Grant Proposal:

Intern Incentive Program

A program to address volunteer development in order to, both retain and train volunteers/interns at The Gentry House. This program will benefit both those volunteering and those who run the organization.

Tessa Breedlove, Jasmine Crosier, Liz Fiero, & Megan Sumners YNL 502 Financial Processes in Nonprofit Organizations Murray State University Spring 2012 Dr. Bob Long, Professor

April 19, 2012

Table of Contents
Introduction to Proposal..Page 3 Problem Statement..Page 4 Program Objectives.....Page 7 Description or Methodology of Program....Page 8 Evaluation Process....Page 10 Organizational Expertise...Page 11 Future Funding..Page 14 Budget DescriptionPage 15 Program Budget....Page 17 Additional Supports* (See Attachments)

Appendices
Appendix A...Non-Profit Status Verification Appendix B.Resume of Program Services Coordinator Appendix C...Pre/Post Test Appendix D.Final Evaluation Survey Appendix E....Organizational Brochure

Intern Incentive Program Murray-Calloway Countys local homeless shelter, The Gentry House, is requesting $1000 from the Giving Back Scholars Foundation. This grant would provide startup funds, geared towards retaining and recruiting volunteers/interns at The Gentry House. The program created would assist Murray State University (MSU) students who intern at The Gentry House, because these funds would be allocated to helping them attend the Alliance Management/Leadership Institute (AMI) conference. The Gentry House has only two full time staff members, so the day-to-day operations are typically run by student interns. Since The Gentry House is a small organization they are unable to pay interns because they simply do not have funds in their operating budget to cover that expense. However, if they were to receive startup funds for a program geared towards helping students get certified at AMI it would benefit both the student interns and the organization. Although the operating budget does not have the funds to pay interns, an intern always has the ability/opportunity to create new revenue streams, which could then be used to continue this program. The dedicated and qualified staff of The Gentry House is always looking for interns/volunteers who have new and creative ideas. The Gentry House staff would be able to take what the intern learns at AMI and help them apply it to the organization. This will help The Gentry House and will also help the intern both in their internship and in their future career in the nonprofit sector. The Gentry House would benefit because it would recruit and retain more student interns. The organization would also benefit from what the student intern learns at AMI because they offer workshops about topics that nonprofits deal with every day. For example one year AMI held workshops covering financial development in nonprofit organizations and case

management, these workshops could be applied to the student interns responsibilities at The Gentry House. MSU students would have more of an incentive to join this organization if they had a program with funds set aside to assist them when going to AMI. This program would help recruit both interns and volunteers, which would then lead to more awareness and community support of The Gentry House. This organization provides necessary services to our community and needs the help of student interns to assist the organization. Without interns and volunteers The Gentry House would struggle in its efforts to help the homeless, so this program would be a quality incentive for students to both apply and become an intern.

Problem/ Statement of Need: As stated in the previous section, The Gentry House is Murrays local homeless shelter, and although they help many people in the community the organization itself only has two paid staff members and very few volunteers. The Gentry House has difficulty utilizing volunteers because the work needed is very complex and takes a lot of training. Sometimes the Gentry House does not acquire an intern from MSU, which is disappointing because it would allow students to use the skills they have learned in the Youth and Nonprofit Leadership (YNL) program, in a hands-on manner.

The Gentry House is very grateful for the interns they receive because they are very useful, but there are some issues when it comes to finding and training interns. One of the major issues is the additional time and resources spent on training the intern. According to a former intern and the director, Wendy Lovett, the training process is so time consuming that it takes almost an entire semester to complete.
4

The Gentry House is seeking funds to develop a program which will cover the costs (up to $1000) for the intern to attend the required AMI conference. This conference is required for all MSU Youth and Nonprofit Leadership minors and majors. While attending the conference students, participate in leadership development activities and workshops, engage in Case Studies and structured service activities with area nonprofits, and hear from the nations leading nonprofit leaders. (Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, 2012)

