Monday, 28 February

The new Development Director started today. She's awesome. I went into her office to introduce myself, offer a helping technical support hand and, before I knew it, I was talking about the Dev Dept's immediate needs for organisation and a centralised database to keep track of foundation deadlines and major contribution letters of gratitude, etc. She listened to my concerns and had suggestions of her own and, altogether, I thought the conversation was very productive. We (the Grant Writer, CEO and I) have all discussed informally our wishes for the new Director, what we hope she can do, what we need her to do, etc. Our Dept (nay, our organisation) has been starving for a Director for quite some time now; waiting for someone to come on-board and provide some direction and make the executive decisions that the CEO has been too preoccupied with other tasks to handle (as well he should be). I don't want to be too forward with her, but I think it's a good idea that we all sit down together and get a feel for where we are versus where we want to be and how we want to get there. Ah, balance. Learning it is tricky.

I only worked until lunch today.

Friday, 25 February

Today was more relaxed. I spent most of my time in communication with the Director of FaF planning for the next panel discusison (March 31st) with Michael Gecan, a grassroots organiser from the Industrial Areas Foundation and author of Going Public. Though the conference room provided for us yesterday by the NY Design Center was good, we weren't entirely convinced it was where we wanted to hold our next Panel, which promised to be more like a roundtable discussion than 'panel' discussion.

By the end of the day, we had decided that we wanted to hold the meeting at the NYDC anyway. I booked the room and called it a day.

I worked 8 hours today.

Thursday, 24 February

Last night, our CEO was interviewed by a TimeOut: New York reporter asking about the City's planned HOPE Count, to take place next Monday evening. Here is the exerpt from the article that was published this morning, before a representative of DHS came to speak to our organisation:

This being New York, the HOPE naturally has its critics. "The goal of trying to get an accurate census is laudable," says Arnold Cohen, president and CEO of the Partnership for the Homeless, "but one night using untrained volunteers is not going to get an accurate count." Cohen describes last year's estimate of 2,694 homeless in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island "an undercount"—not a good thing if you're using those numbers to determine policy. "It baffles me," Cohen says. "The city has outreach in the five boroughs already who could get an unduplicated count—why not use them?"

So this morning, when the Panel was assembled and the audience in place, the first thing the CEO did was issue an informal apology to the Deputy of DHS for making his "baffling" comment, a faux pas on the part of the CEO that kept the Development staff grumbling about how to keep our CEO from sticking his foot in his mouth.

The Discussion itself was great. Dr. Tsemberis's study on the comparison between the "Consumer Choice" and Continuum of Care models convinced me, at least, that the current models of servicing homeless people need a change. The Deputy of DHS was open and honest, interested and well-spoken. She didn't seem defensive, though she must have felt like she was standing in a room of sharks, and she was the bait. But the audience was well-behaved, even our Lead Advocate, who sat on her hands almost the entire session. I know because I was monitoring her breathing from the back row.

The discussion went off without a hitch and I went back to the office, cleaned up from the morning's activities and went home.

I was in for 6 hours today.

Wednesday, 23 February

I had to miss the two grant writing seminars provided by the Foundation Center yesterday because I was pre-occupied with plans for tomorrow's Panel; the CEO and I have been discussing topics for it.

Early in the morning I called in the catering for tomorrow.

Also, I've been asked to join the planning committee for the Annual Membership Meeting held by the Partnership, usually in June, for all 'partners' of the Partnership to come together to discuss business, approve budget, and vote on Board Members. Today was the first meeting. As a result of this, I've created an email group with all of the committee memebers' email addresses to facilitate communication about plans for the event.

It was a long, busy 8 hours today. Tomorrow will be even longer, however exciting.

