“We are proud to support the efforts of the United Way of Metropolitan to helps families in Chicago stay positive and healthy through education, healthcare and employment,” says Andrea Kasnic, Director of Sales & Marketing. “Our annual New Year’s Eve Ballroom Blitz brought hundreds of Chicagoans together for a special night of music, magic and the dream of a bright future for all the people of Chicago. We believe that hospitality and advocacy go hand in hand.”

In partnership with RedEye Chicago, the 2011 NYE Ballroom Blitz at Hyatt Regency Chicago was an incredibly beneficial event for United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. The event featured an open bar, dinner, party favors and festivities. Created by our mixologists, our signature drink, the RedEye Ballroom Spritz, was the toast of Chicago in the BIG Bar throughout the month of December. The hotel took additional donations on top of ticket purchases and donated a portion of its drink sales being sold in BIG Bar to United Way of Metro Chicago.

Following up on its dedication to the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, Hyatt Regency Chicago and RedEye have begun the countdown to its annual 2012 NYE Ballroom Blitz- the hottest New Year’s Eve celebration Downtown Chicago has to offer.

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The venue could not have been more unique, and the cause was just as special.

Drawing on the surging popularity of the NHL’s Winter Classic, the two teams played their own version — the Cross Town Winter Classic, Lake Forest style — outdoors at the Winter Club on Sunday. The game was sponsored by North Shore United Way’s Youth Board, and all proceeds went back to United Way.

Even the fact that the game was called after two periods didn’t put a damper on the night’s festivities. Lake Forest Academy was winning 2-1 when the coaches stopped the game because of a safety issue with the Plexiglas panels that sit atop the boards.

“It was such a good turnout of people,” said Scouts coach John Murphy. “We’d love to do it again.”

The two varsity teams proved to be pretty evenly matched. Lake Forest Academy also has a prep team that is traditionally ranked as one of the top squads in the entire country.

“I think our kids really played well,” Murphy said.

Murphy said that a key sponsor was Lake Forest Bank and Trust Company. The bank, along with other local businesses, supported the game to the tune of more than $1,000.

“The rain held off and the weather cooperated,” Murphy said. “You could tell everyone enjoyed the atmosphere. We thought it would be a lot of fun for the kids, and for the community, and it was.”

Clay in control: Scouts goalie Clay Teufel did everything he could to prepare for his senior season.

And his diligence and dedication is paying off.

“He put in a lot extra time working with trainers,” Murphy said. “He plays the toughest position in hockey and has worked extremely hard to get to where he is.”

Murphy said the Scouts also benefit greatly from the efforts of goalie coach Tony Martino, formerly an assistant with the Chicago Blackhawks.

“He works with the goalies two times a week,” Murphy said. “We’re lucky to have him.”

Model player: Murphy joked that senior Ryan Kuhn does not look the part of the stereotypical, grizzled hockey player.

“He could be a runway model,” Murphy said.

Kuhn’s perseverance has been impressive. He broke his arm as a freshman but made a full recovery.

“His skill level is really high,” Murphy said.

Laying low: The Scouts are quite content with their underdog.

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North Shore United Way’s (NSUW) Youth Board is proud to host the first Lake Forest Ice Hockey Cross-Town Classic between the Lake Forest Varsity Scouts and the Lake Forest Academy Varsity Caxys on Sunday, January 22 at 5:30 p.m. at the Winter Club of Lake Forest. All proceeds from the evening will go towards the Board.

“The Youth Board is an amazing organization to be a part of because it enables students to collaborate with their peers to make a real impact in our community,” said Youth Board President Amanda Zhou. “The Cross-Town Classic is especially exciting for me because the idea for the event came entirely from the students and I’m very grateful that our community has been extremely supportive.”

The NSUW Youth Board is a committee comprised of local students ages 12-18 who actively fundraise and volunteer in the community. The Board is dedicated to completing service projects for local non-profits and raising funds to support the Jean Youngs Baddeley Fund, which provides grants to programs serving the crisis needs of youth in our community.

“The Youth Board is a great way for us to engage the next generation in our community,” said Lorelei Beaucaire, Chief Professional Officer at North Shore United Way. “Students are learning about the real needs across our region and helping address those needs through volunteer projects, fundraising and advocacy. It’s inspiring to have the talents of young people – like Youth Board President Amanda Zhou and Vice President Katie Schott – helping United Way make a difference in our communities.”

