New York Nonprofit Review July/August 2016

MEDIA - REVIEW DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

Issue N°10 August 15th, 2016

NEWS

OTPS BUDGET EXCLUSION DISAPPOINTS Read more page 18

NEWS

S P O T L I G H T : E D U C AT I O N

THE COST OF HIGHER LEARINING p.23 IS NEW YORK MEETING GOALS FOR NEW CHARTER SCHOOLS? p.24-25

EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF ‘HOUSING FIRST’ WITH BREAKING GROUND Read more page 13

AGENCY OF THE MONTH

NEWS

STRENGTHENING POLICE COMMU NITY RELATIONS Read more page 17

“THE FIRST ENCOU NTER YOU HAVE WITH A POLICE OFFICER SHOULD BE A POSITIVE ONE.”

INNOVATIVE RESOURCES FOR INDEPENDENCE Read more page 9

TRADE TIPS

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR RFP? Read more page 5

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Issue N°10

August 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

Cause Awards Nominate someone for New York Nonprofit Media’s first Cause Awards 2016 in the areas of: homelessness/housing youth development mental health aging issues immigration education employment criminal justice reform disability/access issues food insecurity/food justice

Winners will be honored in a special print journal featured at a breakfast in early November!

Visit http://bit.ly/2aM8fMe to nominate!

For more information on sponsorship and advertising opportunities, contact Kelly Murphy at kmurphy@cityandstateny.com or 917-952-4994.

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August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

AUGUST 2016

CONTENTS TRADE TIPS

5. What to know before hiring a finance consultant 5. What happened to your RFP? 6. Planning for gala season

NOTABLES

7. Galas and recent events 8. Improving outcomes for dually diagnosed youth 9. Agency of the Month: Innovative Resources for Independence 10: Building partners and scaling up 11. The benefits of unexpected partnerships 11. Volunteering in the classroom 12. Front-Line Hero: Laura Wellington 12. Beyond SummerStage

THANK YOU TO OUR ANNUAL SPONSORS! AABR

JCC of Greater Coney Island

Abbott House

JCCA

ANDRUS

Leake & Watts Services

Astor Services for Children and

Life's WORC

Families

Long Island Adolescent & Family

The Bridge

Services

Brooklyn Community Services

Lower East Side Family Union

CAMBA

Mercy Haven

Cerebral Palsy of Westchester

Mercy Home for Children

Child Care Council of Suffolk, Inc.

MercyFirst

Children's Home of Poughkeepsie

New Alternatives for Children

Children's Village

New York Asian Women's Center

COFCCA

New York Common Pantry

Communilife

Ohel Children's Home & Family Services

Community Counseling & Mediation

PSCH

Concern for Independent Living

Public Health Solutions

The Day Care Council of New York

QSAC

The Doe Fund

Richmond Community Services

East Side House

SCAN New York

Family Services of Westchester

SCO Family of Services, Inc.

FedCap

Seaman's Society for Children & Families

Fiscal Management Associates

Service Program for Older People, Inc.

Forestdale

Sheltering Arms

Good Shepherd Services

Special Citizens Futures Unlimited

Graham Windham Services for

St. Catherine's Center for Children

Families and Children

St. Christopher's Inc.

Green Chimneys

St. Dominic's Home

Greystone Programs, Inc.

St. Francis Friends of the Poor

The Guild for Exceptional Children

Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center

Health and Welfare Council of Long

Staten Island Mental Health Society

Island

Stonewall Foundation

Heartshare Human Services of NY

SUS

Henry St. Settlement

United Cerebral Palsy of NYC

Hour Children

United Neighborhood Houses of NY

Human Services Council

University Settlement/The Door

Independence Residences

Vanderheyden Hall

Institute for Community Living

VISIONS/Services for the Blind

InterAgency Council of

William F. Ryan Community

Developmental Disabilities

Health Center

Jawonio

NEWS

SPOTLIGHT

PERSPECTIVES

CAREERS

13. Talking "Housing First" with Breaking Ground 13. ACS announces changes to Close to Home 14. New ratings systems help nonprofits 15. Direct-care workers rally for raises 16. Change grants support sustainability 17. Creating a context for interactions with police 18. OTPS Budget exclusion disappoints nonprofits 19. Preventing another scandal at Queens Library 20. Cuomo launches "Homelessness Action Plan" 20. Overtime rules stump early-childhood nonprofits 21. Surveying the nonprofit operating landscape 27. Building a successful workforce development program

23. The high price of higher learning 24. Paying for charter schools

29. Helen Rosenthal and Allison Sesso: Connecting the dots on nonprofit underfunding

30. The go-to-career center for New York’s nonprofit industry

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Issue N°10

August 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

AIMÉE SIMPIERRE Editor-at-large

“D

on’t bid!’”

Helen Rosenthal, chairwoman of the City Council’s Contracts Committee, told New York Nonprofit Media’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars gathered at Manhattan’s Capital Grille. “Stop bidding on contracts that either are asking you to do something that you don’t think is right, or doesn’t fully fund the work that you have to do to get the work done.”

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The hope is a reduction in bids will ultimately force the city to commit more funds to the sector.

The suggestion speaks to how acute the fiscal challenges have become for nonprofits.

In this issue there are a number of articles that touch on efforts to secure the sector’s future. You can read how Rosenthal advocated for additional “OTPS” funding during city budget negotiations, and direct support professionals rallied for wage increases at City Hall. Our senior reporter Dan Rosenblum looked into new overtime rules, and guest reporter Madina Touré explored the Nonprofit Finance Fund’s effort to provide direct infusions of cash to support nonprofits’ sustainability. Sector leaders also sat down with us for a discussion about what the city and the sector should be doing to improve the current operating climate. Excerpts are printed here, but for the whole conversation check our website and subscribe to the podcast. A second focus interwoven throughout the issue centers on the disability community and related providers such as our agency of the month, IRI,

and St. Christopher’s, whose CEO Dr. Robert Maher spoke with us.

Along the lines of preparing for the future, this issue contains two spotlight stories on education. One reports how charter schools – the vast majority of which are structured as nonprofit 501(c)(3)s – are created, funded and approved. The other examines student debt, and how nonprofit institutions of higher education can prove to be a better deal academically and financially.

This July, NYN Media’s celebration of 40 individuals under the age of 40 felt like a breath of hope for the sector. Whether they are advocating for critical pieces of policy, creating safe spaces for young people to express their many and varied talents, helping to lift others out of poverty or leveling the playing field for older adults or individuals with special needs – we’re glad that these individuals will continue to exert their influence over the future of this sector. Their profiles, featured online in our events section, are a snapshot of both the quality and the character that fills the nonprofit community. Catch photos of the event in our “Recent

galas and events” section and on our Facebook page.

There are also lots of new things to enjoy as you peruse this issue.

You’ll note we’ve added a Foundation Focus feature, where we’ll showcase articles and interviews with top staff at New York-based or -focused foundations that highlight their recent news and research, initiatives and future priorities. You may also have noticed that we’ve begun regularly featuring photos from your galas and events in our daily newsletter, along with the photo spread in our print issue – so make sure your subscription to our daily mailing list is up to date (and that you’ve whitelisted us!) and send us a top photo and caption from your successful events for sharing. Lastly, if there’s an issue or innovation that has greatly affected your work please write about it and share that article with us, or ask us to cover it. We are all about hosting and sparking the kinds of conversations that will lead to positive change for nonprofits and the people you serve. Working together we can ensure this sector’s future grows brighter every day.

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August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

TRADE TIPS

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE HIRING A FINANCE CONSULTANT

By PAUL KONIGSTEIN

O

n some level, everyone knows that you can't get something for nothing. If you want to lose weight, you have to work at it. Yet, I can't help but think that some nonprofits look at me as their finance weight-loss pill. All they have to do is hire me and they can lose all their unwanted financial baggage without lifting a finger.

Unfortunately, consulting does not work that way. I am not the finance

weight-loss pill. I am the finance personal trainer.

According to the National Federation of Personal Trainers, a personal trainer creates a safe and effective exercise and fitness program design and provides instruction and assistance for the purpose of reaching personal health and fitness goals.

Similarly, a finance and accounting consultant creates safe and effective financial systems, along with policies and procedures and provides instruction and assistance for the purpose of reaching organizational financial goals.

A personal trainer does not exercise for you, nor does she take ownership of your fitness goals. Likewise, a finance and accounting consultant does not relieve you of the responsibility to provide financial leadership, nor does he take ownership of achieving your financial goals such as a surplus or a balanced budget.

To get your finances in shape you will have to do some hard work.

That may include: • Risking new ways of solving problems and managing the fallout from the attempts that do not succeed • Convincing people to change their roles, tasks, methods, or work style • Leading by example by following financial policies and procedures yourself • Strengthening communication between finance and other departments • Leading organizational culture change I do not have the leverage to do any of this behavioral work. I will assist you by doing the technical work - like helping you develop financial goals, design systems and establish policies and procedures that meet those goals. I’ll also

analyze alternatives. In addition I can provide moral support and celebrate your accomplishments.

But you must do the behavioral work of standing up to the change resisters and insisting on engagement with the technical changes. You must sell the new way of operating. Otherwise, you will be lucky to lose any weight at all.

Paul Konigstein is a senior consultant at Accounting Management Solutions, a division of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, where he helps nonprofits master finance and accounting. Paul blogs for BoardAssist. org and leads webinars at 4Good.org and you can follow him on Twitter @PaulKonigstein. He’s also preparing to present on the important changes impacting grant and contract-funded nonprofits and strategies for compliance on Sept.

20 at Morgan Stanley in NYC. Paul holds an M.B.A. in finance from New York University and a B.S. in marketing from the University of Pennsylvania and has been assisting nonprofits for almost 25 years.

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR RFP?

By CLAUDE M. MILLMAN

H

ave you responded to a New York City government request for proposals (RFP) and then waited for months, wondering “what happened to my proposal?”

While the typical life of a proposal can be gleaned from laws and court filings, here is the general roadmap: Your proposal’s first stop is with the Agency Chief Contracting Officer (ACCO). The ACCO reviews proposals for “responsiveness,” checking whether you’ve satisfied any minimum qualifications and that your proposal meets the RFP’s specifications. ACCO reviews can be time consuming.

NYNmedia.com

Responsive proposals are then routed to evaluation committees. By law, these committees have to follow the evaluation criteria disclosed in the RFP to score the proposals. Yet, sometimes city agencies disclose only vague criteria in the RFP and instead give evaluators rating sheets containing unpublished evaluation rubrics.

The ACCO collects the rating sheets and checks them for clerical errors.

While the procurement rules say that RFP selections are made by the evaluation committee, other members of the city agency’s program staff sometimes weigh in. Where the RFP provides for an unspecified number of multiple awards, those staff members decide how many awards to make and whether to “skip” a proposer (for geographic diversity or other purposes) to reach another, lower-ranked proposer.

The ACCO then determines whether the winning proposer is “responsible” by checking its integrity, capability and capacity. ACCOs often rely on a “vendor name check” by providing the names of the proposer and its principals to the city’s Department of Investigation, which searches its databases for “closing memoranda”

(pre-existing reports summarizing results of prior investigations).

The ACCO then prepares a Recommendation for Award, which summarizes the procurement process, explains how the winning proposer was selected, and addresses any adverse responsibility information.

Before the comptroller will register a contract, the administration has to represent that the “procedural requisites” of the procurement process have been met, that the Law Department has approved of the contract’s form and that there are funds in the budget for the contract.

As a result, a winning proposal’s next stops will include MOCS, the Office of Management and Budget and the Law Department.

It may sometimes appear that the procurement is “stuck at MOCS.” While MOCS’ role is to sign the “certificate of procedural requisites,” the Mayor’s Office may use its authority for operational or policy oversight. At other times, MOCS may be waiting for responses to questions, or for secured approvals from the Law Department or the Office of Management and Budget or for

advice from the Department of Investigation.

The comptroller has 30 days to register a proposed contract. Contracts should be registered within that initial 30-day period, but there are situations where the comptroller would extend that time. The comptroller might be waiting for information about a procurement and say that the “30-day clock” does not start ticking until it arrives, or persuade the agency to withdraw the initial registration submission and resubmit an amended package (restarting the clock) or reject the registration package and claim it was insufficient to start the clock.

Contract information is public under the Freedom of Information Law and the City Charter. But proposers considering influencing the process should review state and city lobby laws before communicating with the city.

Claude M. Millman is a partner at Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP. For over 15 years, he has represented government contractors, including nonprofits, doing business with New York City and state.

He is a former Director of the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services.

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August 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

TRADE TIPS

PLANNING FOR GALA SEASON

By ANAT GERSTEIN

G

alas are a great opportunity to connect with and engage new and potential supporters: You’ve got them captive for hours, so don’t miss the chance to move them to action by making communications a priority from the outset.

Tell a story. Before you do anything else, identify a gala theme that tells a good and persuasive story. Get all of your speakers on board to ensure they deliver remarks that are on-message. Make sure all of your materials are on-message and on-theme.

Plan it out. Map out everything you may need written, designed and produced, including invitations, curtain-raising social media content, meaningful centerpieces, video, posters and other signage, remarks, auction items, promotions collateral, postcards and post-event “thank you” letters. Figure out who you’ll need to hire, such as a pho-

tographer, and line them up.

Plan for press. If there’s something unusual about your gala or you have society folks or celebrities on hand, you may be successful at attracting press attention.

But before you make any decisions, ask yourself: What will gala press get us? Will the outcome be worth the effort?

Move your audience. What will people see when they step through the door of your event? Consider the spaces in your venue as prime real estate waiting to be bill-boarded with messaging – from the stepand-repeat at the entrance to the silent auction stands, dinner and buffet tables, and the parting gifts.

Since at least some attendees often are individuals who know little about your organization, find creative ways to engage them throughout the evening.

Keep messages throughout the space simple, but make sure they

make an impression. Project Renewal includes table tent cards that have a sentence about a program and a statistic about its impact. They place a few different versions of the card throughout the room so as guests move through the space, they get a sense of the organization’s total impact.

Keep the program engaging.

Smart nonprofits have the “baby bear” approach to gala programs not too short or too long. They ensure that the program does not drag on and that all speakers are on message and brief.

You want to move people – make them laugh, make them cry, rile them up because not enough is being done for your cause – so they will be more likely to get involved and give.

Don’t forget the follow-up. Hopefully, the individuals who attended your gala were both moved by your work and had an enjoyable time.

Hopefully, you have also collected their names and emails.

Following the gala, send a short “thank you” email to everyone who attended. Title it “About last night” and send it the morning after – we bet you’ll have a good open rate. Use that email to find a way to continue to engage these individuals by inviting them to sign up for your newsletter, connect with you via social media and volunteer. For select individuals with whom you’d like to build further connections, find a photo of them from the event and send that with the “thank you” note.