Tuesday, February 22

The panel discussion with Dr. Sam Tsemberis and Maryanne Schretzsman is this Thursday. I was finally able to send off a mass email with the speakers' related documents last Friday. I've been at the mercy of the CEO and Lead Attourney. The former has been constantly reminding and pushing me to get related academic or position papers of our speakers for distribution to the staff (so they can read up on the speakers before attending), the latter has been disconnected from organising the panel discussion (even though she's responsible for it) and a difficult party to get any assistance from. Because I'm a only secondary organiser in this thing, I'm not privy to information or contact with our speakers, so I'm shy to call them and ask for their academic/position papers.

Dr. Tsemberis is the founder of Pathways to Housing, a revolutionary model of housing homeless clients that runs against the grain of current models. His model is based on consumer choice, where the client (consumer) tells you what he needs when asked (choice). It's simple, really, but the prevailing model of homeless service providers (including the Partnership) is the Continuum of Care, a model which requires the client follows a prescribed path towards eventually 'earning' a house, a path which includes, among other hoops, getting and remaining sober, taking required medication, and becoming "housing ready" (i.e. learning, some suggest, useless skills for becoming ready again for housing).

Maryanne Schretzsman is the Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Planning of NYC's Department of Homeless Services. With the anxious tension between homeless service providers/advocates and DHS as a result of the City's newest Housing Stability Plus plan (see post dated 1/13/05), this upcoming discussion should be very provocative. Our CEO has a good relationship with the Deputy Commissioner and it'll be interesting to see how the discussion plays out.

I was in a full 8 hours today, catching up with Grant Writer regarding what I missed yesterday.

Monday, 21 February

I'm not going into work today. I have a paper due for another class and am staying home to work on it. However, I am available on P-ship email all day long.

0 hours will be worked today.

Friday, 18 February

Today the Executive Assistant had to leave after lunch, so I took over her position after she left, answering the CEO's phone and generally filling in for her.

Until then, though, I was doing some random research on different foundations, helping the Grant Writer 'translate' granter-speak. I wonder if it's because I have no formal training in Grant Writing that I don't always understand what foundations are trying to communicate to their grantees. Their letters to us are always in plain English, but not always specific about their needs or reasons for why we are denied. Typically, the granter requests an update on your progress after they've given you a grant; they want to see how their money is being spent. As a Grant Writer, you want to give them the most accurate and complete amount of information, without overloading them with rhetoric. The Grant Writer and I spend a lot of time discussing and debating what funders mean in their often vague requests for progress reports. We were in conversation quite a bit today.

I worked 8 hours today.

Thursday, 17 February

Today was lost to figuring out how to velobind a document. Early in the morning, the CEO asked me to research, print and store an extensive study on affordable housing (just released today). Finding and printing was no trouble; storage was another question altogether.

We have this ancient velobinding machine, an office equipment beast. I spent a good four hours reading the manual, cover to cover, practising the hole punching and figuring out how the darn thing worked. It was the most frustrating four hours I've ever spent in my life. I missed lunch.

After lunch, I proofread the Independence Community Trust interim report on our Education Rights Project, researched on LexisNexis "housing as a human right," and filled out and filed my application for graduation.

Needless to say, I worked until 5 pm.

Wednesday, 16 February

Today I worked on compiling the data I collected yesterday and mapping out a plan for what to do with the wealth of information I had collected. I had that form letter that I started on a few weeks ago (see post dated 1/26/05), but wasn't sure if that would be appropriate. Plus, it wasn't even complete. Until today, anyway. It's not entirely done, but it is closer than before.

Dear Potential Donor Contact,

As fellow New Yorkers, we know you recognize the faces of homelessness when you see them on our streets, but can you spot the newly-housed individuals and families looking for a fresh start? Furnish a Future does. We see them daily as they browse our warehouse, located in Bushwick, Brooklyn,[1] for furniture and housewares, searching for pots and pans, small appliances, sofas and chairs, rugs, lamps and other essential items which turn a house into a home.

Ours is a clientele of great need for start-up items. We’re not asking for fancy gadgets or expensive name brands (although these items won't be turned away), but our clients don’t want junk, either. Bakeware or pots and pans with a scratch or two, slightly dented metal strainers or graters, items from incomplete sets of cookware, flatware, dinnerware, cutlery and the like are all desperately needed in our clients’ homes. Consider all the rarely-thought-of-but-couldn’t-live-without items in your kitchen; these are products healthy, happy homes are made of.