The event begins at 5:30 p.m. at Winter Club of Lake Forest at 956 North Sheridan Road. The evening includes Mites on Ice, Captains Shoot-Out, “Chuck the Puck” competition, as well as premier event merchandise sales. Parking is limited; please consider carpooling or using the train station’s north parking lot.

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His timing was awful: First the credit freeze and then a deep recession wrecked expectations. He’s searching for new ways to ask for money while he tries to stabilize private support and increase it slowly. All but 5% of LaRabida’s $50-million annual budget depends on Medicaid and other endangered state sources.

“The model of the tin cup, as I call it, is going the way of the dinosaur,” says Mr. Cleavenger, 60, vice-president for fund development, who has worked for a variety of non-profits including the Chicago History Museum and Victory Gardens Theater. Also on his eclectic résumé: manufacturers’ rep, bond trader and Peace Corps grant writer.

Helping Mr. Cleavenger and other do-gooders adjust is John List, a University of Chicago economist testing counterintuitive measures to boost fundraising. Among other findings, his field experiments show that donors will give more if given the option of not being contacted again.

Facing a new mindset among donors, fundraising tactics need to change with the times, says Mr. List, 43, whose work on donor behavior is part of his research into microeconomic decision-making and how that information can be used to influence public policy.

“I don’t think fundraisers are any better than they were 10 or 15 years ago,” he says. “I’m trying to change that.”

Charitable giving surged seventeenfold—twice the gain of the Standard & Poor’s 500—in the 25 years after 1970. As a share of GDP, it rose to 2.2% from 1.8% in the mid-1970s, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. But since the crash, the figure has retreated to 2%.

The nation’s top 400 charities were projected to raise $73.6 billion in 2011, still less than was raised in 2009 despite two consecutive years of growth, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Chronicle of Philanthropy.

“You’re going to see many low-performing not-for-profits close their doors,” warns Sheri Gibson, director of development at Chicago-based Jane Addams Resource Corp. Donors are “just not throwing dollars anymore—they are seriously looking at a return on investment. They’re looking for best practices.”

LINKS

The long-term exodus of corporate headquarters from Chicago has exacerbated the crunch locally. Reliance on volunteers also has waned. The outlook is worse for food banks and other charities that lack the built-in donor bases of churches and colleges.

To cope, charities like the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago are tightening links between donors and recipients.

The stronger bond boosts not only fundraising but in-kind donations and volunteer commitment, says Wendy DuBoe, interim CEO of the United Way, where gifts rose 2%, to $53.5 million, in fiscal 2011 after two down years.

Citing Naperville-based OfficeMax Inc.’s three-year pledge of $1 million and employee time to help prepare students at Berwyn’s Freedom Middle School for high school, she says, “That’s a new piece of corporate philanthropy—organizing volunteerism. This is different. Because previously we would have funded those programs, but we wouldn’t have had such a direct connection.”

An undisclosed donor paid for half of a $100,000 LaRabida clinic for patients moving from pediatric care to adult care—something the hospital says is not adequately funded by Medicaid. Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS Caremark Corp., meanwhile, gave $25,000 to jump-start an upgrade to a cerebral palsy clinic.

“The days of ‘feel good’ grants are over,” says Mr. Cleavenger, who has cut La-Rabida’s development staff in half and trimmed annual fundraising appeals to one from four. He’s outsourced grant writing, event planning and research on potential donors.

“You have to demonstrate a need and results, not just say, ‘We do good work.’ I’ve passed on grants if I’m not ready to give good, quantifiable results to the donor,” he says. “Better to do that than alienate the donor.”

Mr. List and U of C colleagues are looking at what turns donors on and off. In one tried-and-true area, they found that matching gifts do indeed bring in the cash, but there are limits to their effectiveness: There’s no need for an initial donor to offer more than a 1-to-1 match, Mr. List says. A 1-to-2 match can be just as effective.

For Smile Train, a New York-based charity that pays for cleft palate surgeries in developing countries, the List team devised an experiment to test how potential donors would react to a one-time-only offer. About a third made a gift and checked a box, blocking follow-up solicitations.

Donations from new donors were 121% higher than they were for a control group lacking the option, Mr. List says. Even after subsequent appeals to a smaller audience—now missing those who opted out—overall donations were up 45%.

“Their brains have been invaluable in helping Smile Train raise dollars in the most cost-efficient way,” co-founder Brian Mullaney says.

Mr. List says the secret is shifting the power of “the ask” to the donor—someone who feels in control will give more, he argues.

