As readers (or reader…thanks Mom) undoubtedly know by now, we’re working on our business plan so that we’re always at the ready to describe succinctly our vision/mission, our strategic objectives and the functional imperatives that come from them here at DurhamCares. Chris Chuang, Bandwidth.com’s VP of Strategy, has been very gracious in donating his time through this process, and it truly has been a great one. We’ve been around for a year, and have always had a good sense for what we wanted to do, but the process of getting the 4 of us around a table to work on a formal plan….the kind that Bandwidth.com has, has been illuminating and much more thought provoking and in the end beneficial than I ever thought it would be.

There have been times that I thought the wrangling over the use of one word or words has been a bit overdone until I heard a story during breakfast from Lee Wheeler-Berliner, a Fuqua student who shared an experience that he had while working with a Habitat for Humanity Chpater that he used to volunteer with. As you’ll see this story proved helpful for my perspective on the power of word choice AND in how we wear our Christian badge (mentioned in past blogs).

He talked about how the group discussed for more than an hour whether to use the word “but” or “and.” You see, this chapter had previously stated that they were a Christian inspired organization BUT they also worked with non-Christians. After this wrangling process they made a significant change when they replaced the “BUT” with “AND”........if you do the same, you’ll see that it makes all the difference in the world.

And that is exactly how we want to present DurhamCares. We are a Christian organization and we should feel great about telling folks that AND that we DO help non-Christians too. The word “BUT” amounts to an apology or covers up something that we’re signalling that we’re embarassed about. Here is to lots more “ANDs” in all of our collective dialogs when we talk about our faith, and no more “BUTs”!

We've made some great progress around here in thinking through our mission and vision. At one level, we've always known what we wanted to set out and do, and had a mission statement as well. But it never was as formalized as it should have been and as I've mentioned before, we've set out as a group to commit DurhamCares to the same type of rigorous business planning exercise that we expect from the charities we work with. I'll talk in future entries about the latter stages and completion of the business planning process but for now I'd like to answer the question posed in the title as it's become apparent during our discussions internally.

We haven't completely wordsmithed this yet, but the vision that we have for DurhamCares is as follows:

To transform Durham into a community of people who truly live the value of "Love Thy Neighbor" meaning they generously give of their time and resources to helping each other.

To do this we seek to:

1. Encourage and Challenge Durham's CITIZENS to give of their time and their money to causes that better the human condition in Durham

AND

2. Encourage and Challenge Durham's CHARITIES to excel in their core missions at the same time they would become more attractive to potential donors and volunteers.

It's in this second point that lies the answer to the question posed above. That's not to say that the way we approach working with Durham's citizens will also have some unique characteristics.....for instance the way in which we do high touch volunteer matching and follow up, the way in which we do promotion and outreach etc........BUT what is very unique is the way in which we are working with charities to help them communicate that they are WORTHY RECIPIENTS of Durham's citizens time and money.

You see, we think that folks will feel compelled to get involved not just because their neighbor encourages them, a co-worker challenges them or the Bible tells them to do so, BUT because they can (much more clearly than they can today) see the impact that the charity makes in the community AND does so in the language that donors and volunteers understand.

Here's how we're going to do this:

We're going to ask each charity that we work with to submit a plan for 2009 that includes operating metrics......measurable goals that they seek to achieve in the coming year. In turn, we're going to publish those goals both subjective (roll out a new program, increase training for our volunteers, etc.) and objective (serve x# of kids, shelter y# of homeless, etc.) on a new tab on the site called "Projections" that will be placed right along side the current tabs entitled "Investment" and "Return".....see we're trying to talk in the language that donors expecting a return will best understand.

When a charity is successful in achieving these goals we're going to do the following:

1. Sing their praises from the rooftops. PROMOTION is, of course, one of the key benefits that we bring to citizens and charities alike. Our general thought is that fewer than 2% of Durham's citizens have ever heard of organizations like the Durham Eagles and that less than 1/10 of 1% have ever given money to them. We seek to change that.

2. Give them MONEY. We will be setting aside a minimum of $5,000 for each charity (and in several instances, $10,000) to serve as a DurhamCares challenge grant. They achieve their goals, they get the money.

3. Enlist others to match and/or add to DurhamCares challenge grants. We'll have a feature on each "Projections" tab that will allow donors to pledge either MONEY or VOLUNTEERing time if the charity hits their projections.

We're hopeful, though, that the chief benefit for these organizations will be the INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS that they'll see as they go through the planning process. We've already received great feedback from BigBrothers/BigSisters and others that this process has been a good one for them...something that's very encouraging for us.

So in conclusion, while there is and will be much that is unique about DurhamCares, it's in the way that we work with charities to be worthy recipients of Durham's citizens time and money that is most unique, and more importantly, will be most effective as we seek to transform Durham into a community that gives freely of their time and money as they "Love Thy Neighbor"

Heather, Mike and I met with the key full time leadership of the Durham Public School Systems today. At our lunch were Carl Harris (Superintendent), Terri Mozingo (Chief Academic Officer), Deborah Pittman(Assistant Superintendent, Student Services), Kay Williams (Executive Director, Public Affairs), Steve Toler (Consultant to DPS) and Sheila Miglarese (Volunteer Services Coordinator).

This is the 2nd time that we've met with Dr. Harris. The first time was back in August when we discussed two things:

0. funding and sponsoring an initiative along with www.donorschoose.org to encourage private funding of individual DPS teacher initiatives; we committed at that time to fund $20,000 for a matching program to encourage public participation - and I'll talk more about that in another post later
0. the needs and opportunities for volunteers in DPS so that we we can work hard to promote awareness of volunteering programs from among the 5 outreaches of DurhamCares (website, workplace, churches, schools and neighborhoods).

