September was a great month that ended on a strong note as Idealistics received a Certificate of Recognition from Assembly Member Nell Soto.  The certificate reads:

This California State Assembly Certificate of Recognition is presented to Idealistics Inc. in recognition of your exemplary work in the areas of case management, data analysis and community resources, especially as related to the Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan.  May your organization continue to grow and prosper as you use technology to enhance social services in the various communities that you serve.

Congratulations and best wishes!

Nell Soto
Member of the Assembly
California State Legislature

We are honored to receive this recognition for our work.  We have many great community partners and supporters who help make what we do possible.  While we are humbled to receive recognition, I would like to thank and recognizes the many friends of Idealistics.  Please know we consider you partners in our cause of building systems that help social services help people better.  You are a part of our team.

Tags: award, pomona

Last week all of us at Idealistics went to meet with two of our clients: Inland Valley Hope Partners and the City of Pomona Community Services Department. The purpose of the meetings was to get out of the office and have the whole team see our systems in action.

During our first visit, we met with Isaac Vega, Hope Partners’s Program Manager at the Beta Center, one of Pomona’s only food distribution centers.  We also met with Nicole Crigler, who works in Hope Partners’s shelter, and Wytske Visser, the Executive Director of Hope Partners.  Hope Partners uses our case management system to keep track of their client data and report their many successes to funding sources.

After meeting with Hope Partners, we sat down with Andrea Rico, Youth and Family Services Coordinator for the City of Pomona Community Services Department. Through the City’s Youth and Family Master Plan (YFMP), we provide a community resources system that helps Pomona residents identify and access available community programs.  The system is available online at pomonafamilyresources.org. It was inspiring meeting with Andrea and hearing her vision for the Youth Master Plan.

The site visits were a great way for all of us to see the work our partner agencies are doing.  The visits helped our staff understand how what we do fits into the bigger picture of serving those in need.  Thanks to all those who took the time to meet with us!

Tags: inland valley hope partners, pomona, team building

A couple of days ago, I was invited by two of our customers, Reach Out West End and Mental Health Systems Inc, to a presentation by James Mosher, Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Enforcement Policy.  Mr. Mosher comes from a community organizing background and had an interesting take on the use of data for social change.  Most data-heads tend to think of themselves as scientists (the social kind), running experiments to see what works and what doesn’t.

In his presentation, Mr. Mosher pointed out that data can be a great storytelling device and, as a result, a great mobilizer.  Even if an organization identifies a problem in its community, looks at the data, and identifies a good solution to the problem, the organization still needs to mobilize support in the community to see a solution become a reality.  Data can be used to paint compelling pictures of the problem and show the community that it needs to step up to help provide a solution.  GIS Mapping allows one to literally create graphics showing, to use Mr. Mosher’s example, the clustering of alcohol-related arrests near outlets that don’t have adequate policies for dealing with intoxicated persons.

Thanks, James Mosher, for showing us that data shouldn’t be left behind when it comes to mobilizing the community!

Tags: Data Analysis, mapping

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Emerging Markets, Inc., a consulting company based in Hollywood that works with banks throughout Los Angles to help them establish branches in under banked communities.  Like Idealistics, Emerging Markets is a double bottom line social enterprise.  It was good hearing about their work and seeing that there are others like ourselves who see a role for the private sector in improving the lives of those less fortunate.

I know at first it may seem unintuitive to pursue social good by bringing profit seeking entities into poor areas to provide banking services.  However, when you consider that credit is the bank bone of our society (something we are all the more reminded of as our financial sector struggles), it is almost impossible to escape poverty without access to affordable capital.  Throughout Los Angeles pay-day lenders that charge high interest rates for small cash loans plague low-income communities.  Families can quickly get caught in a trap of using each pay check just to pay off the interest from the last loan.

By bringing low-income families into the formal banking sector, Emerging Markets not only helps people get access to more reasonably priced credit, but introduces them to the banking sector where they can more safely deposit funds and earn interest on savings.

I want to thank Elwood Hopkins, Managing Director, and Rudy Espinoza, Associate at Emerging Markets for taking the time to tell me about their work.  I look forward to hearing more about this exciting agency in the future!