SPLITTING FEES

At the Hyde Park Art Center, this means connecting patrons with artists, who split their fees 50-50 for commissioned works with the museum. Although the program, “Not Just Another Pretty Face,” dates to the 1990s, the center has tripled participation recently, raising $425,000, Executive Director Kate Lorenz says.

“We have advised organizations to help get it going in four other cities,” she says.

Another tactic receiving renewed attention: “earned revenue” projects, where non-profits employ people they serve in profit-making ventures.

The green economy-oriented Delta Institute in Chicago hopes its ReBuilding Exchange, which employs ex-cons to make furniture from discarded building materials, eventually supports 30% of its $6-million budget, CEO Jean Pogge says. Chicago-based Aspire of Illinois reduced public-sector funding of its developmental-disability mission to 85% from 90% and aims for 50% in three to five years, CEO Jim Kales says.

And it’s not only the needy who are asking Mr. List for help.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Donations at the Art Institute of Chicago were off 22% during the 12 months ended in June, from $90.1 million for fiscal 2008, when a capital campaign for the Modern Wing was in full swing.

“We’re trying better to show people how their $20 does make a difference,” says Amy Radick, director of membership and annual giving.

At LaRabida, which serves children with chronic diseases, it’s just the opposite: “John’s field work has enlightened us on the proven success of having your energy focused on one big gift versus a lot of smaller gifts,” Mr. Cleavenger says.

Mr. List’s work also has influenced Lincoln Park Zoo, where fundraising dipped and then recovered over the past two fiscal years. Christine Zrinsky, vice-president for development, says the zoo is customizing fundraising pitches after “wealth screening” donor data bases.

A $25,000 “challenge grant” generated $125,000 from “modest” donors to pay for non-glamorous operating costs— a first, she says.

As non-profits struggle to show results, not just advertise their good works, attitudes are shifting—but ever so slowly, according to Mr. List.

“In this particular space, people tend to think they have all the answers already,” he says. To ask for help, “you’re sort of admitting that you don’t know what you’re doing, and that’s hard for managers to do.”

See the article here.

Orr, a resident of Chicago’s Morgan Park community, has more than 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, United Way said. She has worked on staff training programs for the Chicago Park District and worked with the city of Chicago to prepare and manage survivors of Hurricane Katrina who relocated to the Chicago area, United Way said.

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Families, students and community members celebrated a $1 million grant the school and Youth Crossroads received from OfficeMax as part of United Way’s Education Initiative.

The hallways of Freedom school were lined with local community partners to inform families about the organizations and services being offered in their community. Participating partners included The Children’s Clinic, Pillars, MacNeal Hospital, and the Berwyn Development Corporation, among others.

Additionally, teachers opened their classrooms to talk with parents and students about their curriculum and what they can do to reinforce learning at home. The halls were also filled with carnival games for the students run by United Way staff and volunteers, and OfficeMax associates.

“It’s important to bring our families together at Freedom for a fun and educational event,” said Jim Calabrese, Freedom Middle School principal. “With the additional resources from OfficeMax and United Way, we are able to give students and families more of the support they need to transition into high school and graduate on time.  This program and support will help us reach even more students and families even sooner so that we create an even brighter future for our community.”

In a neighborhood where 63 percent of students are low income and will be entering a high school with the lowest graduation rate in west Cook County, Freedom Middle School and Youth Crossroads partnered to create The Berwyn Community School Initiative, which aims to provide the highest quality classroom and extracurricular activities to enhance the lives of students and their families.

“At United Way we believe a quality education is the foundation of lifelong learning, good health and economic success. Without an education, we know that people are far more likely to experience economic stress and poor health outcomes,” said Wendy DuBoe, chief operating officer, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. “Our vision depends on all of us. It is our hope the community will join us in our very real and measurable case for focused action.”

United Way last fall announced its 10-year vision, Live United 2020, and its Education Initiative to help 50,000 underperforming middle school students enter high school ready to succeed. Part of the education initiative supports a community school model which provides an array of on-site programming and services to support the success of students and families.

As the first corporate partner to adopt a community school, OfficeMax, through its OfficeMax Charitable Foundation, provided a $1 million grant over the next three years to support Freedom Middle School and Youth Crossroads as they seek to improve education by boosting classroom and community services for the school’s students and their families. Working with United Way is an extension of OfficeMax’s ongoing support of education. Since 2007, OfficeMax Goodworks programs have contributed more than $14 million in grants and supplies to support teachers and classrooms across the country.

