CCEF
LINK
California Consortium of Education Foundations
NEWSLETTER
Volume 1
Number 4
Summer 2003
In This Issue
(This will be the last issue of CCEFLINK until the
back to school issue in mid-September.)
After School Programs—A Case Study
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CCEF
PO Box 19290
Stanford, CA 94309
650.324.1653 voice
650.326.7751 fax
Executive Director
Susan Sweeney
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FINANCIAL
OVERSIGHT—
WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES?
by Caroline Boitano, President,
CCEF Board of Directors
There are reams of materials talking about the responsibility of being a board member, so this brief column will not give me space to touch on all the important issues and responsibilities that board members face. I am going to focus my thoughts on “financial oversight”, what it means and what you need to do to exercise it.
Being the member of a board, nonprofit or for profit, means you are a governor. You are responsible for setting the course direction, reviewing the progress, and overseeing the management, or the volunteers who have responsibility for accomplishing the mission of the organization. If the organization deals with money, like most Local Education Foundations, there is a special fiduciary responsibility. So here are a series of questions that you should be able to answer if you are a board member.
Do you look at the “financials” regularly?
If you are a large organization, it is important that you have audited financial statements and regular, often quarterly, reviews of the current financial statements. And you need to understand what is in them. If you have questions, or want to get a better idea of what the notes mean, ask to spend time with the accountant or auditor. Nonprofit accounting has its own set of complexities, but as a board member, you should always know what is in the financial statements and be comfortable that they are correct.
If you are a small organization, you should still have a set of financials that tell you what you have raised as income, what you have spent on programs, and what you have spent as part of the cost of running the organization.
Do you know who can sign on the bank accounts?
These are the people who have access to the organization’s cash. All board members should know who they are, and there should be authority levels that require two signatures over an amount determined by the board. That amount may vary depending on the size of the organization and whether there is a regular review of the accounts by “third parties”.
Do you have a procedure for accounting for cash at events?
Sadly, human nature does not always do the right thing. You should have procedures that track the money, keep it in double custody, or at least have two people who know how much is actually going to the bank in the bag. Better safe than sorry.
Finally, are you comfortable with everything that relates to the financial management of your organization?
If you feel uncomfortable about anything, you should never fail to pursue your concerns. Often it is a hunch that uncovers serious problems.
I hope this helps you in your job as a Board member.
CCEF Board of Directors
Caroline Boitano
Consultant
Robert B. Caine
Kentfield School District
Joan H. Fauvre
Pasadena Educational Foundation
Gerald Howard
Interstate Commercial Mortgage Services
Morgan Odell, DPA
Santa Ana Education Foundation
Sally A. Outis
Albany Education Foundation
Wayne Padover, Ph.D.
The California AfterSchool Partnership
Michael Pinto, Ph.D.
Laguna Beach Ed Endowment & Capital Fund
Frank J. Quevedo
Southern California Edison
Charla Rolland, Ed.D.
Stanford University
Lawrence Schwab, Esq.
Bialson, Bergen & Schwab
Emanuel Scrofani, Ed.D.
California School Boards Association
Carol Sigelman
KeyLink Consultancy, Inc.
Lois Swanson
St. Helena Schools Foundation Endowment Trust
Kathy Owyang Turner
San Francisco Education Fund
Susan Wittenberg
The West Contra Costa Public Education Foundation
CCEF Advisory Board
Steven T. Kuykendall
Congressman
Steven T. Kuykendall & Associates
Mary Leslie
Consultant
Gladys Thatcher
CCEF Founder
Ronald T. Vera, Esq.
Law Offices of Gutierrez & Vera
Robert Wood, Esq.
Lafayette Arts & Science Foundation
Newsletter Editor/Designer
Robin Gladstone webmaster@cceflink.org
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Be sure to mark your calendar for the CCEF Annual Conference, “Changing Role of Education Foundations in Today’s Economy,” at the Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, November 6-7, 2003.
On Day 1 (November 6) there will be three tracks:
Track I Education Foundation Fundamentals, an all day workshop for groups in the process of starting or revitalizing their organization.
Track II morning and afternoon in-depth workshops to sharpen the skills of established education foundation leaders.
Track III “Grants that Work – A Formula for Successful Classroom Grants” a late afternoon workshop for foundation leaders and teachers on developing a successful foundation grant program.
Day II (November 7) there will be keynote speakers and an LEF panel focusing on “the changing role” plus 12 skill building workshops, an idea fair with take-home samples, Apple Awards and informal networking.
New this year, sessions with LEF Leaders from similar organizations, LEFs that serve high schools, LEFs that focus on elementary schools, LEFs that encompass a unified school district. These meetings will provide an opportunity to share unique challenges and strategies that work. Additionally, attendees from the 2003 Spring Trainings will regroup to discuss where they are now and to develop their next steps.