Or, send a “thank you” note from a program participant, then keep them engaged.

Anat Gerstein is president of Anat Gerstein Inc., a consulting firm that provides a full spectrum of communication services – including public relations, donor communications, social media – to the nonprofit sector.

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August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

GALAS AND RECENT EVENTS

Junior League volunteers and a young program participant at SCAN NYs “Reaching New Horizons” gala held at The Astor House.

From left to right: ANDRUS Staff Golfers Justin Baez, Rene Hernandez, and Chris Crooms attend ANDRUS’ Golf Fore Kids annual fundraiser on June 6. The event, held at the newly redesigned course at Siwanoy Country Club, raised over $150,000 to help children and families throughout Westchester County.

Troy, 16, tells Leake & Watts guests about his traumatic two months at Rikers Island before being placed in Leake & Watts Non-Secure Placement program at Leake & Watts’ spring benefit at The Milling Room on the Upper West Side.

NYNmedia.com

New York Nonprofit Media’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars celebrate at the Capital Grille.

Leadership from NY Mets legend Keith Hernandez and Macquarie Group at the 2016 "Windows of Opportunity" Gala helped Sheltering Arms raise $536,000 for at-risk children and families striving to achieve their greatest potential.

From left to right: Auctioneer Angelo Chan; Committee Member Dolly Geary of Geary Contemporary; Honorary Artist Chairwoman Vadis Turner; Jack Geary; Event Chairwoman and Governing Body Member Joni Grossman; and Governing Body and Committee Member Helen Allen Smith were among the 250 local art lovers and New York-based contemporary artists who gathered April 26 for SCO Family of Services’ 6th Annual Family Dynamics Art Auction and Reception, which raised record funds to benefit FD’s after-school arts programs for youth in Central Brooklyn.

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Issue N°10

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NOTABLES

IMPROVING OUTCOMES FOR DUALLY DIAGNOSED YOUTH A Q&A with Dr. Robert Maher, CEO of St. Christopher’s School

PASSED MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE AFFECT WHAT YOU DO? RM: We are already ahead of the curve because we kind of foresaw this was going to happen. Fortunately, because we have structured ourselves pretty good, what we did was we already included an advance so that beginning January 1st of this year, we’re going to be actually ahead of the state with getting to the $15 minimum wage.

D

r. Robert Maher leads St. Christopher’s team of more than 200 professionals who serve primarily learning disabled and emotionally disturbed youth on three residential campuses, plus 160 day students at the Greenburgh Academy.

NYN: HOW WILL THE RECENTLY

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NYN: SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD PLANNING PROCESS WAS INVOLVED. RM: We could predict the future pretty easily; we saw where the governor was headed. Now of course our hope is that he’s actually going to back this with money for the organizations to meet his goal. We’re going to take a leap of faith that he’s going to, because it’s really our industry that prevents much of what would then have to be spent on children if they’re not cared for properly.

NYN: WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOUR PROGRAM DESIGN THAT YOU THINK HAS LEAD TO YOUR SUCCESS? RM: We’re 24/7 education. My two campus directors are former special education leaders, my director of human resources is a former special education supervisor. We are all-in for education. We believe if we’re going to give our kids the best chance for success, it’s going to be through the education door.

NYN: TELL US ABOUT YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE. RM: It’s kind of obvious. I’m very enthusiastic. I love bringing great people together to do great work, and we’re certainly doing God’s work as everyone in the child welfare field is. No one goes into this field looking to make money, and that’s probably a good thing because they’ll never make money in this field! However, when you go to sleep at night knowing that you've

helped the children that we help, many of whom were asked to leave most of the schools that they ever attended and really were asked to leave their community, and now we’re giving them a second shot at success. And with our kids – participating in the marching band – when we saw them in the movie Birdman, which won Best Picture, and they were up there on the silver screen, or when we saw them march at the Super Bowl or down 5th Avenue recently at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, or when our basketball team went up to play in the state final four basketball tournament up in Glen Falls or at graduation when 80 percent of our kids actually receive a New York state legitimate diploma, those are such proud moments for all of the staff, so we like to share that enthusiasm. The one thing they’ve said about enthusiasm: If you do it right it becomes contagious, just like success, so that the more you have the more you want.

NYNmedia.com

August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

AGENCY OF THE MONTH: INNOVATIVE RESOURCES FOR INDEPENDENCE

By MICHELLE ARNOT

NYNmedia.com

quality of their service, not just the volume,” she said. “Since IRI delivers its services based on the specific wants, needs and capabilities of our individuals and measures the success of those services based on meeting outcomes data, we are already operating under some of the parameters of managed care.”

IRI serves those seeking housing and employment options, services in the home, crisis services, and many other immediate services. “People’s lives need to be enriched quickly, and we are tuned in to that urgency,” said DeNatale. Its goal is to empower each individual with (intellectual or developmental disabilities) to lead the selection of his or her housing, find employment and create relationships in the community and be in good health. “Our operating principle as an organization is based on working as a team to improve the quality of life of the people we support,” he added. “As the saying goes: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and he eats for life.” IRI is recognized by the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities as a Tier II COMPASS agency (Consumerism Outcome Management Plan and Agency Self Survey) for its commitment to quality service and its track record as a leader in the field of developmental disabilities.

In its effort to enable independence, IRI strives to mainstream its clients when possible. “If people say they want to live differently, whether it’s with a family member, a roommate or even a staff member, we listen very closely and strive to fulfill that request,” said DeNatale. “The definition of what is home to each

person is crucial. Providing the kind of home to which each individual aspires is a key element to our model.”

IRI is positioning itself at the forefront of designing customized solutions for its clients’ needs. In the past, DeNatale recounted, people with disabilities were housed in insane asylums, until the state eventually moved them into developmental centers. In the late 1980s, care improved vastly when group homes were introduced.

At present, the field is recognizing that a “one size fits all” concept of group living does not work, and to do so would be fiscally unsustainable. IRI offers an array of residential options – ranging from supervised group situations to home ownership. “Of the men and women who lived in our residences in 2012, over 20 percent have moved into living arrangements with three or less people created to meet their individual likes and capacities,” DeNatale said.

DeNatale attributes IRI’s success in large part to its dedicated direct-support professional staff and experienced, innovative leadership team. The latest addition to IRI’s team is John McGuigan, its associate executive director for program operations and quality improvement, who has over 20 years' experience supporting people with developmental disabilities and values, such as person-first thinking, that align with the field’s efforts to empower choice by clients.

Additionally, IRI is constantly working to incorporate improvements in technology that support independence and allow staff to meet specific needs. Through a combination of sensor and telehealth technology, IRI can ensure a safe envi-

ronment in a non-intrusive way and still be alerted when a checkin with a client is necessary. Staff can use this technology to monitor things like cooking practices, unusual opening of outside doors or failure to take medication from a “connected” dispenser. A staff member can also be in video contact with a nurse and use an array of biometric devices to remotely take a person’s vitals and better triage the need for further medical attention. With these telehealth developments, IRI has averted many disruptive and costly visits to the emergency room.

DeNatale cites direct-support professional staff turnover as a big hurdle, especially in light of the increasing minimum wage in New York State. “Even if we could match the pay of, say, McDonald’s, there’s no doubt that our work is more complex than slinging burgers,” he said. “Working at IRI is not just about making a living but about having compassion for your fellow New Yorkers.”

DeNatale foresees additional collaborations for IRI with other agencies that share similar missions. “The key is to be large enough to invest in new business lines or strategies while being nimble enough to meet individual needs as they come up,” he said.

“Key to such collaborations is that each (executive director) and their organization’s board has to be prepared to leave our egos at the door in order to recognize which agency brings the best asset to the collaboration in order to best assist the people we support.”

JOHN DAVID PHOTOGRAPHY

I

n July of 2015, when New York City introduced its long overdue Disability Pride Parade to mark the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, among those marching were representatives of two award-winning Queens nonprofits: Independence Residences Inc. and Queens Parent Resource Center (QPRC).

Effective July 1, 2016, Independence Residences and QPRC formally merged, and marched in this year’s parade under the name IRI: Innovative Resources for Independence.

Established by parents concerned about care for their children, both agencies had been serving the community for decades. Since 2012 the two nonprofits have combined their efforts, resources and programs to ensure the broadest array of individualized supports are available to better assist the about 1,600 adults and children with intellectual or developmental disabilities that they serve. Most are referred by families, or upon repatriation from outof-state education programs at age 21. Now, with a joint budget of about $35 million and a staff of about 500 direct support plus 250 management and clinical staff, IRI intends to extend its reach beyond the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island to coincide with its recently developed five-year plan. As part of the rebranding, IRI has also added a tagline: “empowering choice, creating opportunities.”

“Drawing the analogy to a relationship between consenting adults, you could say that (Independence Residences) and QPRC got engaged, and have formally tied the knot,” said IRI Executive Director Raymond J. DeNatale, a longtime advocate for people on the autism spectrum. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Interagency Council, Advance of Greater New York and the Advance Care Alliance. “After completing an 18-month strategic portfolio, we have identified our growth areas and are prepared internally for known external changes, including the increase in minimum wage, federal Department of Labor changes, and the transformation of the field of developmental disabilities ultimately leading to managed care,” said DeNatale.

According to Lindsay Brienza, the agency’s development and fundraising coordinator, IRI has positioned itself on numerous statewide committees to help shape and better understand the impact of impending regulatory changes. “For example, as a member of the Value-Based Payment committee, we know that agencies will be paid based on the

Andrew (left) and staff member James enjoy doing arts and crafts together in the Day Habilitation program at IRI.

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NOTABLES

BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS AND SCALING UP An At the Board Table Q&A with America Needs You

A

merica Needs You fights for economic mobility for ambitious low-income, first-generation college students by supporting them through college and offering mentoring and career development.

Board members Aditya Sanghvi, a partner at McKinsey & Company, and Ron Bezoza, global head of the Equity Solutions Group within the Investment Management Division at Goldman Sachs, spoke with New York Nonprofit Media about how they have supported the nonprofit as it has expanded to other states, including Illinois and New Jersey. This interview has been edited for content and clarity. Download the full podcast at nynmedia.com.

Aditya Sanghvi: For us, the corporate sponsor pitch is pretty easy because a lot of the corporate sponsors themselves are actually looking for this student profile. And what we basically do is we take high-potential students who are low-income or first-generation that with the right little bit of push, both in soft skills and hard skills can be incredibly successful. And then we match them up with those corporate sponsors that are looking for exactly that talent, and exactly that talent that’s already been trained. For us, as a board, and going to corporate sponsors, we use the folks that we know, we tell them about the idea, and almost always, it aligns exactly to what they’re looking for anyways.

NEW YORK NONPROFIT MEDIA: WHAT IS THE BOARD’S ROLE IN MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS WITH FUNDERS, PARTICULARLY CORPORATE SPONSORS?

NYN: HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHEN YOU’RE READY TO EXPAND? AS: We wanted to make sure that we were delivering as fully as we could for the fellows in New York, so that we had

a real model that we could scale. And after that, it was thinking about if we have the confidence in what we build, and a lot of that is having a curriculum that’s already set in place. That’s when we felt there was an opportunity to go somewhere else and to be able to affect even more students.

for future fellowship programs is partner with universities, such that they’re providing some of the resources, location, some operating staff to help run the programs while we provide the content and the know-how and the value-add above and beyond what the universities can do on their own.

NYN: WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE, PARTICULARLY IN THIS ECONOMIC CLIMATE? Ron Bezoza: Funding is certainly a challenge, which you allude to by the operating climate. We were very strategic when we thought about Illinois and the opportunity to develop corporate partners and board members and raise funds, as well as the local need. As we continue to look to expand, we are adapting our strategy to lower our cost per student. We provide an extreme amount of value to our students, it’s also quite expensive.

And one of the things we want to do

AS: What we love about America Needs You is that because it helps everybody, it’s actually easier to scale and easier from a funding perspective, because you may have corporate sponsors who are willing to help because they are looking for that demographic. Universities already have programs and things that are targeted towards that demographic where they have available funds that they can use.

So as long as we get people aware of the program and the solution that we have, I think then, we’re going to be able to scale when funding is less of a concern in that way.

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NYNmedia.com

August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

THE BENEFITS OF UNEXPECTED PARTNERSHIPS A Foundation Focus Q&A with Kate Spade & Company Foundation Director Valerie Biberaj

By EMILY VAN ZANDT

A

t less than two years old, the Kate Spade & Company Foundation may be new to the world of New York philanthropy, but its work is already making an impact.

Under the guidance of director Valerie Biberaj, the foundation has provided more than $1.2 million in grants to nonprofit organizations in New York City. This interview was has been edited for content and clarity.

Listen to the full podcast at the City & State Reports’ blog.

C&S: HOW DOES THE KATE SPADE & COMPANY FOUNDATION WORK WITHIN THE COMPANY’S LARGER CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY EFFORTS? VB: The Kate Spade & Company Foundation has the same mission as our corporate social responsibility program: To empower women to transform their communities through trade-based initiatives. On the CSR side, we do powerful work in Rwanda, where we’ve trained 150

artisans to create products for us that are integrated seamlessly into our collections.

I was tasked with applying that same mission and giving it meaning and structure in New York City. We wanted to help ensure we were offering more than just a job for these women, but instead, a career path. We created three pillars for the foundation that not only represent important industries but also align with who we are as a brand: Women in Technology, Women in Entrepreneurship, and Women in the Arts.

C&S: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PARTNERSHIPS THAT YOU’RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT RIGHT NOW? VB: They are all doing such incredible and diverse work. For example, we’re working with The Moth (a nonprofit organization celebrating storytelling through live events in New York and across the United States) to host workshops that will encourage and help

college-aged women at CUNY campuses to better tell their stories, both personally and professionally. So often, underprivileged college-aged women walk into a professional settings unable to articulate their background or experiences. This initiative will help them better communicate and realize their personal branding while learning the art of storytelling.

Another example is a pilot program we’ve funded through the International Rescue Committee in New York City. The IRC is a very well-established organization and this pilot is their first gender-focused program ever, helping at-risk and refugee women in the New York City area explore entrepreneurial roles. We’re helping women translate their skills into the local economy, while offering flexible and appropriate ways to do so.

C&S: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE TRENDS YOU’RE SEEING IN CORPORATE FOUNDATIONS RIGHT NOW?

VB: One of the most positive trends – one that I hope continues – is corporate foundations focusing on areas in which they themselves are experts and sharing their knowledge. A grant is not the only thing these nonprofits need; they need business development and guidance from talented, informed volunteers.

C&S: WHAT KIND OF IMPACT DOES AN ACTIVE FOUNDATION OR CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY PROGRAM HAVE ON A COMPANY’S EMPLOYEES? VB: The impact is immeasurable. We have a big focus on making sure our associates know what we’re doing and how to get involved. They love hearing about our work in in the New York and New Jersey areas, as well as meeting and working with our grantees.