Intern Development: Not all interns working at The Gentry House come in with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed and help continue the organizations mission which is to lessen the homeless population in Murray Calloway County. A key aspect of this program will be the professional skills the intern will develop while attending the AMI conference. The conference offers a variety of workshops and lectures that deal with everything from leadership skills to avoiding fraud in nonprofits to resume development. Murray State YNL and Gentry House Alliance: Another key aspect of the program is to improve the weakening relationship between the Murray State YNL department and The Gentry House. The YNL program at MSU typically has a strong relationship and network with the local nonprofits in the community. The current alliance between the YNL department and The Gentry House is ongoing and beneficial to both parties, but needs improvement. The YNL department requires students to obtain an internship that includes completing 300 service hours and a final project. The Gentry House is one of the many organizations that will gladly take upon these opportunities to work with a student. The Gentry House is very dependent on their interns and
5

volunteers, which is why maintaining this relationship is so important to the organizations success. According to past interns, the work they perform daily is similar to the job of a staff member at other nonprofits. The problem with this relationship is that The Gentry House typically has difficulty acquiring an intern each year. Many students are either unaware of the organization or they are uninterested in the amount of work the Gentry House internship requires. Obtaining Interns Well Suited for The Task: One of the many tasks The Gentry House requires their interns to complete is finding another intern to take their position in the following year. As stated above, there are reasons why it is difficult to obtain an intern each year. With the scarce amount of interest from students, The Gentry House is usually unable to find a suitable new intern, and has to work with whichever student the other intern finds. Wendy stated that in the past there have been interns that are not suited for the position or intern responsibilities required. Some interns have had problems becoming emotional or uncomfortable around clients, which is an issue because part of the interns job is to work with the clients and be professional around them. Past interns also have not been capable of completing assigned tasks. This problem is one reason why the training process is so intense and time consuming. When the organization is not matched with a well suited intern the training process can take additional time. This is also a loss for the student because a student that is not a good fit for the organization will not perform as well and will not enjoy their intern experience.

Program Objectives Intern Development: The workshops which the intern will attend must be relative to skills, which Wendy would like to see the student improve upon and workshops that would benefit the organization. After returning from the conference the student would need to demonstrate what they have learned to Wendy thus improving their capabilities as an intern. Having an intern with a great amount of knowledge and experience in the nonprofit community would help the student in their internship and their future career. It would also help The Gentry House continue in their mission to serve the community. Murray State YNL and Gentry House Alliance: This program will further strengthen the relationship between the YNL department and The Gentry House by providing an incentive for students to perform their internship with this organization. The incentive to have their AMI conference trip compensated (up to $1000) will attract students to The Gentry House. This will allow the relationship between the two associations to continue to prosper. Obtaining Interns Well Suited for The Task: This program will address the problem of obtaining suitable interns for the organization. As mentioned above the program will attract more Murray State YNL students due to the appealing incentive. With the greater amount of students interested in the intern position, The Gentry House will be able to interview candidates to fill the position rather than only having a single intern interested. This will provide The Gentry House the ability to choose which candidate would be best suited for the position.
7

Program Description or Methodology

Sending an intern to AMI through the intern incentive program was designed to address the need to prepare future interns of The Gentry House so they can provide services to their clients. AMI is the nations largest annual leadership development and networking symposium for students, faculty, and nonprofit professionals. Several hundred Alliance college and university students meet in a different city every year to come together to network, conduct career development and information interviews, participate in leadership development activities and workshops, engage in structured service activities with nonprofits that are located within the city of the symposium, and hear from the nation s leading nonprofit leaders (Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, 2012). This program will also improve the relationship of The Gentry House and the YNL department at MSU. Wendy Lovett, the director of The Gentry House, has stated there is a problem with some interns that are acquired, because they do not know what kind of work they will be required to complete. This causes the staff at The Gentry House to have to spend more time than they can really spare to train their interns in order to better serve their clients. The interns need to be trained with an emphasis in homelessness, individual case studies, and clerical responsibilities. Also, improving the relationship of The Gentry House and the YNL program will help the organization increase the amount of YNL students interested in becoming interns. Helping the intern pick out sessions at AMI that deal with housing, homelessness, and professional development would be workshops the intern needs to take. This would improve the success of the interns and help better serve The Gentry Houses clients because interns would be applying what they have learned at the AMI conference to an actual organization.

