Skip to main navigation

Catalogue Blog

6 Tips on Training Your Volunteers During COVID-19

Having transitioned your nonprofit’s volunteer programs to accommodate the pandemic, now you must also transition your volunteer training. Your orientation is crucial to ensuring high-quality work and high volunteer retention. Here, we have collected 6 tips on how to effectively train your volunteers in a remote space.

Volunteers Training

Tip 1. Contextualize Your Work

If volunteers understand your work’s context, then they’ll provide higher-quality labor and feel more intellectually engaged. During your orientation, provide background information about:

  • The social issue’s causes, history, scope, and impact
  • The community’s history, demographics, opportunities, strengths, and current challenges
  • Your organization’s history, impact, challenges, current goals, and how it intersects with the community

All of this information should be updated for this moment in time. For example, if your nonprofit addresses homelessness, explain how the economic downturn is affecting eviction rates, how homeless individuals experience a higher risk of COVID-19, and how housing inequities can be viewed through a racial justice lens.

Tip 2. Share Stories and Stats

Don’t just tell your volunteers — show them! Take advantage of virtual orientations to get creative when presenting information to your trainees. Demonstrate community need with eye-popping statistics and informative news articles for them to read ahead of time. Videos are engaging; whenever possible, use video calls and share well-produced videos, possibly of your clients speaking to camera. Ask current volunteers to share stories, lessons learned, and advice.

Tip 3. Value Volunteers

Your volunteers need to know and feel like their work truly matters. Maintain your volunteers’ motivation (and retention) by explaining how their work impacts your organization and the community at large. Explain how their service will save resources because the work might not have happened otherwise due to limited staff time. Also communicate how their work will be remembered and be built upon into the future — people want to know that their seemingly small task contributes to a series of efforts that make a sustainable impact.

Tip 4. Encourage Participation

The last thing volunteers want is to listen to a monologue for 45 minutes. Offer multiple opportunities for trainees to speak up and participate during orientation. Ask them to engage their prior knowledge, relating their experiences with those of clients; for example, when talking about summer learning loss, ask volunteers to describe what their own childhood summers were like. Use break-out rooms to not only have volunteers role-play, but also to socialize and build a sense of community. Take advantage of polls and online quizzes to test knowledge learned and get temperature checks on group opinions.

Tip 5. Build Up Skills (and Confidence)

Set your volunteers up for success by covering the hard skills, soft skills, and expectations needed for the work. Whether it be packaging donations or virtually filing documents, demonstrate the task before letting them practice. Consider sharing your screen or recording demonstration videos for their reference. For more interpersonal and relational work — such as answering 24/7 hotlines — have your volunteers role-play with each other in break-out rooms. Your orientation provides an opportunity to depict ideal behaviors and give volunteers the confidence and direction they need.

Tip 6. Be Flexible

By their very nature, virtual trainings differ from those in-person. Attention spans online are shorter than in person, so limit your orientation to thirty minutes, an hour at most. It is easier to host multiple small orientations online than trying to find a single large in-person time that fits everyone’s schedules. If you don’t have enough time to re-write your orientation curriculum for an online platform, outsource to your current volunteers! Your long-term, most trusted volunteers can help design and lead your virtual volunteer orientations.

 

 

Celebrating 60 Years of Affordable Housing for Seniors

Written by Christy Zeitz, CEO of Fellowship Square

The need for affordable housing and services for older adults has exploded nationally – and locally. With housing, rental and health care costs soaring, older adults are now at greater risk of homelessness than at any time in recent history. Only one in three low-income seniors receive the housing assistance they are eligible for because the programs are small compared to real need.

Fellowship Square works tirelessly to help. This Fall, Fellowship Square celebrates our 60th anniversary, marking six decades of providing safe, affordable, well-managed and attractive apartment living for some 800+ older adults (age 62+) who meet low-income criteria set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Through our four communities in the Washington DC metro region, Fellowship Square offers not only accessible and affordable housing for seniors, but also vital services and programs that help our residents lead healthy and active lifestyles.

Our Beginning

Fellowship Square’s founding in 1960 was led by Rev. Dr. John A. Scherzer (1901-1994), a pastor and member of the Lutheran Lay Fellowship of Metropolitan Washington who aspired to bring together his local community to better support vulnerable seniors and assure they had access to safe and affordable housing. Under his stewardship, a corporate charter for Fellowship Square was issued by the D.C. government on November 30, 1960. In those early years, Fellowship Square assisted a diverse population of older adults and sought funding and land to build an affordable housing community in the region. In 1970, FSF broke ground on the Lake Anne Fellowship House in Reston, VA, and welcomed residents in 1971. The community soon expanded, with the Lake Anne II Fellowship House opening just five years later (1976). Over the next decade, Fellowship Square expanded its communities and geographic reach with Hunters Woods Fellowship House in Reston, VA (1979), Lake Ridge Fellowship House in Woodbridge, VA (1983), and Largo Landing Fellowship in Upper Marlboro, MD (1984).

