Three organizations promoting technology in nonprofits – NTEN, Technology Affinity Group, and Tech Impact – have released a report calling on all foundations to support cybersecurity in nonprofits. Their collaborative funder briefing, “Cybersecurity Essentials for Philanthropy,” includes Pierce Family Foundation as an example of a funder who takes this issue seriously and providing grantee support for it. As PFF’s Chief Technologist David Krumlauf says in the briefing, “Many nonprofits think they will nto get attacked because they’re doing good work, which of course makes no difference to a bad person with a set of email addresses.”

The Pierce Family Foundation gave our first grant in 2008. In early September of 2018, to celebrate our 10th anniversary, PFF staff members went on a two-day whirlwind tour to all of our Core Grantees, past and present. Each organization was presented with a Celebrating Our Core Grantees document, a grant to be used on staff appreciation activities, and – the favorite item – a tin of Garrett’s popcorn.

Photos of the Anniversary Tour can be seen on PFF’s Facebook page. PFF is honored to support the work of these Core Grantees, and we thank them for all they’ve done for the Chicago community:

• All Chicago
• The Boulevard
• Center for Changing Lives 
• Chicago House
• Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America 
• The Crib at The Night Ministry
• Deborah’s Place 
• Facing Forward to End Homelessness
• Goldie’s Place 
• Good News Partners 
• Housing Opportunities for Women 
• La Casa Norte 
• Margaret’s Village
• Matthew House
• New Moms 
• Northwest Side Housing Center 
• The Renaissance Collaborative
• Sarah’s Circle 
• Spanish Coalition for Housing
• Teen Living 

The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) is partnering with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the Metropolitan Mayor’s Caucus in an effort to boost the capacity of local, suburban governments. As they plan their efforts, they are turning to the nonprofit sector to learn about best practices in capacity buidling. MPC recently interviewed Pierce Family Foundation’s Program Director, Heather Parish, for her insights into what makes for effective capcity building partnerships.

On June 26, 2018 youth service providers, funders, City of Chicago officials, community stakeholders and young people gathered to celebrate the impact of the Chicago Youth Storage Initiative (CYSI).

Pierce Family Foundation was a founding partner in CYSI, along with Knight Family Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation and Tracy Baim of Windy City Times. CYSI was created to address a top need identified by youth experiencing homelessness—the storage of personal belongings. There were limited spaces in youth housing programs in Chicago, and for youth not in those programs, safely storing their belongings while they were at school or work was a significant concern.

In three years, CYSI funded the purchase of 755 storage units across 22 program sites and provided over 12,000 nights of secure storage to over 1,000 unique program participants. In addition to providing secure storage, CYSI piloted virtual storage programs and laundry at grantee sites across Chicago including schools, shelters, and youth program spaces. Learn more about CYSI’s history, impact, and next chapter in CYSI’s final report.

While Chicago Youth Storage Initiative has officially come to a close, the legacy continues with the LYTE Collective, which will house over 200 units of diverse storage at their LYTE Lounge, including secure phone charging, mail and document storage, scanning and virtual storage, daily, and long-term storage. The LYTE team has also committed to serve as a resource to organizations interested in creating their own storage sites. 

It is our hope that the work of CYSI will incite enthusiasm and action from other organizations and communities to create and fund innovative interventions to youth homelessness.

“How many FTE staff members does it take to raise $XX?” This is a question those in the nonprofit community hear often. The Pierce Family Foundation sent a survey to PFF grantees, other Chicago funders to share with their grantees, and colleagues. A hearty thank you to the 90 organizations that responded to the survey! Download the survey, as well as other articles we gathered on the topic, here.

In April 2018, the Pierce Family Foundation convened several grantees for a conversation regarding the unique opportunities and challenges facing these agencies in working with staff teams that include employees from the community, their client base, and/or with those with lived experiences of homelessness or housing insecurity. The foundation has compiled notes from this conversation, as well as resources for agencies. Download the document  below. Thank you to everybody who participated in the conversation!

Pierce Family Foundation Co-Executive Director Marianne Philbin recently published a blog piece on Candid. “9 Strategic (and Inexpensive) Ways Funders Can Support Grantee Staff” outlines the programs and methods that PFF uses to address capacity building for nonprofit staff—and advocates for other funders to try them, too!

Fund the People, a national effort to maximize investment in the nonprofit workforce, has published a toolkit that provides guidance, best practices, and data to help funders and nonprofits alike increase investment in nonprofit staff. The Pierce Family Foundation is featured in the “field studies” section of the toolkit. As Fund the People notes, “Nonprofit people are nonprofit programs. Given this reality, supporting the nonprofit workforce is an effective strategy for increasing performance, impact, and sustainability.”

The Pierce Family Foundation announces the publication of Equipped and Ready: A Best Practices Manual for Preparing Homeless Services Staff to Succeed. This is free for use and can be downloaded below.

This manual, like all of our work, was inspired by our grantees, who sought a resource to help them with the training and retention of qualified staff members. Our goal with Equipped and Ready is to provide a starting point of best practices, resources, sample documents, and policies that will help homeless service providers train new staff, or to train current staff in new programs. It is our hope that the information provided will allow organizations to build capacity and function more effectively by streamlining processes.

2017 has been a big year for the Chicago Youth Storage Initiative (CYSI). In addition to current storage program partners—La Casa Norte, Unity Parenting and Counseling, Puerto Rican Cultural Center, Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, and Teen Living Programs—new locker programs were launched at the following facilities:

• Broadway Youth Center
• Covenant House
• Northwest Compass, Inc.
• Pathways to Education—Ashburn Campus

Through CYSI, there is now a total of 225 lockers available for youth experiencing homelessness in Chicago. Other achievements in 2017 include:

Secure phone charging stations were installed at The Night Ministry and Center on Halsted.

Virtual storage programs were implemented at drop-in and residential programs at Teen Living Programs and La Casa Norte, providing young people with training, scanning and storage events, and ongoing education and support. 

Project Manager Megan Wickman engaged in outreach and education at youth-serving organizations throughout the city of Chicago including the Chicago Public Schools’ Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS) annual training, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Pride Action Take forum on Supporting College Students Experiencing Homelessness, and Design4Good.

Looking ahead, CYSI has committed to fund a storage hub at the new LYTE Collective, which will provide more than 200 storage units in a variety of types at a single site.