The
volunteer event gave the students a sense of
need in the community from the perspective
of not-for-profit organizations in the
region.
2008-2009 Student
Philanthropy Council
Awards
$10,000 to five regional organizations
Five non-profit organizations in the Upstate
New York region are the recipients of a
total of $10,000 in grants funded by Upstate
Institute Student Philanthropy Council (SPC)
at Colgate University. In its third year,
the thirteen-member Council, comprised of
sophomores and juniors, considered
twenty-seven applications from non-profits
throughout central Upstate New York. The
grant awards will help to support the
following projects:
The Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc.,
$4645, to continue its “What About
Me? Grief Within the Classroom Program”
that provides individual and group grief
counseling to children within eleven Utica
City Schools. Counselors incorporate art
therapy to help youth cope with things like
death in the family, divorce, and other
tragic events.
The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program
(RSVP) of Madison County, $1200, for the
“Bone Builders Program,” a
community-based weekly exercise program led
by trained volunteers. The program
participants exercise regularly to maintain
bone density, strengthen balance, and
improve general fitness.
The Hamilton Emerald Foundation, $1000,
will partner with the Hamilton Theatre to
support the theater’s free programming for
the community. The theater serves the
community through its educational
programming, a free children’s series, and a
free “Movies Under the Stars,” among
many other offerings. The theater is a vital
component of the educational life of the
children and families of this area.
The Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts,
$1155, will use the funding to expand
their “Summer Kid’s Camp” and to
implement a “One Week Winter Kid’s Camp.”
The Kid’s Camp series enhances creative
skills, self-esteem, individuality,
self-expression, and imagination in children
through involvement with the arts.
The Utica Safe Schools Healthy Students
Partnership, Inc., $2000, will implement
“The Underground Café Teen Center Food
for Thought Program.” This new
initiative will support at-risk teens in
Utica, NY in developing healthy eating
habits and lifestyle choices. Food for
Thought will provide engaging,
interactive nutrition education and ensure
that teens that attend the teen center have
access to healthy snacks in the after-
school hours.
Under the direction of the Upstate Institute
Director Ellen Percy Kraly, PhD, the SPC met
with leaders from area non-profits and
foundations during the fall semester to
learn about philanthropy in upstate New
York. Guest lecturers included Diane L.
Brown, Executive Director of the Community
Foundation of South Central New York, Sam
Stradling, Co-Coordinator of the Hamilton
Food Cupboard, and Barbara Bartlett,
Director of the Lorenzo State Historic
Site. Kraly, who is also the William R.
Kenan, Jr. Professor of Geography at
Colgate, wrapped up the semester by guiding
students through a demographic assessment of
community needs and assets in the region.
In January, the SPC became a small working
foundation and developed a Request for
Proposals that focused on “projects that
strengthen community engagement, foster
cultural heritage and the arts, and address
basic and societal needs through creative
educational initiatives.” Upon receiving
the grant applications, the students
developed and conducted an evaluation
process that included careful review of
proposals and site visits with potential
grantees.
“This process was really tough as all the
proposals we received were great in one
respect or the other,” said Rashesh Shrestha,
a sophomore from Kathmandu, Nepal and member
of the SPC. “After the site visits, it
became all the more difficult to narrow down
the list. Nonetheless, we are very happy
with the diversity of organizations we have
chosen to fund this year.”
Casey Gorman, a sophomore member of the SPC
from Yardley, Pennsylvania, said, “After
hearing from and visiting so many deserving
organizations, it is very clear to me that
arts organizations, particularly in the
non-profit sector, are suffering because of
the economic recession. Though we knew this
going in to the process, it didn’t mean much
to us until we went out and saw what these
organizations are trying to do with the
arts. We particularly focused on supporting
organizations that employ the arts in
educational initiatives, and I am entirely
satisfied with the results.”