This interview was originally published on the blog of our sister publication, City & State Reports.

VOLUNTEERING IN THE CLASSROOM A CEO Corner Q&A on engaging parents with Jane Heaphy of Learning Leaders

content and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at nynmedia.com.

E

very year Learning Leaders it engages over 4,000 volunteers to make a difference in the lives of 120,000 public school students – most from low-income communities. The organization’s executive director, Jane Heaphy, spoke with New York Nonprofit Media Editor-at-Large Aimée Simpierre about engaging parents and volunteers across more than 300 elementary and middle schools.

This interview has been edited for NYNmedia.com

NEW YORK NONPROFIT MEDIA: HOW DO YOU ENGAGE VOLUNTEERS? Jane Heaphy: We work with the school to recruit a set of parents each year, and that group can grow over time at a given school. Those parents who are new to us participate in a six-hour training, sometimes a little longer, depending on the particular roles they’re going to have at the school. They go through a whole background check with us and a whole application process. It’s a variation in your role as parent and you’re not on staff either, you’re in this kind of a special role which has special rights and responsibilities. You’re there as a community member, you’re not there as a class parent.

In elementary schools, most of our volunteers are supporting a classroom teacher, so you’ve got a firstgrade teacher who’s got 24 or 28 children in a class who could use a pair of hands with providing some oneon-one support, with perhaps doing

read-alouds to a group of children that buys the teacher a little time to work individually with some kids who may be struggling, may help with some of the classroom organization to keep the class running smoothly.

But mostly they’re there to support literacy development and overall school acclimation at the lower grades, then as they get to the upper grades they’re supporting more skilled development in other subjects.

NYN: HOW DO YOU GET PARENTS INVOLVED? JH: We have a planning process with principals and parent coordinators to figure out the different communities in the school that might have different language outreach, that might need different technology outreach, whatever it is to have parents feel invited in and feel really welcomed and considered resources. Some parents, when you talk to them, were there because they wanted to roll up their sleeves and help, some understood it as an opportunity to learn more. Whatever got them in they end

up feeling the other way additionally. You come in because you want to help, then parents say, “I had no idea how much I would learn.”

That win-win is what we’re really about: that parents come in as a resource and also take home, back to their own kitchen table, everything that they’re learning at school.

NYN: WHAT’S THE COMMITMENT? JH: The commitment is two hours a week, so for working parents that is a concern. We also have parents and grandparents, too, who may be retired now and are serving a few days a week.

NYN: WHO DO YOU WORK WITH TO DETERMINE WHAT THE NEEDS ARE? JH: It’s really important that it’s locally based, that it’s meeting local needs.

It could be that they’re focusing on earlier or upper grades. It could be that they really want to have the librarian have support so the library can function for the whole day and classroom teachers can use the library as a fuller resource.

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Issue N°10

August 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NOTABLES

LAURA WELLINGTON UNITES ONLINE VOICES TO SUPPORT WIDOWS, MOTHERS AND FAMILIES

By THOM AS SEU BERT

FRONT-LINE HERO

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his June 23 marked the fifth annual International Widows Day, a U.N.-ratified day of action to acknowledge and address the injustices faced by widows around the world. For Thread MB, a blog that works to, among a variety of other things, support widows and their families in the United States, this single day of ac-

tion in New York calls attention to these individuals’ daily struggle.

“It’s a very precarious position to wake up one day and all or half of your income stream is gone,” said Laura Wellington, founder and editor of Thread MB, who is also a widowed mother of four. “You’re looking at the face of a child. You can’t even describe that feeling.”

Wellington, who lost her husband when she was 35 years old, is one of 245 million widows worldwide. In the United States there are an estimated 29,000 widows under the age of 49, and in New York, where many women unfortunately entered widowhood after 9/11, Wellington has been steadily working to broaden her impact. About 50 percent of her LinkedIn readers are located in New York, and she has begun talks with major media and entertainment outlets based in the city.

In September 2015, Wellington founded the Three Souls Grant

along with the blog, Thread MB. The grant helps to support widows and nonprofits that work with widows and their families. The blog began simply as a way to highlight other “social media moms” in hopes of fostering an online community. Over the months that followed, the blog gained traction, expanding to include feature posts on dad bloggers, nonprofits working for a variety of causes and interviews with celebrities, such as Andrea Bocelli and Bill O’Reilly, about their charitable efforts.

The inspiration for the blog almost didn’t happen.

In 2011, after creating an internationally successful children’s television show, “The Wumblers,”and running a financial systems and consulting company she co-founded, Wellington dropped everything. She announced her retirement, wrote a book and began writing for

the Huffington Post.

When Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, lost her husband suddenly, Wellington wrote a post titled, “The Exclusive Club Sheryl Sandberg Never Intended To Join.”

“The next morning I woke up and had thousands upon thousands of women from all different countries reaching out to me. I was getting emails and tweets,” she said.

The reception of the Huffington Post article prompted Wellington to start the “Three Souls Grant” and found Thread MB, with the intention to reach out to an international community of widows and moms.

The site quickly took off.

Wellington said she is looking to partner with more nonprofits in the New York City area to feature them on her blog.

And while she says the site is very “strategically put together,” at its heart it has always been about fostering a community for online widows and parents.

BEYOND SUMMERSTAGE A Q&A with Heather Lubov of the City Parks Foundation

T

he City Parks Foundation hosts a range of year-round music, art, education and sports programs, with a mission to invigorate green spaces as centers of urban life. Executive Director Heather Lubov sat with New York Nonprofit Media’s guest reporter Jeff Coltin to talk about creating enriching experiences. This interview has been edited for content and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at nynmedia.com.

NEW YORK NONPROFIT MEDIA: PEOPLE KNOW YOUR WORK HOSTING SUMMERSTAGE, BUT YOU ALSO RUN EDUCATION AND SPORTS PROGRAMS. HOW ARE THEY CONNECTED? Heather Lubov: I think they really all have the same through line and the goal for all of them is to bring people into parks. So whether it’s through a concert, as in SummerStage, or teaching a kid to play soccer, it’s all about bringing people into the parks and activating those parks. I think the same is true with environmental education.

It’s about training the next genera-

12

tion of New Yorkers why their parks are important and what they mean to our city.

NYN: HOW DO YOU MEASURE OUTCOMES? HL: Within each program we look at such things like quality of the artist in the case of SummerStage. In the case of sports, we test the kids at the start and the end of the end of the season, so we know if they’ve seen any gains.

We do much more intensive evaluation for environmental education programs because those are working with school kids. And we work a lot with neighborhood volunteers. In that case, it’s really about whether or not the volunteer group in that local park is sustainable in the long term.

NYN: YOU SHARE THE CENTRAL PARK ARSENAL WITH THE PARKS DEPARTMENT. HOW IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP? HL: We have an independent board, but we really do rely on the strong relationship that we have with the Parks Department to make our programs

work. I think one of the reasons that works is because the Parks Department truly values what we’re bringing. They don’t have the ability to bring that number of programs into local parks. The more that people come into parks using our programs, the better off all the parks will be.

NYN: WHAT’S YOUR FUNDING MIX? HL: Our operating budget each year is about $13 million, and we receive just about $800,000 from the city, mostly for community development work and some grants from the Department of Cultural Affairs. But the majority of our money is not government money.

We raise about $7 million every year from grants and private supporters.

We are fortunate enough to have a small endowment, so we can rely on some of the revenue from that endowment. And then we have, what is really lucky for us, an earned income stream through SummerStage.

NYN: WHAT VALUE DO YOU BRING TO UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES?

HL: Outside of Central Park, the vast majority of our programming is meant to serve people who don’t otherwise have access. The same is true with our sports programs. We serve the kids who can’t afford to go to camp. This is how they learn to play soccer, tennis, golf. Whether or not they go on to be golf pros, that’s not really the point. The point is to develop a lifelong love for a sport or even just for being in a park.

NYN: WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES? HL: I think any executive director would say fundraising, certainly. I think for City Parks Foundation, aside from that, which is sort of universal, I think marketing. Because people know SummerStage as a brand, it’s a very strong brand. I think very few people actually understand City Parks Foundation and what we do. We’re not the city, we’re not the Parks Department and we’re not a foundation. So, three strikes against us with our name.

NYNmedia.com

August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

THE BENEFITS OF "HOUSING FIRST" A Q&A with Brenda Rosen of Breaking Ground

W

hen the de Blasio administration responded to the New York City homelessness crisis, it called in many city and nonprofit resources, but few had as big a role as Breaking Ground.

The organization, formerly known as Common Ground, is the largest supportive housing provider in the city and manages outreach services.

Brenda Rosen, the executive director of Breaking Ground, spoke about the program and the benefits of the “Housing First” philosophy, which emphasizes finding homes for people before addressing other chronic issues. NYN Media previously reported online that in May the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development made grants to organizations that aligned with this philosophy - which prioritizes organizations that emphasize permanent housing over transitional housing.

Transitional facilities help homeless individuals by providing shelter for a limited time that can include various supports, such as drug counseling and job training. This interview has been edited for content and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at nynmedia.com.

NEW YORK NONPROFIT MEDIA: WHAT IS BREAKING GROUND’S ROLE WITH THE HOME-STAT INITIATIVE? Brenda Rosen: The mayor’s newest initiative, Home-STAT, really focused more resources and attention on the issue of street homelessness and through that initiative we have increased our outreach staff more than 200 percent. We have added 140 new outreach workers on the streets providing case management services, and that allows us to have four teams of two out on the streets in each borough at

all times to be working with homeless people.

sure they’re as safe as possible in their current surroundings.

NYN: CAN STREET HOMELESSNESS BE ERADICATED? BR: The key to ending homelessness on the streets is more affordable and supportive housing. Through supportive housing in particular, you’re not only getting a safe, secure apartment, but you’re getting wrapped in the services that you need to be able to feel comfortable and stay housed. Having said that, there are always going to be a group of people that are incredibly resistant to services and don’t have to come in. It’s kind of this battle between individual rights and what we really want to do to help people. We won’t give up, we’ll just keep working and bringing services to them – psychiatric services, medical services, case management services – and wait and make

NYN: WHY IS HOUSING THE FIRST STEP TOWARD STABILITY, AS OPPOSED TO EMPLOYMENT OR TREATMENT? BR: We are true believers in the housing first philosophy, which does believe that housing is the first step to stability. Because to go to somebody who has mental illness, is not getting his or her medication on time and is not sober, and to sit with them wherever they are – on a park, street or corner – and say: “We really want to help you, so go into rehab, go into detox, get clean and sober, get on medication. So go find a doctor, and when you’re feeling much healthier, come to us and we’ll work with you towards housing.” That just seems like a recipe for failure.

ACS ANNOUNCES CHANGES TO CLOSE TO HOME

I

n response to a city Department of Investigation probe, the Administration for Children’s Services went on the defensive at a recent committee hearing, announcing that it has hired more investigators, stepped up its oversight of nonprofits managing the Close to Home juvenile justice program and raised standards for monitoring video surveillance.

The probe uncovered a cascade of failures at a Brooklyn Close to Home facility that allowed three 16-yearolds to escape in June 2015 and rape a woman they met at an Internet café.

The Close to Home program, which began in 2012, places young offenders in residential facilities closer to their communities and allows them to enroll in rehabilitation programs, with the goal of reducing recidivism. Eight nonprofits – which include Children’s Village, Sheltering Arms, Leake & Watts Services and SCO Family of Services – contract with ACS to place children across 25 sites in or near the city.

During the June 27 hearing before the City Council’s Juvenile Justice Committee, committee chairman Fernando Cabrera asked ACS officials if an incident similar to the one in 2015 could occur again. “Would you NYNmedia.com

be shocked if we were to have a part two of Boys Town?” he said.

“No,” said ACS Deputy Commissioner for Youth and Family Justice Felipe Franco, adding that transparency was important. “We’re doing something that everyone is looking at, and again, not just in New York City. We need to get it right.”

ACS officials said that the total number of AWOL children across all non-secure sites dropped by 69 percent since 2013 to 233 last year. Officials also conceded there were nine unaccounted juveniles among the 159 currently in the program. Franco said the AWOL incidents typically happen when a child gets a pass to visit his or her home, go to school or visit other places in the community.

Following the DOI investigation, three staffers at the Brooklyn Boys Town facility were arrested and charged with falsifying log book entries. Though they claimed to have conducted bed checks of youths in the program, some were caught on surveillance cameras lying down and leaving the facility while on duty.

That facility has since been closed

by ACS. ACS agreed with all of the recommendations DOI made in its April

WILLIAM ALATRISTE/CITY COUNCIL

By DAN ROSENBLU M

Councilman Fernando Cabrera during a 2015 City Council hearing. report and is now working with an expert to strengthen the system, adding more personnel, implementing “performance based standards” and training agency employees to monitor providers.

ACS also now requires providers to conduct six daily headcounts, two of them overnight, a dramatic increase from what was previously mandated. And instead of using letter grades to assess nonprofit providers’ performance, it will use nationally

accepted benchmarks.

ACS said the agency is now stepping up checks to make sure surveillance camera video footage is reviewed regularly as opposed to the "ad hoc" methods the DOI found in use.

ACS now requires facilities to review daytime and nighttime video footage once per week, cross-check what’s written in logbooks and send reports to the agency. The agency’s Office of Planning, Policy, and Performance will randomly audit the logbooks.

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Issue N°10

August 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

NEW RATINGS SYSTEMS HELP NONPROFITS NAVIGATE THE ROAD AHEAD

By DAN ROSENBLU M

H

ow many followers have you gained on Twitter? What are critics saying about your art productions? How many children have you connected to a positive role model?

While that data may not make it into a nonprofit’s Form 990, New York charities are adopting, or involuntarily being measured by, new and more in-depth metrics designed by Charity Navigator and GuideStar to satisfy a growing thirst for transparency from donors who last year donated a record $373 billion to organizations across the country.

GuideStar and Charity Navigator, two of the nation’s largest charity evaluators, recently rolled out changes to their rating systems that present nonprofits in a more transparent light and encourage them to undertake longrange evaluations. The adjustments come as donors to New York’s nonprofits seek to make more informed choices about where their money goes in the wake of scandals and high-profile implosions at the Queens Library, FEGS, the Healing Arts Initiative and the Wounded Warrior Project, and as nonprofit coalitions struggle to draw attention to an operating climate that has left many local organizations in fiscal distress.

GuideStar’s new “platinum” rating system, introduced in May, allows nonprofits to add several metrics of their choosing atop the standard financial, program and governance information. Nonprofits are asked to commit to a menu of metrics that are specific to their area of service. For example, a microfinance organization can add measurements of its business development, loan activity, poverty intervention or training. One such question asks the number of savings accounts used by clients.

