From today’s Tennessean:

June 24, 2008

Former nursing home to become residences for the deaf

Cornelia House, a former nursing home at the corner of Porter Road and Eastland Avenue in East Nashville, will become a residential complex for deaf adults in Tennessee.

Cornelia House was closed in 2007 after a series of violations.

The vacant building was purchased by a company controlled by Forrest Preston of East Tennessee, who wanted to donate the facility to a nonprofit organization.

Preston invited more than two dozen local nonprofits to tour the property and submit development proposals. He awarded the property to Urban Housing Solutions, which proposed to convert the building into a residential community for deaf adults and to provide additional amenities and services for the neighborhood, according to a press release from Urban Housing Solutions.

“Urban Housing has both the best concept for the building’s use and the ability to make it happen,” Preston said in the release. “I am delighted to provide this building to create a model community for deaf adults.”

Executive director Rusty Lawrence said Urban Housing Solutions will convert the nursing home into a total of 35 apartments, creating the first purpose-built residential community for deaf adults in Tennessee.

Approximately two-thirds will be reserved for deaf adults; the rest of the apartments will be designed as “live-work” spaces for working artists and artisans. The concept also calls for a cultural center that will be used for neighborhood art exhibitions, performances, and meetings, as well as activities sponsored by the League for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which may relocate its offices to the building.

In addition, the old nursing home cafeteria will be converted into a coffeehouse environment with possible performance space for songwriter nights, local musicians, and other performance artists.

Seven of the prior nursing home rooms will be converted into small retail spaces that will be focused on the creative arts and possibly dessert-oriented shops. The spaces will be offered at discounted rents so that neighborhood artists and entrepreneurs can get involved. The idea is to create the equivalent of a “farmers market” for artisans.

“We hope this project will be transformative,” said Lawrence. “We think the intersection at Porter Road and Eastland Avenue will soon become an interface between the hearing and deaf cultures, a place where the neighborhood can come together and learn from each other through the creative arts.”

An Explosive Poetic Experience at Rocketown on Monday, June 30th.

Come out and celebrate the 1st Annual Teen Spoken Word Grand Slam Final!

For more information, visit: http://www.youthspeaksnashville.org/

Closing the Food Gap– Food Security Partners event

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – On Thursday, July 24th at 6pm the Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee will host a book talk and signing with Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty. The event is free and open to the public and will be held at Second Presbyterian Church, 3511 Belmont Blvd, Nashville. The event will be followed by a light reception featuring locally-grown foods.

Winne will read from his book, Closing the Food Gap, in which he chronicles the beginnings of the food movement and the crippling effect Regan-era cuts to federal food assistance programs had on the poor and elderly. He charts the role “supermarket abandonment” and the proliferation of fast-food chains have played in the growing obesity and diabetes crisis among low-income Americans. Winne provides an insider’s look at strategies employed by those working to close the food gap in communities across the country, from New Orleans to Brooklyn to Oregon. Food banks, community gardens, farmer’s markets, cooperative supermarkets, community supported agriculture programs, and nutrition programs are just a few of the models he discusses

A book signing and reception will follow the reading.

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace states: “Closing the Food Gap reveals the chasm between the two food systems of America-the one for the poor and the one for everyone else. Speaking from his decades of political activism, Mark Winne offers compelling solutions for making local, organic, and highly nutritious food available to everyone. It’s heartening to find a book that successfully blends a passion for sustainable living with compassion for the poor.”

ABOUT MARK WINNE

From 1979 to 2003, Mark Winne was the executive director of the Hartford Food System, a private non-profit agency that works on food and hunger issues in the Hartford, Connecticut area. During his tenure with HFS, Winne organized community self-help food projects that assisted the city’s lower income and elderly residents. His work with the Food System included the development of commercial food businesses, Connecticut’s Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, farmers’ markets, a 25-acre community supported agriculture farm, a food bank, food and nutrition education programs, and a neighborhood supermarket.

Winne is a co-founder of a number of food and agriculture policy groups including the City of Hartford Food Policy Commission, the Connecticut Food Policy Council, End Hunger Connecticut!, and the national Community Food Security Coalition. He was an organizer and chairman of the Working Lands Alliance, a statewide coalition working to preserve Connecticut’s farmland, and is a founder of the Connecticut Farmland Trust. Mark was a member of the United States Delegation to the 2000 World Conference on Food Security in Rome and is a 2001 recipient of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary’s Plow Honor Award. From 2002 until 2004, Mark was a Food and Society Policy Fellow, a position supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Mark currently writes, speaks, and consults extensively on community food system topics including hunger and food insecurity, local and regional agriculture, community food assessment, and food policy. His essays and opinion pieces have appeared in the Hartford Courant, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Nation, In These Times, Sierra Magazine, Orion, Successful Farming and numerous organizational and professional newsletters and journals across the country. Winne now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. More information at www.markwinne.com

ABOUT THE FOOD SECURITY PARTNERS OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE

The Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee brings people together to create a more healthy, just, and sustainable food system for Middle Tennessee. The organization has over 100 Partners and Members representing all parts of the food system, from farm to fork. The Food Security Partners is a project of the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies and is funded through community support. More information at www.foodsecuritypartners.org.

