Grant Proposal for Gentry House

8/2/2019 Grant Proposal for Gentry House

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Grant Proposal:

Intern Incentive Program

A program to address volunteer development in order to, both retain and trainvolunteers/interns at The Gentry House. This program will benefit both thosevolunteering 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


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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 Eva luation Survey

Appendix E....Organizational Brochure


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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


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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.


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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 leadin g

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 mi ssion 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


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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 w ork 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 theorganization will not perform as well and will not enjoy their intern experience.


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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.


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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 symp osium, 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.


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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 theinternship 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


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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 expe rience 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.


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The pre/post survey is designed to evaluate the intern s 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 intern s 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 toothers. (See appendix)


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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 life-

style 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 sh e 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


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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 nothave 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


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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


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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


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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.


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Program Budget

I. Registration Fee $350

II. Housing $396 A. HotelB. Four night stay*

III. Travel $112 A. Cost of gas*

IV. Food* $60 A. Breakfast $40 (4 days)B. Dinner $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.


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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


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Appendix A

Non-Profit Status Verification


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Appendix B

Resume of Program Services Coordinator


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Appendix C

Pre/Post Test


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Appendix D

Final Evaluation Survey


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Appendix E

Organizational Brochure

Grant Proposal for Gentry House

Documents