You must be asking yourself, What’s in it for me and my company?

• For starters: we're a non-profit organization receiving funding from, for example, NYC Department of Homeless Services[2]; donating to us means a tax write-off for you. Talk to your accountant for details about itemizing charitable donations, but you determine the monetary value of the items donated, the cost of labor associated with collecting and packaging/preparing donations for delivery, and the expense of trucking or shipping those donations.
• Also, consider how much money you could save in storage costs by donating flawed, unprofitable items.
• Do we even need to mention the feel good value of your donation? You’ll be helping furnish the homes of families who have lived on the streets and in shelters for months at least, bringing them comfort and capability to cook deliciously healthy meals

---

[1] Necessary?

[2] “receiving funding from…Services” could be put simply “receiving public funding.” I put the bit in about DHS to lend credibility to our non-profitability. Necessary?

I'm nervous about her response.

I worked 7 hours today.

Tuesday, 15 February

It was a cold day, but with clear skies, so my adventure downtown to the Bowery District to drum up donation business for FaF wasn't too rough. I started out at the base of the District, walking my way up and down the street, stopping in any relevant supply store. I hadn't quite figured out what I would say or ask for when I got to each store, and didn't really know until the words actually came out of my mouth.

As it turns out, it wasn't that difficult to sell FaF. The only difficulty was in perceived language bariers between the clerks and myself, an intimidating factor. In those stores, sad to say, I racially profiled the clerk's native tongue and inconspicuously picked up a business card and left the store, without announcing myself, figuring I would create a form letter later on for easier conversation.

Three hours of walking in and out of 100+ supply stores and retailers, I hopped the J train and headed back home, feeling successful.

I pulled 'bout 4 hours in total, including transportation time.

Monday, 14 February

When I checked my email this morning, I had an email from the Director of FaF, Furnish-A-Future, our free furniture and housewares bank for families moving out of the shelter system and into housing, asking if I had found any information on potential donors for FaF.

On January 20th, I left the panel discussion session with the FaF Director to do research on her database for our Lead Advocate. While traveling to Bushwick, Brooklyn, the location of FaF, we talked about my goals for this internship and beyond school. I told her I was interested in grant writing and development and she enlisted my aid for finding donors for the furniture and housewares for her warehouse. She suggested I scour the Bowery District for potential housewares donors and I enthusiastically agreed to it.

So, here we were, two weeks later and I had barely begun my research on this. I told her it would take some time as I was working on other projects, so when her email showed up in my mailbox this morning, inquiring about the status of my 'development,' I wanted to let her know that I was at least still thinking about it, even if not directly. I had given it some thought previously, about how to do this research, and emailed her that I would be heading down to the Bowery District later this week to walk door-to-door and pitch my sale. I planned this for Tuesday, tomorrow, and let her know.

Today, I researched everything about the Bowery District, once one of the oldest trade streets in NYC, still much the same. The restaurant and lighting districts are down there, two merchant types ripe with potential FaF donations.

I was in for 7 hours today.

Friday, 11 February

Tomorrow is the Share Your Heart Volunteer Expo 2005, held in Grand Central Station. The point is for all interested non-profit organisations in need of volunteers/support to have representatives and materials available for prospective volunteers/supporters. I volunteered to man a booth for the Partnership, but was a bit nervous about 'selling' the Partnership face-to-face with the general public. I wanted to make sure to have accurate answers for their questions and be able to represent the Partnership to the best of my abilities, so I spent some time with the Volunteer Coordinator today. She answered some of my questions with definitive answers, and coached me on how to answer the questions that didn't have canned answers. Basically, she just told me to be honest with anyone who had questions I couldn't answer; if I didn't know the answer, be honest, but helpful. She offered to do some role-play with me, practise some answers on her. I was too shy to do so, but I worked out some responses for general questions and felt better afterwards.