“OfficeMax is proud to be the first Chicago-area company to adopt a school through the United Way’s Education Initiative,” said Carolynn Brooks, president of the OfficeMax Charitable Foundation. “We hope that our support of the Berwyn Community School Initiative helps the teachers, strengthens student education and supports the community as a whole. We’re excited to be a part of this innovative program to help education.”

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He had just failed the sixth grade. His Mexican immigrant parents struggled to buy backpacks and folders for him and his younger brother, all with a combined $20,000-per-year salary.

And gang activity, crime and poverty permeated the streets outside the Humboldt Park apartment the four shared.

Seven years later, 19-year-old Suarez is a freshman at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He’s thinking about majoring in philosophy and possibly pursuing a career in the corporate world. And on the weekends, he mentors minority youth on professionalism and work ethic.

Suarez attributes his academic transformation, in large part, to a Saturday morning program he joined as a junior at Pritzker College Prep in Humboldt Park.

“I failed sixth grade, so that was that. And I’m still poor,” Suarez said. “But I’m able to go to college because I got scholarships and the support of all the people at the Stay in School Initiative.”

Each year, the Stay in School Initiative — a six-year partnership between Exelon, ComEd and United Way of Metropolitan Chicago — gives at-risk youth across the city the chance to work with lawyers, engineers and other professionals in a seven-month workshop series on networking, professionalism and leadership.

The program works with three local agencies – BUILD, Centers for New Horizons and Youth Guidance – which serve students ages 13 to 20 from the Austin, Bronzeville and Humboldt Park neighborhoods, communities that have some of the highest dropout and truancy rates in the city.

This year’s workshops kicked off on Saturday at the Field Museum, with the release of the program’s annual report card. Of the 330 seniors who participated in the program last year, 93 percent graduated from high school, compared to the Chicago Public Schools graduation rate of 58.3 percent.

Suarez was at the event as a mentor to new students.

“I think I’ll be a good mentor,” said Suarez, who through the initiative received a corporate internship at ComEd his senior year. “Having experience, having had the internship, I will be able to give students advice on how to dress and how to speak and certain things to look out for.”

Apart from helping students graduate, the Stay in School Initiative alters students’ mindsets about their surroundings and how they could change them for the better.

“Before, I thought the people in my neighborhood, the gangsters, were the enemy. Now I see it’s the people in power,” said Suarez about what he thinks is keeping his community from change.

Guadalupe Hernandez, a senior at Lincoln Park High School who participates in the Stay in School Initiative, realized through the program that she wanted to start a non-profit.

“I just need to get into college,” she said. “Once I get to college, I know it’s going to be possible. With all my commitment, I’m going to be able to accomplish it.”

And Luis Silva, a junior at Lincoln Park High School, says Stay in School has given him the motivation to pursue a career in medicine.

“I want to know how it feels to save people’s lives, how to bring people up and don’t let them go down, how to bring the minorities to be the majority,” Silva said. “So I’m going to try my best.”

Though they are effecting change in students’ lives through their professional expertise, adults working with Stay in School Initiative’s youth say they learn an equal amount through the program.

“In society we have certain stereotypes about [the youth] and put lines around them, and we sometimes think, ‘Oh, probably they’re not ready for this,’’ said Fernando Moreno, leadership development coordinator at BUILD who works with Suarez, Hernandez and Silva. “But then they come to you with comments and ideas and you think, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you were thinking that far ahead.’ They impress me.”

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Jessica Vlahogiannis, program manager at North Shore United Way, said the Live United program will be a 10-year, three-pronged focus on education, health and income. The Oct. 4 rollout in Evanston emphasized the first of these, education, to which North Shore United Way is committing an aggregate of $450,000 in Evanston and Highwood.

Two groups of children will be the targets of programs funded through Live United – middle-schoolers and children from birth to age 5, said Ms. Vlahogiannis. The early childhood focus is to help ensure that children are ready to learn when they reach kindergarten, and the middle-school focus is on preparing students to learn in high school and to graduate, she said.

State Representative Robyn Gabel said the Live United program is “so important. Brain development in children is critical from the age of 6 months. It’s really important to get their brains cooking,” she added.

This is the second meeting for the United Way Live United Mr. Bobkiewicz has hosted in the past few months. He told the RoundTable he pays for the coffee and donuts “because I think that is my job [as a resident of Evanston]. His job as City Manager, he says, is to promote Evanston agencies with United Way. “I’m glad that United Way is focusing on Evanston, and I want to make sure that Evanston organizations get some benefit from these funds. … If organizations can receive funding from United Way, that takes pressure off the City.”