The SPC is supported by
the Brennan Family Foundation of Ohio, which
has ties to the university through Jay
Brennan ’81. The Foundation made a
gift of $50,000 to support the program for
five years. Each year, $10,000 of that
grant is made available to the SPC to
provide grants to area non-profits. The SPC
also operated in
2007-2008 and
2006-2007.
2007-2008 Student Philanthropy Council
The 2007-2008 Upstate Institute Student
Philanthropy Council (SPC) awarded three
grants to not-for-profit organizations in Central New York
for a total amount of
$10,000. These include:
-
The Martin Luther King, Jr.
Elementary School in Utica, New York
received a grant of $2,555 to grow their
character development program through the
purchase of supplemental teachers kits.
These additional resources provide new
tool sets for MLK’s faculty to
teach and reinforce values and behavioral
skills in their students.
-
It’s About Childhood and
Family, Inc. in Cazenovia, New York
received a grant of $3,550 to expand their
mental health services program into
Madison County and surrounding rural
areas.
It’s About Childhood and
Family
program provides parent, family and
teacher education/training seminars to
low-income and underserved populations “in
return” for volunteer efforts within the
community.
-
The Neighborhood Center in
Utica, New York
received a grant of $3895 in support of
the Somalia
Bantu Project, which provides ESL lessons
as well as culture transition and
community knowledge classes to Somali
refugee women. The classes address
issues such as receiving healthcare and
understanding the school system.
On Thursday April 24,
2008, the
Colgate students led an awards
celebration of the grantees at the
Colgate Inn in Hamilton, New York. The SPC supported
initiatives that enhance the personal and
life skills development for underserved
populations in the region. Grant applicants
could ask for grants from $1,000 to $5,000
in their proposals. Fifteen area
non-profits submitted applications.
Guest speakers, almost all alumni of
Colgate, included Jim Smith ‘70, Waldemar A.
Nielsen Chair in Philanthropy at Georgetown
University; Yee-Ann Cho ’90, Senior Program
Officer for Education at the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, Dorrie Ackerman ’81, Sr.
Regional Advancement Director at Colgate
University and Sarah Lange ’87, Principal,
Legacy Consulting, non-profit consulting
group in Boston, and William R. Kenan
Professor of Geography and Upstate Institute
Director, Ellen Percy Kraly, PhD.
In December, the Council
began the hands-on work of a small regional
foundation. The students met to identify
the focus of their grant making efforts,
draft an RFP, review applications, make site
visits and select the final recipients. Staff from the Upstate
Institute and the Sophomore Year Experience
selects Council members through a
competitive application. Upstate Institute Director
Ellen Percy Kraly, Ph.D., oversees the year
long, non-credit, service- learning
program. Additional support is provided by
the Sophomore Year Experience and the Annual
Fund.
2006-2007 Student
Philanthropy Council
In
the spring of 2007, a
team of sophomores and juniors worked on the
inaugural Upstate Institute Student
Philanthropy Council. Under the guidance of
director Ellen Kraly and staff member Kate
Lucey, the group distributed $10,000 in
grants to area nonprofits. On May 2,
2007 they
gathered with faculty, friends, and
community leaders in the Colgate Bookstore’s
Class of 2003 Events Room to present four
checks:
• $5,000 to the Utica-based Thea Bowman
House Kids with Promise project, providing
after-school programs and support for junior
high and high school students who do not
qualify for county Department of Social
Services child care subsidies
• $2,200 to the Hamilton Food Cupboard,
which will work with an area farm to bring
fresh fruits and vegetables to more than 100
families
• $1,800 to Utica’s Adult Learning Center,
which will use photography to tell the story
of refugees settling in central New York
• $1,000 to the Sherburne-Earlville School
Community/School Connections for Literacy
Success project, funding a traveling tutor
and creating literacy bags with books,
puppets, puzzles, crayons, clay, scissors,
and paper for incoming kindergarten
students.
“With a little of the money, we hope to
continue our field trips to New York,
Boston, and Philadelphia,” said Sandra
Wright, program director at the Thea Bowman
House. “They’re educational trips but
they’re also a lot of fun.”