Garry and Wyma Hornbuckle will hold an exhibition of their works in the Janet Levine March gallery from July 1-31. A reception for the artists will be held on July 8 from 7 – 8:30 p.m. at the GJCC.

Prior to beginning his artistic endeavors, Garry Hornbuckle spent 25 years in technology development and marketing in Silicon Valley. His digital art and photography is focused on capturing, bending, and occasionally breaking the boundary between real and unreal. His work is recorded and shared as individual and limited edition prints, following the traditions of fine art print-making — updated for a digital world. He is fascinated by the new “reality” made possible by digital image creation and manipulation.

Wyma Hornbuckle has worked passionately for acceptance of visual arts and artists in Nashville. In 1992 she led the prestigious but then floundering Nashville Artist Guild to a renaissance with the Phoenix Exhibition in which her painting “Two Moons” was featured. Later she was one of the primary artist organizers and exhibitors at Amaranth Gallery in Nashville.

Presently painting in oils and acrylics, her wide experience includes work in photography, mixed media, pastel, and clay. She is a member of national and local art organizations and has served two terms as President of the Nashville Artist Guild. Holding a Cum Laude BFA degree with minors in Art History, Psychology (Art Therapy emphasis), Photography, and Clay, she is also an accredited piano teacher and a published writer.

Garry Hornbuckle’s work has been exhibited at shows locally, nationally and internationally, including Instances of Reality in San Fransico, CA, Night Market in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Eclipse:Emerge , Art Without Apology and Small Works:Big Ideas, all in Nashville. He currently serves as the President of the Nashville Artist Guild.

Wyma Hornbuckle has had ten solo exhibitions, multiple two-person shows, and her work has been included in numerous invitational and group exhibitions. In the early 90s, her painting “Red Moon Rising” was selected from 1,700 entries as one of only 53 works to be included in Cheekwood’s First National Contemporary Painting Exhibition. She was also named one of the forty most outstanding women artists in Middle Tennessee when her painting “Midnight Rainbow” was selected for the National Museum of Women in the Arts Exhibition at Cheekwood.

Summer gallery hours are Monday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call the GJCC at 356-7170.

This editorial was published in the Tennessean this weekend. David Bohan, the founder of Bohan Advertising, has some interesting insights that can be easily applied to the nonprofit community:

June 15, 2008

Social media: Savvy marketers take advantage of social network sites

By DAVID BOHAN

Many business people today are following the example of their teenage children by going social online.

Use of social media is now commonplace for more than two-thirds of business professionals. Social media include a number of digital tools.

First are social networking sites. LinkedIn, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter lead the site parade used by professionals and organizations to stay in touch with prospects, clients and colleagues.

Other social media that can be measured – and therefore analyzed by business people – include blogs, message boards, podcasts and e-mail.

A recent study by Communispace focused on the fulfillment of social needs online. The findings suggest that businesses can create greater affinity with prospects and customers by understanding the reasons behind the popularity of social networks. Here are some of the things users like:

• People can define and redefine themselves with their profiles online.
• Social networks allow people to develop and manage their virtual reputations.
• Contact and feedback enabled by the Internet are the best ways to seek and provide help.
• Online communities are places where people find others with similar tastes and interests.
• A real community is formed when mutual interests are teamed with long-term relationships.

An example of a Nashville marketing success with social media is a project done by Cricket Communications, the cell phone company. Cricket significantly boosted its exposure in Nashville’s musician community through social networking that involved a contest for bands. That concept is growing into other markets.

Opportunities abound

Social media create some significant opportunities for businesses. An interactive agency called smashLAB in Vancouver recently published a white paper on social media. Social networking opportunities it cited included:

• Social networking helps business owners connect with their best customers.
• It gives customers a platform to communicate and a reason to become advocates for a business.
• It creates a shift from simply sending a message to engaging the recipient in conversation. The process invites discussion, and it allows users to share their experiences.
• Blogs promote customer response and help business owners gain insight.

Customer feedback, which is almost instantaneous, allows you to measure marketing’s effectiveness quickly and then to modify your tactics.

Concentrate on delivering value to interested parties without immediately concentrating on the desire to sell your product or service.

Build relationships between your company and customers by being active in the social media environment. Use social media to experiment. Ask for feedback; listen carefully.