The intern incentive program is an innovative program that addresses the problem of having under trained interns working for The Gentry House that do not serve the clients as well as a trained intern would. This program will incorporate three different areas that will enable the future interns to become better prepared and help make The Gentry House a more productive organization for its clients and the community. The program will send the chosen YNL intern to AMI. The intern will then show The Gentry House what they have learned at the conference and then implement what they learned, during their semester internship at The Gentry House. Since the conference takes place in January the first step of the program will take place in the fall semester. After Wendy has chosen the intern, she will spend the first part of the internship training and observing the student. When the student registers for AMI in the latter part of the semester she will work with the student to pick which workshops and case studies they should attend. She will use her observations to pick out different sessions that will help the intern improve in becoming a better asset to the clients and the organization. This conference will give the interns new ideas and hands on activities to bring back, which will improve the way The Gentry House and its clients work together. Step two will occur once the intern returns from AMI. The director of The Gentry House will have a meeting to discuss the interns learning experience at the conference and how they can improve their internship for the next semester. This step is very important because the meeting will allow the intern and the director to be on the same page. Then the director can input their opinion about the ideas the intern gained from AMI. Through this process the organization or intern could come up with new ideas to plan and implement. During the second semester of the internship the intern will continue more training with the staff of the organization. They will still be responsible for past tasks and if needed will be

given more responsibilities as their knowledge base grows. They will also be expected to implement the new ideas in an effective way and bring improvement to The Gentry House in order to better serve their clients. The main focus of this program is to make a better experience for the intern and clients. Interns that are not trained well are not able to act on their full potential, bring improvement to The Gentry House, or serve clients in the best way possible. So the sending an intern to AMI through the intern incentive program is an innovative way to fix the problem of under trained interns. Evaluation Three different methodologies will be used in evaluating the success of this project. The three methodologies will include formative observation, a pre/post survey, a summative narrative of the experience, and an evaluation survey. These methodologies are set to evaluate different aspects of the experience. These aspects include: observable increase in abilities and skills, self-efficacy of the intern, the interns experience at AMI, and the interns experience at The Gentry House. Wendy, the executive director of The Gentry House, will be observing the intern throughout the experience. She will be assessing the interns ongoing progress in developing skills and knowledge about the organization. This type of method is less formal and rigorous. However, the sensory observation of the intern is a valuable aspect in assessing the impact of the program. Also, an individual can claim to have made progress in their self-efficacy and skill set, however, this is not always accurate. In this methodology, a noticeable difference can be demonstrated.

10

The pre/post survey is designed to evaluate the interns self-efficacy before and after the conference. The individual will receive the same survey for both the pre and post portions of evaluation. The items evaluate if the AMI conference had a positive impact on the interns skills and abilities. The items are based on the integrated leadership model. The items reflect the interns human relation, conceptual, and technical skills. (See appendix) The survey is on a likert scale. The interns responses will be totaled at the end of the survey. The pre and post survey scores will be compared at the end of the internship. This is one more way to determine if the conference had a positive impact on the interns self-efficacy and skill set. In addition, there will be a summative narrative written by the intern. Every student that attends AMI must complete a five page paper over their experience to complete the YNL 450 senior seminar course. This includes information about the activities the student participated in, as well as the students account of their experience at the conference. The students account of the experience includes their reflection of their knowledge before and after the conference. Therefore, this paper will also be turned into the executive director and evaluated as a summative narrative of the interns experience. Lastly, the intern will fill out an evaluation survey. The purpose of this survey is to assess their experience at The Gentry House. The items evaluate if the program was relevant to their experience, as well as, if the individual would recommend interning at The Gentry House to others. (See appendix)