FS_1

Fellowship Square Today

Fellowship Square’s four communities in Northern Virginia and Maryland currently provide 670 affordable apartments in a safe and dignified environment for more than 830 older adults (aged 62+) living on extremely limited fixed incomes. Many of our residents live on Social Security or Supplemental Security Income alone, and the average annual income across our communities is approximately $12,000/year. Funding and subsidies from HUD and other organizations ensure that rent is never more than 30% of a resident’s income.

Fellowship Square proudly enables residents like Sharlene Fanning, 71, have a safe, stable, affordable and comfortable place to live and thrive:

“In my 60s, I was working three jobs in childcare and food service and still couldn’t afford to rent my own apartment in the area. So for some time, I was renting a single room in apartments and living with roommates. But even rent for a single room kept getting higher and higher to a point I couldn’t afford. I finally had to move in with my daughter and her family. We were 6 people in a three bedroom apartment and I was living in a room with my granddaughters. I wanted more independence and not to be a burden. On my 62nd birthday, I dropped off my application for Fellowship Square’s Lake Ridge Fellowship House. With the housing benefits I receive, I can live on my own and be active in the community here. I don’t know how other people do it. There are so many other baby boomers out there who I’m worried about if there are not more housing programs for seniors. I’m worried that many could end up moving from room to room as I did, or homeless and on the street.”

FS 2

Fellowship Square Amid COVID-19

With the help of our committed staff, volunteers, and community groups, we also aim to meet the physical, social, and emotional needs of our residents with dozens of opportunities each month for residents to be active, engaged, and reminded that they are a valued part of our community. These have included cooking classes, choirs, visits from therapy dogs, cards playing, painting, and art.

While most activities are on hiatus right now due to COVID-19 and social distancing, Fellowship Square and our staff and volunteers are ensuring that no one suffers from isolation. With safety as a top priority, we have closed common areas and restricted non-essential visitors — while at the same time holding “check in & chat” calls, encouraging residents to take on hobbies such as puzzles and art, as well as get their bodies moving with outside walks. I’m pleased to report that our communal gardens have never looked more beautiful, as a handful of residents are managing pandemic stress through gardening!

Gardening at Lake Ridge Fellowship House

Gardening at Lake Ridge Fellowship House

Gardens at Lake Ridge Fellowship House

Gardens at Lake Ridge Fellowship House

We’ve also received unbelievable support from our local community during this time. Although many of our residents have been avoiding crowded grocery stores, they are still eating well thanks to the donation and delivery of food, milk, prepared meals and care packages from groups including McLean Bible Church, Lake Ridge Baptist Church, the Woodbridge Rotary, Greater Mt. Nebo African Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Anne Episcopal Church Food Pantry and many more. Our residents need and appreciate these efforts! Learn about opportunities to help with food donations and contactless food delivery, or volunteer to call residents to check in on their well-being. We especially need volunteers who speak Korean, Chinese, Farsi and Russian.

Addressing the Unique Senior Housing Demands of the DC Region

The demand for affordable senior housing is particularly high in the greater Washington DC region, where an annual income of nearly $60,000 is needed to afford a 1-bedroom apartment. In the past, seniors of limited means used to be able to stay in their homes or downsize into rental apartments. Today in our region, however, older renters are getting squeezed out as rents and real-estate prices have exploded and affordably priced options disappear.

Take for example the experience that 89 year old Fellowship Square resident Nancy Delay shared:

“My husband and I were in our 60s and had to move apartments every few years to stay in one we could afford. When the rents would raise at the end of our initial rental agreement, we so often could no longer afford it and would have to start all over to find something in our price range again. We lived in many places in Maryland and Virginia as my husband neared his retirement from the postal service, and as rents kept rising it was getting harder and harder to find an apartment where we could stay for the long term. My daughter found Fellowship Square for us and we were able to move in. Today, it can take years to get in. I feel for the seniors in our area who are on long waitlists for housing help and whose lives are in distress. They don’t have the money for the rent they are paying now and can end up homeless and, worse, sleeping on the street or in a shelter. I want our government and community to do what it can to build more affordable housing and subsidized housing for seniors. I’m now 89 and I’ve been safe and secure and living healthily in a stable home because I’ve had the benefits of subsidized housing. I want that for others.”

Fellowship Square kicked off its 60th year with two groundbreakings to meet the increasing affordable housing needs of older adults well into the future:

  • Redevelopment of its Lake Anne Fellowship House, an $86+ million project that includes the construction of a new 240-apartment building to replace the existing property.
  • A $12+ million renovation to the Hunters Woods Fellowship House to modernize its 225-units that provide affordable housing to 300+ residents by enhancing amenities and common space.

