Memberships Unite!

A full house consisting of Michigan Nonprofit Association member organizations and PRSA Detroit members (Public Relations Society of America) participated in a free half-day workshop providing support and insight into nonprofit public relations. PRSA Detroit’s membership consists of individual public relations professionals.

The workshop was held at Wayne State University in Detroit. The morning keynote was presented by Don Tanner from Tanner Friedman Strategic Communications. Following the keynote, each nonprofit was matched with at least three public relation experts. The three experts consisted of an experienced practitioner, a young professional and a Wayne State University graduate student. Each nonprofit discussed their own current and future strategies, tactics and goals as they relate to public relations and received feedback and advice from the experts to help direct their future efforts.

This was one of many special member benefits that occur for MNA members throughout the year.

For more information on MNA member benefits, visit Member Central on the MNA website.

Submitted by Bill Gesaman, Membership Manager, Michigan Nonprofit Association

MiCC Member Campuses Receive National Community Service Recognition

17 colleges and universities from Michigan Campus Compact (MiCC) membership were recently named on the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.  Deserving recipients include the Presidential Award Finalist, Kalamazoo College, and Honor Roll with Distinction recipients Michigan State University, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Western Michigan University.  Albion College, Alma College, Aquinas College, Calvin College, Central Michigan University, Davenport University, Delta College, Eastern Michigan University, Kellogg Community College, Lawrence Technological University, Madonna University, and Olivet College were all recognized on the Honor Roll as well.  Congratulations to all campuses!

Campuses recognized on the Honor Roll lead volunteerism efforts across their country by offering hundreds of service-learning courses and by engaging students in community service.  Their dedication is unprecedented and their impact is impressive..  These higher education institutes are recognized nationally as leaders in the effort to better communities and reflect their historic civic missions.

Michigan Campus Compact (MICC), an affiliate organization of the Michigan Nonprofit Association and the national Campus Compact, supporting the civic engagement activities of colleges and their students in the State of Michigan.

Submitted by Hanna Porterfield, Michigan Campus Compact Communications Intern

Thanksgiving Food Collection

This fall season Michigan Nonprofit Association’s (MNA) continued its efforts to involve staff in civic engagement opportunities by coordinating an organization wide food collection intended to create complete meal boxes for local families in need. Opportunities like these help MNA staff connect with the local community, service organizations, and learn more about an existing community challenge. Food security is a real challenge for many individuals and families.

Since the beginning of October, MNA collected more than 200 food items to fill food boxes for six families. The food boxes were distributed through Northwest Initiative in Lansing to families who have a student participating in the weekend backpack program at a local school and to a family who has a student enrolled in a LEAGUE Michigan school in the Detroit area.

Northwest Initiative is a neighborhood based organization who serves individuals in the northwest region of Lansing. One of their programs includes the weekend backpack program that provides a backpack full of food for students who would otherwise not have consistent access to food for the days they are not in school.  The food boxes made up of the items donated by MNA staff were designed to help feed the student and their family for the five days of the Thanksgiving break when the student would not receive breakfast or lunch at school.

Northwest Initiative works closely with the Greater Lansing Food Bank to help increase the food stability of the families they serve. The boxes donated by MNA not only support a student and their family but allow Northwest Initiative to serve additional families with the food resources they receive from the food bank and individual donations.

The Thanksgiving holiday offers a reminder about the critical role food has for families and communities but it is important to remember the need exists year round. Because of the success of this project and the partnerships it helped MNA develop, future food collection efforts can be coordinated year round as the community need arises.

Submitted by Chelsea Martin Program Coordinator, Michigan Nonprofit Association

8 Revelations from a SuperConference 2012 Participant

What a privilege to be able to attend the MNA CMF SuperConference!  I was inspired and energized, learned a great deal of information and met new people with whom we can build relationships.  That is everything you could ask and more from an intense two day experience.

Revelation 1 came from a workshop led by Kid’s Food Basket from Grand Rapids.  They call themselves a “porous” organization, one that someone can enter from any point and get involved.  Not only do they leverage volunteer time, they have involved their volunteers financially to use their myriad volunteers as an income source.  Arts & Scraps has many common elements in mechanics and volunteer involvement, but we have not to date formalized programs for financial as well as time contributions.

Revelation 2 came from the Prize Foundation session.  Remember to look for unlikely and unknown sources for ideas and expertise.  Don’t be afraid to tackle big issues and throw open the doors to seek help.

Revelation 3 came from the advocacy preconference session.  “Keep laser-like focus on long term goals”.  Involve people around their interests and look for commonalities.

Revelation 4 came from the Impact session.  Keep a “burning patience”, nurture the backbone of your organization with optimism and perseverance to reach the goal of a successful collective effort.  I’ve often thought the best attribute to have is just plain stubbornness.  This is a much more elegant statement.

Revelation 5 also came from the  Impact session.  There is no silver bullet, just silver buckshot.  Again, an elegant phrase.

Revelation 6 on a personal level, from the Investment session, I recognized that  I’m fortunate enough to have a savings account.  I could invest that in causes in which I believe and put that money to work for social good.

Revelation 7 from the Creativity session:  a couple of wonderful tidbits.  “Money never solved a money problem”—enough said.  Don’t save creativity for big problems, rely on group input and repeat priorities often.

Revelation 8 is back from Kid’s Food Basket.  Make your MISSION seem needy without making your ORGANIZATION seem needy.

Add to this list of big ideas 6 viable contacts for serious follow up and a list of 18 items in a to do list generated by ideas.

