Quality Youth Mentoring in Minnesota

August 9, 2011

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of sitting in on a member-initiated briefing on youth mentoring, co-sponsored by the Travelers Foundation and the Carlson Family Foundation.

Coming into the program, I already solidly believed in the importance of the subject matter, as I can recall more occasions than I can count on two hands when a teacher or tutor has made the difference between passing and failing. Even now, in my college years, I am extremely grateful to have math tutors available to help me get through my microeconomics and finance classes­. For me, the one-on-one encouragement, attention and accountability remain crucial.­

So how do we pinpoint what makes a mentorship experience effective?

The resounding reason for attending the program given by most of the grantmakers was the desire to learn more about a new online program assessment tool called the Quality Mentoring Assessment Path, or QMAP. QMAP is presented by the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota (MPM) and based on the latest policies, practices, experience and research for youth mentoring.

During the program, grantmakers were shown a video demonstration of how QMAP works, along with next steps available after an assessment is completed. One of these steps includes a follow-up visit from an MPM staff member to help design an individualized improvement program and provide additional resources.

These steps help answer the big question provoked by undergoing the QMAP assessment: “Based on results, what is the plan for improvement of your mentoring program?”

Why Assessment Is So Important

As powerfully put by Saint Paul Public School Foundation’s Karen Woodward, “Literacy is life or death.”

In today’s competitive age of information and technology, in order for kids to have the best chance at success, tutoring and mentoring have proven time and again to be key components. Involvement in these helps students socially, emotionally, psychologically, as well as academically. The research has shown it, youth can attest to it.

So, why the big push for quality now? Laura LaCroix-Dalluhn from Youth Community Connections explained: “Just bringing kids together and giving them a safe place to study is not enough.” Not all tutoring and mentoring experiences are created equal and can actually do more harm than good if they are not of quality. But different ideas of what constitutes “quality” pose a challenge, which is where the QMAP assessment system comes into play. The initiative to shift the field to more accountable quality using tools such as QMAP is meeting a serious need.

Use of the QMAP system may further inspire both volunteers and grantmakers to invest their support in programs they know are dedicated to a higher quality standard.

Graham Hartley of MIGIZI Communications elaborated on a metaphor Woodward used during the discussion to explain that high quality will have several looks: 

 “It’s a fruit salad of organizations, not a fruit smoothie. Programs participating in the QMAP process do not lose their individual flavor.”

In other words, each program that actively participates in the QMAP process will not lose its uniqueness and become a cookie cutter version of every other program, but rather enhance its way of practice, so that parents and students can depend on its quality.

 Image CC Sam Pac
-McKenzie Mackintosh, MCF Communications Intern

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What’s Different and What’s the Same in How and Where We’re Asked to Give

September 29, 2010

It seems that one of the prevalent topics in philanthropy and nonprofit fundraising is the impact of generational differences (or similarities). How will the values and characteristics of the next generation affect who they give to and how much they give? How will those values and characteristics affect how nonprofits interact with this younger generation?

The report The Next Generation of American Giving discusses not just the next generation, but four generations and their charitable giving - what makes each a target worthy of donation solicitations, how do they prefer to be asked to give, and how do they prefer to give and engage with nonprofits?

Released in March 2010, the report was commissioned by Convio, a provider of constituent engagement solutions for nonprofit organizations, and conducted by market research firm Edge Research, with technical support provided by Sea Change Strategies.

The report sought to answer what every nonprofit wants to know: How do we attract the next generations of donors without compromising current revenue from mature donors?

The short answer: The best fundraising is profoundly multi-channel. Seek ways to integrate those channels for stronger results.

The long answer is, of course, much more complicated.  In  Convio’s March/April 2010 online newsletter, in an article titled “Next Generation of American Donors: Changing the Art and Science of Fundraising?” by Tad Druart, Convio’s director of marketing and communications, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer Vinay Bhagat says:

This research and the decline in donor acquisition rates indicate that the marketing model needs to shift to attract the next generation of donors while supporting continued direct mail success. Charities need to move away from a solely direct response focus to a multi-channel approach with a heavier emphasis on online marketing, emerging channels such as mobile and social media, and empowering supporters to market and fundraise with and for the organization. Online marketing programs that have mostly operated as a silo must be integrated with traditional campaigns.

Here are some of the of the report’s findings.