FS 4

These communities will help local seniors like Sharlene Fanning, 71:

“In my 60s, I was working three jobs in childcare and food service and still couldn’t afford to rent my own apartment in the area. So for some time, I was renting a single room in apartments and living with roommates. But even rent for a single room kept getting higher and higher to a point I couldn’t afford. I finally had to move in with my daughter and her family. We were 6 people in a three bedroom apartment and I was living in a room with my granddaughters. I wanted more independence and not to be a burden. On my 62nd birthday, I dropped off my application for Fellowship Square’s Lake Ridge Fellowship House. With the housing benefits I receive, I can live on my own and be active in the community here. I don’t know how other people do it. There are so many other baby boomers out there who I’m worried about if there are not more housing programs for seniors. I’m worried that many could end up moving from room to room as I did, or homeless and on the street.”

Celebrating Our Yesterdays, Todays and Tomorrows

Fellowship Square has provided homes for thousands of low-income seniors since our founding in 1960 and has been on the front lines of the affordable housing challenge ever since. We at Fellowship Square appreciate that aging is something to be appreciated and celebrated. We embark on this highly unusual 60th anniversary year amid the global COVID-19 pandemic prepared to protect and serve our residents. Our in-person celebrations may be postponed, but through the pandemic and beyond we continue to engage our excellent staff, energetic volunteers, committed supporters and community stakeholders to work together to meet the affordable housing needs of today and the future.

There are many ways to get involved in the mission of the Fellowship Square and support seniors with very limited incomes and resources. Join us as a volunteer, have your business or nonprofit become a community partner, consider board membership, attend or sponsor an event, or pursue an internship or career position.

FS 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 Steps to Jumpstarting Your New Volunteer Programs

Nonprofit work often depends upon volunteers. Not only do volunteer programs provide free labor, they also present valuable opportunities for community awareness and engagement. Unfortunately, the pandemic rendered many of these programs impossible to continue safely. During this time, people are looking for ways to connect, occupy their time, and make a difference. This is your nonprofit’s opportunity to harness this energy and re-imagine your volunteer programs for a new physically distanced society. Here, we have listed 6 steps you can take to jumpstart your new volunteer programs within the COVID-19 context.

Jumpstarting New Volunteer Programs

Step 1. Identify Your Organization’s Needs

Do you even need volunteers right now? In this new landscape, your organization’s needs might look dramatically different than they did pre-pandemic. Your programming and consequent staff responsibilities have likely shifted in response to your clients’ new needs, so take some time to evaluate resulting labor gaps. Do you have immediate one-time needs or ongoing opportunities? Have you lost volunteers? Would the time invested in training be less than time saved if your staff simply completed the task themselves?

Step 2. Identify Possible Volunteer Tasks

Some remote volunteer possibilities include:

  • Community Outreach. This work is best suited for your volunteers who are looking for a way to connect with others. They can assist with time-intensive relationship building tasks such as telephone wellness checks with clients, hotline/call center staffing, or organizing virtual group meetings with community members.
  • Administration. When armed with a computer and internet access, your volunteer’s admin support can look like anything from grant writing to virtual filing. What are those tasks that would mightily improve your team’s efficiency, but are just never urgent enough to make the week’s “priority list”?
  • Content Development. Your volunteers can assist with time-intensive research and curriculum adaptation as you transition your educational programming to an online format. Depending on their personal background and expertise, they might also be able to prepare and present specific topics to share with your clients and community!
  • Fundraising. Who do your volunteers know? Ask your volunteers to help you market your nonprofit’s needs with their peers and communities and you could very well uncover a small treasure of new grassroots support.

Other volunteer work will be unavoidably in person. In which case, evaluate how your programs will operate with proper safety measures in place. Can you limit group sizes, enforce mask-wearing, provide sufficient PPE, and screen individuals with symptoms?

Step 3. Prioritize and Plan Your Program(s)

Transitioning your volunteer programs is a big change! Experiment with launching just a few initial programs to work out the kinks before you expand further. Carefully consider which volunteer activities would work well under safety restrictions, which needs are the most urgent, and which are best suited to your volunteer population. Send your existing volunteer pool a survey about their comfort level with technology and various in-person activities. For example, some volunteers might be too vulnerable for in-person activities or lack experience with online platforms; they might prefer telephone-based volunteering instead.

Step 4. Recruit Volunteers

The first place you should look when recruiting volunteers: your previous volunteers! During crises, doing familiar work fosters feelings of comfort and stability. Those who volunteered before are likely to do so again even if the exact task looks fairly different. However, if post-survey you find that not enough of your existing volunteers are comfortable with returning, you’ll need to recruit. Your recruitment pitch should focus on immediate impact, community, and connection — these are the 3 most pressing concerns in this moment. Also, publicize your volunteer positions on social media to reach a wider audience. After all, if your work is virtual, it doesn’t matter where applicants live.