11

Organizational Expertise

The Gentry House is Murray Calloway Countys homeless shelter. This organization is geared towards helping its clients, whether they require shelter, job assistance, or living assistance. The Gentry House has a mission focused on the needs of the constituents it serves and it has a staff dedicated to the success of the organization, along with the people it affects. This organization is able to meet the needs of its clients and serve the community because it has a clear, concise mission, which is followed by its experienced staff. The mission statement of The Gentry House states, The Gentry House has a philosophy and a board dedicated to the proposition that all homeless persons are deserving of and shall be provided with the resources to enable them to become proficient and respectful of self, in a lifestyle free of worry and worthy of mankind (The Gentry House, 2003). The mission of this organization is to ensure that the homeless are treated with fairness and respect. Everything that their mission states is present in the actions and ideas of its staff. Although The Gentry House is a small organization and is only able to employ two full time employees, it is easy to see that the staff has the expertise and the knowledge to run the organization. The director of the organization, Wendy Lovett, has a bachelors degree in communication disorders (CDI) and a masters degree in Special Education. She has been the director of The Gentry House for multiple years and has been working in housing for over 8 years. She is a director dedicated to the organizations mission and she uses her experience to ensure that all their clients are treated with fairness and respect. The second full time employee of The Gentry House is their case manager, Mike Wilson. He is a respected and well-known member of the community and uses his networks to ensure the
12

continuing success of The Gentry House. Since this organization only has two full time staff members, volunteers/interns are an essential part to their success. Anyone can volunteer/intern for The Gentry House, whether they have qualifications or not. However, if a volunteer/intern needs training the organization has a staff that can train them and teach them how to apply the concept/skills they learn to the organization. The Gentry House has been serving the homeless population of the Murray community since 1997 (The Gentry House, 2003). It has served 100s of families to date and has provided other valuable services to the homeless population in our area (The Gentry House, 2003). The Gentry House is able to offer these services because they create and maintain an operating budget. These funds are received from other grants, the city of Murray, and fundraisers. Fundraising is a key component to keeping The Gentry House up and running day to day. Since fundraising is where this organization receives most of its funds, they have to come up with numerous new and innovative programs in order to raise money. The Gentry House hosts multiple fundraisers a year and each one is specifically marketed to certain community members. This allows the organization to offer the general population something in return for their contributions. For example, The Gentry House has successfully offered and completed benefit concerts, benefit dinners, t-shirt fundraisers, and multicultural events to the community. This program would allow The Gentry House the funds to recruit more interns and volunteers, which in turn allows the organization to grow and prosper. The organization may not have current funding for this program, but it would allow them the opportunity to make these funds a permanent part of their operating budget. Since The Gentry House has both a dedicated and qualified staff, interns would not only have funding to go to AMI, but they would also

13

receive education and on-site training at a nonprofit. This program would be a wonderful opportunity if given the chance to flourish and grow.

Future Funding The Internship Incentive program is a completely new program The Gentry House will be introducing. Beyond the funding provided by the Giving Back Scholars grant, The Gentry House is planning on incorporating this program into their annual operating budget. The current operating budget includes a section in which any funds raised by interns can be used to support a program of the interns choice. By incorporating this program into the budget the intern will take on the responsibility of raising any additional funds needed to support their AMI experience. Any excess funds will go into an account which will carry over and be used to support future interns. One way the intern could raise the funds to cover the trip would be to earn a scholarship. If the student does receive a scholarship that covers the cost of the conference and hotel, the remainder will be covered by the incentive program. In this case there would likely be a large chunk of the $1000 budget left over that can then roll over, to be used for students the following year. This will ensure all funds are used productively and efficiently. Another way the intern could raise funds for support in the future is by asking the Murray State Student Government Association (SGA) for support. One of the responsibilities of the SGA is to provide financial support for student organizations. The intern could work together with other YNL students to ask the SGA for support to help finance the AMI trip for all YNL students. This would strengthen the bond between The Gentry House and Murray State YNL as
14

