September Edition 2004 - New York Nonprofit Press

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8 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz September 2004 NEW FACES F AT THE TOP Theresa A. Bischoff Chief Executive Officer American Red Cross in Greater New York The American Red Cross in Greater New York is always there at times of crisis. “We have a history of responding to eight emergencies or disasters a day here in the New York area,” says Theresa A. Bischoff who joined the organization as CEO in January. Yet the events of September 11th have made the Red Cross’ mission even more important as New Yorkers face the need to prepare for calamities ranging from hurricanes to terrorist attacks of almost incomprehensible scale. “After 9/11, there was a lot of listening to what people felt the needs were and what the Red Cross had to do,” says Bischoff. “The ‘preparedness’ mission is key. “We are committed to working with our government, other nonprofits and corporate partners to ensure that all 8.5 million people in our area are prepared for whatever emergency or disaster might happen. Whether it is a house fire, a blackout or a terrorist event, we want people to be prepared. That is a new focus and challenge for us.” In late February, ARC-GNY commissioned a survey to assess the state of readiness of individuals and small businesses for future crises. There was good news and bad news. “Over 90% of the people we surveyed said they knew they should be prepared,” says Bischoff. “About 40% said they had done something to prepare but only 22% had gotten fully prepared with a plan and a kit.” Why aren’t people taking steps to prepare for potential emergencies when they know how important it can be? “They told us they didn’t know what they were preparing for,” explains Bischoff. “We can help them with that. Preparing is something we can do for a whole range of things that might happen to us, anything from a single family fire or a water main break to a larger scale event like a blackout or a terrorist event. We can help them get over that barrier.” Bischoff stresses that fear of terrorism isn’t the only reason to plan ahead. “We got wonderful letters after the blackout from people who were prepared – people who had water, flashlights and comfortable shoes in their offices so they could walk home that night. They had taken our preparedness course in response to 9/11 but it was so helpful to them in dealing with the blackout.” The Red Cross survey also showed that people wanted hands on training to take them through the process of emergency planning. Since October of 2001, ARC-GNY has taught “Preparing for the Unexpected”, a free Photo Credit: Lou Manna 60-minute class which teaches families what steps to take prior to and during an emergency, how to develop a plan and put together a disaster kit. “We offer it every week here at our headquarters and at our chapter locations,” says Bischoff. “We offered it to the City Council, to our State government supporters and we are participating with other groups to get the word out. We are probably offering it through every route you can imagine. “We are now partnering with corporations to offer it as ‘lunch and learn’ programs so their employees will have opportunities to get prepared,” Bischoff continues. “We are doing more and more of that.” ARC-NYC is also working closely with government organizations in its preparedness campaign. “We partner with OEM (New York City’s Office of Emergency Management) in finding opportunities,” says Bischoff. “In September, as part of the Preparedness Month, we will be doing eight evenings of ‘Ready New York’ around the five boroughs, bringing all the programs we talk about -- making a plan, preparing a kit, getting trained in things like CPR, volunteering and giving blood.” In order to accommodate its enhanced disaster preparedness training effort, ARC- GNY’s has refined its organizational focus, divesting some programs less central to this new mandate. Until FY2003, homelessness shelters and programs accounted for approximately 25% of ARC-GNY’s programmatic expenditures. “Over the past year, we have transitioned our homeless programs to other organizations,” says Bischoff. “So, we were able to assure that those programs got transferred as whole vital programs while allowing us to focus on our core mission.” While the strategic decision to divest these programs came prior to Bischoff’s arrival, she is fully supportive of the move. “Clearly, our new focus was going to take a lot of organizational energy. I think these were very good decisions.” Bischoff believes that ARC-GNY’s $30 million annual budget fails to convey the true scope of the organization’s activity. “What you don’t see in that budget is the thousands and thousands of hours of volunteer time and in kind support we get,” she explains. “This organization is quite unique and extraordinary in the role that volunteers play. We have 7,000 volunteers, many of them highly trained and many of them who actually go out and do the core work of the organization. When we have a fire, it is very often only volunteers who, after very significant training, go out to provide the services that people expect from the Red Cross.” Bischoff is also confident that the work of these volunteers and the relief they provide to New Yorkers in crisis connects with potential donors. “The stories really are compelling,” says Bischoff. “On Father’s Day, we had a large fire in northern Manhattan and suddenly 30 families were out on the street watching their building burn. Within minutes, the Red Cross was there making sure that people had blankets and clothes to put on and starting the process of thinking about how they would recover after losing their home and possessions. When you arrive on the scene of these disasters, wearing that Red Cross jacket, those we are there to help feel the sense of relief that help has arrived.” Now, Bischoff wants to get the word out. “Next year is our 100th birthday so it gives us an opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with a lot of the audiences in New York who recognize the symbol but may not be as familiar with the work that we are doing today,” she says. And, she maintains, ARC-GNY needs that support. “We are able to do our work only because of the generosity and contributions of our donors,” she says. And, the fundraising environment has become more challenging. “What we saw substantially across all nonprofit organizations after 9/11 was donor exhaustion and then, of course, the economic slowdown. I think we experienced that in a way that was consistent with other nonprofits. We are looking forward to the economic recovery and seeing more opportunities to fundraise.” Bischoff, who came to ARC-GNY after serving as President of NYU Medical Center, also wants to ramp up the organization’s own fundraising efforts. “In the past, a substantial amount of our funding had come through the United Way campaign. They have made some changes so we need to have that direct connection to our communities so they can provide us with the support we need. “We are looking forward to our centennial year as an opportunity to both share our work and engage corporations, individuals and government in supporting us in our mission to help all New Yorkers.”