Step 5. Set Volunteers Up for Success

If you want to retain your volunteer force, make sure they have the technology, skills, information, and emotional support they need. What supplies do they need: printers, a strong internet connection, a Zoom account, phone minutes, masks, gloves, flexible hours? Are you able to transition your orientation online in an engaging, effective, and dialogue-driven way? Teach them the context of the social issue they’ll be working on, as well as whatever hard and soft skills they will need. Whenever possible, use video. Quick personal videos from staff can be a fun and personal way to engage volunteers, and live video calls are an excellent way for volunteers to plug into their new community.

Step 6. Monitor and Adjust

This will be a learn-as-you-go process. Regularly check in with your volunteers to gauge their experiences with your new program and to learn what roadblocks they might be encountering. Express your gratitude, even to past volunteers who can no longer make the pivot. Gather data through anonymous, unobtrusive (e.g. less than 3 minutes to complete) surveys to discover which elements of your pilot program should be replicated for future endeavors, and which experiments should be set aside. Keep your supporters, clients, and volunteers in the loop about your ongoing changes in response to our new reality; as faithful members of your community, they will understand and want you to succeed.

 

 

 

 

Celebrating Milestones: HomeAid Northern Virginia Completes 150th Project Renovating Homeless Shelters & Rebuilding Lives

Written by Kristyn Burr, Executive Director and CEO of HomeAid Northern Virginia

This summer, HomeAid Northern Virginia proudly completed its 150th project of building and upgrading emergency shelters and supportive housing facilities for those experiencing homelessness! These 150 projects have spanned:

  • building a brand new residence for runaway teens (Youth for Tomorrow in Bristow, VA)
  • renovating residences for female veterans experiencing homelessness (Final Salute in Fairfax, VA)
  • updating multi-unit supportive housing properties (Community Lodgings in Alexandria, VA)
  • expanding local food pantries (Loudoun Hunger Relief in Loudoun, VA)
  • installing upgraded security at domestic violence shelters (Artemis House in Fairfax, VA)

See a complete listing of HomeAid projects here.

We do this by connecting regional homebuilders and housing industry professionals with local nonprofit organizations focused on ending homelessness. Our building industry partners donate their expertise, time, and resources to renovate or build homeless shelters, housing facilities, and other spaces at little to no cost to the nonprofit service provider. Importantly, this allows HomeAid’s nonprofit partners to allocate their scarce resources on programming and supportive interventions such as job skills training and mental health services that improve lives and greatly facilitate the transition out of homelessness, rather than on construction/renovation costs.

150th Renovation: Winchester Rescue Mission

WRM_Outside

Our milestone 150th project is our recent renovation of the Winchester Rescue Mission, which provides safe and secure housing for 33 individuals, serves up to 80 individuals at its nightly dinner, and operates a community food pantry — all within a historic 1930′s building that was in dire need of upgrade. HomeAid Northern Virginia with our “Builder Captain” Dan Ryan Builders and three construction trade partners installed new flooring throughout the building, repainted the entire interior, and replaced flooring and tiling throughout.

“This facility is critical to carrying out our mission of supporting individuals who are experiencing homelessness, and some of our programs — such as providing meals and offering laundry and shower facilities for resident and community use — are components that we feel can keep others from becoming homeless,” said Winchester Rescue Mission Executive Director Brandan Thomas, “There are so many in our community who are on the verge, and losing our ability to serve because of issues with our building would be truly devastating. We haven’t been able to make any updates to the building since 1985, so this renovation is a gamechanger. The cafeteria is probably the most incredible example, with luxury plank replacing a really worn concrete floor that had layers of peeling paint. It is a beautiful facility now, and all of the other changes allow us to service people more fully and more efficiently. This building is a source of pride for our whole community now, and we are so grateful.”

Winchester Rescue Mission

Winchester Rescue Mission

Winchester Rescue Mission

Winchester Rescue Mission

The Unique Challenge of Renovating Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

It is important to note that the COVID-19 pandemic did not halt our work. Through deliberative and creative coordination with building crews, we were able to complete the Winchester Rescue Mission project and other projects already underway when the pandemic took hold. Balancing the need for worker safety, we and our building partners deployed small crews at different time intervals to finish projects.

In fact, construction is considered essential during these uncertain times, and new HomeAid projects continue to move forward today as housing and service providers prepare for a potential homelessness crisis in the region as coronavirus emergency protections end — and evictions begin. The need for supportive and affordable housing programs will be more keenly felt than ever. We are ready to serve and are looking strategically ahead to the next 150 projects in the coming years to build sustainable solutions to prevent and end homelessness and rebuild lives.

Real World Impact: Each Project Brings Hope & Dignity

Across our 150 projects, HomeAid Northern Virginia has invested more than $18 millionin building a better community and has generously donated $11 million in labor, time, materials, and expertise. This has real-world impact. This is money that our shelter partners can invest in people rather than on building projects, helping them with things like life skills and job training, rather than on building maintenance. This is money that means children have somewhere safe to go after school.