Tags: banks, poverty

Tough economic times means difficulty raising funds for social services.  The irony is that when the economy is rough, demand for services goes up, especially for basic needs programs.  While I don’t know of a way to raise more money in a downturn, I do have a suggestion as to how to make your money stretch.

Before looking at bank loans or other interest incurring strategies, ask your vendors if they would be willing to receive payment for their goods or services in installments.  Lots of organizations, including Idealistics, would rather work with an agency and spread payment out over time than wait several months or even over a year before entering a contract.

So don’t just assume you can’t afford whatever it is you need to run your agency better.  Vendors like mine would rather have your business and receive payment in installments.  It’s not only better for your agency and ours that way, but most importantly, it allows you to serve people severely impacted by the down turning economy more effectively in a time of great need.

Tags: Budget

Our work as a growing social enterprise has offered quite the learning experience. Personally, I feel grateful to be part of an organization designed to serve social service agencies—to help make them more efficient and to, ultimately, increase their capacity.

We are fortunate that the majority of our business is through returning clients and word of mouth (our fans); because of the need to reach new organizations and step out of our comfort zone, we decided to implement a new marketing strategy known throughout the as evangelism.

I recently took a new job title at Idealistics, Chief Community Evangelist.  Jokingly, many of my friends called me to confirm my new title—they asked me if the change occurred with my consent (ha ha, very funny). At Idealistics, we are cause-driven. We think it is important for us to be as transparent as possible, especially since our clients are nonprofits and are held to the same standards.

By adopting an evangelistic approach to sales challenges us to better engage our clients by seeking out and welcoming honest feedback regarding our products, services, and business model; by improving the way we communicate our mission; and by ensuring that our staff, investors, friends, and clients can clearly represent our genuine efforts to enhance social services on our behalf (it’s not just our slogan).

As Idealistics’s Chief Community Evangelist, my primary purpose is to foster, and harness, the energy and support of our supporters so they can help us spread our message. As we continue to grow as an organization, we recognize the commitment necessary to continuously improve the way we do business and to remain in touch with our clients’ work in the field.

Through my research, I found that many Fortune 500 companies, social enterprises, and a handful of nonprofits are implementing this approach. This low-tech, high-touch approach revolves around strengthening relationships by deliberately investing in ‘friendraising’, sharing ideas, and creating products and services that consumers both want and need. In times when funding is becoming scarce, and competition is more noticeably fierce, I [honestly] believe social services should take the time to learn the benefits of this strategy.

To prove to you that this is a real job title, held by real people in real organizations, I encourage you to research the title yourselves (you will be surprised). In an interview with N-TEN, Guy Kawasaki, a former software evangelist for Apple, discusses how this strategy is innately designed to help nonprofits. Grand and Crutchfield recently posted a blog in Philanthropy News Digest in which they describe the practice of inspiring evangelists as one of the six practices of “high-impact” nonprofits.

If we were to examine the true definition of an evangelist as a zealous advocate for something, we could make the case that as social service providers, we/you are already evangelizing. Some evangelize for social justice, systems change, or any cause that makes you get up and go to work each day.  Many of are evangelists for sports teams, name brands, or organizations–for which we have our individual reasons for lending our support.

The job title does spark emotions. Some are good. Sadly, some not so good. Please know we did not conjure this title up for the sake of conversation, or to be different; it is the best way to define our evolution as social entrepreneurs.

Click here for a free e-book on evangelism by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba.

Tags: advocates, evangelism, friendraising, social service

On August 21 I had the privilege of traveling up to Northern California to meet with an organization called Community Services Agency (CSA) in Mountain View.  I grew up in Silicon Valley, so it was nice for me being back home.  The city of Mountain View is home to several software companies and the tech giant Google.  Mountain View is a beautiful city with several tree lined streets. 

As I was driving to my meeting, I was struck by how wealthy the area appeared.  How on earth, I thought, could an organization that provides a food pantry, homeless, and senior services be situated in such a gorgeous, affluent area. 