Today was the follow up meeting to this initial conversation. Dr. Harris arranged to meet with us and the folks listed above, and it was a productive conversation.

It's our hope that we can ramp to a target of 1,000 new volunteers in DPS by next Fall. That sounds like a lofty goal, but it's a function of getting the word out. The stakes are incredibly high. DPS teaches our kids, the leaders of tomorrow. The question is whether they will be future gang leaders or future Durham community leaders. Which side will win? Well, we're hoping that we ALL get a chance to stack the odds in favor of the second. Stay tuned to the website to find out how about RIL and AVID and other great volunteering programs with DPS.

Have ideas/thoughts yourselves? We'd love to hear them.

As many of you know, DurhamCares, got it's start this year. We've been remarkably heartened at the response that we've gotten from the community and are doubly committed to continuing our work as we all seek to serve and transform Durham. Recently we've gotten together to talk about further defining and refining our mission, vision, values and strategic objectives. It's of course very important that we, who insist on this from the organizations that we promote on this website, practice what we preach. I should note before I go much further that we're still a relatively small group.......There's Henry and David (co-founders of DurhamCares and of Bandwidth.com), Heather Jones (Senior Program Manager for Workplace Outreach) and Mike Schneider who fills many roles but principally focuses on content along with our web developer Pete, and on college outreach.

As we've gotten together to talk about long term planning, resource allocation and the mission/vision/strategy mentioned above, we thought that it might be helpful to document this process, and in fact much of what happens at DurhamCares in a blog. The hope here is that others from the community will weigh in on what we're discussing in our internal meetings and what we are seeing and hearing in our external meetings. We haven't yet really turned on the promotion engine so our expectations on how many folks will contribute is in check, but we're hopeful that as folks spend time on the site that they'll let us know what they are thinking, seeing, hearing and doing in Durham. What's working and what's not, etc. etc. So without further adieu.....welcome to the new, much more frequent, and hopefully very interactive blog!!! Please let us know what you think!

Durham has it's challenges, but the number of non profits doesn't seem to be one of them. A trip to your mailbox or some basic internet research will tell you that there are hundreds of organizations in our city that are all looking to address some need as they vie for our checkbook. Most, if not all, of them are run with people with great hearts. Are they all being run with great minds, though? God tells us to love him with all of our hearts AND our minds. The Parable of the Talents talks about how a sound mind helps us to make the most of the opportunities that God has given us. This lesson seems to be missed too often, but those who try to apply it/teach it are met with understandable resistance. Criticism of folks that give their lives to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and educate our youth, of course, is never popular.

I had breakfast this morning with Barker French, a man who epitomizes active civic engagement. He clearly has a great mind and encourages those around him to use theirs. He is one of the most connected men that I have ever come across regardless of domain. He has turned his back on passive retirement and made it his mission to serve this city by alternately encouraging and challenging some of the best not for profits in the city. What impressed me though, wasn't his prolific schedule or who he knows, but what he does and how he is using his MIND to get the most out of the minds of those with the best HEARTS in the city. You see, he understands that there are tremendous opportunities to increase the impact of not for profits in this city when they work TOGETHER.

Here's how it works. Barker has a particular conviction to impact the 14-21 age group. He knows that there are a number of programs set up to address this situation from RIL, a summer leadership development hosted at Southern High School, to Yo Durham (a jobs program), to PROUD (an afterschool program) and several others. - The only missing piece in my view would be a faith based organization like Reality or YoungLife, but maybe that's to come - Barker has brought them all together in what he calls a "collaborative" The collaborative brings together program managers to share best practices, information and resources. More importantly, though, they collaborate on their shared mission (serving the 14-21 age program) with the result that they now take care of these kids with programs that provide real guidance and impact over all 12 months and through a variety of disciplines......something that they hadn't done on their own. Rather than competing against each other for the same donor base, they can now present a shared solution that is more compelling to the donor, leading the same group to give more, and broadening out the base to new donors who are only interested in a comprehensive solution. More efficiency, more funding, more results, more kids actively enagaged in making Durham a better place versus the alternative.

Now that's a good idea whose time has come. Here's to more collaboratives across the non profit sectors and here's to more Barker French's!

It’s our hope that today, Opening Day, April 11, 2008 will mark the date for an inflection point in the heart and spirit of our wonderful city. We don’t think for a second that we’re going to be able to make this difference on our own, but together with YOU we very much think we can. We’ve got great aspirations for DurhamCares, but many of those hopes ultimately come from our belief that we’re all a part of something much greater. We believe that God is moving in our great city and that we have an incredible opportunity to honor Him by heralding some of Durham’s great charities and encouraging our citizens to give of their time and money in a way that stretches them AND rewards them.

There are many ways that you can help the cause of DurhamCares, but none of them include donating any money to us! We want to have you focus your charitable giving and your time directly on the organizations themselves.

Here’s what we would like you to do:

Register with us. Let us know what special skills you have that you can lend to some of our excellent organizations. Contribute your thoughts and experiences in the community forum. Consider hosting a DurhamCares event in your neighborhood (where several Executive Directors of charities will give a 5-10 minute overview of what they do). Challenge your employer to encourage employee community volunteering. And lastly tell your friends (at church, work and recreation) about DurhamCares and the organizations that you’ve learned about.

Before I go much further, I want to thank the Goodmon family, the DurhamBulls, and in particular George Habel, their General Manager. Our opening day today coincides with the opening day of the DurhamBulls and their donation of the billboard in right center field. Their commitment to honor excellent charities in Durham is remarkably encouraging.

Here’s to Durham Caring in a bigger way than it ever has before.

Get Involved. Get Informed. Get Inspired!!