Cleveland Foundation seeks a remedy - cleveland.com --Gloria and I attended the annual Foundation meeting late yesterday afternoon. The PD recounting of the event at the link is decidedly weak, or insipid. I wonder if the reporter was actually there? Perhaps the Cleveland Foundation will make the text or a podcast available at their site some time. Their plans need to get into the public consciousness somehow.
Ronn Richard's talk addressed a lot of the community issues we've had in the BFD and MTB dialogue these past two years, and did so in a way designed to give hope, but the high point of the meeting was the Gries Lecture series talk by Bill Strickland from Pittsburgh. Bill actually does great things, working with what he's got and what's he's given, from the middle of a neighborhood. From the way he describes it, from the days of "the riots," it sounds a lot like Hough. The slide show and commentary were excellent, and his ideas about people as assets and not liabilities, neighborhoods, divine providence, purpose, and working with what's available were exceptional and simple. It's an incredible and inspiring story he tells. Google will help fill in the blanks.
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All I can add to what Tim says, is this quote from Mr. Strickland himself "environment drives behavior"
ReplyDeleteand then proceeded to show slides of a beautiful building built in the middle of a Pittsburgh inspired by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Writght and what is being done in that building for welfare mothers, unemployed steelworkers and at-risk youth that surround the area of the edifice.
He gave the audience who attended that meeting "hope".
Seeing how Tim is a stickler for 990s, I'm not sure if he would be happy with this organization's 990 if it was a nonprofit in Cleveland; 3 staff salaries that when combined are over $500,000 and over $1M in lobbying?
ReplyDeleteLou, I'm not so concerned with mere amounts of salaries or lobbying expenditures. I am truly concerned with the cost/benefit ratio, and whether the nonprofit actually accomplishes something useful in the community, and something quantifiable or measurable--my friends over at The Community Builders (TCB, Inc.), for instance, actually produce a quantifiable result. I don't know any nonprofits in Cleveland that do as measurably well as either Manchester Bidwell or TCB. Do you know of any?
ReplyDeleteTim, it was light banter, should have put that in the comment. I think his organization is doing incredible things. If we only had 3 of him or his organization here.
ReplyDeleteI hate only working on one Diet Pepsi, so please forgive my forgetfulness; TCB is also a funded organzation by NeighborWorks America, which NHSGC is honored to part of the national network of excellence. Obviously, not comparable to the bricks and sticks aspect or breadth of TCB, which is not our core competency, but still part of a great network.
ReplyDeleteLou, good to see you up early this morning. Normally I enjoy light banter, but I am developing a case of PTSD lately--we've got so much to do to protect ourselves against the government invasions and confiscations, and a lot of the nonprofits seem to be along for the ride, conveniently forgetting their missions to sustain funding, much of which flows through or is influenced by the governments. Have you had a chance to read the Tofflers' REVOLUTIONARY WEALTH yet? There's a section on entities and the speed at which they move down a metaphorical highway, and it's interesting to see how the obstructive vested interests are among the slowest movers.
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