To my surprise, as I pulled up to CSA, down at the end of this lushly green street, I saw people lining up to receive food at CSA’s food pantry.  The people in line for services were of varying ethnicity’s and ages.  I can honestly say, even though as a social service professional I know poverty exists in affluent communities, I have to admit I was shocked to see so many people lined up at a food pantry in such a wealthy city.

For me this was a reminder of the importance of the work we in the social service industry do, especially as the economy moves towards recession.  In economic slow downs service sector jobs are always the first to go, and people employed in the service sector tend to be the lowest paid, most economically vulnerable. 

It’s good to know there are organizations like CSA meeting the needs of people in all types of communities.  No matter how beautiful or affluent an area is, my meeting at CSA was a critical reminder that pockets of poverty can exist anywhere.

Tags: poverty

The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) is a great resource for staying up on the latest trends in economic development research. One of their 2007 working papers, Using the Global Positioning System (GPS) in
Household Surveys for Better Economics
and Better Policy written by John Gibson and David McKenzie, talks about different strategies for using geographic data in the service of better statistical analysis and better programs. Their focus is on the developing world but they do mention that, in the developed world, implementing these strategies can be even easier, given the existence of large databases that map addresses to geographic coordinates. Adapting their conclusions to the context of this country, one gets a sense of the possibilities that emerge from integrating geographic data into our needs assessments and evaluations.

Needs Assessments

Gibson and McKenzie point out that a household’s geographic location determines how easy or hard it is for them to access certain services. The obvious point of inquiry is to look at how a person’s geographic location enables them to access social services. Databases of businesses locations let us see how easy it is for a person to access a bank (as opposed to a check-cashing location - see the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and Citibank’s report written by Edmund Kashadourian and Syldy Tom,  The Unbanked Problem in Los Angeles, for a great geographic/statistical analysis of this subject) or grocery store (as opposed to a mini mart - well-documented in the LA Times, including in this piece). Now, more than ever before, we have the data to integrate these kinds of questions into our needs assessments.

Evaluations

Geographic data can also help us in our evaluations. As mentioned in a previous post, one of the major challenges in doing evaluations is finding an appropriate control group. Gibson and McKenzie point out that geography makes this substantially easier given that “near-by places are more likely to share community characteristics, such as culture, trust, and government ability.” Looking at data from a person’s own census tract or block has the potential to provide a natural point of comparison because of these shared characteristics.

The availability of geographic data gives analysts in the social service sector a whole new set of tools to tease out community needs and organizational outcomes. It’s always been an important part of the data analysis that we do at Idealistics (for example in our Community Resource system reports an example of which is available here) and we look forward to incorporating new forms of data and new ideas into the work that we do.

Tags: evaluation, geographic, geography, gis, statistics

On August 16, I participated in a peace march and rally. Coordinated by local faith-based organizations and representatives from LAPD’s Northeast Division — it attracted a wide array of people with varying interests. Some came to support efforts to unify the community, while others came to celebrate the lives of those who succumbed to gang violence. Elected officials and community leaders were on hand to show their support and to encourage long-term efforts to eliminate the stronghold gangs have on the area.

Since I recently moved to the area, I didn’t know exactly how long the march was going to be—I’m glad I wore a light colored shirt, shorts, and running shoes. During the march, I had the pleasure to walk beside an elderly woman who carried a sign the entire route. She was an inspiring figure. To me, she represented the community’s resilience and commitment to bringing law enforcement, community, and local churches together to solve this growing problem. Despite the 90-degree weather, the event was more of a moving party. Groups displayed banners, touted posters, and wore shirts signifying their commitment to the peace process.

As anyone who lives in this part of the Los Angeles knows, this was a necessary event. Achieving peace in Northeast is one step closer to becoming a reality—the challenge now is to hold ourselves accountable for following through and transforming the words we chanted along the route into reality.

I was pleased to see that Deputy Chief Diaz and Captain Murphy walked the entire route (in full uniform).

Click here to see some of my photos of the event.

Tags: city council, community, highland park, lapd, northeast, organizing, peace in the northeast, rally