Also, I finally got a room booked for the next panel discussion. We're having it at one of our Board Member's office building. He's the Director of the New York Design Center, so we're getting the room for free! I've booked the camera crew and spoken with the caterer, a lovely Irish woman, to find out when I can call in the catering order (I'm waiting for RSVP's to come in, so I want to have an accurate count).

I worked a full 8 hours today.

Thursday, 10 February

Yesterday, I requested time this morning with our Development Associate to learn eTapestry, our online donor information database. We planned for 10 am. I just asked her about it and she said something about urgently needing to run reports and "can we do it this afternoon?" Well, no, I thought, but replied, "Let's just do it tomorrow. I was going to try to learn the system before I met with [the CEO] today so I'll probably just figure it out on my own and ask you any questions I may have" with a forced smile.

Today I spent the day with the foundations, researching deadlines and looking for inconsistencies and holes in our system. I was looking for ways to improve our systems of filing and organising our donor databases. We currently have three different systems of information storage: the "hard file," which houses paper documentation of correspondence with our foundation and government donors; the "electronic files," or the G: Drive, which is our common computer network server, where we store the electronic copies of proposals and related materials; the online file, or eTapestry, which is an online database that stores foundation information, but can't track any of the physical (or copies of) paperwork. These three individual systems combine to form a single, inconsistent system that requires that you check all three before verifying research on our donor relationships.

This hodge-podge "system" was created by employees who couldn't agree on how to organise the system, so they all went with their technological comfort levels, some moving things electronically, others maintaining the paper system. My goal is to organise the entire system, but I can't do that until the new Development Director arrives and provides us with her preference and guidance. So, for now, I will just leave the 'project' alone and record the holes when I find them.

I worked a full 8 hours today.

Wednesday, 9 February

More time was spent today looking for a venue for the Panel Discussion. We're mostly going to have to have it at Rockefeller University.* It's a beautiful space, but a three avenue walk over from the 4,5, & 6 line, a serious consideration when planning events in NYC. You see, we are on the 1,9 line, and it is generally acknowledged by New Yorkers that crosstown transportation is the bane of everyone's existence, and favourite fodder for MTA hatred. But, as yet, there is no clear solution to the "problem." If you ask me, NYer's are spoiled for getting such excellent mass transit service at all. It could be worse, ask any Dutch citizen.

I missed the meet and greet session of the new Development Director. The CEO, Development Assistant, Grant Writer, Events Planner, and Director of Communications were all in on it and, afterwards, I felt dissed for being left out. I talked it over with the Grant Writer, with whom I've developed a close professional relationship. She was quite upset that I was not invited to the meet and greet. Later, I asked the CEO how the meeting went and he remembered that he forgot to invite me in; he apologised profusely and said that he had meant to invite me in, but it had slipped his mind. His sincere apology made me feel better for being left out.

I worked until just after lunch, pulling only 5 hours today.

*I visited the campus last Friday

Tuesday, 8 February

Our panel discussion was moved to the 24th of this month, a fact which bought me more time to find a new location, but it seems I can't move fast enough to book a suitable venue. It's ridiculously difficult to book a conference room in NYC on the cheap. I should become less-shy about shamelessly asking for the room at a reduced, tax-rebate rate (for the providers), but I'm a work in progress.

I also spend a good part of the day collecting data for the Advocate's meeting with fellow homeless service providers and advocates*.

As usual, I turned in an 8-hour day.


*the name of which must be left anonymous; the Partnership receives the majority of it's funding from the City of New York. As such, we try not to yell at the City whenever possible because we don't want to lose valuable funding and a respectful relationsihp. Our Advocate, however, as part of her job, must maintain a relationship with other, more outspoken homeless advocacy groups in the city, whose funding (I presume) is not very strongly tied to the City.