This is funding that helps close the enormous funding gaps that exist between what our community nonprofits need versus have — making a real difference in our ability to provide safe and stable places for the 167,000 people who have benefitted from our enhanced spaces as they work to regain their independence.

Most importantly, each of the 150 projects bring hope and dignity to individuals and families struggling to obtain stable housing and in need of critical wrap-around services. Adults and children experiencing homelessness can rebuild their lives in safe and dignified spaces thanks to our partnerships with homebuilders and construction trade partners who collaborate with us and our nonprofit partners to build solutions to end homelessness. These collaborative partnerships enable homebuilders to do what they do best (build!) and service providers to do what they do best (provide supportive programs and wrap-around services!). At the end of the day, our building projects rebuild lives and, as one of our nonprofit partners recently told us, “serve as a launchpad for new beginnings.”

HomeAid Northern Virginia launched the HomeAid 150 Campaign to commemorate this milestone, engage supporters, and make a difference in the lives of those experiencing homelessness.

“It is so special for the women in our program to move into a beautiful and newly upgraded residence like this. It helps them to feel, sometimes for the first time, that they themselves deserve to live in a beautiful space. It really reinforces to them that they are in the next chapter of their story. It reinforces to them their responsibilities to themselves and to the program. When you live in a space that is beautiful, you have to maintain it. You have to put in the work– both in this house and in their lives, inside and out. HomeAid Northern Virginia truly created a beautiful space to serve as a launch pad for new beginnings.”-Friends of Guest House executive director Kari Galloway

 

Adapting Project Soapbox in the Time of COVID-19

Written by Justine Hipsky, Program Director of Mikva Challenge DC

A bustling auditorium. Dozens of middle and high school students pouring in the front doors and following the signs down the escalators, some springing with excitement and some whispering to their friends and their teachers about how nervous they’re starting to feel. A lively registration table with pump-up music playing in the background and an assortment of colorful nametags out for the taking. The sound of 120 young people playing musical questions to start the day before launching into a spirited Rock Paper Scissors tournament, building community and shaking off any nerves. This is a typical start of Mikva Challenge DC’s annual Citywide Project Soapbox event, an electrifying in-person celebration of youth expertise.

One of Mikva Challenge DC's in-person Soapbox events, prior to COVID-19

One of Mikva Challenge DC’s in-person Soapbox events, prior to COVID-19

Mikva DC’s work revolves around amplifying youth voice and creating meaningful opportunities for DC’s young people to “learn democracy by doing democracy” through Action Civics, with one of our cornerstone programs being Project Soapbox. Project Soapbox asks young people to, well, get up on their soapboxes! Answering the prompt of “What is the most pressing issue facing your community, and what should be done about it?”, over a thousand middle and high school students from all eight Wards of DC write and deliver a 2-3 minute-long soapbox speech in their classrooms during the fall semester – on topics ranging from housing costs to gun violence to the inequities of public education – with finalists from every classroom attending our annual Citywide event each December.

Throughout a typical fall, we host professional learning community dinners and curriculum trainings for our incredible partner teachers. We visit schools, run guest lessons to kick off the Project Soapbox unit, and coordinate over 75 adult allies to visit these classrooms as civic partners and guest judges.

One of Mikva Challenge DC's in-person Soapbox events, prior to COVID-19

One of Mikva Challenge DC’s in-person Soapbox events, prior to COVID-19

Of course, now, as we look ahead to the start of a new school that seems anything but “typical,” we’ve been asking ourselves the same questions as so many others. How do we continue to support our teachers and students effectively in the lead up to Soapbox and beyond? And how do we meet this moment to not only adapt our existing model but to also innovate and improve?

A huge piece of this innovation has been to adapt our Issues to Action curriculum to accommodate both asynchronous and synchronous remote learning. Mikva’s Issues to Action curriculum guides students through six steps of community problem-solving:

  1. Identity and Community Analysis
  2. Project Soapbox: Issue Identification and Envisioning Change
  3. Research
  4. Power Analysis
  5. Strategizing and Taking Action
  6. Showcase and Reflection.

Not long after social distancing began, we collaborated as a national team to convert key lessons and activities to be student-facing. From media literacy to how to create a community asset map to how to identify a Project Soapbox issue, we’ve compiled an array of resources for this age of physically distanced education. After receiving teacher input, we are continuing to expand our digital activity offerings to cover the span of the Issues to Action curriculum and to create and share fun instructional videos, student-facing PowerPoints, as well as opportunities for students to attend virtual election events this fall.

We are thrilled to continue to provide as many digital resources to our teachers and students as possible to amplify youth voices remotely, but we also know that teaching and learning don’t happen in a bubble. Since we sadly can’t bring our teacher cohort together in person for training and fellowship in the coming months as we normally would, we hosted a highly interactive, three-day Action Civics Institute over Zoom in early August. During this institute, we modeled how to build community and develop empathy in virtual classroom spaces in preparation for Project Soapbox and held two immersive Project Soapbox sessions where teachers got to explore how to facilitate digitally, as well as write and deliver their very own powerful speeches! To close, we asked participating teachers to encapsulate their professional development experience in one word. Some of the responses included:

“Ready!”

