Urban Foodscaping Non Profits

In the past three days I have had my free thoughts consumed by the potential of urban landscaping as a solution to many challenges being faced in economically restricted communities in America.

I have looked at these 5 organizations briefly and see great potential in my community to create meaningful change.

http://foodisfreeproject.org/

http://www.ediblelawns.net/

http://www.foodscapelb.blogspot.com/

http://www.nycfoodscape.com/

http://farmmyyard.org/

One thing that I really like about this idea is the possibility to put these in individuals yards, creating a multi fold benefit. of improving the visual appearance of a property, proving a food source, teaching valuable skills, improving air and soil quality and increasing community between the organization facilitating the process and the homes in the area where the lawn is turned garden.

Where this enthusiasm takes me will wait to be seen, part of me wants to write "the grant", leave my job (that I love), and dedicate the next several years to starting a local lawn foodscape organization. As I dream about this I quickly come into the long list of considerations that any non profit founder thinks about and my enthusiasm remains. Great work is being done all over America in foodscaping, and I am excited to see the movement grow!

Non Profit Best Practice: Develop ways to actively engage government and corporate entities

Non Profit Best Practice: Develop ways to actively engage government and corporate entities.

Who to engage
If this a new concept for your organization so many possibilities exist, if this is something your organization is already doing and looking to expand a more serious examination might be needed to identify who these entities are.

For those who are just starting this process: Ask yourself , your board and your leadership the following series of questions. *Please note I use the word clients as much of my experience has been organizations service people. If your serving another mission say an environmental cause replace clients with impact area.

• What entities do we impact? (Example: Schools, or after-school programs)
• What entities impact our services? (Example: City Council)
• What entities impact our clients? (Example: Schools, or after-school programs)
• What entities do our clients impact? (Example: Schools, or after-school programs)
• What entities directly affect or staff and supporters? (Example: City Council)

The list you come up with is where you should start to make efforts to engage.

For those of you who are looking to expand: Now is a good time to reach out to your staff and clients to solicit ideas.

• What companies or agencies do they engage with other than yours? (Example: Faith based groups)
• What in your community do they see opportunities for engagement? (Example: Garden Club)
• What opportunities exist for your organization to be seen as a leader in your field? (Example: Present at a conference)

How to do this

Now you have made a list of corporate and government entities, what next?

1. Research - Spend time to learn about those on your list, who are the key contact people, how they work and if they have any past experience working with non profits.
2. Reach out indirectly - Invite the entity to one of your events. Most likely they wont come but it will start the process of them knowing your organization exist and gives them an insight into some the work you do.
3. Reach out directly - Call or stop in, whatever is appropriate in the community you work in. See if you can introduce yourself to a decision maker and at the very least have an opportunity to pick the receptionist brain about the way they work. - Your goal at this phase is just to become familiar, learn more about them as individuals and the work they do.
4. Continue contact - in the following 3 months keep communicating, follow up with card after the initial meeting thanking them for taking the time to meet with you, invite them to another event, share something that you think they would be interested in knowing (local news or subject related article), connect via linked in or other social network.
5. Evaluate - At this point make the decision is this a company or agency that we would benefit from a more formal working relationship.

1. Yes - Set a time to make the request
2. No - Keep inviting them to events but move your energy onto the next potential, you have gained a connection that is worth keeping.

Why it matters

Non profits cant operate in isolation. Active engagement of government and corporate entities can open up a variety of benefits to your organization. The most obvious opportunities are for potential donations or volunteers. Many other opportunities exist that these relationships could provide your no profit with including: insight, local/ relevant news, referrals and advocacy.

Practitioner examples.

In one agency I worked for I made contact with a local pastoral association. It turned out that one of the pastors was childhood friends with the city manager. Due to this connection when our agency needed support from the city manager I was able to reach out to this pastor and use him to open the relationship for my organization to be supported by the city manager.

In a different agency I work for we begun developing a relationship with a large company who was expanding and moving employees and their families into the area. As this relationship was developing we noticed that several of their employees were using our services, we were able to share this information with the company allowing them to refine their relocation process to better support their employees families.

In both of the above examples the relationships continued to grow and the agencies I worked for saw expanded benefits of donations, volunteers and community advocates.

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Trying to be ONE - The Republic of the Philippines and the American Red Cross

When attending graduate school in the Philippines I had the opportunity to take several course on Philippines government and administration. One of the fundamental learning that I took ways from these course is that the Philippines as a government is trying to create the concept of unity, cohesion and oneness thought the nation. They are working towards this by moving functions and administrations to be the same in every district so that you can be anywhere and it will be operating under the same system as anywhere else with only minor local differences(such as the office location, key community members ect).