Eva Nico, the senior director of nonprofit programs at GuideStar, said the new measures represented a “maturity” of the sector. “I think we’ve all maybe talked ourselves hoarse about the fact that it’s not just about the financials, but haven’t necessarily been able to offer an alternative view that people can look at,” she said.

Nico added that GuideStar, itself a nonprofit that launched in 1994, performed more than six months of research, examining reports and speaking with experts, before developing the Common Results Catalog of frequently tracked metrics. Over the next five to 10 years, she said, it will add more personalized data to reflect other recurring measures. “This was a big experiment, and we definitely view it as a project that will take years to unfold,” she said.

Leading up to the launch, almost 900 nonprofits applied to be consid-

14

ered for the “platinum” level, according to the company, which said it tracks data on 2.5 million organizations. (The service is free, but some consultants and other groups are charged for advanced reporting tools.) About 620 “early adopters” were platinum members as of the end of June, about 35 of them in the New York area, Nico said.

One of those nonprofits is Pen Parentis, a relatively new Manhattan-based organization of five fulltime volunteers dedicated to helping writers stay active and creative after starting a family. Last year, according to the new metrics, the group held 11 literary salons and panels, and its mailing list grew to 1,747 names. Milda M. De Voe, its founder and executive director, said a friend recommended that she sign up for GuideStar’s service immediately after the group earned its nonprofit status as a way to be transparent and convince donors that Pen Parentis wasn’t “some people in an attic.”

“As a nonprofit, the minute you get your 501(c)(3) status, you’re competing with, like, the Red Cross,” she said, adding that “I think that a lot of people think of a 501(c)(3) as a kind of ticket, that they’re suddenly going to have millions of donors the minute that they get their nonprofit status, and I don’t think it works that way.”

So far, the new metrics have earned compliments, if not donations. “It does make people, interestingly, more eager to do pro bono work,” she said, citing assistance from Gray Matters, a group of late-career and retired consultants.

In the beginning of June, Charity Navigator launched its “CN 2.1” methodology to more accurately capture a nonprofit’s financial health over a longer term. Sandra Miniutti, its vice president of marketing, said the organization compiled historical data from institutions, consulted an advisory panel and solicited staff input to retool its four-star rating system. Under the new scale, Charity Navigator averages financial measures like program expenses and fundraising revenue for three years to offer a better glimpse at an organization’s long-term stability. That might add context when, for example, a group involved in disaster recovery may receive a spike in donations following a disaster and then return to typical levels the following year, making the normalization seem less like a drastic drop-off in funding.

After the recalculation – which was applied to all of the 8,000 groups rated by Charity Navigator – about 1 in 5 earned a small increase while 8 percent declined by one star, including Covenant House, which is reportedly under investigation, and Compassion International, which maintained a

4-star rating since 2002.

Miniutti said the conversation about how best to gauge nonprofits’ health has evolved since Charity Navigator launched in 2002. At that time, few organizations were either willing or able to provide their IRS forms, but now the discussion has migrated to what information provides the clearest view on what’s most helpful.

“I think we’re going to have to crawl before we can walk before we can run, and we’re certainly not in a position today where we’re saying this food bank has a better quality program than that food bank,” she said. “But at least (we’re) getting to the point where we can help donors see this charity is saying: this is the impact they want to have and this is their path to getting there, and this is how they’re measuring and reporting on that.”

Mary Beth Postman, deputy director of the Waterkeeper Alliance, headquartered in Manhattan’s Financial District, said the GuideStar metrics “fell in” among those they already tracked. Like Pen Parentis, the “platinum” status hasn’t necessarily led to more donations yet, but has helped give prospects some information to follow up with the agency. Many questions raised by potential institutions and corporations, she said, seemed to be derived from the website.

Much of Waterkeeper Alliance’s work involves filing legal challenges and enforcing environmental regulation, which can be harder to quantify than Facebook and Twitter growth – and the immediate effects are not always clear. “So, it’s been helpful, because it makes us think long-term,” Postman said. “Because you can say you want to file 10 letters of intent, but what does that mean?

As part of its Platinum Level rating, the Drug Policy Alliance, a 16-yearold organization based in midtown Manhattan aimed at ending the war on drugs, began sharing the average

amount given by first-time donors, a figure which grew from $65 in 2013 to $71 two years later. (It leaves out donations more than $5,000 to “avoid the skew caused by major gift outliers.”)

Drug Policy Alliance Managing Director of Development Clovis Thorn (who has since moved to the Grand St. Settlement) said the organization had already been tracking such metrics for internal and strategic purposes but submitting them to GuideStar allowed them the added benefit of impressing potential donors.

“We use a lot of emotion to raise money,” Thorn said. “And so I think a lot of people give to us because they get emotionally invested in something we’re doing and see the results, and they give contemporaneously and spontaneously. And we actually encourage that.”

Generally only a “small minority” of its 30,000 annual donors look at the grades before donating, Thorn said. Nonetheless, those who consult the online ratings tend to be the most thorough and informed donors – and worth catering to.

However, at times, Thorn has been frustrated by the lack of clarity within the ratings system, even as it purports to foster clarity within the nonprofit sector. Over the past six years, DPA’s star rating sank from 4 to 1, rose to 5 and then settled at 4, where it is now.

“This turn toward actually managing progress and impact is actually a very good development,” he said.

“There were times when I wanted to pull my hair out with these charity monitoring websites because they were so opaque and no one really knew how we were being rated.”

But the ratings do matter to potential donors with high expectations.

Thorn said that whenever the organization’s scores dropped, they fielded calls and emails. “It’s kind of like air conditioning in an office,” he said. “You don’t notice it until it’s not there.”

NYNmedia.com

August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

DIRECT-CARE WORKERS RALLY FOR RAISES

By DAN ROSENBLU M

A

nthony Martinez, a direct support professional at the Guild for Exceptional Children in Brooklyn, helps to dispense medication to patients with developmental disabilities, monitor their progress and teach them job training skills. While he’s dedicated to his clients, he said that over his 14-year career there, the wages he and his colleagues earn hasn’t kept pace with the city’s cost of living.

“We’re living our lives to help another person live their life,” he said. “Meanwhile for us, it’s more difficult because we can barely sustain ourselves with the current wage we have right now.”

He was one of dozens of advocates and front-line workers who attended a July 15 rally at City Hall to urge Albany legislators to raise the wages of some 80,000 full- and part-time direct-care workers who dispense medication, teach life skills, support patients’ dayto-day lives, perform life-saving measures when necessary and document

services for Medicaid reimbursements for about 143,000 people statewide.

The #bFair2DirectCare coalition – composed of 135 nonprofit organizations across the New York area who serve people with autism, brain injury, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and other disabilities – also asked Governor Andrew Cuomo to pass legislation that would prompt the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities to generate a report on the issue.

The low wages are helping drive a 9 percent vacancy rate and a 25 percent annual turnover rate among the therapists, drivers, cooks and teacher aids who earn a starting salary of $11 an hour. Because of the shortage, providers have asked employees to work an average of 6 million hours of overtime over the past year.

The rally’s organizers – which include the Interagency Council of Developmental Disabilities Agencies, the New York State Rehabilitation Associa-

tion, the Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State and the New York State Association of Community Residential Agencies – said there’s been only one rate increase since 2008, averaging to 0.5 percent annually.

Many of the providers are predominantly supported by state and federal Medicaid funding, much of which is directed to staffing costs. City workers’ hourly minimum wages will rise to $15 by the end of 2018, but advocates said they needed to earn more than base level pay to improve retention.

That increase will cost providers $180 million over that period, according to state Sen. Martin Golden, a Republican of Brooklyn.

“Nobody even expects how large this time bomb will be, but it will be big and we are not prepared for it,” he said. “And that’s why this study is important and necessary.”

He urged Cuomo to sign a bill passed in June by both houses of the Legislature

Available August 2016

ICPH

that would require the OPWDD and state Health Commissioner to study and report on the recruitment and retention of direct support staff by Nov. 1.

The governor’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on the bill or the funding issues.

The OPWDD budget for the fiscal year that started in April increased by 4.3 percent to $4.2 billion, but didn’t include additional funding for the sought after wage increases, said David Weprin, a Queens Democrat who chairs the State Assembly’s Task Force for People with Disabilities.

He said direct-care staffers must be skilled workers who balance compassion with responsibility.

“By providing direct-care workers with a fair wage, we not only help to ease the burden for those who provide support to New Yorkers with disabilities, but also guarantee a consistent level of care for individuals with developmental disabilities,” he said.

Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness www.ICPHusa.org

On The Map The Atlas of Student Homelessness in New York City OnThe Map In New York City, one out of every eight children attending public school in SY 2014–15 experienced homelessness within the past five school years. The 150-page 2016 On The Map: Atlas of Student Homelessness in New York City provides a detailed picture of homelessness within the City’s educational system: where homeless students go to school, what kinds of supports they might need, what their academic outcomes look like, what differences exist by the type of homelessness a student experiences, and what the lasting impacts of homelessness are educationally—even after a student’s housing instability has ended.

The Atlas of Student Homelessness in New York City August 2016

For a first-run copy of the report, e-mail OnTheMap@ICPHusa.org.

To join our mailing list, e-mail info@ICPHusa.org.

For other education reports, visit www.ICPHusa.org.

Stay tuned for the September 2016 launch of the new ICPH website.

NYNmedia.com

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Issue N°10

August 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

CHANGE GRANTS SUPPORT SUSTAINABILITY

Stacey Young, a clinician at CASES' Nathaniel Clinic, meets with a client.

T

he Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES) has been undergoing a significant transformation.

“We identified that there was this problem of people being shuffled through the justice system as opposed to getting the treatment that they needed,” Loyal Miles, CASES’ director of development and communications, said.

In October 2014, CASES opened the Nathaniel Mental Health Clinic in Central Harlem, licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health to provide outpatient mental health treatment. It is designed to support the needs of youth and adults who have mental illness and have become involved in the criminal justice system.

The clinic has received more than 800 referrals from clients. But Medicaid reforms in New York state forced the organization to think more strategically about its business approach in order to build the program’s sustainability.

Then along came a $300,000 Change Capital grant from the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF).

The grant has provided some deficit funding, supported the cost of technology infrastructure upgrades to implement electronic medical records and helped CASES hire a health care business manager.

"It’s a large grant, so we have a significant in-­hand investment in the clinic," Miles said. "When we approach other funders, it makes a real difference.”

The NFF’s Change Capital grants are designed to be limited-duration infusions of capital to help fuel change at an organization and over the long term.

They are also intended to improve the stability of human services providers – seeing as the demands upon them have “done nothing but increase since the

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recession,” NFF’s managing director of advisory services Kristin Giantris said.

The grants are part of NFF’s Community Resilience Fund (CRF) launched in 2013 to offer overtaxed social safety nets focused expertise and opportunities to finance organizational change.

To be eligible, nonprofits must provide direct services to underserved communities, have received at least 51 percent of their funding from government contracts over the last three years, focus on health and human services and have been in operation for a minimum of five years.

The grant winners were the African Services Committee, the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco), Leake & Watts, Grand Street Settlement, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, CASES and Palladia Inc., which now operates under Services for the Underserved.

They received a combined total of $1.6 million.

The grants were used for project management activities related to Palladia’s merger with SUS; fundraising and events positions at AVP; efforts to maximize existing government contracts and fundraising to support cash flow needs at Grand Street Settlement; a recapitalization plan for WHEDco’s Urban Horizons project - a 132-apartment flagship affordable housing development; ASC’s new nominal legal fee clinic; and Leake & Watts’ rebranding.

Kate Webster, practice manager for ASC’s Immigration Community Law Center, particularly appreciates the Change Capital grants because she said it is virtually impossible to receive grant support for a fundamental immigration program. Immigration programs that cannot sustain themselves end up forcing potential clients

to consider much less favorable options. Some end up overpaying private attorneys or approaching notarios: non-lawyers who charge large fees, and can be incapable of delivering what’s promised.

After experimenting with a feefor-service model, ASC formed a nominal-fee clinic that provides immigration legal services to clients who do not qualify for ASC’s grant-based legal program.

The $225,000 grant funded the clinic’s infrastructure, the hiring of a marketing consultant, focus groups and the hiring of a second full-time attorney for the clinic whose salary will now be funded by fees the clinic generates.

The clinic has two full-time attorneys and two part-time paralegals.

“The reason we applied for the Change Capital grant was to use that funding to build up the infrastructure of that clinic and get it to the point where it is self-sufficient and is able to generate the fees,” Webster said.

ASC has planned a media push including radio advertisements and print ads. It has also been using funds to develop the clinic’s website.

WHEDco was struggling to determine how to both recapitalize Urban Horizons for long-term financial security and pay for upgrades and renovations.

The $200,000 grant financed the development of a scope of work. The nonprofit also hired engineers, commissioned a physical needs assessment and paid staff to formulate a budget and a funding proposal for government agencies. WHEDco expects to close on a financing project with government agencies for the $4 million project by the end of this year.

The organization approached the city Department of Housing Preservation

and Development and the state Homes and Community Renewal’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal about financing a low-interest loan.

“It’s something that we value not only because we otherwise would not have the resources to do that plan, but also once we implement that plan … those savings will benefit us in the long term,” said Jonathan Springer, WHEDco’s senior vice president and chief operating officer.

The grant also helped Leake & Watts hire experts to review its mission, elevator pitch, website, color scheme, donation site and the possibility of a name change. The nonprofit helps children and families struggling with poverty, disabilities and a lack of access to education and basic services.

"They recognize that branding is part of capacity building,” said Meredith Barber, Leake & Watts’ senior director of institutional advancement.

She is the primary liaison for the brand consulting effort.

ASC’s Harlem-site lease expires next year, prompting a likely move to the Bronx due to the influence of gentrification. In addition, uncertainties related to federal immigration relief weigh heavily on the organization’s future. CASES’ clinic is still operating at a deficit as recouping fees for Medicaid-funded treatment services has been challenging: “The focus now is to ensure the clinic’s sustainability,” Miles said.

But ultimately, the grant also helped each nonprofit determine what it needs to stay adaptable, says Jina Paik, NFF’s director of advisory services.

"I think even going through the exercise of thinking about that was very powerful to the organizations,” Paik said.

AFRICAN SERVICES COMMITTEE

JOE COOPER

By M ADI NA TOURÉ

Mauricio Norona, a staff attorney at African Services Committee's Immigration Community Law Center, assisting a client with immigration legal services in Harlem.

NYNmedia.com

August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

CREATING A CONTEXT FOR INTERACTIONS WITH POLICE A conversation on police-community relations with Frederick Watts, executive director of the Police Athletic League

P

olice Athletic League Executive Director Frederick Watts is pretty certain he’s been illegally stopped by the cops.