“Inspired!”

“Invigorated!”

A recent Mikva Challenge DC's virtual teacher training

A recent Mikva Challenge DC’s virtual teacher training

To build on this momentum and further foster our professional learning community as we move from summer to fall, we have planned out a series of virtual teacher “dinners,” where programming will allow for community-building, best practice-sharing, and a chance to connect with Mikva DC staff.

As we move from summer into an unchartered new school year, we will be continuing to partner with our teachers to find out just what Mikva DC’s 2020 Project Soapbox will look like, sound like, and feel like. However, what we are certain of is that there is no stopping youth voices, and that DC’s young people need a microphone and a platform now more than ever. Project Soapbox speeches will still be delivered by middle and high school students from all eight Wards of the District, and we will be showcasing the finalists through an online platform.

We look forward to continuing to connect young people from across the city, as well as bringing youth voices directly to adult community members and elected officials. We may not have an auditorium this year, but we have this city’s leading community experts and they deserve to be heard.

If you are interested in learning more or serving as a Project Soapbox adult ally to support and celebrate DC youth voice this fall through our Project Soapbox program, please email Mikva Challenge DC’s Issues to Action Program Director, Justine Hipsky, at justine@mikvachallenge.org.

6 Strategies to Secure Foundation Funding

For nonprofits, foundation grants are a highly competitive source of financial support, with the ability to provide significant financial resources. These steady sources of income are more important than ever for smaller organizations, especially due to the cancellations of in-person fundraising events and the increased cost of shifting virtual or remaining in-person. Here, we have a list of 6 strategies for nonprofit professionals to secure sustainable foundation funding to support their mission.

Strengthening Foundation Relationships

Strategy #1. Survey the Foundation Landscape

Educate yourself on new trends of the ever-adjusting world of foundation funding. Given the ongoing interconnected crises of 2020, many foundations are shifting their funding priorities. The three most common themes that we’ve noticed are emergency funding for basic needs (e.g. food, housing, health), more funding for structural equity (e.g. racial justice, systemic injustices, representation), and a focus on collaboration. Examine the work being done by other organizations in your community – where does your nonprofit fit into the wider ecosystem? How do you stand apart? How can you align your work to these emerging focus areas? Are there opportunities for collaboration? When in doubt, ask your program officer about how their priorities are changing.

Strategy #2. Cultivate Personal Relationships

As with all major donors, now is the time to engage foundation staff one-on-one. Personal relationships with program officers are vital during shifting priorities. If these individuals know you, then they’ll be more likely to advocate for you when the time comes to make difficult financial decisions! Share programming updates more frequently and before you make public announcements – this will make them feel like a priority and keep your organization at the top of their mind. Reach out to simply say thank you, demonstrating your appreciation for their past support. Invite them to attend virtual events, which are more convenient to hop onto than in-person events used to be. Even if they don’t join, they’ll feel engaged by the invitation and will be reminded of your ongoing programming.

Strategy #3. Ask for Non-Financial Support

Foundations can provide more than just funds! Take advantage of their expertise, by inquiring about pro bono legal consulting, financial counseling, or general strategic advice. Foundations are also excellent networking hubs, able to connect you with a wide variety of funders, experts, and opportunities you might not be able to find through an internet search. For ongoing grants, consider asking for more administrative flexibility given the unprecedented current circumstances. For example, they might choose to extend or eliminate reporting deadlines, or allow you to use previously restricted funding for general operations purposes.

Strategy #4. Paint a Picture about Your Impact

During the 2008 Great Recession, one major shift was toward larger, but more competitive grants that leaned toward data-supported impact. When writing grants, we recommend taking a Past-Present-Future approach. This is a time of flux, so you need to cover your bases: traditional programming, new programming, and reopening plans. Use concise yet striking statistics to demonstrate your traditional programming’s effectiveness back during “normal” times – but be careful to not linger too long on the past. Then, explain how your organization has been addressing the ongoing crises, either through a scale-up of your workload or a completely novel programming pivot. Tell specific and memorable anecdotes about your clients’ challenges, your virtual programming’s successes, and your team’s innovation and resilience.

Strategy #5. Plan for an Uncertain Future

Even though nobody knows what the world will look like 6 weeks from now, foundations still want to know that you’re planning ahead. In grants, lay out your tentative strategy and budget for the next 6-12 months – even if you’re not sure! Include contingency plans for possible major variables (e.g. the presidential election, resurgences of social distancing mandates, the 2021 spring school semester) and explain how you would respond and adjust accordingly. Explain the financial implications of your new normal. What resources will you need: equipment, skill sets, software? Will your new strategy require fewer staff, new staff, or restructured staff? Be able to explain to foundations specifically how their financial support will drive your action now and in the future.