In concept is sounds like a great way to move the nation forward. In reality it is encountering many difficulties. Devising and implementing systems and procedures that are identical in the mega city of Manila and in the remote islands of Hundred Islands. Manila is a fast paced technologically advanced multi-media political, cultural and population center of the Philippines. Hundred Islands on the other hand is is a grouping of 100 plus islands that used to be a coral bed of which only 3 have been developed for visitors. On every level the Philippines is facing challenges. Should the Philippine government have computer systems to track tax collection, city plans, HR and so forth? Global best practices say YES. So the Philippines did just that, the created a comprehensive system with forms, procedures and software to put the ONE nation of the Philippines onto one system and dispersed these requirements and tools to local government offices and officials. This was a fantastic, a solid step to take a developing nation towards a new chapter in their history. Unfortunately some jurisdictions do not have reliable power supplies, let along functional computer and internet systems. This micro example to highlight the magnificent challenge faced by nations who were not historically one group but several moving into the 21st century united and working to become ONE.

On a national level I have seen the identical struggle in India, but the idea of being ONE is not exclusive to nations it is being experience and explored in other sectors. Working for the American Red Cross I am a participant in their move towards ONE. To the average person the American Red Cross has always been one organization  but to those more intimately involved they will tell you how each chapter was one in itself, they set their priorities, standards and service areas. In order to deliver consistent quality service in a financially sound way the Red Cross has been undergoing some very challenging organizational shifts,  creating a consistency across the entire United States. Of course minor local differences will remain (facility, staff, volunteers). Not surprisingly they are encountering some of the same challenges faced by diverse nation states undergoing this approach. The operation capacity in urban America (NYC, LA, Dallas) is vastly different from rural America (think McCook Nebraska). The core principles driving both nation states and large national organizations is to enhance capacity and performance. The challenges faced are reflective of the extreme diversity in the areas they cover. The opportunity for lessons learned is huge, the success and challenges faced by those in the process of unifying and standardizing can be shared across sectors. I hope following this unification best practices will be developed and shared to enhance the process and experience as other nations and organizations endeavor towards greater unification and standardization
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What if Kmart became social trailblazers?

What would happen if this 

Begun to look more like this

K Mart has been in decline since the 1990's when they made some calculated missteps regarding technological integration. They however remain in many communities and hold a sizable percentage of big box retail. While the corporation struggles to find a way to hold on one commentator said K Mart lacks anything unique that would bring costumers there if given Wal- mart or Target as an option. An outside observer can see that Target offers a refined middle income one stop shop and Wal-mart offers a bargain basement one stop shop. K Mart cant compete in either of these area posing the question if K Mart wants to survive what area could they become leaders in?

Whole Foods has proven that consumers are interested in product origin and the growing discourse on corporate social responsibility shows that socially we are expecting businesses to be good corporate citizens. Might there be room for K Mart to pioneer big box retail in a socially responsible way? 

I would be interested in such a development and would take my business to K mart over the competitors of Target and Wal-Mart

10 years and counting in the non profit sector

This is what I hope to be the start of a series of posts reflective of the time as a practitioner on the ground level with non profit organizations.

Team Building Day

To give myself come credentials I begun working with faith based communities in 1994 and have since been involved in a meaningful way with over 20 community/ civic minded agencies and have had tangible impacted over 20,000 peoples lives. How do I define meaningful? I am looking for those experiences I have had where I have been involved either in a substantive (40+/hr/week) for at least 2 months or have had consistent(2+/hr/ week) involvement spread over one or more years.

My first paid position was with a community theater in 2002 and the need to generate community change has not gone away.  In this post as I work to credential myself and begin to think of how to arrange my thoughts I have generated the following list of my organizational involvement, the approximate time and my general thoughts on how many lives I have impacted (really much like my resume without bullet points of accomplishments).

1994 - 2001 St Augustine Catholic Church, 300 people impacted - Sunday School and Vacation Bible School instructions

1997 - 2002 Kids Can Free The Children, 2000 people impacted - Local chapter founder

2002 - YMCA Camp St.Croix, 1000 people impacted - Summer program staff

2002- 2003 - AmeriCorps State, 300 people impacted - Education and community programming

• Pillsbury Community Center
• El Colegio Charter School 
• Heart of the Beast Theater

2003-2006 - Seton Hall University, 35 people impacted - English as a Second Language Instruction

2005 - YMCA Camp Du.Nord, 1,000 people impacted - Summer program staff

2005-2006 - Peace Games NYC, 1,000 people impacted - Internship Program Development

2007 - AmeriCorps NCCC , 3,550 people impacted

• St. Barnard's Project
• Habitat for Humanity
• Presbyterian Disaster Relief
• NY Cares
• US Fire Service

2008-2009 - Eckerd Youth Alternatives, 35 people impacted - Senior Councilor

2010 - Learning Ideas for Tibet, 150 people impacted - Educator, Newsletter Liaison, Program Development.

2011 - Atma, 5,000 people impacted - International Volunteer Lead

2011 - YMCA Camp Menogyn, 200 people impacted - Summer program staff

2011-2013 - Best Friends Mentoring Program (NDSU), 300 people impacted - Program Manager

2013- Current - American Red Cross, 1,000 people impacted - Disaster Program Manager