Other workshop topics being considered:
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Developing a case statement
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Building and Retaining a Successful Board
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Reaching out to Corporations and Businesses
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LEF programs that are making a difference
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Successful LEF fund development programs
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Developing a web site
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Strategic Planning
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Advance Fundraising Topics
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PR/Marketing Plans
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Advocacy and Lobbying
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Other: ____________________
Please send CCEF an e-mail to tell us by number which workshops are of special interest to your LEF. The CCEF Program Committee would like your input. Mail your preferences to ccef@cceflink.org or visit our “easy to fill out” online survey at http://www.cceflink.org/topics.htm
On November 7 the Morning Keynote Speaker is Kevin Gordon, Executive Director of the California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO). He will be followed by a panel of local education foundation leaders talking about how their organizations are responding to the current economic climate. Following lunch we will hear from Chuck Supple, Executive Director Governors' Office of Service and Volunteerism. A dynamic speaker, Chuck Supple has been a leader in community and national volunteer service during his student days at Berkeley and later in Washington and Sacramento.
Overnight Accommodations: Conference and Workshops are at the DoubleTree Hotel, located at 2050 Gateway Place, San Jose, California. For reservations call 408 453-4000. Identify yourself as a CCEF conference attendee to obtain the special rate of $120 plus tax by calling 408-453-4000. Reservations must be made by October 1, 2003. Complimentary shuttle to/from the San Jose Airport. Free parking for conference attendees.
Please check the CCEF website for updated information at http://www.cceflink.org/conference.htm
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AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS—
A CASE STUDY
(TOP)
by Susan Wittenberg, Executive Director
The West Contra Costa Public Education Fund
(The Ed. Fund)
In
1999, with the school district's receipt of numerous state and federal
grants for after school programs, The Ed. Fund transferred to the District
the five middle school after school programs that had been designed and
successfully run by the Ed. Fund for five years.
Prior to the advent of the state and federal after school grants, The Ed. Fund's decision to provide middle school after school programs may have been challenging, but it was not difficult to make. At that time, all of the of the District's middle schoolers finished school each day at 2 p.m., had no after school activities and no place to go each afternoon. Then, as now, a high percentage of the students live in poverty (more than 40%), represent a broad range of culturally diverse groups that tend to be in conflict, and are drawn to gang membership as a means of filling their time and providing them with a "family."
To address the needs, The Ed. Fund collaborated with eight other community non-profit agencies to provide a supportive environment stressing education, physical fitness, art and culture. The Ed. Fund provided at-risk, inner city adolescents with a multitude of activities every afternoon immediately after school.
To ensure the success of the program, The Ed. Fund hired a program manager for each site. These managers handled all aspects of the program by organizing the activity providers, distributing snacks, taking attendance, handling discipline, more often than not assisting with tutoring, and waiting for the last parents to arrive to pick up their children.
The programs provided for the students an appealing, meaningful alternative to participating in gangs, hanging out on street corners, being alone at home after school watching TV, or potentially becoming a victim of the violence that plagues the communities where they live.
Based on statistical evaluations and anecdotal information, the overwhelming percentage of students liked and felt safe in the activities and gained a significant sense of well being about themselves. They expressed pleasure in learning new skills, making new and more friends, learning good sportsmanship and becoming part of a team, learning more about diverse cultures, and feeling that adults cared about them. As one sixth grade participant poignantly stated, "In this program I got to do what those kids in richer places can do all the time."
The Ed. Fund faced a significant challenge to build the necessary trust and cooperation among the various agencies. Months before the start of the original program in 1994, The Ed. Fund initiated monthly meetings with all the agencies and players involved. At the outset, many were skeptical that true collaboration could be achieved since historically they had competed with one another for funds and recognition.
On the surface, these meetings provided a regular forum to discuss successes and solve problems as they arose. More importantly, they enabled the various agencies and The Ed. Fund to share ideas and work out problems as a team working toward a common goal. Since The Ed. Fund contracted with each agency separately, there was no competition for funds. What slowly evolved was a sense of shared respect for and shared commitment to a program everyone wanted to succeed. It took more than 2 years.
To recognize the wonderful services each agency provided, The Ed. Fund incorporated the After School Program into the annual Ed. Fund Teaching Excellence Awards Banquet each spring. The artwork created by students in the art activities was displayed, students in the performing arts and music activities performed during the Banquet, and lastly, The Ed. Fund created a narrated video of the After School Program that was shown at the Banquet and used to promote the program throughout the year.
For five years the collaborators met once a month, 11 months of the year. When we turned the program over to the district, we had a cohesive team that trusted and respected each other.