Overview of the Generations

Mature Generation

  • Born before 1945.
  • U.S. population: 39 million
  • 79% gave to a charitable organization (other than school or place of worship) in the last 12 months.
  • Annual average total giving: $1066
  • Number of charities given to: 6.3

Boomers

  • Born 1946-1964.
  • U.S. population: 78 million
  • 67% gave to a charitable organization (other than school or place of worship) in the last 12 months.
  • Annual average total giving: $901
  • Number of charities given to: 5.2

Gen X

  • Born 1965-1980.
  • U.S. population: 62 million
  • 58% gave to a charitable organization (other than school or place of worship) in the last 12 months.
  • Annual average total giving: $796
  • Number of charities given to: 4.2

Gen Y

  • Born 1981-1991.
  • U.S. population: 51 million
  • 56% gave to a charitable organization (other than school or place of worship) in the last 12 months.
  • Annual average total giving: $341
  • Number of charities given to: 3.6

How Do the Generations Like to Give Money and Get Information?

As one would expect, giving a check by mail is the run-away most common giving method for Matures. While giving by mail is still prevalent for Boomers and Gen X, it is significantly less so than Matures. The likelihood of giving via a website increases with younger generations; for Gen X, giving via the web only slightly trails mail, but for Gen Y, the web slightly surpasses mail.

An intriguing note: All generations give at similarly high rates through donations at the check-out registers of retail stores.

Similarly, the predominant charity information channel for Matures is mail. For younger generations, the channels are more varied, encompassing a combination of e-mail, websites and social media.

One of the most interesting findings in the report notes that when looking at how charities solicit donations from those with whom they have pre-existing relationships, donors said the most appropriate form of solicitation was indirectly via a friend who asked for a donation. This finding that  indirect messaging is impactful could have great implications for all those strategies that involve communication “hits” directly between the nonprofit and the donor.

Again, for communication between donors and familiar nonprofits, mail was considered acceptable by more Matures. Mail did, however, score well with younger generations as well, but it is balanced with e-mail, “indicating the importance of multi-channel appeal strategies,” the report writes.

What Triggers Giving?

According to the report authors:

Younger donors are more likely to support a charity when friends/family ask versus the charity asking them. They consider much of their giving relatively random based upon their emotional reaction to something in the media, or based upon who asks. Older donors have a well established commitment to their primary charities. They have a budget set aside for charitable giving, and know the organizations they plan to give to. This suggests that it is harder for a new charity to break in with older donors, but once you secure them, they are quite committed. Younger donors represent relatively open targets. The best way to reach them is either through inspirational stories in the media or better still,via their friends. Given that a vast majority of charitable marketing efforts today are directed towards direct donor engagement and solicitation versus stimulating peer-to-peer engagement and general media exposure, it would suggest that those marketing efforts are poorly aligned with what younger donors say motivates them to give.

To read the full report, including recommendations for “Actions You Can Take Tomorrow,” visit the Convio website.

Learn More at the MCF 2010 Annual Convening

This report and other insightful research and tools will be part of an Idea Session, “Unleashing Our Human Assets: A Fishbowl Conversation on Engaging All Generations for Change,” at the 2010 MCF Annual Convening. Titled “Innovative Strategies for the Future: Realizing Our Full Potential,” the convening for Minnesota grantmakers will be held Oct. 28 and29. For more info, visit MCFconvening.org.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

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Posted by Chris Noonan

S’Mores and iPhone Apps: Family Philanthropy Conversations

August 17, 2010

Some of our best family discussions happen around the camp fire. In between licking s’mores off our fingers, we share school experiences, summer wishes, and funny stories.

The next time you're around the campfire, why not talk about family giving?

Last weekend, we brought out our TableTopics cube of conversation starters and enjoyed the summer air while listening to each other answer questions such as  “Would you rather meet your great grandparents or your great grandchildren?” “What is your family known for?” and “Is it more fun to be a parent or a child?”

When I came back to work on Monday and dove into creating content for our fall issue of Giving Forum, which will focus on family philanthropy, I thought of a few of my own family philanthropy conversation starters I could pull out next time we’re sitting around the campfire:

  • If you had $1,000 dollars (which sounds like all the money in the world to a young child), and you could use it to change someone’s life, what would you do with it?
  • Do you think it’s better to give the entire $1,000 to one person and make a really big difference or give $100 to 10 people and make less of a difference but affect more people?
  • What is one problem now that you hope doesn’t exist in 10 years? 50 years?
  • If you could make a movie about how to make the world a better place, what would your movie be like?
  • When you do something really great, how important is it that others know what you did?
  • If you could invent something that would make the world a better place, what would you invent?

West Central Initiative, an MCF member, brings the thought-provoking discussion from the camp fire to the kitchen table in its recent issue of FOCUS on the Region, a quarterly publication. Here’s an excerpt of Sheri Holm’s article:

Kitchen table philanthropy involving the whole family

The next time your family comes together for a day at the lake or a barbeque in the backyard, why not take an hour to discuss  how your family can make an impact on the things that are most meaningful to all of you.