This was a very successful two days!  Thank you to the Ford Motor Company Fund for the sponsorship.  I was so excited about it that I probably told 20 people that’s how I was able to attend.  It was a good investment in our organization.  We’ve had the first staff meeting with another scheduled next week.

Submitted by Peg Upmeyer, Director of Arts & Scraps and Superconference 2012 Attendee

A Few Thoughts on Election History on Primary Election Day

This week marks the 47^th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.  This act prohibits discriminatory voting practices that have been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of millions of people over the course of U.S. history.

While our nation has made multiple strides in the area of voting rights, in recent months we have seen an increase in the number of laws that add barriers to voting.  These laws require specific forms of photo identification to be present to vote, reduce early voting in certain states, and make voter registration done by nonprofits and civic organizations more challenging.   In Michigan, Governor Snyder vetoed bills that would have made voting in our state more complicated and disenfranchised thousands. In an effort to eliminate voter fraud, we have haphazardly created more barriers to voting. This ultimately reinforces what Voting Rights Act was attempting to prevent.

Voting is a right.  Removing barriers to voting and to make it more accessible is important. Nonprofits in Michigan are aiding in this process by participating in MNA’s 2012 Track the Vote. Not only do nonprofits see accessibly as an important part of electoral engagement, but government agencies do as well.

Recently, the National Association of Secretaries of States declared September 25^th as National Voter Registration Day .  This announcement falls in line with months of coordination by nonprofits and civic organizations across the country who are already mobilizing people to register to vote on this day.

It is important to remember the history of voting in our country and acknowledge  the struggle that it took to get here.  It is equally important for all organizations, including nonprofits, to encourage legislation and policies that erase barriers to voting and encourage 100% voter turnout.

Finally it is important to vote, and you can start today!

Vote in today’s Primary Election.

Not sure where your polling location is for today’s primary visit the Secretary of State website .

Have questions about who is running, view the candidates here.

Remember all of the people who fought long and hard to guarantee us these rights. And don’t forget to vote!

Submitted by Meredith Reynolds Assistant for Public Policy and Membership, Michigan Nonprofit Association 

College Students are Leaders!

When I was in my 6th grade English class, my teacher said to the entire class, “You are the next generation of leaders!” The thing is, this teacher didn’t tell us how to learn how to be a leader or when we were supposed to assume this role. Now, at age 23, I’ve been figuring out the ways I am a leader in my community and the ways that I want to lead in my future. I attribute this awareness of my experiences to the Residential College in the Arts & Humanities at Michigan State University, and my AmeriCorps VISTA term at Michigan Campus Compact.

Michigan Campus Compact (MICC), an affiliate organization of MNA, supports the civic engagement activities of colleges and their students around the state of Michigan. After the 15th year of Service Leadership Camp last fall, the MICC team thought about whether or not the program was meeting the needs of students, and also posed this question to the network of faculty and staff. The result was the decision to begin a new leadership program and I jumped at the opportunity to pioneer this project!

Throughout the last six months, I have worked with my supervisor, Shannon Zoet, and a network planning committee to coordinate the program for MICC’s first Active Leaders Student Conference this October! No participant will leave this one-day conference without recognizing that they are a leader and learning specific steps to accomplish their aspirations through community service, advocacy, and philanthropy.

“It’s exciting to be a part of something as unique as this event, even more so when you are helping to plan it. This event is very grassroots in the way that it is planned by, geared toward, and has presenters all for the same age group. Many of the leadership events at the college level are only for student leaders that belong to a certain group or specific career path. This event is geared toward leaders from every background who are entering career paths that are just as diverse.”

-Zoe K.D. Haynes, Planning Committee Member, Undergraduate Student, Wayne State University

Amber Cruz, program manager of Mobilize.org will be the keynote speaker at the event and she is excited to share Mobilize resources and ideas to organize voter engagement efforts during the 2012 election season.

For more information about the Active Leaders Student Conference, click here.

Submitted by Jessica Johnson,  AmeriCorps*VISTA, Michigan Nonprofit Association 

Returning Refreshed and Ready to Roll

For anyone who has registered for a large conference featuring many “tracks” for attendees to follow and countless session options, you will be able to relate to the registration process for the National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS). It takes a lot of time to comb through session descriptions, deciding which sessions of many will be the best to attend. Like any robust conference, putting together a session itinerary can be daunting.

In preparation for my attendance at the 2012 NCVS at McCormick Place in Chicago, I put together a great itinerary. I was excited about my session selection and went ready to go learn new things to apply to my work. What I found once I got there was a bunch of great sessions but also a unique experience to network with other likeminded individuals, hear questions other attendees were asking, and get a sense of the wide scope of work being done in communities throughout the country.

More than any conference sessions I attended, the time I spent listening to the inspiring things happening with other organizations, discussing my past service as an AmeriCorps*VISTA, and sharing recent projects started with the Volunteer Centers of Michigan (VCM), made my first time attending the NCVS invaluable. Having the opportunity to listen to the questions being asked in sessions gave me new perspective on the resources organizations need to work effectively. This gave me ideas on how to improve future trainings and the outreach VCM does to the field.

By the end of the three days spent in McCormick Place, moving from one session to the next, it was clear that the best learning didn’t happen because of a well constructed itinerary. The greatest learning moments took place between sessions, over meals, and during the discussions that were part of session presentations. It was great to return back to Michigan with new ideas, new connections, and prepared to implement things I learned.

Submitted by Chelsea Martin, 2012 Sara Ballard Scholarship Recipient, Capacity Building and New Media Consultant