Client Spotlight: Next Step Fund

At the March Board of Trustees meeting, the board shared a "Mission Moment" with Lee Next Step Fund's new Executive Director Steve Amstatz and Monica Piquet-Rodriguez, Founder. The Lee Next Step Fund, also known as the Next Step Fund, works to connect low-income, at-risk youth to life-changing college- and career- preparatory learning experiences beyond the traditional high school classroom. These programs, or "Fantastic Learning Opportunities," challenge students' in new ways and push them to learn and develop beyond their comfort zone.

As a result, FLOs propel students to develop the knowledge, skills, and habits that are characteristics of college-bound individuals and positive, productive adults... all while they are still in high school. ESCH consultants

Hugh Williams, John Ranney and Bill Bobo helped them operationalize their plan and served to inspire their amazing growth to include Eastwood High School, as well as Lee. For more information, go to: www.leenextstepfund.org.

New Program Launch!

Soon, we will launch a new program,"Developing Development". This program, was developed and taught to new trainers in February, George Hawkins, DOD, Houston Arboretum & Nature Center; Karen Cornelius, former Asst. Texas Director, Nature Conservancy; Catherine Del Paggio, and me, as well as previous consultants Ron Swofford and Jane Harding, by Aileen Preonas, DDP Program Co-Founder of Executive Service Corps of Southern California. It has been extremely successful for them and we know that many nonprofits are looking for ways to enhance fundraising efforts. All desperately need reasonably priced assistance to understand how to gather new resources effectively.

Introducing New ESCH Services!

ESCH is now offering two new services in addition to consulting and seminars:

Executive Leadership Coaching

We currently have several open slots for one-on-one leadership development coaching. Professionally-trained coaches work with executive directors and emerging leaders in a coach-coachee relationship for six months. Through one- to two-hour weekly face to-face meetings, the leader develops and enhances specific leadership skills chosen by the leader. To learn more about this program, submit an request for assistance application and insert "coaching" in the current needs section. To hear what our clients think about the program, watch Betsy Ballard from the Houston Food Bank share her experience of ESCH's coaching program in the video below.




Financial Fitness for Nonprofits

FFNP, developed by the Executive Service Corps of Washington, helps organizations establish robust financial management processes. The program begins with an assessment of a nonprofit’s financial management processes in 22 areas, followed by a presentation, provided at a board meeting or retreat, to ensure that the full board has a better understanding of its fiduciary role and another presentation to senior-level staff on budgeting and financial management.

Each organization then participates in a two-hour session on financial policies and procedures. At the end of the session, the organization will have a model set of policies and procedures that can be customized as needed, a glossary of key financial terms, and an understanding of the importance of establishing a management culture that supports good internal controls and financial practices. Presentations are individualized for each organization. Finally, the program offers individualized consultation for more in-depth issues. To learn more about this program, submit an request for assistance application and insert "financial fitness" in the current needs section.

Weak Websites? Dull Databases? Let ESCH and UH Help Your Organization

Since 2004, ESCH has collaborated with the University of Houston to provide nonprofits with the opportunity to receive free assistance with their information technology projects. The program provides the students with the opportunity to work to solve real life problems and lets the nonprofits gain valuable improvements to their infrastructure.

Opportunity
For the Spring 2011 semester, the University will have around 80 students who, when teamed with an ESCH mentor, can work on about 16 projects covering such items as:

• Creating or improving your web presence and e-commerce capabilities
• Establishing your organization on social media such as Facebook
• Increasing web traffic by optimizing your site for search engines such as Google
  
• Creating or improving your database capabilities to manage donors, clients, etc.
• Selecting and installing new hardware and software
• Implementing accounting tools such as Quickbooks

The teams, typically made up of 5 students, have about two months to understand, design, develop and implement a solution and are expected to support and maintain it for a month after that. Consequently successful projects are small, focused deployments.

Action
We invite you to take advantage of this opportunity and submit a project for consideration.
To receive an application, please email our offices. If you are interested please either email or fax the form to the ESCH offices no later than Friday, January 14, 2011.

There are some constraints on what projects will be accepted:

• The project has to be of a sufficient size to be completed in two months. You may consider breaking a project into phases.
• You must have the people available to support the project. The teams will perform the analysis, design and development but they will need folks who can answer questions, make decisions, review the design and sign-off the deliverables for the life of the project.
  
• Students are not available to enter information or setup data in the systems. They cannot enter legal transactions and will not be part of a financial audit

Two additional things to be aware of is that we normally get more requests than available places, and the students are the ones that pick the projects so the more appealing they sound the more chance of being chosen!

Again, forms should be emailed to esch@eschouston.org or faxed to ESCH at 713-780-7764 before January 14, 2011.

Save the Date to Bid Farewell

Dr. Jane Harding, Executive Director, Executive Service Corps of Houston, has announced her retirement effective at year end.

Please join us on Thursday, December 9, 2010 for an Open House between 1:30 – 3:00 pm. We want all to take this opportunity to honor Jane and offer her best wishes upon her retirement.

We hope you can join us anytime between these hours. The Open House will be held at the ESCH office at 2630 Fountain View Dr., Suite 428.

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Yeiry at 713-780-2208 or send an email to yguevara@eschouston.org.

2010 Power Tools for Nonprofits Conference

Join ESCH and the nonprofit community to this year's Power Tools for Nonprofit conference on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 from 8:45 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Power Tools is one of the biggest conferences for nonprofits in the city.

You do not want to miss it!

The mission of the conference is: "To provide an educational forum for nonprofit professionals, volunteers, and board members on ways to leverage resources, strengthen organizational effectiveness and improve the quality of life for all."

This educational forum offers a cornucopia of sessions including topics as donor management database, form 990 guidance, how to submit a grant proposal, nonprofit career mapping, and many more. Our own ESCH consultants will also present sessions on reaching out to your donors and making meetings effective.

This year's keynote speaker is the talented Angela Blanchard, President and CEO of Neighborhood Centers, Inc.

For more information and registration, see the Power Tools webpage.

The online brochure detailing the events of the day is available on the webpage.

*Note: you need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the brochure.

Mark Your Calendar - Super Seminar Series Is Here

Marathon Oil & ESCH Present: Super Seminar Series

Fund Development

Day 1 - Tuesday, September 14, 2010

8:30 – 9:00 a.m.
Complimentary Breakfast

9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Fund Development II

Presented by Ed Benyon, ESCH Consultant and Manager, Principal Gifts at Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
New Donor Cultivation

Presented by Ed Benyon, ESCH Consultant and Manager, Principal Gifts at Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas

12:30 – 1:00 p.m.
Complimentary Lunch

1:00 – 1:45 p.m.
The Status of Philathropic Giving in Houston
Presented by Ronnie Hagerty, Assistant Vice President of Community Relations for United Way of Greater Houston

2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Grant Writing Basics
Presented by Jane T. Harding, Ph.D., Executive Director of ESCH

Where: Marathon Oil Conference Center
5555 San Felipe
Houston, TX 77056

Cost: $20 per person per day
$35 per person for both days
(An organization may send different people to each day and still receive the benefit but the same number of people from an organization attending each day must be the same to qualify for the 2-day discount)

To Register: Call Yeiry at 713-780-2208. Space is limited; prepayment must be received to guarantee a seat. All major credit cards except American Express can be taken over the phone.

To receive Super Seminar Series Day 2: Focus on Communication details, join our email list