Strategy #6. Demonstrate Urgency

A foundation needs to know you are making a difference now, not just in the future post-COVID-19. Demonstrating your work’s urgency is always a crucial element to grants, even during non-crisis fundraising. Make the case about why your program needs funding now to address increased needs, emergency needs, and future needs. Explain your nonprofit’s place within the greater, long-term context of your community; you may need funds now to begin making shifts that will ensure that you will still be around to support clients during the post-crisis recovery.

 

 

The Right to Dream

Written by Koube Ngaaje, Executive Director of District Alliance for Safe Housing

Imagine being 18 years old again, about to begin the journey into adulthood. No longer a child, but not yet a grown up, navigating the enormous changes and new demands that come at this major transition point in life. You might be exploring numerous new roles and transitions, leaving behind your adolescent support networks, finding a job, and forming more complex intimate relationships. It can be an exciting time, but unfortunately it is also a time of intense vulnerability.

Transitioning youth (aged 18 to 24 years) are more likely to experience domestic or sexual violence during this phase of their life than at any other time. The 2015 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that almost half of women who experienced violence by an intimate partner first experienced it between 18 and 24 years of age. For marginalized populations, such as LGBTQ youth and those living in poverty, experiencing homelessness, or exiting the foster care system, this period is particularly precarious, and their risk level is even higher.

To compound this issue, transitioning youth often have the least contact with support services. Transition services that are geared specifically to smoothing the progression from adolescent to adult services are few and far between, so these young adults are often pushed into adult services that are ill-prepared to meet their needs, especially as they recover from abuse. In DC, the experience of domestic violence is the most defining characteristic of homelessness or housing instability for this age group.

The District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH) is the largest provider of safe housing for survivors of domestic and sexual violence in Washington, DC. We believe that all survivors deserve a safe place to call home, including transitioning youth. This is why we have created our newest, innovative program, Right to Dream.

What is Right to Dream?

Right to Dream is a scattered site housing program for transitioning youth (aged 18-24 years) who are survivors of domestic and/or sexual violence and are experiencing housing instability or homelessness. Like all of DASH’s programs, it is survivor-centered, low-barrier, voluntary, and trauma-informed.

DASH 1

Through Right to Dream, 20 transitioning youth survivors will receive wraparound supports and housing assistance for up to two years. They will be partnered with a DASH advocate who will help them find and set up their new home in the DC Metro area, check in with them regularly, and help them develop a plan for their safety. DASH advocates will support participants to identify their long-term goals and help them eliminate the barriers to achievement, helping them gain the skills, knowledge and supports to be confident adults who break the cycle of power and control their abusers forced on them.

Right to Dream participants will have access to educational opportunities, job training and career planning as well as a range of other community-based supports to help them recover from their trauma and become empowered. The goal at the end of the program is for each participant to be economically secure and able to maintain the lease on their own or, if they choose, to move to similar lease, and transition to self-sufficient adulthood.

DASH 2

Why are we doing this?

There are very few long-term transitional housing programs in our area that cater specifically to transitioning youth survivors. DASH saw the immense need for support services for this population and designed the Right to Dream initiative to start filling the gap. Right to Dream will expand the availability of youth-friendly, survivor-focused, long-term transitional housing and services.

What are we hoping to accomplish?

Our Right to Dream program has two primary goals: to ensure short-term and long-term stability for transitioning youth survivors. We want to assist youth survivors to get stable housing right away, and we want to help them find long-term economic and housing stability, meaning a secure job, and a place they can call home. But ultimately, this program is about more than just providing safe housing. For many of these young people, the support DASH provides will help break intergenerational cycles of abuse and enable them to build lives free of violence.

You can learn more about the program on our website or contact us by emailing righttodream@dashdc.org.

DASH 3

 

The Poverty Pandemic

Written by Leah Paley, Executive Director of Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services

What a year it has been. COVID-19 served a devastating blow to those who were already experiencing hunger, homelessness, and fear of an uncertain future. I will personally never forget the shaky voice of the mother who called us from a motel with her four children crying in the background. At the height of the pandemic, she was running low on food and money to keep her family sheltered for another night. This call was just one of hundreds we have received over the past six months.

I asked our frontline staff to reflect on what things have been like at Laurel Advocacy and Referral Services (LARS) since the start of the pandemic. This is what our Emergency Services Manager, Alli Milner, shared with me:

What has work and/or life in general been like for you over the past few months since the pandemic started?

“During the pandemic it seems like even the simplest task has become complicated. Before, we could easily unlock our doors and allow clients to come in and sit down. We could easily hand them clipboards with their paperwork and collect their information. Now, our doors are locked and we have to wear masks and gloves. We try to avoid handing things like pens and clipboards to clients, and when we do, they are sanitized after use.”

What feelings have you had?

“Some days, I feel like we go non-stop. Right now, there are so many people who need support and it can get overwhelming. But, it has been great to see how people in the community are stepping up and supporting one another.”