Almost ten years have passed since the original after school programs started. The Ed. Fund has done a great deal of soul searching about what was right in those early years and what went wrong when the district took over. Successful collaboration requires continual nurturing if it is to survive. Thus the district's fatal flaw! As the consistency of regular collaborative meetings and support for the site program managers diminished, each school became an island with no communication with the other schools and no central leadership. Chaos, failure, and suspicion from one school for another resulted. The collaboration had been broken. While much has been done to rebuild the collaboration since 1999, my experiences with the "before and after" have led me to the following words of advice for education foundations considering becoming involved in after school programs.
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Recognize that collaboration is a slow, sometimes painful process of building trust, a common vision and open communication. It takes a long time to build and a very short time to destroy.
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Create programs that do not replicate the regular school day, rather provide creative vehicles to deliver academic material and enrich the children. With the pending State cutbacks in education and the continued emphasis on API scores, there is neither funding nor room for the arts in the standard curriculum. However, it is clear that through the arts, students not only learn to see the world from different, often non-traditional perspectives, but also to master traditional academic subjects as a result of the skills they develop in the arts.
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Make sure that the district is an active participant. Responsibilities the district can assume are: making facilities available, covering copying and mailing costs, providing communications and security for after school sites.
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Be mindful that the principal's support is essential but that the principal should not be viewed as the person who will make sure that the program is running smoothly.
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Hire mature site program managers who can communicate effectively with the children but do not view themselves as the children's peers, who can communicate equally effectively with parents and school personnel, can handle quantities of detail, will be absolutely dependable, and view this position as not just a job, but as a critical part of a child's schooling.
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Above all - don't be naïve - running after school programs is harder, more time consuming and more exhausting than you will ever imagine, but when done well - wonderfully rewarding for all involved.
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“School districts' experience and field research have underscored the importance of a strong collaborative relationship between school districts and other local organizations, private and public, to provide outstanding after school programs. From a programmatic and well as funding perspective the active involvement of organizations, such as local education foundations, is critical to the initiation and development of successful after school programs. Relative to long term sustainability of programs, school districts have come to recognize, it cannot be done without the collaborative relationship with the local community. LEF's have served in a variety of roles relative to providing assistance to after school program development including, serving as a “convener” to bring together resources in the community to serve student needs. In some communities LEFs have organized local community members to speak to after school program students relative to career education options including the coordination of field trips to local place of business.”
Wayne Padover, CCEF Board of Directors and The California Afterschool Partnership
The California AfterSchool Partnership, composed of the California Department of Education, the Governor's Office of the Secretary of Education and the Foundation Consortium (a group of private funders) is available to assist newly initiated and mature after school programs, at no cost, relative to visioning and building capacity of their programs. Additional information about the Project can be accessed at www.afterschoolpartnership.org
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MEETING THE BUDGET CRISIS III: RAISING THE BAR ON LOCAL FUNDRAISING FOR EDUCATION (TOP)
by Sally Outis, CCEF Board of Directors
As the state-level tension over California’s budget for 2003-04 continues unabated and unresolved, optimism about a timely approval of the State budget wanes. In mid-June Committee Conferees from both houses of the Legislature exhausted possibilities for compromise and called for assistance from the Big Five, party leaders from both houses and the governor. No resolution seemed imminent as we went to press with this edition.
Local Education Foundations across the state continue their efforts to fill gaps created by expected cuts in State funding. Increasing numbers of LEFs and local parent groups report increased fund raising efforts in the months since the Governor’s budget was first presented in January. For many, such as Los Gatos and Menlo Park in northern California and Manhattan Beach in southern California, concentrated fund raising has resulted in amounts far beyond the group’s customary annual fund raising goal. See http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/prop13/story/6782699p-7733381c.html
Methods by which LEFs raise funds vary widely: the direct solicitation of parents, community members, targeted individuals; special events such as dinners, auctions, carnivals, the various “-thons”; and grant-writing for gifts from private, corporate, and community foundations. (For further information on fund raising auctions, see the State Board of Equalization finding on the Members Only page of the CCEF website http://www.cceflink.org.) Some foundations engaged in all of these fund raising efforts while others focused their energies on a single event or a direct appeal.
This year, with the abbreviated time frame created by the timing of the State budget process, many fund raisers utilized direct, candid appeals. Others found customary events to be even more lucrative than in the past as concerned donors opened their wallets and got out their checkbooks. With the continuing uncertainties of State funding, local fund raising is likely to continue at accelerated rates.
In addition to local fund raising efforts, on June 3 twelve San Francisco bay area communities went to their voters for approval of parcel taxes to help address budget challenges and provide funding help for local schools. Five of the parcel tax measures garnered the required 2/3 vote for passage.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/04/BA27539.DTL
Given the diversity of the communities served by LEFs, we recognize that not all communities may be able to respond to the call for increased donations on the scale of Manhattan Beach or Los Gatos. CCEF invites foundation leaders and supporters of public education to share their experiences with fund raising efforts in the current year, thoughts about substantial increases in private funding for public education, and ideas for addressing the current crisis at http://www.cceflink.org/discweb
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MEET THE BOARD–CAROLINE BOITANO (TOP)
Caroline Boitano is President of the CCEF Board of Directors and is a consultant in the area of philanthropy and non profit development.