And he would know: He earned a law degree from Columbia Law School and spent more than 30 years working in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. But creating positive interactions with officers has been a primary goal of the Police Athletic League since it was founded in 1914.

As the nation grapples with video footage of black men being fatally shot by the police, demonstrations in the streets and retaliatory violence against officers, Watts joined us for a conversation about PAL and its work to improve police-community relations. This interview has been edited for content and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at nynmedia.com.

NYN: WITHIN YOUR PROGRAMMING, WHERE DO THE ACTUAL POLICE-CHILD INTERACTIONS HAPPEN? FW: There are two types of interactions: one are defined police-child programs, and then there’s the more informal. Probably the biggest one that touches the most children are our “Cops and Kids” sports programs.

Those are programs where, for older kids, the police actually play on the same team with teenagers; and for the younger kids, the police officers coach the kids. The great part about that is the kids really get to know the police officers as mentors or coaches or sometimes as teammates, and that communication is really valuable. In addition, we have centers throughout the five boroughs. We try to connect.

We get every commanding officer in the precincts where those centers are and every PAL center director – and they come for breakfast. The PAL employee sits at the table with the police officer responsible for that geography, and the beauty of that is they can interact casually and sort of build and reinforce the informal part of our interactions.

NYN: BEARING THOSE INTERACTIONS IN MIND, WE’RE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION AT A TIME WHEN POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS ACROSS THE COUNTRY ARE VERY TENSE. WHAT ADJUSTMENTS HAS YOUR ORGANIZATION MADE? FW: You will either view this as a great answer or a terrible answer. I don’t think we’ve had to adjust very much because the foundation was in place. Take me, for instance – and again, I’m an adult and I have different life experiences. My father was a NYNmedia.com

police officer. I worked with police officers for 30 years at the DA’s office. When those charged events happened, I had a context. I understood how awful those events were but also what they were in the context of human police officers and human citizens that found themselves in these tragic circumstances. Context is everything. Knowledge is everything.

The teenagers are going to ask questions. I understand. But I think we’re responding – trying to give them the context – based on experiences we’ve been giving them for years, namely: You have anger, you have fears, but put it in the context of this police officer, the one you know, the one that came to our center and helped us do certain things.

In the end, to me it’s simple: the first encounter you have with a police officer should be a positive one.

If you can have that, the context for other interactions will be different.

NYN: MANY AFRICAN-AMERICAN PARENTS HAVE “THE TALK” WITH THEIR CHILDREN ABOUT HOW YOU SHOULD CARRY YOURSELF DURING AN INTERACTION WITH A POLICE OFFICER. WHAT WOULD YOU ADVISE A PARENT TO SAY IN THAT TALK TO HELP ENCOURAGE

THAT FIRST INTERACTION WITH A COP TO BE A POSITIVE ONE? FW: As an African-American myself, I had that conversation with my parents, and I’ve had that conversation with my children. Some take that as a negative statement about the police. I don’t think so at all. I think it’s a reality of human interaction. The same way you call people Mr. or Ms. because you’re showing them respect, the same way you say, “Good morning,” before you do certain things – out of respect – you should do the same with a police officer out of some regard for their authority.

To me, not because you have to, not because you owe it to them. It’s just good human interaction.

There are two considerations: One is getting through this moment, and two is your larger feelings about policing or community. The most important is that first moment. So to me, you have to counsel your kids that the goal is to show someone respect and to leave that interaction with him having a regard for you and you having a respect for him. The second part of that interaction – whether you should have been stopped, or why they pulled me over, why they asked to look in my backpack – you have that conversation someplace

else. That to me is an important and real conversation – but not to be had on the street with a police officer.

NYN: HAVE YOUR STAFF FELT ANY DISCOMFORT LATELY WHILE REPRESENTING THE POLICE ATHLETIC LEAGUE? FW: We have a young staff, largely people of color, largely New York City residents who are dealing with the day-to-day of interacting with not only the police but with other institutions as well. The staff is proud of the work we do. They’re very committed to the kids. I just think people are proud enough of the work that some of the tricks about, “I’m a young person who could be stopped myself,” I think is overridden by the pride they have for the work they do.

I mean, I was once stopped. I’ve been stopped more than once. I have a law degree – I’m pretty sure I was stopped illegally. At the end of the day, with context, and a belief that I’m still proud of the work I did as a prosecutor, I’m proud of my father who was a police officer in Harlem for 20 years – I can balance. I think as we get older, we can balance the problems with our interactions with our overall feeling about ourselves and the work we do … but it’s hard.

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Issue N°10

August 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

NONPROFITS ‘DISAPPOINTED’ AFTER BUDGET EXCLUDES OTPS FUNDING INCREASE

By DAN ROSENBLU M

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for the mayor, said that the administration was committed to the nonprofit sector. “That is why we have made unprecedented investments in human services, including securing our contractors $15 an hour, raising average salaries for licensed social workers helping our homebound seniors, realigning shelter reimbursement rates, increasing reimbursement at 80 Beacons providing community programming and afterschool services, and more,” she said.

The recent sector-wide increases she cited include a salary increase for 340 licensed social workers from $35,000 to $50,000, a per-school increase of $550,000 for 80 Beacon centers and the gradual increase of contractors to $15 an hour by 2018.

Still, many nonprofits have complained of budgets strained by inflation, late payments and unfunded government mandates that weren’t covered by a 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment allocated to city-funded contractors in last year’s city budget.

In fact, when NYN OpCon attendees were asked to raise their hand if their nonprofit had received the promised adjustment, few responded.

Paul Feuerstein, president and CEO of Barrier Free Living, whose clients include individuals who are disabled or victims of domestic violence, said that nearly all of his $8

million operation is publicly funded.

Though OTPS funding is designated for non-employee costs, it can pay for contractors such as IT workers, an occupational therapist and interpreters to communicate with clients and employees who are hearing impaired.

“We were hoping for that,” he said.

“Were we banking on that? We don’t bank on anything until I see the bottom line in black and white.”

Feuerstein called the funding critical for “the nuts and bolts of fixing stuff that can go wrong in a building that’s been used for over 25 years,” including replacing office supplies and upgrading donated computers. “The cost of insurance goes up every year, but the contracts don’t go up to deal with that cost of insurance,” he said.

“So, do we take a risk and say, ‘we want our deductible to be bigger’ and hope and pray nothing goes wrong?”

Ben Thomases, the executive director of Queens Community House, a 40-year-old nonprofit that runs afterschool programs, delivers meals to older adults and provides other services, said it was a challenge to maintain the quality of services with reimbursements that fail to keep pace with rising costs. QCH, which employs more than 300 people and serves 20,000 people each year, is 90 percent government funded, he said.

He noted difficulties affording market-rate space in central Queens to provide English classes for adult immigrants “even though we have money to pay staff to deliver those classes, and there’s a great need in the Corona community, but we can’t afford to rent the space.” Additional OTPS funding could help cover such costs.

HSC Executive Director Allison Sesso said she was “very disappointed” in the lack of OTPS funding, particularly since it would have been evenly distributed across the nonprofit community, affecting an estimated 3,700 contracts.

“We’ve clearly demonstrated … there’s more and more evidence that the nonprofit human services sector is in financial distress,” she said. “And this was a real opportunity for them to start moving in the direction of fixing that problem, and they didn’t take it.”

Sesso was undeterred, saying the advocates would keep pushing for the increase in the mayor’s budget modification, which is typically released in November.

“We’re going to keep making noise about this,” she said. “We have an obligation to our communities to keep pushing on this and to ensure that the nonprofits are equipped to do the job that they’re contracted to do.”

DAN ROSENBLUM

“W

e didn’t win,” New York City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, chairwoman of the Contracts Committee, said in June at a panel hosted by New York Nonprofit Media. It was one day after the mayor and City Council announced a framework deal for the fiscal year that began in July.

Human service nonprofits were disheartened after the city budget didn’t include a 2.5 percent line-item increase – amounting to $25 million – that they said would help them pay for non-staffing costs such as building repairs and technology upgrades.

The Council voted to pass the $82.1 billion spending plan on June 14.

Though the budget includes some discretionary funding increases for nonprofits and social services, such as libraries, cultural organizations and immigrant legal services, many nonprofits had also lobbied for a $25 million increase to help reimburse nonprofits for rising overhead costs such as rent, insurance premiums and repairs. At the end of May, the Human Services Council and Rosenthal, bolstered by a letter of support from nearly every other Council member, held a City Hall press conference arguing, in part, that “2.5 percent is sexy.”

At NYN Media’s OpCon conference, Rosenthal recounted that during budget negotiations with City Hall, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would “talk about” increasing the “Other than Personal Services” budget line. But following the lack of funding in the finalized budget, she encouraged them to call the Brian Lehrer show, the WNYC news program where the mayor regularly fields questions from residents, and share instances of hardships faced by their organizations. “Think of an example of that in your mind’s eye that happened over the last few months and let the mayor know that,” she said.

“I truly believe that we’re at a breaking point and no one knows it,” she added.

She credited de Blasio with a willingness to address the issue, saying she believed that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg made up for the lack of city subsidies by courting private philanthropy. “And that kept quite a few providers happy, so it was able to be swept under the rug over and over and over again,” she said.

“Now we have a mayor who’s willing to lift the rug and look.”

Freddi Goldstein, a spokeswoman

The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies' Wayne Ho speaks at a May City Hall rally calling for contract increases for nonprofits.

NYNmedia.com

August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

HOW TO PREVENT ANOTHER SCANDAL AT QUEENS LIBRARY

JEFF STEIN

By JEFF STEI N

O

n a Thursday night, the Queens Library’s board of trustees gathered in an unassuming conference room on the second floor of the library’s central branch. Under discussion were several run-of-the-mill items, like approving contracts for HVAC maintenance and Samsung tablets (which have been incorporated into various library programs, like adult literacy classes).

But the evening’s final agenda item cut to the core of a scandal that the Queens Library desperately wants to shake. Without mentioning the library’s former CEO, Thomas Galante, the board unanimously adopted new internal reporting requirements entirely inspired by his actions, which have repeatedly put the library on the front pages of city tabloids and are still the subject of heated litigation.

While “less onerous” than the city government’s conflict-of-interest reporting requirements, according to the library’s general counsel, Lewis Finkelman, the library’s new financial disclosure policy requires all “key executive personnel” – including the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief operating officer and general counsel – to report all outside income, business relationships, securities holdings, debts owed and gifts reNYNmedia.com

ceived, as well as those of their spouses and children.

Given Galante’s past transgressions, the expanded requirements are far from shocking. According to an investigative report released by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer last July, Galante, along with other members of library senior leadership, spent over $300,000 in prohibited expenses, charging everything from lavish meals to the organization’s credit card. Earlier in 2014, the Daily News reported that a $27,000 rooftop deck had been built next to Galante’s office and that he enjoyed the use of a free car.

Galante also made over $200,000 during a 22-month stint as a “parttime” consultant for another employer, the Elmont Union Free School District, at the same time that he was receiving a full-time salary at the library. According to the comptroller’s report, the purchases he reviewed “directly violated one or more former Library policies” and “could also constitute embezzlement, grand larceny, or related crimes.”

Since the comptroller’s damning report, the library has moved swiftly to clean house. Galante and other staff members were fired. The library quickly adopted all of the comptroller’s recommendations, according

to Carl Koerner, the chairman of the library’s board of trustees, including implementing a new credit card usage policy and establishing a Freedom of Information Law process that makes internal library documents publicly available upon request.

Given these internal reforms, as well as the much-lauded hiring of former New York City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott as the library’s new CEO, Koerner expresses certainty that the library has shown policymakers – and the public at large – that the library, which receives 94 percent of its funding from the city, is a responsible steward of taxpayer funds.

“Every council member that I’ve talked to knows the good that we’re doing in the community, whether it’s through adult literacy programs or preparing kids for kindergarten,” Koerner said. “They know that there’s no reason to penalize the people who take advantage of those programs. … I think that the only limitation on funding at this point is that there are just so many things that the city needs to fund.”

But even as the library assures the public that it has moved on from an isolated incident, Galante’s legal maneuvers occasionally appear as headline fodder. The Daily News reported that Galante, on top of his suit for breach of contract, is demanding that the library pay for his legal defense in a counter-suit that the library has brought against him to recover misspent funds.

As the scandal continues to percolate in the media, lawmakers are still grappling with how – or whether – to respond to the scandal with legislation.

City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has expressed interest in reviving a bill that would require all “persons in leadership positions” at nonprofit organizations that receive funding from the city to submit additional financial disclosure forms, as well as records on so-called “third-party transactions.”

The bill, which was originally introduced last fall, never made it out of the Contracts Committee, where it faced opposition from the chairwoman, City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal.

“The bill, as currently written, doesn’t get at the problem that it was meant to solve: the corruption at the Queens Public Library,” Stephanie Buhle, a spokesman for Rosenthal, said after the bill’s introduction. “It’s clear that there isn’t the sort of oversight that needs to be in place. The question is figuring out a way to implement that kind of oversight while taking into consideration the concerns raised by human services nonprofits, and the current bill doesn’t do that.”

Indeed, nonprofit advocates were fiercely opposed to the bill from the

outset, calling it “an unworkable, unfunded mandate” and claiming that it would only make legal compliance more burdensome for nonprofits while providing limited benefits for the city.

Laura Abel, senior policy counsel for the Lawyers Alliance of New York, said that the bill would require an “enormous infusion of resources” to overseeing agencies in order to keep up with an influx of paperwork from the more than 2,000 nonprofits that do business with the city. Michelle Jackson, associate director and general counsel of the Human Services Council, described the additional reporting as redundant, given the existence of audits on every city contract, as well as reporting to the IRS and state attorney general’s Charities Bureau.

“Rather than adding forms to the hodgepodge of existing reporting requirements and imposing additional approval requirements on nonprofits, the city should develop a robust enforcement framework that puts both nonprofit leaders and government officials on notice that there will be meaningful consequences for unethical or illicit behavior,” Jackson added.

However, Crowley says that she has submitted a request to add an amendment to the bill that responds to at least one of the advocates’ criticisms.

“After the hearing, I put in an amendment to the bill which would create a position in the mayor’s office of contracts and services to review nonprofit companies and their financial disclosures,” Crowley said. “I do think there are still regulatory holes that need to be filled with respect to nonprofits – for example, when boards review expenditures, employees aren’t required to disclose any notable relationships they may have with someone providing services. Disclosures are made to the state, but the city doesn’t see all of that information.”

Despite this tweak, Rosenthal did not express interest in pursuing the legislation.

“For now, we're looking forward to seeing the recommendations from the new board of the library,” Rosenthal said in an email, adding that she’s much more interested in addressing procurement reform as it relates to nonprofit organizations.