Some questions to pose to your ‘kitchen table philanthropists”:

1. First, let your family know that including charitable giving in your estate does not mean leaving out the children, grandchildren and other family members. Including charities in your planning can actually enhance what your loved ones will inherit. Because your family is important to you, their input into how those charitable dollars are spent and what organizations they will support is also important to you.

2.Encourage your family to talk about the charitable organizations they currently support. Ask each about the most satisfying charitable gift that they have made. Other questions could include:

  • Do you see your family as a family who “gives back”? How do you feel about that?
  • Are local issues and organizations more important to your family than national or international organizations?
  • Are there projects or organizations you would like the family’s name linked with?
  • What would the family like to see accomplished through charitable giving?

Including your loved ones in these discussions can provide multiple benefits. It gives them a role in your decision making. They will understand what you want to do and how you want to do it. It should also ensure that there will be no surprises for the family at the time your estate is settled.

If you’d like your conversation spurred on by techie gadgets, guess what? There’s an iPhone app that might just be up your alley. My colleague here at MCF, Cary Walski, found Picture Your Legacy, which guides you toward articulating what you’d like your legacy to be – in business, philanthropy or life – by selecting and sorting images that reflect what you want to accomplish in the world. “What does a dancer leaping across the stage, a redwood tree or a lighthouse beacon say about the funder you aspire to be?” reads the promotional text on the app’s website.

Once you go through the app’s exercises, you can email them to yourself and other family members for further reflection and discussion. So, if sitting around a campfire or the kitchen table together isn’t in the cards, now you can still share your philanthropy philosophy by way of the virtual kitchen table.

Join the conversation: What questions could you ask your kids to find out how they see themselves changing the world? What questions might help guide them to think philanthropically? Have you tried any kind of conversation starters to spark discussion about your family’s philanthropy? How will iPhone apps and other tech devices influence how families discuss their philanthropy and make decisions in lieu of sitting around the camp fire or the kitchen table?

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

Image CC quinn.anya

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Posted by Chris Noonan

Can $212 Million Make Waves in a $7.6+ Billion Ocean?

July 17, 2009

New Issue of MCF’s Giving Forum Features Minnesota Grantmakers’ Contributions to Education

Children at Three Rivers Head Start participate in The Saint Paul Foundation’s Words Work! initiative. Read more about this initiative and others in Giving Forum.

Children in The Saint Paul Foundation’s Words Work! initiative. Read more about this initiative and others in Giving Forum.

Expenditures for elementary and secondary education in Minnesota topped $7.6 billion in 2006-07, according to the Report Card on American Education: A State-by-State Analysis by the American Legislative Exchange Council (whose source is the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics; Digest of Educational Statistics, 2007).

The $212 million in grants that went toward education in Minnesota in 2006 is not a small chunk of change (source: Giving in Minnesota, 2008 Edition, a report of the Minnesota Council on Foundations).  However, when comparing $212 million to $7.6+ billion,* one does wonder what kind of impact grant dollars can make when it’s “out-billioned” several times over.

Unfazed by the funding differential, Minnesota grantmakers are asking, “What if every student in Minnesota had the opportunity to realize his or her educational goals?”

Achievement, opportunity and access gaps abound, and the road ahead looks daunting. But, through initiatives big and small, long-term and short-term, these grantmakers are investing in changing the trajectory of student success by building on the body of research, promoting effective practices that impact academic outcomes, engaging and empowering stakeholders, influencing policies, and leveraging resources.

We talked to funders about why they fund what they fund and how it’s creating opportunities to innovate, change and sustain in education.  What they had to say is featured in our summer issue of Giving Forum, a publication of MCF.

Their initiatives are making sure children don’t enter school already behind, preventing students from falling further behind, and preparing students for post-secondary education. They’re investing in those closest to the student – parents, teachers and liaisons. They’re leading efforts to expand the meaning of “education” beyond the K-12 classroom to include perseverance in college, out-of-school time, early childhood mental health, opportunities for immigrants, and home visits for first-time parents in rural Minnesota.  And they’re laying the foundation to create change through public policy engagement.

This issue of Giving Forum also includes a commentary on how Minnesota funders can impact educational effectiveness, data on education giving trends in Minnesota, a look at Minnesota’s two top education funders – Target and General Mills, and a compilation of education resources.