In 2001 Ms Boitano retired as President and Executive Director of Bank of America Foundation, where she had worked for 20 years. She built a significant national grants program exceeding $95 million while building strong outcome strategies for community involvement. She developed innovative programs for broadening the base of private support for public education and community economic development initiatives.
Ms. Boitano currently serves as a Trustee for the Giannini Family Foundation, is a member of the Board for the Council on Foundations, and is President of the California Consortium for Education Foundations. She is on the Advisory Board for the Puente Project of the University of California and was founding co-chair of the Los Angeles Urban Funders.
Prior to coming to Bank of America, Ms. Boitano worked with the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Science and with the Babcock Endowment in San Rafael. She began her career as a teacher, working with middle school students teaching both English and French. She received her BA from Seattle University in 1966.
She and her husband Jim Boitano live in San Rafael, California; have three grown daughters and one grand daughter.
Caroline Boitano
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Stan Levenson speaks to Foundation Leaders
"Public schools need to move outside of the bake sale mentality. They need to use the same fundraising models that have long been employed successfully by private schools and universities," advised Dr. Stan Levenson. With more than thirty years experience in schools as a teacher, principal, administrator, grant writer, and most recently as nationally recognized fund development consultant to the public schools, Dr. Levenson spoke with foundation leaders at the CCEF spring regional meeting hosted by the San Diego County Office of Education. A proponent of local education foundations, Dr. Levenson sees foundations as broadening the school constituency, keeping the community informed, and facilitating the acquisition of grants and gifts.
After focusing on California's current educational climate and describing giving trends, Dr. Levenson encouraged the audience to "think about bigger things for public schools." He noted that state colleges and universities are tax supported public entities but they have responded to the need for additional resources by engaging in well organized and significant fundraising programs. He encouraged public schools to do the same. Levenson advised local foundation leaders to use the superintendent like the President of a university in meeting with business and community leaders and to go beyond the "small stuff."
"In this time of budget cuts and limited resources, public schools need to develop comprehensive fundraising efforts and look to corporations, foundations, and individuals interested in making a difference in student learning," Dr. Levenson advised. “There are different fundraising opportunities in different communities." In his new book, How to Get Grants and Gifts for the Public Schools, Dr. Levenson provides step by step directions on applying for various types of grants as well as approaching individuals. To reach Dr. Levenson and to order this book or other publications visit http://www.grantsandgiftsforschools.com
Stan Levenson
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Education Foundation Fundamentals
Responding to increased requests, CCEF offered two workshops this spring for groups starting or reviving an education foundation. A grant from Bank of America Foundation enabled CCEF to hold workshops in both Pomona and Sacramento. Entitled Education Foundation Fundamentals the intensive one-day training focused on the legal, financial, and political aspects of creating a foundation. New information on organizational development, friend and fund-raising techniques, and successful program development were provided.
Presenters offered a wide range of experiences and perspectives on what it takes to create a successful education foundation. "Keep the needs of the children first. Let this guide your decisions," Lois Swanson, CCEF Board member and a founding member of the St. Helena Public Schools Foundation, told attendees.
This year Jostens, Inc. provided partial scholarships for high school organizations interested in Renaissance, a specific form of education foundation. "It was an informative and motivational day." said Judy Badgley of the Mark West Education Foundation. "I came back with a wealth of information and renewed energy. CCEF resources are tremendous."
CCEF will next offer Education Foundation Fundamentals at the Annual Conference on November 6 in San Jose. Contact the CCEF Office for details or go to: http://www.cceflink.org
Lois Swanson, CCEF Board member and expert on foundation program development, talks with attendees at Education Foundation Fundamentals in Sacramento.
Presenters in Pomona included from left to right, Wade N. McMullen, CPA, Partner.Vicenti Lloyd & Stutzman LLP and CCEF Board members Wayne Padover Ph.D. and Ronald T. Vera
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San Diego Regional Meeting—September, 2003
Details and date will be posted soon. -
CCEF Annual Conference, "Changing Role of Education Foundations in Today's Economy," will take place on Nov 6-7, 2003, in San Jose. Day One will feature tracks on
“In depth capacity building” and “Education Foundation Fundamentals” as well as a workshop on "Developing an Effective Grant Program." Day Two will feature General Sessions, a Panel of LEF leaders, 12 skill building workshops, networking reception and Idea Fair. Visit the CCEF web site for conference details
CCEF
PO Box 19290
Stanford, CA 94309
650.324.1653 voice
650.326.7751 fax
FROM OUR READERS
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