As far as the Queens Library board is concerned, such legislative efforts are simply unnecessary, especially in light of their “extensive” internal revisions.

“I think that if you look at the situation, there actually is an internal system that’s in place,” Koerner said. “Unfortunately, there will sometimes be people with bad intentions. But it’s impossible to legislate away every bad actor.”

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Issue N°10

August 2016 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

CUOMO LAUNCHES NEW EFFORT TO FIGHT HOMELESSNESS, OVERHAUL SHELTER SYSTEM

By DAN ROSENBLUM

A

s part of a $10.4 billion, five-year plan, the Cuomo administration on June 2 announced an overhaul of state shelter inspections, new emergency shelter beds in New York City and a new homelessness task force that includes Mayor Bill de Blasio’s former deputy mayor for health and human services, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli.

Kicking off Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “Homelessness Action Plan,” the state Office of Mental Health released requests for proposals to create 1,200 permanent supportive units and said it would immediately make available 513 shelter beds in underused state and state-licensed facilities. All told, the state has pledged $7.8 billion to pay for existing units, shelter beds and other services, and $2.6 billion to build 6,000 supportive units, a policy that was welcomed by some nonprofits.

State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner James S. Rubin called the measures a “broad, wide-reaching approach to address-

ing one of our most intransigent problems.”

The June announcement also coincided with a report written by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance detailing poor conditions at 916 shelters across the state following a 35-day inspection. The 4,344 most severe incidents included fire-safety violations, a lack of state-certified security guards and other security measures, and health hazards such as rodent infestations and mold.

There are 765 shelters across the state that aren’t subject to state inspections or regulations including hotels, cluster sites, shelters with fewer than 20 adults and family shelters that lack the recreational or day-care facilities that certified shelters must have.

Generally the city is responsible for ensuring those centers follow building codes, as well as safety and health standards, but the state will now require every publicly funded shelter to be subject to inspections.

Centers with the most severe viola-

tions could be placed under a temporary operator if problems aren’t fixed within three months; they could be closed if violations aren’t fixed within six months. Other shelters not complying with corrective action plans could lose reimbursements or be denied more residents. Each shelter operator will be required to submit a security plan and report all serious incidents to the state; the city will be responsible for ensuring all residents are rehoused before a shelter is closed.

“The city continues to make significant improvements in shelter conditions through our shelter repair program and legal action against the building owners who delay vital repairs, and we hope to partner with the state this legislative session on critical proposals such as adding much-needed supportive housing units and more rental assistance to those in need,” said Aja Worthy-Davis, a spokeswoman for the mayor.

She added that the city is seeking to perform joint inspections with the

state and looking to collaborate with Albany to get more rental assistance funds, supportive housing units and to reach an MOU between the governor and the state legislature on how to invest $2 billion for affordable housing.

The Campaign 4 NY/NY Housing, a group of nonprofits and other housing advocates, said state legislators should reach an agreement on funding the first 6,000 units of supportive housing.

“If the Governor wants to help New York’s homeless, he should keep his promise and sign the MOU before the end of this legislative session,” it said.

The governor’s announcement included the formation of a new state “Interagency Council on Homelessness.” It will meet over the next two years and issue its first report in December. That group includes Barrios-Paoli, as well as former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who ran against de Blasio in the 2013 mayoral race and now leads WIN, a nonprofit that serves homeless families.

OVERTIME REGULATIONS CONFUSE EARLY-CHILDHOOD SERVICE PROVIDERS

By DAN ROSENBLU M

W

hile nonprofit organizations across New York are preparing to comply with a recent U.S. Department of Labor regulation that will widen the threshold for employees who can qualify to earn overtime pay, questions remain among early-childhood service providers about which workers will be affected.

While those working more than 40 hours per week at some nonprofit early-childhood education centers – widely acknowledged as some of the lowest-funded social services providers in the city – could be eligible to be paid extra, many frontline teachers and administrators will remain exempt from the protections. Figuring out who qualifies requires parsing some very nuanced definitions that are causing some confusion throughout the sector.

Michael West, a senior attorney at the New York Council of Nonprofits, said that after the federal regulations were released in May, calls to NYCON’s hotline tripled, with the vast majority

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of questions related to the rule changes. The group published a guide to help organizations determine how to react to the rules.

Once they take effect Dec. 1, the new overtime guidelines will generally affect salaried employees who earn less than $47,476 annually. That is double the current benchmark set by the federal government, though New York State’s ceiling for executive and administrative workers has been set somewhat higher, at $35,100.

But prekindergarten through highschool teachers “in the activity of imparting knowledge” fall under a “professional exemption” to the Fair Labor Standards Act that also includes doctors and lawyers. As a result, at some early-childhood education centers, the overtime regulations could apply to caregivers, bookkeepers and executive directors, but not to licensed teachers, according to West.

“It’s great for folks that really are due overtime that are suddenly going to

start to receive it,” he said. “For daycare, it might be a big burden: they’re already overtaxed and I can see the potential for chaos. Within the nonprofit sector, daycare will be the biggest hit.”

There are some provisions limiting the regulations to some nonprofits that earn more than $500,000 in sales each year. But all hospitals, schools, and businesses providing medical or nursing care are subject to the new regulations, as are employees at other nonprofits that engage in “interstate commerce.”

West said that federal regulators drew up many of the rules on the assumption that some of the most prestigious affected institutions could tap into other financial and philanthropic resources to cover costs.

However, daycare centers and other nonprofits that contract with the government sometimes have the fewest resources from which to draw. In New York City, pre-K educators at private and nonprofit-run centers earn less on average than their colleagues holding

the same qualifications who work for the city Department of Education, a differential that can amount to as much as $17,000.

The Human Services Council offered cautious support for the changes in a position paper that said that while pay increases were overdue for thousands of underpaid workers, it could “destabilize” the social-services sector without more government grants to meet the payroll challenge.

NYNmedia.com

August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

NEWS

LET’S TALK SOLUTIONS Surveying the nonprofit operating landscape

W

ith the Human Services Council reporting that 18 percent of human services agencies are operating at insolvency rates and 60 percent are financially distressed with no cash reserves, the operating climate for nonprofits seems to be anything but perfect.

This despite the fact that the city has a progressive mayor focused on alleviating poverty and addressing income inequality. Just before the city budget was passed, New York Nonprofit Media invited Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s former deputy mayor of health and human services; Jeremy Kohomban, executive director of Children’s Village; Susan Stamler, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group United Neighborhood Houses; and Lew Zuchman, executive director of SCAN NY, to weigh in about the challenges facing nonprofits in the human services sector. This interview has been edited for content and clarity. Download the full podcast at nynmedia.com.

NYN: GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS PAY 80 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR OF ACTUAL PROGRAM COSTS. WHAT SHOULD THE CITY BE DOING DIFFERENTLY? SS: The first thing to keep in mind is that government often talks about being a partner with the nonprofit community, but it’s really no way to treat a partner if you expect them to fully provide a service and yet you only pay part of the funding. So the first thing that needs to happen is to rebalance the relationship and recognize that we’re actually more than partners – we’re the reason why the city functions. Just pay the full cost.

Pay what it costs to not only run the program adequately but making sure that the sector that is delivering, is able to do so and not go bankrupt.

from the government and from the private sector.

NYN: WHAT SHOULD BE THE PROPER BALANCE BETWEEN MAKING SURE THERE’S OVERSIGHT AND YET THERE’S ENOUGH TIME TO RUN THE PROGRAMS? JK: The need to regulate us at these incredibly crazy levels ... where we have study after study that says that our direct-care providers are spending more time on paperwork and on trying to decipher what the regulations are than with kids and families, is more about someone not trusting us – not believing that we are capable of managing, that we are capable of defining an outcome and producing an outcome. Why can’t there be a force in government that says, “Let’s make sure that our agencies work together to not impose unnecessary burdens on these providers?”

Why can’t we talk about our 990 – that we have to file under federal requirement – why can’t that be our standard for the baseline reporting?

Why do we have to have 300 different types of budget templates? Now no one person can do that, but I think at government someone can take control of that.

NYN: THE PUBLIC IS HEARING ABOUT SCANDALS WHERE IT SEEMS LIKE THE PUBLIC’S MONEY IS BEING SQUANDERED AND THERE’S NOT ENOUGH OVERSIGHT. WHAT DO WE DO TO REBUILD TRUST?

LZ: We can talk about trust, but I think it’s also respect. I think we as a profession … all of us in human services have not demanded that respect. So over these last 20 years, we emphasize the wrong things because we’re now being deluged with these business model market-driven ways of measuring. We didn’t stand up, we didn’t stand up as providers, and the social work profession – the master’s level schools of social work – they didn’t stand up with us, and I think that was reprehensible. The providers cannot do this by themselves because they are vulnerable.

Many many years ago, the commissioner at Special Services for Children or from HRA was a professional social worker. That went by the boards whenever, there’s no respect for our profession.

NYN: HOW MUCH SHOULD WE BE HOLDING PRIVATE PHILANTHROPY TO TASK FOR NOT FUNDING FULL PROGRAM COSTS? SS: Philanthropic dollars could never supplant government dollars. Period. I think that philanthropy has an important role to play, but it should not be to bail out the government and help the government fund what they want to fund. Because every time there’s a program that requires a match, they’re basically picking the pockets of private foundations.

NYN: HOW ARE NONPROFITS GOING TO NAVIGATE THE HIT TO PAY-

ROLL RELATED TO THE MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE? LBP: The first issue with maintaining qualified staff and their salaries is not this $15 minimum wage. There’s a disparity in salaries between what the government pays and what we pay for the same positions doing the same work. We can’t give a pension any more – government gives you excellent pension. We can give you individual health insurance, but government gives family health insurance. In the last five years we’ve only given one raise of 2 percent for our preventive service workers – government has unions to advocate and has gotten significantly more. So the disparities in terms of the same work in the same city, with the same population that’s at high risk, and if we are the primary provider – this is a catastrophe!

NYN: ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS WEIGHING ON NONPROFITS THAT WE HAVEN’T TOUCHED ON YET? JK: We need to find a voice. I think we struggle to speak out. If we don’t speak out about what’s wrong about our sector everyone else will, and they’ll be wrong in how they describe the problem. We know the problem and we absolutely have to find a voice to speak out about what’s not right. To come here and blame the government for everything that goes wrong is nuts, that’s not the case, we bear some responsibilities here.

LZ: We provide services, but there’s an erosion of the quality of those services because we don’t have the resources necessary. But the cumulative impact of that – over these last 10 years I’ve seen more executive directors resign or retire than I’ve ever seen before, and I’ve been in the field almost 50 years. And I’ve seen more agencies close or merge under stress than I’ve ever seen. To me, the major source of this is the fact that there’s inadequate resources for us both NYNmedia.com

JEFF COLTIN

LBP: I think that there’s not a full understanding that the city essentially has delegated to the not-for-profit world the actual delivery of services.

So it’s even beyond a partnership.

The not-for profit world is the service delivery arm of city government, and so it needs to be funded that way.

From left to right: Jeremy Kohomban, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, Aimée Simpierre, Susan Stamler and Lew Zuchman

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l l Y e T o e ur W

T hrough

Y s ’ o t u a r s?

Wh W E D I S C O V E R • W E D E E P E N R E L AT I O N S H I P S • W E C O M P E L P E O P L E T O A C T RELIANTSTUDIOS.COM 22

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SPOTLIGHT: EDUCATION

THE HIGH PRICE OF HIGHER LEARNING

JORDAN H. TALER

By CHRISTI NA TALER

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ecent public debate has highlighted young Americans’ frustrations with the high cost of college tuition. With $1.1 trillion in total outstanding student loan debt in the United States, American college education is among the least affordable in the world. Americans who attend institutions of higher learning tend to pay more than their global peers, graduating on average $24,301 in debt. Today’s students are paying more compared with previous generations – higher education costs have risen 500 percent since 1985.

Nowhere better typifies this dilemma than here in New York, where in 2010 graduates held 11.2 percent more debt than the national average, and $1 billion has been cut from higher education over the past 15 years. New York-based institutions are also unsurprisingly some of the most expensive in the country – in a 2014 Brookings ranking, New York University placed first among nonprofit universities in student-owed debt.

All this begs the question: Why is student loan debt so high, and can attending a nonprofit educational institution help to ease that burden?

Mark Kantrowitz, a nationally recognized expert on student aid and publisher of the free college search site Cappex.com, believes that student debt has grown incrementally for decades, only coming to the forefront of our national dialogue when it surpassed credit card debt and reached NYNmedia.com

the $1 trillion dollar mark. He has watched as continued state and federal government cuts have increasingly shifted the burden of payment to families. From the perspective of the schools, the rise in tuition is necessary, with anticipated negative returns on endowments and investment portfolios reported for this fiscal year. The combination of government cuts and a volatile market has forced schools to search for revenue, often through increasing tuition – which in turn leads to a surge in student borrowing.

This creates real concerns when those that have taken on student debt neglect to complete their degree, failing to receive the kind of lifetime earnings and career benefits that might help them shoulder their financial burden. Kantrowitz has found that people who drop out of college are four times more likely to default on their student loans than those who do not.

Interestingly, data from Brookings revealed that the current crisis appears to be concentrated on students who attend for-profit and two-year colleges – the same students who do the majority of borrowing and have nearly triple the default rates of their four-year peers.

With nearly double the unemployment rate of their counterparts, this for-profit and two-year cohort tends to fare worse in a job market still recovering from the recession.

To determine how things are different for students at nonprofit institutions, we have to first determine what

exactly the difference is between nonprofit and for-profit educational institutions.

Nonprofit universities are responsible to their students. They have a vested interest in their students’ degree completion and future success.

They have an ability to boast a network of accomplished alumni to help build university prestige and incentivize prospective students to apply.

For-profit universities are a business, responsible to shareholders with a focus on high returns, resulting in more expensive classes and no incentive to see their students graduate in a timely fashion. The difference in motivation is also seen with accreditation. For-profit schools are nationally accredited and unable to attain the regional accreditation that nonprofit schools hold. Students who attend for-profit schools in the hopes of career advancement are more often than not duped. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that for-profit vocational certificate students made $900 less annually after attending those schools, whereas students who attended the same classes at nonprofit community colleges made $1,500 more.

In this current economic climate, making the transition from degree to career is vital. It has become a growing focus at several New York nonprofit institutions, including Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, which is led by Dean Jason Wingard.

Its mission is simple: to provide a rigorous education, informed by rapidly evolving global market needs, that supports the academic and professional aspirations of its student community. The school offers degrees in growing professional fields, including its sports management program, which was ranked No. 2 globally by Sports International in its 2016 Postgraduate Sports Course Rankings.