What feelings or worries have your clients expressed?

“Clients are expressing a lot of concern for the future. Many of our clients have lost employment or they have been furloughed. There are also concerns for safety and some feel that by leaving their home to get help they are putting their health at risk.”

Although Maryland’s infection rate is declining, thousands of residents across Prince George’s County are terrified of losing their housing now that the moratorium on evictions has been lifted. The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) reported that “Before the pandemic struck, a quarter of all renters – and 71 percent of extremely low-income renters – were paying over half their incomes for housing, too often leaving them one emergency away from eviction. Now we’re seeing millions of people all have those emergencies at once.”

Across Laurel’s four zip codes, the average housing wage (the hourly wage one must earn to afford a modest two-bedroom rental home without spending more than 30% of their income on rent) is $34.80, or $72,400 per year. This is more than three times the earnings of a minimum wage worker. A single parent working as a grocery store cashier would need to work over 120 hours PER WEEK just to afford basic shelter for their family. Essential workers in food, transportation, health, and other service industries are the backbone of our community, and this pandemic has made that even clearer. Yet these vital members of our community are up against impossible odds. The numbers simply don’t add up.

Despite the disheartening state of the world right now, we have also witnessed incredible acts of kindness in our community, like City of Laurel employees who helped us quickly transport food to that family in the motel, along with many of our senior and immuno-compromised clients. Or the young man who collected over 200 bags of toiletries for LARS in lieu of birthday gifts. And LARS’ Permanent Supportive Housing participant who called us to meet him at Giant to collect a cart full of groceries he had just purchased for our food pantry. Or LARS’ Self-Sufficiency Program participant who received a bonus at work and donated it to LARS to pass on to someone in greater need. Often, we see that those who have the least give the most. Because they know what it’s like to go without their basic needs met, and the difference it makes when that worry is lifted.

LARS Donation

 

 

Kindness, gratitude, and hope have propelled our organization forward through this dark time. Let us make this collective experience a lesson on the importance of caring for all members of our society in good times and in bad.

For more information on LARS and how to get involved, visit www.laureladvocacy.org.

8 Tips on Running a Nonprofit Virtual Board Meeting

Board engagement is a perennial challenge, and that was before COVID-19. We know that board meetings can be an important point of engagement – but with meetings remaining virtual for the foreseeable future, how do we keep our boards engaged? In order to help answer that question, we have eight things to keep in mind when planning your next virtual board meeting.

Board Meeting Engagement

  1. Communicate more frequently. Given the constantly evolving situation, you need your board to have regular, up-to-date information to inform timely decisions they might need to make. Consider a monthly check-in with your board chair and/or an email update to the entire board. The more proactively you communicate with the board, the more they will feel that your organization is under control. Monthly executive committee check-ins and a monthly all-board email is a good place to start.
  2. Use video. Despite possible technical hiccups and Zoom-fatigue, video is necessary to engage your board. Onscreen video is better for dialogue, emotional connection, and keeping your board members actively engaged during meetings.
  3. Start with a Roll Call. The simple act of asking board members to introduce themselves and share a quick update at the beginning of your virtual meetings will make them more likely to participate throughout and feel more comfortable unmuting themselves.
  4. Ask for Ideas. Provide prompting questions to stimulate conversation if you encounter pauses – but be specific. Don’t ask the overly broad question “Does anyone have an idea for fundraising?” when what you really want to know is “Does anyone have an idea about how we can engage with medium-sized local businesses?” Also, don’t be afraid to directly call on certain people during the meeting by asking for their expert opinion or advice.
  5. Chat more. Encourage the use of the chat function in video meetings; it has a lower barrier to entry than speaking up and will solicit viewpoints from more members. The poll function is an efficient way to get a quick group “pulse check” on certain topics and may save you time as well.
  6. Delegate. Before the meeting, assign various board members to lead certain sections of your agenda. This will not only give you a break, but also get others in the habit of talking and gives them a sense of ownership over the topic. Plus, more voices make it likelier that others will jump in too.
  7. Use a Consent Agenda. Send materials a week ahead of time to the board, including some of the more straightforward items. These include items like the last meeting’s minutes or programming reports. Having read these materials ahead of time, board members only need to vote Yes or No before moving on, saving everyone time. Focus the majority of your conversation on 1-2 key points that need more discussion.
  8. Craft an Engaging Agenda How you organize, phrase, and relay information in the agenda sets the meeting’s tone and focus. Try to keep your meeting to 90 minutes in length, at most. Consider the following 1-hour structure:
    • Check-In/Consent Agenda: 10 minutes
    • Financial Update: 10 minutes
    • Discussion #1: 15 minutes
    • Discussion #2: 15 minutes
    • Wrap Up and Votes: 5 minutes
    • Executive Session: 5 minutes

With these eight tips in mind, your board will feel more engaged, informed, and ready to respond to potential future challenges your nonprofit faces.