The investment by Minnesota grantmakers is helping each and every Minnesota student in ways that not even $7.6+ billion can.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

*While the $212 million in grants includes support of higher education, student services and other related education areas, I didn’t research total public-sector spending on early childhood or post-secondary education or all the other areas that feed into education, so this is not a true apples-to-apples comparison, and thus the “+” that accompanies the 7.6. If I was a research expert and this was a blog on research, this apple-to-orange thing might bother me more, but I’m sure you’ll roll with my numbers as I try to illustrate a point.

Other Posts Related to Education: New McKnight Focus: Literacy by the Third Grade, Making It Real, Even on My Day Off, A Data Nugget is Worth 1,000 Words

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Posted by Chris Noonan

New McKnight Focus: Literacy By Third Grade

July 1, 2009

The McKnight Foundation has announced a new focus on building literacy rates of Twin Cities children by third grade.

In making the announcement about this new early child development goal, the foundation cited the importance of early literacy to development of successful adults and prosperous communities.

“In the Twin Cities today, 41% of third-graders read below grade level,” said Robert J. Struyk, McKnight board chair. “McKnight has long focused on providing children with the resources to become successful and engaged community contributors. Better preparing our youngest to read and write at grade level will help put them and keep them on track for graduation and beyond.”

The literacy focus builds on McKnight’s current early childhood work, with special emphasis on transitions from kindergarten through third grade.  Third grade reading skills are a high predictor of high school graduation rates.  Less than 80% of Twin Cities students graduate from high school, and rates are closer to 40% for Asian, Hispanic and Black students.

To address the educational achievement gap, McKnight will collaborate with early education advocates in nonprofits, business, philanthropy, and the formal education system.

Over the coming years, the foundation will make some adjustments to its current work, discontinuing discrete grantmaking to support fatherhood development, parenting skills building, and family economic success. McKnight will continue funding multiservice family support
organizations.  Decisions about future support for out-of-school time and homeless and runaway youth programs are still under consideration.

The new funding focus will be managed within McKnight’s Region &
Communities grantmaking program.  This summer the foundation will hire a program officer to lead the literacy work.

The level of financial investment in the literacy goal was not announced.  Later this year, McKnight will release new grantmaking guidelines.

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More Data Nuggets Worth 1,000 Words

June 9, 2009
Student attending Youth Uprising Afterschool Program

Student attending Youth Uprising Afterschool Program

In my post last week, I highlighted some research statistics related to education.  I found some more that paint such a vivid picture in my mind of the task before us.  This time, these “nuggets” focus on “out-of-school time.”

Funders such as the McKnight Foundation and Sheltering Arms Foundation, as well as the Greater Twin Cities United Way, all MCF members, are working to address the picture painted by statistics such as these.  I’ll profile their perspectives in the upcoming issue of Giving Forum.

Youth have 2,000 hours of non-school discretionary time each year – equivalent to a full-time job; school time is 800 hours per year.  (Youth Community Connections)

Percentage of youth who participate in any after school program:

  • 66% of youth with family income under $25,000
  • 92% with family income over $50,000
  • 91% youth who are white
  • 74% youth of color
  • 67% youth of immigrants

(University of Minnesota Extension Center for Youth Development and Wilder Research, 2008)

75% of Nobel Prize scientists discovered their craft outside of school.

Research findings like this sure makes me stop and think, “What if … ?”

Join the conversation: Have you come across any data nuggets that make you think “What if?”

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF Communications Associate

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Posted by Chris Noonan

A Data Nugget Is Worth 1,000 Words

June 5, 2009

Just as a picture often does a more effective job of conveying emotion, mood and setting than 1,000 words (especially if it’s someone like me doing the describing), one nugget of research data can evoke passion and inspire action.

I’m combing through piles of information on education and philanthropy, discovering why grantmakers fund what they do, as I put together MCF’s next issue of Giving Forum, due out at the end of June.

Here are a few data nuggets I’ve come across. I could spend hours trying to craft the right words to explain circumstances and inspire change.  Or I could simply let the data do the talking (or picture painting):

Of every 100 white kindergartners in the U.S., 94 graduate from high school, 66 complete at least some college, 34 obtain at least a bachelor’s degree.

Of every 100 Latino kindergartners, 62 graduate from high school, 31 complete at least some college, 10 obtain at least a bachelor’s degree.

Between 2000 and 2020, the white population is expected to grow by under two million, the Latino population by 11 million.

(“Achievement in America,” Council on Foundations Mini-Summit: Funding Public Education, May 6, 2008.)

Powerful, aren’t they?

And there’s more … so in my next blog, I’ll add to this list.

Have you come across any data nuggets lately that paint a picture worth 1,000 words?

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF Communications Associate

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Posted by Chris Noonan

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