In addition, for those with student debt who choose to work in the nonprofit or government sectors, hope also comes in the form of the Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF.) Under this program, the remaining balance on direct loans is forgiven following 120 qualifying monthly payments. Students can also opt for an income-driven repayment plan and make payments based on a percentage of their discretionary income, meaning that students can trade lower debt payments per month for a longer repayment period. Importantly, any remaining balance on the loan that is not paid off within 20-25 years will be forgiven, although the vast majority of borrowers will pay off their loans well in advance.

According to Kantrowitz, this program is a great deal for the public for three reasons: it removes debt as a disincentive to public service, gets good people in good jobs that need to be filled, and is less expensive than raising wages for those in these positions. More information can be found here: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/ public-service.

Students have a lot to consider when exploring how their choice of a nonprofit or for-profit institution will affect their future employability.

Location is a strong factor to weigh as well. Studying in New York has its advantages.

According to Dean Wingard, Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies programs reflect the marketplace. “We are always keeping our educational programs in step with what today's workers need, and we aim to layer on top of whatever educational foundation they already have. We make sure that we are working with the best practitioners from industry as well as researchers from academia and that the two feed each other in a virtuous cycle. Because we are based in New York City, we often have easy access to highly accomplished practitioners who have worked at some of the best known and respected institutions in the world.”

Christina Taler holds an M.S. in nonprofit and fundraising management from Columbia University and is an associate director at CCS. For more nonprofit tips, follow her on Twitter at @stinafsays.

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SPOTLIGHT: EDUCATION

PAYING FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS Tracking charter school funds leads to bigger questions about education spending

By FR ANK G. RU N Y EON

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MICHAEL JOHNSON

I

n 2011, the New York State Education Department received a $113 million federal grant to create 400 charter schools by 2016, adding to the 171 charter schools operating that spring. But at the last bell this school year, just 256 charter schools served the state.

In July, moderators of a City & State co-sponsored debate posed this question to Albany lawmakers running for New York’s 13th Congressional District: Where did the money from that grant go? And if the state failed to create the schools, how would they convince Congress to give New York more charter money in the future?

“The money?” asked Assemblyman Keith Wright, facing his Harlem constituents in a moment of unrestrained candor. “Certainly, I can't tell you what happened to that money.”

While Wright addressed the question head on, his peers in the Assembly took a more traditional tack: Guillermo Linares and Adriano Espaillat dodged the question entirely.

Clyde Williams pounced.

“This is a part of the problem,” boomed Williams, the first Albany outsider to speak. “You have a bunch of elected officials, state officials, who can't tell you what happened to the money that the federal government gave them,” he said to whoops and cheers.

But after the primary votes were cast and Espaillat ultimately prevailed, the question lingered: What happened to that money?

A representative for the state Education Department explained that about 73 percent of the money has been spent so far to fund 112 new charter schools and $30 million remains in the grant fund. The department was given a one-year extension through July 2017.

The vast majority of charter schools in New York are set up as 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, funded largely through tax dollars, that operate free of many regulations imposed on other public schools, in order to allow them flexibility to try new teaching techniques.

Asked about the shortfall, David Frank, executive director of the New York State Education Department’s Charter School Office, contended that “the goal was never 400. The goal in the grant was 150 schools under the grant period.”

Still, the first sentence of the NYSED charter school grant application summary reads: “The New York State Charter Schools Program (CSP) Project 2011-2016 seeks to double the number of high-quality char-

At a City & State co-sponsored debate on NY1, candidates for New York’s 13th Congressional District responded to a question about charter school funds ter schools (to almost 400 charter schools) that serve students in New York State.”

To date, New York state has just 256 charter schools operating, with 270 likely to be ready to serve students in the fall. An additional 20 are approved, but will remain in the planning stage, according to estimates from Northeast Charter Schools Network and education officials.

Frank said that 50 additional New York charter schools received separate funding directly from the federal government through a grant program for charter networks. With all of that taken into account, he said, the picture looks very different.

“If you include the 112 to the 50 network schools, actually, we're above our benchmark of 150,” Frank said. “So, I would say the grant has been a resounding success.”

When told about the grant question at the debate, Frank doubled down.

“To say we haven't met these (grant) objectives,” Frank said, “is just a fallacy.”

The department had succeeded in maintaining high-quality schools, strengthening the grant administrative infrastructure, promoting dissemination of charter school best practices to other public schools, and

improving outcomes from New York charter schools, he said. Moreover, given the department’s extension, he said, it is too early to judge what the grant accomplished.

“We are not about quantity,” Frank said. “We want high-quality schools.”

In interviews, education specialists, charter school lobbyists and public school interest groups showed sympathy for NYSED and characterized it as a department overwhelmed with its responsibilities.

Rick Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, which represents 433 New York public school districts serving “average and low-wealth communities,” said underfunding and staffing cuts had taken a toll on the state education department.

“I think they’re doing their best with what they have,” Timbs said. “We don’t want to diminish our expectations, but at the same time we’ve got to make sure they have the resources to do a good job.”

Lobbyists also noted that certain key government players in the charter approval process have slowed the growth of charter schools in New York.

Andrea Rogers, New York state director of the Northeast Charter Schools Network, said the education department was headed in the right

direction with the appointment of David Frank, but there had been issues in the past.

“There has been a little bit of a chilling effect in terms of how the board of regents has approached authorizing more recently,” Rogers said.

During one round of applications in 2015, all 15 applicants for charters were rejected.

“I think (applicants) were looking at that saying, ‘Oh. Huh. A little bit surprising that not a single school was high-quality enough to have gotten a charter,’” Rogers said.

“I’m hopeful that a lot of schools see it differently now and want to put their applications back in front of the board,” she added.

But the broader question of “where the money went” encompasses not just the cost to open new charter schools, but also the cost to run all the state's schools. This is perhaps the most pressing policy question in New York education, considering the state spends more per pupil than any other and currently ranks in the bottom half of the K-12 achievement rankings nationally. New York state ranks 27th among 50 states and Washington, D.C., earning it a C-minus grade in Education Week’s 2016 Quality Count.

Considering New York state NYNmedia.com

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spends more per pupil than any other state – an average of $2,000 more than the next-highest spender – the Empire State is not getting much bang for its buck, said David Friedfel, director of state studies at the Citizens Budget Commission.

“New York state spends by far the most in the country,” Friedfel said.

Part of the reason is the high cost of New York real estate, and other costs of maintaining schools in one of the most expensive parts of the country.

“However, we also have very powerful unions and we spend a lot on teacher salaries and fringe benefits. Personnel costs are the largest costs in education and New York pays comparatively more than other places,” he said.

Breaking down the state’s education costs further, Friedfel explained that New York is also home to “highneed populations” that require more spending as well.

The key problem, as Friedfel sees it, is the imbalance in how the money is dispensed to address those needs, particularly for high-need students.

“There are significant disparities,” Friedfel said, referring to his extensive research comparing spending between New York school districts.

To allocate education dollars, the state employs a byzantine spending formula – ostensibly to send more money to low-income districts that don’t collect as much local tax rev-

enue and less money to richer areas where the local tax revenue is more robust. But in order to avoid stripping the richest areas of their state education funding, Albany’s legislative architects put in some guard rails.

"There are limitations on how rich or poor districts can be considered,” Friedfel explained.

The result is that the poorest school districts do receive more money than wealthier districts, but not as much as they otherwise would if those formulaic guard rails weren’t in place – and perhaps not as much as they really need.

The bulk of state education dollars in school aid is counted not in the tens of millions of dollars, but in the tens of billions of dollars: over $24 billion this year.

And those billions are distributed with a formula, Friedfel said, “built with so many caveats that money is going where it doesn't necessarily need to go.”

In other words, because wealthier districts receive more funding than they really need, more money must be spent overall to aid those poorer school districts due to the distribution formula.

And in every district the money is split among all public schools, including the largely nonprofit charter schools and the handful of for-profits that have been in operation since before 2010, when the state banned any

new for-profit charters.

“We always remind everyone that charters are public schools. They are a different design and a different delivery mechanism, but it’s public school education and public school students being served,” said Rogers, the charter school advocate.

Rogers argues that charter schools have been shortchanged in terms of how they are reimbursed, leaving some of them struggling to operate.

“We feel very strongly that students in (charter) schools deserve equal support as what students in the neighborhood school across the street gets. So, it's definitely an equity issue,” Rogers said. She pointed to a current lawsuit aiming to extend building expense reimbursement to charter schools that do not currently receive it.

Charter schools’ unique status as nonprofits does, however, allow them to raise money privately – a fact the teachers’ union has called the “elephant in the room” when it comes to

funding equity between schools.

Timbs, who represents poorer school districts, further argues that charters’ freedom from many collective bargaining agreements, auditing requirements and other regulations represents a savings to charter schools.

“They’re operating without a lot of costs that we have,” Timbs said.

“Those differences, all these things we’re talking about, they kind of add up – and certainly the advantage goes to the charter.”

The question ultimately comes down to how to best spend the state’s education budget, Timbs said, noting that he was neither pro-charter nor anti-charter. But, he said, if charter schools are providing a superior learning environment, public schools should become more like them. If not, he wondered, why pay for two parallel educational systems?

“Probably,” Timbs said, “Because politically it works – even if it doesn’t work any other way.”

Grant Stats:

provided by NYS Education Department, July 15, 2016 NYS CSP PROJECT 2011-17 Total Award Less: Administration Less: Obligated (contracted) to Charter Schools Total Unobligated as of July 2016

AMOUNT $113,343,065 $5,667,153 $76,705,414 $30,970,498

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NEWS

BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM A Q&A with Per Scholas board chairman Lewis Miller and Barbara Chang, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development

B

uilding a successful workforce development program requires providers to be aware of and responsive to emerging trends. New York Nonprofit Media gathered tips on how to structure an effective program from Lewis Miller, board chairman of Per Scholas.

The nonprofit, headquartered in the South Bronx and led by President and CEO Plinio Ayala, provides technology-focused workforce training to individuals living in underserved communities. We also spoke with Barbara Chang, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent appointee to run his Office of Workforce Development, about the city’s priorities related to this field.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at nynmedia.com.

NYN: YOU MENTION THAT YOUR PROGRAM IS SHORTER (10 WEEKS), AND DOESN’T INCUR DEBT LIKE COLLEGE CAN. DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR PROGRAM TO BE A PRECURSOR TO – OR AN ALTERNATIVE TO – COLLEGE? LM: It’s both; it’s an alternative, certainly there are a lot of folks that don’t have the financial wherewithal to be able to attend college. We’re an alternative to allow them them to be trained in a very specific set of skills that make them more marketable in the community that they live in, to corporations that have have these technology jobs but don’t have the supply of candidates for them. It gives them an opportunity to get on their feet, to have a meaningful job typically at a much higher rate than they’re used to earning at other jobs that they’ve had, or if they’re unemployed, certainly much better. And it begins to develop a career for them that allows them then to move up on a career basis, maybe choose at a later date to attend a a community college or a four-year college to advance their skill sets even further.

NYN: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE JOB TITLES YOUR GRADUATES ARE GETTING? LM: Help desks, IT support, software testing; in the Washington, D.C., area we have a curriculum that focuses on cyber security, which is big in the federal government marketplace, so it’s those kind of technology jobs that our students and our graduates are skilled and able to fulfill.

NYN: HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR TRAINING IN LINE WITH THE LATEST TRENDS? LM: We have a very skilled and experienced board of directors. A NYNmedia.com

number of those individuals on our board serve on a technology subcommittee whose responsibility it is to stay up on the latest trends – so what jobs are going out of vogue, what jobs are coming into vogue, to make sure that our curriculum stays as relevant as possible. And then clearly our customer-facing individuals in our organization that work with our corporate partners in the hiring process also ask those same series of questions about what they see on the forefront with regard to skill requirements. And that then all comes back into our process of evaluating our curriculum and adapting and changing our curriculum as necessary.

NYN: WHAT’S YOUR FUNDING MIX LIKE? LM: Years ago we established a baseline for the organization that is very important: we call it social ventures, and that is the ability for us to monetize what we do, and based on our ability to monetize but still make it very affordable for our corporate partners, we’re able to have a predictable, consistent revenue stream that helps fund our organization.

NYN: CAN YOU GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU MONETIZE YOUR PROGRAM? LM: We place folks in organizations and there’s a fee associated with that, but that fee is a fraction of what they would otherwise pay another placement firm for the same kind of talent.

From our conversation with Barbara Chang: NYN: WHAT DOES YOUR OFFICE DO? BC: I think that the largest agencies we work with are HRA (Human Resources Administration), DYCD (De-

partment of Youth and Community Development), SBS (Small Business Services). We’re working to make sure that the agenda of the mayor is overlaid against all of the contracts that are going out.

NYN: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE EMPLOYMENT TRENDS THAT NONPROFITS SHOULD BE MINDFUL OF? BC: One of the things that the mayor’s office and certainly the agencies are doing is working to make sure that the jobs that people are being placed in are as close to a living wage as possible and have a career track.

What Mayor de Blasio is trying to do is to work, not necessarily focusing just on the quantity of jobs that are being provided, but the quality of the jobs. What we’ve found is that when there is a rapid attachment to a job sometimes the retention is not as long as we would like to see a person in the job, they cycle in and out, and what we want to see is we want to see people growing in their jobs, increasing in their salaries, actually becoming more professionally oriented to a career.

NYN: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SECTORS THAT PEOPLE SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO? BC: Construction is a big area of focus for us, to make sure that the trades bring in New Yorkers for the jobs instead of importing them from other parts of the city or from other parts of the region.

NYN: WHAT ARE SOME PRINCIPLES OF A GOOD TRAINING PROGRAM? BC: I think that one of the most important things that I’ve learned … is that you really need to keep pace with the kinds of jobs that are out there. Having great relationships and solid relationships with employ-

ers to keep your finger on the pulse of where they’re having trouble finding talent is probably the best indicator of whether or not your program is aligned to the supply-anddemand equation.

It’s important to keep not only track of what’s in demand today, but also what the trends are saying is going to be in demand so you can start to slowly turn the organization if the kinds of skills that you are training in are no longer necessarily in demand in this particular region. And New York City is a high cost of living area. There are a lot of jobs that require a certain level of education because a lot of the jobs that require a lower level of education are not here in New York because they outsource or they bring them to regions where the cost of living is less. So we have a challenge here to find the right balance of being able to scale up the population as well as finding them the right jobs.

NYN: DOES YOUR OFFICE HAVE A ROLE IN HELPING TO MAKE CONTRACTS MORE SUSTAINABLE FOR NONPROFITS? BC: What’s daunting to me as I move from the nonprofit sector into the city is the scale at which we are working. Knowing that there’s a limitation to the amount of money that can be deployed in these contracts, with an understanding that it may not necessarily be enough, because it does cost to deliver – we hope that we can get the private funders to kick in a little bit.