Monday, 7 February

The new Director of Development is due to arrive the 28th of February, a day both the Grant Writer and I greatly look forward to. It's been since September that the Partnership has had official direction in Development, with the Junior and Senior Grant Writers having left the staff a month into my temp job (I began the beginning of October). The CEO has enlisted my aid* with researching and writing the grants around here, and maintaining a smooth relationship with funders, but at a heavy cost to his attention span. Frankly, I'm impressed he's able to find the time, energy and ability to direct and run the Development Department at all. We received news of the new Director's arrival today; she was still in the interview process when I was acting as the CEO's Assistant.

Today I worked mostly with the Grant Writer, planning for upcoming deadlines, revising the Gimbels letter of interest, and discussing the disappointing response from the Cowels Foundation, from whom we received $2,500, though we requested $10,000.

I pulled 7 hours today.


*if that gives you any indication of how hard-up the Partnership is for employees, or of how highly the CEO thinks of me.

Friday, 4 February

This morning I had a meeting with the Senior Events Planner at Rockefeller University, located at 66th and York. She showed me some available spaces at the school and I fell in-love with the Welch Hall Reading Room. The cost was a little high (try $400 more for the room than at NYU) but since we're running low on time (and options), I asked the Planner to put me down for a "soft-book," an industry term meaning "tentative booking." I then went down to Houston Street and Lafayette, to look, again*, at NYU Wagner Institute's facilities. The room is awkwardly shaped and would serve better lecture style than for our purposes, which are to encourage discussion amongts the panelists and audience members, but it's available for our time slot (we agreed on a date and time JUST yesterday).

When I returned to the office I discussed my findings with the CEO and recommended the Welch Hall; he was not impressed with the cost and said to keep looking. So I spent the rest of the afternoon emailing different venues, making calls and leaving voicemails.

I worked the full shift today.

*refer to 1/19/05 entry

Thursday, 3 February

Today I spent the entire morning in email communication with co-workers while at home. I spent more time proofreading the Altria and Gimbel proposals and planning coordination of speakers, board members and programme directors for the upcoming panel discussion.

I only worked about 3 hours today.

Wednesday, February 2

Today was the day of the rally for affordable housing. I started out the morning working on the Altria proposal with the Grant Writer, piecing together a budget, working on the wording and proofreading. Shortly before noon, I began working on some ideas for posters for the poster-making hour for the rally later in the afternoon. Then I spent time making the posters with co-workers who were all planning to attend the rally. Around 3.30 pm, a half-dozen of us from the Partnership went down to City Hall for the rally (see story on rally here).

The story on affordable housing goes like this: NYC has not spent any money on building, fixing or saving housing since the mid-70's. Meanwhile, just this year, Mayor Bloomberg has been planning to drop $300 million dollars on the "West Side Stadium," as it is commonly referred. The City's position is that the stadium will bring in countless riches to the economy (NY Jets and a group trying to bring the Olympics to NYC in 2012 are the biggest supporters). Of course, whenever the government moves to spend money on a grandiose money-making scheme (whether or not it will work) the "have nots" view these plans as frivolous at best, economic thievery at worst. Homeless people can't afford Jets tickets, goes the retort. It is the position of the Partnership that housing is the key to eliminating homelessness. There are other schools of thought out there (Prof. Shinn of NYU wrote a paper on this subject) that contrast this, but strong support exists for affordable housing as a major factor for preventing/"curing" homelessness. Personally, I haven't done enough research on it either way to determine for myself, but I went to the rally anyway to support the Partnership.

I worked a full shift today.

Tuesday, February 1

Today was filled with searching for the next panel discussion location, now just 3 weeks away. I'm finding there is a lot of waiting around for other people on this group project. It's frustrating- to an exent. I'm only responsible for the things I'm able to do and if the senior planner for this discussion doesn't even have a date picked out yet, it does me no good to find an available location.

Yesterday, the Advocate asked that I research the landlords of the HSP tenants with building code violations, so see if there are any links between them and to dig up general dirt, if it's available. So I spent some time working on that today as well.

I worked 8 hours.