Fragile fund raising for fragile families

Yesterday evening I participated in a panel discussion at the University of Texas. There were for of us; all Executive Directors of local non-profits. One non-profit has a very large client population of families that were very affluent. His fundraising efforts looked VERY different from mine. He was able to go to the users of his services, appeal to their inside knowledge and appreciation for the value of those services, and raise millions of dollars from the very families the agency services. I have a starkly different perspective- I am trying to raise funds to support a very vulnerable, often very silent, invisible population that has little to no financial means available to donate to a non-profit. Low literate parents most often work one in very low-paying jobs, barely making ends meet, unable to afford clothing for their kids, a night at the movies, or a sports uniform for team sports. I cannot ask them to donate to our cause. I have to ask other families to try to understand their struggle, and the fragile nature of their existence, and donate on their behalf. And I undertake my fund raising efforts with very fragile, meager resources, because I work for a relatively small non-profit. I can't afford a massive staff to run a capital campaign or multi-million dollar planned giving initiative. Each day my team and I devote our very limited time to try to raise tens of thousands of dollars for a multi-million dollar problem. But miraculously, we're doing it. By very strategically allocating our time and attention, we've been able to secure hundreds of thousands of NEW dollars for literacy programs in 2011 alone. It's a fragile, but amazingly effective effort. And I'm so proud to be a part of it.

Test Your Knowledge of Health Reform

Who's read the full Affordable Care Act? … That’s what I thought.

We’ve now got a Public Health Intern at the Coalition, so we’re looking forward to getting his expertise in this area out to the community! Until then, here’s a 10-question quiz to assess your understanding of recent health care legislation. The tool even ranks your performance against the rest of the nation! Come on… You know you’re curious!

What was your score? Were you surprised? Let us know!

Now go, develop for us!

A few months ago, our talented Development Officer moved on from LCCT. It was a sad time for us and we missed her (self-proclaimed) snarkyness around the office. On top of missing her personality, we gravely missed her high-quality development work. But rather than stretching our budget to hire a new development employee, we decided it would be best to split her roles (and they were many!) between a few of us here at LCCT.

Here's how my initial development meeting went down...

"So Peter (who admittedly has very minimal development experience), how would you like to take on the role of event manager, individual giving cultivation (huh, what's that!?!), and health literacy grants writing and management?"

"Umm, yeah that sounds good. Thanks." (Peter immediately heads to his computer to Google "Individual giving cultivation" and spends the following nights reading books on "The Benevon Model.")

Well, maybe it wasn't that simple...I mean, I did have a bit more to say than "umm, yeah that sounds good." But walking away from the meeting I felt like I was in a whirlwind trying to wrap my head around the new roles.

It's been a sharp learning curve (that I'm still in the midst of!), and my first big event is coming up this Sunday. It's called Literacy on Tap and it's going to be a friggin blast! It's an invite-only event (ooo la la!) and we're going to have live music, free appetizers from Zax, free beer from Jester King and Live Oak Breweries, and lots of word games. All is coming together these last few days before the event and (the purpose of this blog post) I have collaboration to thank for it.

Although I came into this position feeling a bit nervous about my new jobs, I was fully supported by colleagues, board members and volunteers. Take the Literacy on Tap planning committee for example, our planning committee is comprised of a development coworker and our ED, two members of our board of directors (one of which is the chair), and three highly committed volunteers (who happen to be two close friends of mine and my gf). This eclectic group coalesced and planned the most successful event in LCCT history! Well, that's a bit of stretch considering the event hasn't even taken place yet, but I can say that with only three more days to prepare I'm feeling very calm and stress-free. I'm confident it'll be a great event.

I've been with the Literacy Coalition for 2 years now and I've come to realize that it's the collaborative effort on projects and unending support that allows me to really love my job. I know that on any given day I can reach out to colleagues, board members, volunteers and community members for guidance and collaboration, and they'll be there without hesitation.

Fish Have a Philosophy?!

I hope that this long weekend is treating everyone well! We had plans to go to the beach this weekend with some friends but plans fell through and I found myself stuck in town.  It has been a great weekend and I decided to catch up on my reading with some of my free time... Recently a friend told me about these Fish! books, and I was a little intrigued but also a little unsure. I read a lot of productivity, leadership, non profit management and business books and the books sounded a little sappy to me at first. I have to tell you I devoured the first book in about three hours (quick read)!!! I discovered that Fish! is a book that should be read, shared and lived.

I think we all go through periods of burnout. Times in our lives or work that where you are just too overwhelmed or too tired to feel like you can keep moving forward. I personally have not been burnt-out but I have been tired and like many of you have been working lots of extra hours and could easily let burn-out set in if I gave myself too much time to think about it!  This book helped me develop a new energy for my work, and brought me to understand a little bit better how passion and attitude play into our daily tasks.

The book told a story to illustrate how work issues that we are all too familiar with - including employee retention, employee engagement and burnout - and deal with them in a positive, productive, meaningful way. There is a series of books in the Fish! family and I just ordered Fish! Tales from an internet bookstore, and borrowed Fish! for Life from a friend so I will keep you posted!! I am super excited to get further into this series and I plan to pass the books around the office too! I would highly recommend the Fish! books!

Though It May Be Too Early to Start Shopping for a Halloween Costume...

It's never too early for LCCT to start gearing up for October's National Health Literacy Month! You might be thinking, "do they realize that October is almost five months away?" The answer is yes, but don't worry. We do have a reason! We've got big plans for Health Literacy Month and want to get everyone involved, so we're loading up the bandwagon starting now! That means there's no better time than the present for you to tell us about what you’ve been doing, or what you’d like to do to improve communication between Central Texas patients and their healthcare providers.

Your efforts are making a difference in our community, so don’t let them go unrecognized. No effort is too small! Tell us what you're up to and let us promote your commitment to improved health communication during National Health Literacy Month!

Here’s what we need to know: What are you doing to combat low health literacy? What projects or discussions has your organization started to address the problem in our community? Do you want to join the health literacy movement, but don’t know how to get started?

Comment and tell us about it! Let's put our heads together to make this Health Literacy the biggest Central Texas has ever seen!

Just the Facts: The need for digital literacy in our community

Did you know?

• Almost 1/3 of American households still lack a broadband connection.
• Adults age 25 and older with college degrees adopt broadband at almost triple the rate of those with only some high school education (84% versus 30%).
• The broadband adoption rates for White and Asian non-Hispanics exceed those for Black non-Hispanics and Hispanics by 18% or more.
• 73.4% of employed Americans are broadband users, compared with 61.9% of the unemployed and 50.5% of individuals not in the labor force.

For those of us comfortable in this tech-driven world, it's hard to imagine just how wide the digital literacy divide still is. Let's make digital literacy awareness and education a priority in Central Texas--it can only make our community stronger!

Finally, a moment to blog

Take a moment. Breathe. Austin's 8th Annual Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee for Literacy was a success! So many hours spent chasing sponsors, writing sentences for words, marketing, scripting, recruiting spellers, wranglin' together decorations, Rudy's BBQ, Texas Tea, bee-shaped chocolates, noise makers, black and yellow napkins, yada yada yada. But praise be, for our efforts were not done in vain! Months of preparation and support from all of the LCCT staff and our incredible volunteer Beehive Committee helped us host the BEST Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee ever!

And what's more, we didn't make this error on the certificates...