It’s not something that we intentionally say, “Oh, let’s get that RFP out at the cheapest price we possibly can and see whether or not they’ll deliver.” We know there are insufficiencies, but the scale is what we’re trying to meet, and we’re hoping that we can get the private funders to help fill some of that gap.

“IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP NOT ONLY TRACK OF WHAT’S IN DEMAND TODAY, BUT ALSO WHAT THE TRENDS ARE SAYING IS GOING TO BE IN DEMAND SO YOU CAN START TO SLOWLY TURN THE ORGANIZATION IF THE KINDS OF SKILLS THAT YOU ARE TRAINING IN ARE NO LONGER NECESSARILY IN DEMAND.” – BARBARA CHANG 27

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PERSPECTIVES

CONNECTING THE DOTS ON NONPROFIT UNDERFUNDING

By HELEN ROSENTH AL AND ALLISON SESSO

N

onprofit human services providers are on the front lines every day, addressing New York City’s most pressing social issues one resident at a time. The city relies on these organizations to provide a range of services for 2.5 million New Yorkers annually, including those related to homelessness, care for elderly residents, summer youth employment, mental health, domestic violence, and support for children in foster care.

While those who rely on these services face daily struggles, so do the organizations serving them. Just as many of the people they serve are living paycheck to paycheck, nonprofits are too often hanging on by a thread, payroll to payroll.

Decades of chronic underfunding from government plays a major role in this fiscal crisis. Government contracts make up more than 90 percent of the budgets of most human services

organizations, and typically these contracts only cover 80 percent of what it costs to run a program. Nonprofits can no longer sustain service delivery if the government doesn’t start paying the real costs of these programs.

While it is true that in New York City, the mayor and the City Council have “made unprecedented investments in human services,” they are investments that perpetuate and exacerbate the budget shortfall. Contracting for additional services, while continuing to fund them at 80 percent of cost, does nothing to halt the downward spiral that so many nonprofits currently face.

Government contracts are underfunded, pay late, overburden providers and set up impossible demands. Nonprofits are forced to scrutinize government contracts and make tough decisions – sometimes not to take on work when it isn’t properly funded. Our communities suffer by missing out on

services that nonprofits can no longer provide. We must do something to address this trend.

Over the past year, the New York City Council Committee on Contracts held two hearings, which revealed the impact of systemic underfunding and payment delays that just add salt to the wound.

But it’s time for everyone to start connecting the dots. Administrative and overhead costs at nonprofits matter to program quality. And inflationary increases must be provided regularly to contracts if they are to maintain their value. While rents and the cost of maintenance, supplies, repairs, food, equipment and technology continue to go up, funding from government has not changed in nearly 20 years.

A simple 2.5 percent annual increase to nonprofit providers’ Other Than Personnel Services (OTPS) funding would go a long way toward ad-

dressing underfunding. For the city, the cost would be roughly $25 million and would allow organizations to invest in critical items they have not been able to invest in for years. This funding is key to closing the gap between the real costs of service delivery and payments rates, which is undermining the fiscal health of nonprofits.

The city budget was adopted on June 16 with no concessions on the OTPS request but we will keep pressing for this increase to be included in the upcoming fiscal year.

We cannot afford to wait any longer; we must take action to address this growing crisis now.

Helen Rosenthal is a New York City Council member representing the 6th District, and the chairwoman of the Council’s Committee on Contracts. Allison Sesso is the Executive Director of the Human Services Council a membership association of nonprofit human services providers

Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership A Joint Program of Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business and Graduate School of Social Service

Learn about all aspects of nonprofit management and develop a solid foundation in social justice leadership.

• Program can be completed in 12 months • Class schedule designed for working professionals • Receive ongoing mentorship from a nonprofit CEO For more information, please visit fordham.edu/nonprofits | nonprofits@fordham.edu | 212-636-6676

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Issue N°10

August 2016

The go-to career center for New York’s nonprofit industry.

Featuring thousands of jobs each year, NYN Careers helps large and small nonprofits fill positions ranging from directors to human resources staffers.

Contact: Lissa Blake LBlake@NYNmedia.com

CAREERS

CAREER BOARD

MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

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MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES DIRECTOR OF AFTERCARE PROGRAMS New Alternatives for Children, Inc. is seeking a Director to provide clinical and administrative oversight of NAC’s Aftercare Programs, which provide post preventive, post adoption, kinship support, and family resource services. This position supervises a Coordinator of Resource Development and Social Workers.

Qualifications: Master’s degree in social work and LMSW (LCSW preferred); minimum of 6-10 years postgraduate work experience with increasing levels of responsibility; minimum of 5 years’ supervisory experience in child welfare; knowledge of health-related factors in working with physically disabled and/or chronically ill children as well as experience in the area of child development; excellent clinical skills; proficiency in Spanish is desirable.

Visit www.nackidscan.org for full job description.

When applying, indicate “Director of Aftercare Programs” in subject line, and submit cover letter and resume to: hr@ nackidscan.org

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES DISASTER PLANNING COORDINATOR The Health and Welfare Council of Long Island is seeking an individual to oversee and coordinate disaster planning and preparedness through the Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (LIVOAD). Responsibilities include engaging the on-going commitment and participation of LIVOAD member agencies and identify new potential leadership from other agencies to be trained to chair the LIVOAD’s standing subcommittees and support planning for future disasters; working closely with other regional and State VOAD’s to advocate for policy and legislative amendments at the Federal level(related to departments such as FEMA and HUD) To Apply: Please send cover letter and resume to efdundon@aol.com. HWCLI is an equal opportunity employer.

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES COMMUNICATIONS AND ADVOCACY SPECIALIST

MULTIPLEOPPORTUNITIES OPPORTUNITIES MULTIPLE St. Christopher's is a progressive social services agency with a 135 year tradition of helping children and families at risk. We are seeking experienced and motivated F/T Youth Care Counselors, Shift Supervisors and P/T Drivers to provide services for adolescents with emotional, behavioral and educational needs at our Residential Treatment Center in Dobbs Ferry, NY. We are also looking to hire F/T Youth Care Counselors at our Valhalla and New Windsor, NY sites. A valid driver's license, high school diploma or GED as well as at least one year of related experience is required for all positions.

Please send an updated resume along with a cover letter detailing the desired position to: hr@sc1881.or or via fax @ 914.693.3876.

The Health and Welfare Council of Long Island is a private, not for profit, health and human services planning, research/public education and advocacy organization that serves as the umbrella for public and voluntary agencies serving Long Island's poor and vulnerable individuals and families. The Communications and Advocacy Specialist is a people person with operations talent whose mission is to create and grow unmatched.

- A Bachelor’s Degree is required, preferably in communications or political science; as well as a minimum of two to four years’ experience in non-profit communications, development, and/ or social equity advocacy - Bi-lingual preferred To Apply: Please send cover letter and resume to efdundon@aol.com. HWCLI is an equal opportunity employer.

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES SCO Family of Services is currently seeking experienced, professional: - Child Care Workers - Case Managers - Nurses - Psychiatrists - Teachers and Teacher Aides - Counselors Positions include Full Time, Part Time or On Call openings. Job Locations include: Nassau County, Suffolk County, Queens, Brooklyn and The Bronx. If you are interested in the position mentioned above, please apply directly online at www.sco.org/jobs.

SCO Family of Services offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including vacation, holidays, sick days, health and dental care, life insurance, long and short term disability, 403(b) retirement account, flexible spending account and credit unions.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V

SENIOR VP OF FAMILY FOSTER CARE As a key member of the management team, the Senior VP of the Family Foster Care Program will manage all aspects of the Family Foster Care Program, including service delivery, staff development, foster home recruitment, facilities operations, budget development and allocations. The candidate must have a Master’s in Social Work and be a Licensed Social Worker with a minimum of ten years experience in the field of social work and in the field of Child Welfare. A minimum of eight years of supervisory experience is required.

Please forward resume and salary requirements to: The Vice President of Human Resources & Employee Relations Saint Dominic's Home 500 Western Highway Blauvelt, NY 10913 Fax: (845)398-2067, email: bwarwick@ sdomhome.org or apply online: www. stdominicshome.org/careers

SENIOR CONSULTANT OUTSOURCING SERVICES LCSW SOCIAL WORKERS Multiple positions available- fulltime/part-time and FFS To provide psychotherapeutic services and mental health assessments in our Upper West Side Clinic, satellite sites and in clients’ homes. Requirements: LCSW, experience with older adults and MICA populations preferred; strong clinical skills as well as experience using an electronic health record and facilitating groups.

Send resume and cover letter to : Sandra Feist, LCSW Senior VP for Clinic Services

Want your skills to make a difference in the world? Value a flexible work environment? You could be the Senior Consultant we’re looking for! You’ll deliver high level accounting/financial services to nonprofits of all kinds.

You need: Four-year Business Administration degree (or similar field) with accounting major, 3+ years as an accountant (CPA preferred), and strong command of Fund Accounting Software and Excel. www.fmaonline.net Resumes : Melissa Mangual Fax: 646202-9023, hr@fmaonline.net

EMPLOYMENT SPECIALIST VISIONS is seeking a motivated and experienced individual to fill the role of employment specialist. This person will be responsible for placing blind and visually impaired clients in competitive jobs that best match their talents and interests. The employment specialist will identify and contact new and expanding businesses throughout New York City. Experience in marketing or job placement in an urban setting is required.

Send resume and cover letter to Mike Cush, mcush@visionsvcb.org

NYNmedia.com

August 2016

Issue N°10 MEDIA - REVIEW - DIGITAL - CAREERS - EVENTS

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

DIRECTOR OF ADULT RESIDENTIAL AND SUPPORTED HOUSING

Stonewall Community Foundation is currently accepting proposals for its 2016 Stonewall Quarter Share grants cycle. This fall, a oneyear general operating support grant of $12,500 will be made to an organization or project in New York City that centers the safety of marginalized LGBTQ communities in their work.

Completed proposals are due by no later than noon on Wednesday, Aug. 24. Read more at Stonewallfoundation.org

The Director of Adult Residential and Supportive Housing is responsible for the supervision of 3 residences in a Supported Housing program in Rockland County. We prefer this candidate have a Masters Degree in Human Services and at least 1 year supervisory experience or a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services and 5 years experience providing direct services to SED children and adolescents, or providing linkage to services for individuals with one or more of the following primary diagnoses: mental illness, mental retardation, alcoholism, chemical dependency or substance abuse. Minimum 2 years exp. in a supervisory capacity. We offer competitive salary and benefit package.

Please forward your resume and salary requirements to: smith@sdomhome. org or, apply on line at: http://www.stdominicshome.org/rockland-county

MULTIPLE DEPUTYOPPORTUNITIES DIRECTOR Public Health Solutions seeks Deputy Director, Programs for Contracts and Management Services division. S/he ensures effective administration of government contracts, implements corrective actions, collaborates with stakeholders, participates in strategic planning and quality improvement initiatives. Ideal candidate: Master’s degree in human services or business administration; +six years relevant experience; strong management and problem solving skills; effective communication and diplomacy skills; highly organized, detail-oriented; works well under pressure. Contract budgeting, fiscal monitoring, procurement or program evaluation knowledge preferred. For more information about working at Public Health Solutions, please visit our website at www. healthsolutions.org We accept online applications only Public Health Solutions is an EOE/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES TEAM SUPERVISOR Lower East Side Family Union seeks qualified professionals to assist in its efforts of enhancing the quality of family life through the delivery of culturally linguistic and responsive services.

Qualifications: - A commitment to the mission and programs of LESFU - Masters Degree in Social Work (MSW/LMSW/LCSW) or related field - Must possess some knowledge of child welfare and of ACS - Outstanding interpersonal and communications skills - Passionate and demonstrated commitment for working with children and families in underserved communities - Demonstrated ability to manage deadlines and to make decisions - Ability to use MS Word, spreadsheets, and familiarity with PROMIS and CONNECTIONS Preferred: Some knowledge and experience with mental health and substance abuse; Bilingual (Cantonese or Mandarin/English or Spanish/English)

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES HeartShare Human Services of New York is dedicated to improving the lives of people in need of special services and support. We have the following job opportunities: Behavior Intervention Specialists, Registered Nurses, Asst. Residence Managers, Senior AMAP, Group Leaders, Direct Support Professional, Special Education Teachers, Social Workers, Therapists Send resumes to jobs@heartshare.org or go to www.heartshare.org/careers/ and click “job opportunities.”

Mercy Home seeks a Human Resources Director who fosters the mission of the agency, creates and produces workshops and outreach activities and Directly supervises two employees in the Human Resources Department.

Qualifications include At least 4 years HR Supervisory experience to successfully perform the essential duties of the job; PHR or SHRM-CP Certification Required; Strong background and knowledge in labor law and state and federal regulations; Ability to read, analyze and interpret employment law, reports, and legal documents and more.

This position reports directly to the Executive Director of the company.

MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER The CFO serves on the BCS Executive Staff, and is responsible for financial oversight for more than 30 programs and services across 25 BCS sites in Brooklyn. The CFO is also responsible for oversight of BCS facilities management, purchasing and information technology systems.

The CFO will be a mission-driven leader with a commitment to excellent services, who can inspire staff to perform at the highest level; a strong strategic thinker with excellent analytical, managerial, presentation and financial planning skills; and an excellent problem solver, effective in driving results.

Email cover letter and resume to: jobs@ WeAreBCS.org; in subject line write: CFO

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PEER SUPPORT SPECIALISTS Peer Support Specialists have experienced either mental health/substance abuse concerns themselves and/or have supported family members through their experiences, and have familiarity in navigating the mental health/substance abuse services system(s). Specialists use their experiences to support & empower others in their recovery and help persons improve their overall wellbeing.

Peer Support Specialists provide peer support services to individuals who contact the NYC Support program by telephone, SMS text messaging, and/ or web chat.

BCBA FOR SUPERVISION OF PRIVATE INSURANCE SERVICES QSAC is a New York City and Long MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES Island based nonprofit that supports children and adults with autism, together with their families, in achieving greater independence, realizing their future potential, and contributing to their communities in a meaningful way by offering person-centered services. We are currently seeking a BCBA to Supervise our ABA staff. This Supervisor serves multiple roles in providing education and training to parents. staff and other professionals. Qualifications inlude: Experience working with individuals with ASD using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA); Experience Supervising Staff; BCBA Certification; Master's Degree in (Behavior Analysis, Special Education, Educational/ Health/Human services, Psychology); NYS LBA Required; Minimum of one year of ABA client/teacher field supervision.

To apply, please email cover letter/resume/salary requirements to: RECRUITER@QSAC.COM

Interested applicants should submit resume and cover letter to Florence Kirley at Careers@mhaofnyc.org with “Peer Support Specialist” in the subject line.

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