September 2004 New York Nonprofit Press www.nynp.biz 9 NEW FACES F AT THE TOP Patrick Foye President/CEO United Way of Long Island Five months into his new position as President/CEO of United Way of Long Island, Patrick Foye admits that he is having fun. “It has been a real learning experience for me given that I come out of the legal and corporate worlds. This is a terrific organization. United Way of Long Island has been at this for 40 years and it has been doing terrific things for all that time. I think we are at the point of taking it to the next level.” Despite UWLI’s record of accomplishment, Foye was recruited to help energize an organization experiencing tough times. The Long Island Campaign, UWLI’s own local fundraising effort, had produced declining revenues since 2000. “It has been a challenging period for United Way of Long Island and for United Way of America generally,” says Foye. “That was exacerbated by 9/11 which had an effect on a lot of charities, both here and in the tri-state area. The trends are down for a number of years. I think my predecessor worked hard and effectively through that and I think we have some momentum.” In fact, UWLI may well have turned the corner already by stemming the tide of declining local campaign contributions. “We think this will be the first time in a number of years that the LI Campaign will be up,” Foye explains, based on preliminary results for the 2003-2004 campaign which ended earlier this summer. “I have had very little to do with that. It is really due to the work of Mike Cooney, Senior Vice President of Resource Development, and his team. Hopefully this will be a platform for growth in the future. We are looking for double digit growth in the 2004-05 Campaign which we are just beginning. That is ambitious, but I think doable.” Expanding UWLI’s base of contributions is Job One for Foye, who recognizes the difficulties faced by Long Island’s nonprofit community. “Since I have been here, four or five of our agencies have gone out of business,” he says. “It is very challenging time. There have been funding cutbacks at all levels and the only reasonable expectation is that those cutbacks are not likely to be reversed. If anything they are likely to continue at the State and local level.” As a result, UWLI’s member agencies are looking more and more towards private sources of funding. “It is incumbent on us to do whatever we can to increase our revenue base.” Workplace payroll campaigns are the key to UWLI’s fundraising efforts and, like United Way organizations everywhere, UWLI has struggled in recent years with both declining enrollments and increasing donor designations of their gifts to nonprofits of their own choosing. In response, UWLI stresses two key messages as part of its campaign. “One is that, despite the perceived affluence, there are very significant health and welfare issues here on Long Island,” says Foye. “There are some very significant pockets of poverty and homelessness. Forty thousand children go to bed hungry every night. Donors need to think about investing their money in what matters here on Long Island.—how we can change people’s lives for the better” Secondly, Foye wants to emphasize that donations to UWLI are a smart, philanthropic investment. “We deliver value and we will help, together with our community impact partners, to address these issues.” In this context, UWLI, like United Ways across the country, is considering a transition to a Community Impact model for its own grant allocations. The basic strategy targets United Way funding to selected “Community Impact” projects where it hopes to achieve specific and measurable outcomes. As a result, United Ways hope to attract increased donations based on a proven ability to make a difference. (See “A New Way at United Way,” NYNP, March 2003.) “This is something that has been talked about here since before I joined,” says Foye. “My predecessor, Willie Edlow had introduced the concept and it has been germinating for some time.” (See “On Long Island: Building a Consensus for Change,” NYNP, March 2003.) “Exactly what Community Impact means on Long Island and for UWLI is unclear. We are still at an early stage in the process. I think it is likely that there will be four or five focus areas of which Community Health Issues will probably be one. Early Childhood Education will probably be another. There has been a Success by Six United Way initiative that I think we can take to the next level. We are also looking at programs for families of Long Island-based reservists who have been called off to service in Iraq or Afghanistan. Those families are suffering temporary financial pressure or other issues as a result of that and we are trying to figure out how we can be helpful in that arena. We are looking at a couple of other areas that are consistent with the mission of UWLI and United Way generally for the past 40 years.” What a transition to Community Impact will mean for UWLI’s 170 member agencies who traditionally receive basic grants to support their efforts in a wide range of programmatic areas is also unclear. A full-fledged Community Impact model does away with the basic membership grant and can leave many nonprofits hanging if they fall outside the funding focus. “One of the things we are seriously considering is some hybrid model in which we continue to have relationships with our member agencies -- including funding relationships -- but also focus on these four or five community impact areas,” says Foye who goes on to emphasize that “We are not about to get into the direct service delivery business. It is not what we are. It is not what we are good at. It is not a core competency.” Foye expects the process of defining how UWLI will adapt Community Impact to the needs of Long Island to play out over the next six to nine months. “We have developed a task force of representatives from FOYE continued on page 10
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