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The funding will help Greater Wheeling Area Youth Outreach, which currently works with 52 students from low-income families through a mentoring formula that includes after-school homework help followed by games and recreation, restart programs lost to recent spending cuts.

“Middle schools are the most difficult to get funding for,” said Philip Herman, the organization’s founder and executive director. “In our 10 years it’s always been the biggest struggle. I think it’s the most strategic plan the United Way could make.

“When a student walks into high school behind his or her class, the choices are limited,” Herman added. “The more you can get them caught up on grade level, the more fully they’ll be ready for college. What United Way found out was the ninth grade is a huge predictor of who finishes high school.”

Students participating in the GWAYO come from four middle schools: Wheeling Township Elementary District 21’s Holmes and London middle schools in Wheeling; Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59’s Grove Middle School in Elk Grove Village; and River Trails Elementary District 26’s River Trails Middle School in Mount Prospect.

The high schools GWAYO works with are Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove, Hersey and Wheeling. The organization operates out of the Wheeling Park District Community Center, 333 W. Dundee Road, and a converted commercial space at 646 S. Arthur Ave. in Arlington Heights.

The United Way is investing $5.3 million this year in middle school programs and $4 million in early childhood development, part of the agency’s effort to help 50,000 more Chicago region youngsters graduate from high school by 2020. “GWAYO is a good ally with United Way because they want students to graduate high school and be on track for college,” said Marcia McMahon, chief professional officer at Northwest Suburban United Way. “We think that is very important. In many families this will be the first person to graduate and go on to college.”

About 22 percent of students in the area are low-income, according to a report by the Northwest Suburban United Way.

High school students working with GWAYO can use computers to practice with special projects from the ACT testing service so they can do better on the ACT college entrance exam.

The new United Way money will allow the organization to bring back and expand programs lost to financial cutbacks and Herman hopes to show what GWAYO can accomplish and attract more dollars to further grow it programs. He also is seeking volunteers to mentor the students.

Of 77 students who have both graduated high school and stayed in the GWAYO program, 17 have since graduated from college and 46 are still working on their bachelor’s degrees, Herman said.

Other groups to receive United Way funding include the Boys and Girls Club working with students in Community Unit District 300 in Carpentersville; a program with families of very young children through FIND PI from Palatine Opportunity Center; Children’s Home & Aid in Carpentersville and the Rolling Meadows and Palatine area; and Buehler YMCA in Palatine.

Five bands competed at the downtown venue, 1245 Chicago Ave., for both the judges’ and the audience’s favors, as proceeds from ticket sales and donations raised money for a new United Way Metropolitan Chicago initiative called Live United 2020. The initiative will focus on community investments in the areas of income, health and education in the Chicago area for the next 10 years.

Rock and blues trio Handsome Dave & The Ravens captured the judges’ favorite award, winning a time slot at Phase Recording Studios. Acoustic and electric rock quartet DeXter took home the audience favorite accolade win.

Dan Sloan, music director and DJ at Northwestern radio station WNUR, served as one of the judges of the night, along with music producer Matt Feddermann of Phase Recording Studios in Highland Park and noted Chicago musician and blues guitarist Dave Specter.

UWMC chose Evanston as a partner community for Live United’s education platform, both for the city’s level of need and its ability to absorb and effectively use donations, said Sarah Frick, director of marketing and communication at UWMC.

Live United will target early education and middle school students in Evanston to ensure their academic success in high school and beyond.

“Evanston has always been within our footprints and now we’re going much more narrow and deep into the community,” Frick said.

UWMC will allocate education resources through Evanston non-profit organizations, including the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston and the Youth Organizations Umbrella. They will also handpick which grants to fund out of the over $25 million in education grants that have been requested in Evanston, allocating a total of about $9.3 million to various recipients.

United Way members and musicians alike touted the cause.

“It’s all about the kids,” said Conrad Nowak, guitarist for the Chicago-based band The Nuisance, which entertained the crowd second with their rock covers and original songs.

The ultimate goal of Live United 2020′s education initiative is to prepare 50,000 underperforming students in the Chicago area to enter high school, according to the UWMC website.

“This is about our workforce and education,” Frick said. “If we don’t have a workforce coming out of Chicago that is nationally and globally competitive, we have a really big problem.”

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