Smart marketers are recognizing the role social media play in creating brand perception. Whether consumers simply read blogs or participate in sites, they all are part of the new social media world.

Savvy marketers are exploring this brave new world with them.

By Kim Carpenter Drake

Millennials. Also known as Generation Y, this group encompasses those born between 1980 and 1994 and is the second largest generation after Baby Boomers. We have heard much in the news lately about their perspective on the workplace and their sometimes high demands for recognition and positive feedback. They are, after all, the children of Baby Boomers and the most “hovered-over” generation in U.S. history, according to Deloitte Consulting.

How will they lead us in the future and how will we, as nonprofits, embrace them? This is a tough question. Most nonprofit leaders are the same Baby Boomers who are leading our country’s largest corporations. The generation gap is really more of a chasm and the echo is carrying over into our personal lives, consumer habits and charitable giving.

Just imagine, however, a generation that cannot remember a time before computers – a generation that expects everything to be at their fingertips, on-line and plugged in 24/7. These are the young people who we need to start courting as donors, volunteers and leaders.

Here are a few ideas to consider:

• Evaluate your web presence. If it’s stale, Millennials will see your organization as outdated.
• Look at your board structure. Use your committees to develop new talent and reward hard work and dedication.
• Reconsider your donor recognition program. Although these might not be your leading donors today, they can change the course of your organization if they become loyal donors now.

Generational differences impact our marketing, fundraising and programming but we all share one thing – a desire to make a difference. Given the chance, Millennials will do just that.

Kim Carpenter Drake is a trainer and consultant with CNM. She also runs her own consulting business and blog at www.goaldrivenphilanthropy.com.

You may have seen the article on Earth Day a few weeks ago that suggested where to recycle exercise equipment. Sports 4 All Foundation has received multiple pieces of exercise equipment (stair steppers, treadmills, etc..) as a result of the article. The Nashville community has donated these pieces to help fulfill Sports 4 All’s Mission: to improve the quality of life of individuals with disabilities by providing funding, equipment and programming to enable full participation in sports and recreation activities

Sports 4 All also has sports equipment of all kinds for donation to partner agencies. In order to be eligible for a donation, you must be a 501c3 serving individuals with disabilities. Any age, any disability, and inclusive settings qualify. Sports 4 All exists to support organizations in augmenting recreation activities to benefit the health and wellbeing of individuals with disabilities. Please contact (615) 354-6454 for more information.

Bank of America has an exciting opportunity for area nonprofits:

At Bank of America, we believe that healthy communities are places where all of us want to live, work, raise families and pursue our dreams. The bank’s approach to charitable investments deploys philanthropic resources—including grants, volunteer and community programs—to help neighborhoods grow and prosper. The Neighborhood Excellence Initiative focuses on recognizing outstanding non-profits through the Neighborhood Builders award and those volunteers who make a difference in our community through the Local Heroes Award.    

What is a Neighborhood Builder? Nonprofit organizations working to improve their local communities are the cornerstones of vibrant neighborhoods. The work of these organizations and their dedicated leaders improves the quality of education, creates safer neighborhoods, builds more affordable housing, addresses critical social service needs, and brings about positive change in communities.

Neighborhood Builders recipients will:

• Receive $200,000 in general operating support — $100,000 annually for 2 years
• Benefit from specially designed leadership development programs:
  • Senior executives gather for two 4-day workshops. Topics include: strategic thinking; business planning; leadership development and succession planning; long-term business growth; and building a diverse funding base
  • Emerging leaders gather for three 4-day workshops. Topics include: developing organizational management skills, managing strategic opportunities, forging alliances, and building communities

Apply today for a 2008 Neighborhood Builder Award.  The deadline for submissions is June 27, 2008.

Please share this information with others who are interested in making a difference in our community.  For more information on the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative, please contact me at 749-3131 or Trudy Mishev at 749-3405.    

The Salama Institute of Salama Urban Ministries, Inc. “kicks” off its 2nd Year with a dance performance entitled “Creative Praise”. This one hour program will include the creation story, spirituals and celebrative numbers. The lights, music and dance will make for a very special evening in the newly opened and beautiful Belmont University Troutt Theatre on Belmont Blvd. You don’t want to miss this event. Please circulate. This is a free event. Encourage our youth with your attendance.

Dance: June 5, 6, 7 “Creative Praise” 7 pm
New Troutt Performing Arts Center on The Belmont Campus

1900 Belmont Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37212-3757

www.salamserves.org

www.belmont.edu/theatre/theatre-dept-full- html.html

QUESTION:
Do you know of any good charts, excel formats or database or software that I could see a model of that helps someone keep track of prospective, pending and existing grants (deadlines, etc)?

 

Please post responses in the comments section. Thanks!