well as the relationship between the YNL department and other programs offered at Murray State. There are plans to find additional sources of funding to continue this project in the future. By incorporating the cost of the project into the operating budget, The Gentry House will need to increase the amount of funds generated annually through their multiple fundraising events. Increasing the operating budget by $1000 will lead to a large increase in the amount needed to be raised during the annual campaign and other fundraising events throughout the year. One responsibility of the intern would be to develop a new fundraising event where the funds generated in this event would go directly to the Intern Incentive Program. Giving the intern this responsibility will give them hands on experience with event planning and fundraising, which is a major part of intern development. A new fundraising event would also open the door for more volunteers and members of the community that may be in the interns network to become associated with The Gentry House. The main plan is for this account to grow to the point where The Gentry House will be able to fund more than one interns AMI conference per year. This will help The Gentry House accomplish the goal of intern development to an even greater extent. The overall purpose of the program is to gain interns for The Gentry House by creating an incentive program, which will allow interns to be able to both benefit the organization with what they learn and also benefit their own careers at the same time. Program Budget The Gentry House is requesting $1,000 from the Giving Back Scholars grant in order to enhance intern knowledge and skill sets to better serve the organization and the community. The
15

Intern Incentive Program has been devised for The Gentry House to better serve its constituents. The executive director typically has to take time to train each intern. This takes time out of normal operations. Also, the intern is learning as they go, this means the intern is still fresh with the knowledge and tasks being presenting. This program would make the intern more effective at their job. Therefore, they would have an advanced skill set and knowledge from the AMI conference. This will make the operations of The Gentry House more efficient and effective. These operations consist of the ability to provide case management and other resources more quickly. This will allow The Gentry House to provide housing to more individuals who are in need. This program is geared towards helping interns attend the AMI conference. However, the AMI conference costs a substantial amount of money. The costs include: registration, travel, hotel, and food. The following budget is based off the AMI 2012 conference in Kansas City, Missouri. It is also an estimate of what each individual would end up paying. The AMI conference provides five meals during the individuals stay, two dinners and three lunches. The rest of the meals are the individuals responsibility. There are scholarships available for students attending the conference through the department. The Gentry House encourages the intern to apply for these scholarships. If the individual is granted a scholarship, the money left over from this grant will be put back into the program funds. This will help the program sustain itself and build the funds to expand the Intern Incentive Program in the future.

16

Program Budget

I.

Registration Fee

$350

II.

Housing A. Hotel B. Four night stay*

$396

III.

Travel A. Cost of gas*

$112

IV.

Food* A. Breakfast B. Dinner

$60 $40 (4 days) $20 (1 night)

Total:

$918

Budget notes: * The hotel is estimated at $99 per night. This cost could change each year. * With an estimated gas price of $3.50 per gallon, and an average car gas millage of 28mpg, and a 467 mile trip to Kansas City. This cost would change each year. *The AMI conference provides five meals Lunch is provided everyday Dinner is provided for the first and second nights ** If the intern receives a scholarship for the AMI conference or the cost is less than the grant, the excess funds will be put back in the program to build revenue. Additional Supports* See attached a letter from the city of Murray and The Gentry Houses latest financial statement.

17

Appendices

Appendix A: Non-Profit Status Verification Appendix B: Resume of Program Services Coordinator Appendix C: Pre/Post Test Appendix D: Final Evaluation Survey Appendix E: Organizational Brochure

18

Appendix A Non-Profit Status Verification

19

Appendix B Resume of Program Services Coordinator

20

Appendix C Pre/Post Test

21

Appendix D Final Evaluation Survey

22

Appendix E Organizational Brochure

23