Emerging Opportunities, and Innovation: Story of a Small Not-for-Profit
A small not-for-profit introduces a summer job program for youth with support from the federal government. A novel approach disperses decision-making at three distinguishable levels from top levels of government to school age children. The story focuses on the sub-conditions that must be in place for the emerging decision makers to take the lead and work in such liberal environment with minimal supervision.
Youth Are Heard (YAH) is a small grass root community group in Dreamcity. The group has the mission to create a forum for youth to interact and break isolation. A decade after its inception, the organization runs a homework club, some after school programs, ESL, and soccer programs. All programs are offered during the school year and are free of charge. The clients are mostly from immigrant families. A volunteer Board of Directors (BoD) runs the organization. Almost all directors are entrepreneurs with good connections within the community. They have been able to have annual fundraising dinners to rise about 20 to 30 thousand dollars to fund its programs without any grants or corporate sponsorships. The organization suffers from lack of funding. Without professional fulltime staff or any executive director, everything has to be done by volunteers, the board members, especially the Chair, Shawn, who has established the organization from the beginning. The directors are dedicated to the cause, however, at times they signal fatigue and disappointment for lack of resources to support new programs and trigger growth beyond the reach of the specific community. Several attempts to receive grants and sponsorships have resulted disappointments. Some suggest use the limited recourses they have for hiring professional grant writers to prepare winning applications to grants or sponsorships: make it big or die. Some believe that the narrow focus of the organization and its culture of small steps have put them in trouble. The organization itself has to break isolation in order to interact. At the same time, almost everyone, from the staff, and parents to community members, local media, and local bureaucrats and politicians have stated that the organization has served well, and they see a lot of potential. Something has to be done.
In December 2011 in an informal Christmas party Shawn learns about a new federal program to create summer jobs for students. The Chair knew that the usual practice is to call for proposals, have several information sessions, receive applications which are typically about fifty pages, have two or three rounds of screening and negotiations. The complicated process would provide no chance for small volunteer run groups. On the other hand, it would take a lot of money and more than a year for the government to go from a concept to actual program delivery. But this program sounds different and there might be some hope. This time the government is neither involved with the employment process, nor determines the winners and losers while tries to maintain fairness across the vast country with a British system, where executive and legislative branches are the same. The country has hundreds of electoral ridings. Why not involving the elected officials into the process? They are trusted by people to voice the local priorities; they know local organizations and groups. They can be asked to review applications and suggest the summer employment programs by local groups who can address local priorities.
In December 2011 in an informal Christmas party Shawn learns about a new federal program to create summer jobs for students. The Chair knew that the usual practice is to call for proposals, have several information sessions, receive applications which are typically about fifty pages, have two or three rounds of screening and negotiations. The complicated process would provide no chance for small volunteer run groups. On the other hand, it would take a lot of money and more than a year for the government to go from a concept to actual program delivery. But this program sounds different and there might be some hope. This time the government is neither involved with the employment process, nor determines the winners and losers while tries to maintain fairness across the vast country with a British system, where executive and legislative branches are the same. The country has hundreds of electoral ridings. Why not involving the elected officials into the process? They are trusted by people to voice the local priorities; they know local organizations and groups. They can be asked to review applications and suggest the summer employment programs by local groups who can address local priorities.
Shawn smells something different in the air. This is a fresh approach, an opportunity to do not miss. The challenge is to design a program to employ youth only for two months in the summer when the organization has no program. Should they apply to run an after school program or a homework club when there is no school? A summer camp is not a bad idea, but it needs more than just two students to act as camp leaders. There is no budget for all other expenses. Should they go against the tradition and ask for user fee, just because there is a wage subsidy for camp leaders? Beside all these, is running a summer camp a local priority to receive funds at the first place?
Shawn shares his concerns with Bob, a former board member who has been with the organization for several years. They talk and conclude that extending the current programs to summer is doing more of the same thing. Something different has to be done, something fun to engage the younger children who are enjoying their time off from the school and add to their summer experiences not subtract from their earned holiday leisure. In a long evening Shawn and Bob kept talking, made few phone calls, had several cups of tea with cookies and designed a program that also supports growth within the new model for funding. That is a film festival run by older students to engage younger students.
The program is to hire two university students to run a local film festival. All films are produced by local elementary and secondary students. The organizers are responsible to recruit the film makers, collect the films, book a venue, and screen the films at local level to local; audience who are mostly filmmakers’ parents. The organizers’ wage is subsidized by the government. They have certainty for their wages, but have to raise funds for all other expenses from local donors and sponsors. In this model the motivation is the intrinsic desire of the young employees to perform at their best. There is almost no other criterion other than find the filmmakers, find the sponsors, find the venue, and screen the films.
The organization was able to get funding for six local film festivals, hire twelve students, and collect 21 films with credits to 53 filmmakers. With abundance of cell phones and editing software, the young children proved not their technical skills but viewed the festival as a platform for self expression, a necessary step to accept responsibility when they are given the chance. Despite few glitches, overall the program was a success and brought the needed fresh air. With few changes, the organization has the approval to hire 20 students to run 11 local film festivals, aiming for about 70 films and reaching to more than 20 filmmakers. I can tell you the rest of the story in August as it is unfolding now.
The simple lesson for other not-for-profits is to look to the world around them with fresh eyes and perhaps through the eyes of their clientele rather than the Board of Directors, or staff. Even a small grass root organization can easily entrench herself in traditions of delivering scholastic support rather than introducing a recreational program in summer. Trusting the young to do the good for sake of the good is another lesson. However, the main lesson is at outset. The government has adopted new approach based on trusting the elected representatives. They in turn have to trust the local organizations. These organizations have trusted their young hires. T all three levels there have been not much of regulations but more of the understanding. The top has delegated to the bottom, and the bottom has been able to absorb it and act on it with diligence. At the end, the school age children are asked to make films, something that was not possible even ten years ago. As we go forward, we have to move away from our traditions and learn to see the world and the emerging opportunities in it. The world is changing, opportunities are emerging, the onus is on us to innovate and move forward.
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