“One of the most
rewarding aspects of serving on the council
has been the opportunity to discover the
great impact local organizations are making
in our community,” said council member Emily
Katz ’09 during the awards presentation.
“And for many of us, the time has been a
valuable first step toward careers in
philanthropy.”
Students were accepted to the council only
after an application process, coordinated by
deans Raj Bellani and Kim Taylor of the
Sophomore-Year Experience program.
Cassandra Galante ‘09, Widad Echahly ‘09,
Emily Katz ‘09, Ali Wolter ‘09, Erika
Scuadroni ‘08, Carrie Wagner ‘09, and Lisa
Henty ’08 were among the first students
selected to join the council.
The students sat in on a series of
discussions throughout the fall semester
arranged by Annual Fund Associate Director
Sarah Gonzalez Bocinski and the Upstate
Institute. Experts in the field of
philanthropy covered topics from the history
of philanthropy to best practices of
nonprofit administration. Guest speakers
included Jim Smith ‘70, Waldemar A. Nielsen
Chair in Philanthropy at Georgetown
University; Peggy Ogden, President and CEO,
Central New York Community Foundation;
Dorrie Ackerman ’81, Sr. Regional
Advancement Director at Colgate University
and Sarah Lange ’87, Principal, Legacy
Consulting, non-profit consulting group in
Boston.
In her capacity as the William R. Kenan
Professor of Geography, Ellen Percy Kraly
concluded the speakers’ series with an
overview of the upstate region and led the
students in reaching consensus necessary to
draft a Request for Proposals for Funding.
“We sought to develop a hands-on curriculum
on principles of philanthropy in
relationship to the needs and
characteristics of the Upstate region,”
Kraly stated.
The Student Philanthropy Council sought
proposals from non-profit organizations in
the central Upstate New York region for
strategic initiatives that enhance the
health, welfare and capacity of families and
communities. They refined their
requirements for grantees by noting that
“Successful applicants will propose
initiatives that address the needs and
issues immediately pertaining to the region
and its residents, equip beneficiaries with
tangible skills to sustain solutions, and
show capacity to implement the initiative
within one year.”
In February, Yee-Ann Cho ’90, Senior Program
Officer for Education at the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, traveled to campus to lead
an intensive workshop with the council on
grant evaluation. She also spoke about the
exceptional work she is doing at the Gates
Foundation—leading the foundation's efforts
to replicate successful school models across
the country.
Though the seminar is a non-credit course,
the students received plenty of credit for
their devotion to the process and their
attention to detail. “After Yee-Ann Cho’s
very productive visit, the council was ready
to become autonomous. The level of
professionalism as they carried out their
work was absolutely inspiring to see,” said
Kate Lucey.
Youth Philanthropy
Project launched at Norwich High School
Through a collaborative effort
with Chenango United Way, NBT Bank and
the Community Foundation for South Central New
York, and with funding from the Frederick &
Margaret L. Weyerhaeuser Foundation, the Upstate
Institute is supporting the Youth Philanthropy
Project. Sixteen juniors and seniors from
Norwich High School will learn about the
importance and impact of philanthropy in society
and how philanthropists find and fund worthy
causes. They will then get the chance to become
benefactors themselves when the council
distributes $10,000 to not-for-profit agencies
in Chenango County.The students will spend the
first semester developing leadership skills
while learning about philanthropy and non-profit
organizations from community members in the
nonprofit sector. During the second semester,
when the group transitions into a working
foundation, students will learn about the needs
of Chenango County and reach consensus on the
goals to guide their grant making efforts. The
capstone event will be a public award
presentation on behalf of those chosen by the
students to receive the grants. The year-long
program was developed after the model of the
Upstate Institute’s Student Philanthropy Council
at Colgate University. The project comes at the
beginning of a trend to get young people across
the nation to better understand philanthropy
through an intensive hands-on project, giving
out real money to real organization.
