Webinar Opportunity - The 2010 Census: the Door-to-Door Count

Census Director Robert Groves announced in a news conference
yesterday that the mail back response rate to this year's Census had reached the level achieved in the 2000 Census, roughly 72%.

Louisiana's response rate is at 64%, but there is still time to get everyone counted.

Census takers must visit 46 million unresponsive homes to complete the count.

Join Terri Ann Lowenthal of the Funders' Census Initiative and the Census Project, Bridgette Rongitsch of Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network and Catherine Han Montoya of the Leadership Conference Education Fund to review this next phase of the census for nonprofits working to ensure an accurate count.

Register Today!

For more information on how your organization can help Louisiana achieve an accurate count in the 2010 Census, contact Ashley Herad at ashley@lano.org .

***************

Co-sponsored by the National Voter Engagement Network, the Leadership Conference Education Fund and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials

LANO Announces New Group Health Partnership

Small staffs and modest budgets can make affordable health insurance a difficult benefit for many nonprofits to provide their employees.

According to a 2009 study by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, health insurance concerns now impact nonprofits in several ways. They represent a vital benefit to offset relatively low worker pay scales. Yet fast-rising premiums limit access and risk sustainable coverage as nonprofit revenues continue to decline.

Consequently, many nonprofits have ceased or reduced health insurance coverage, or have shifted costs increasingly to their employees.

The same study finds that fewer than half of nonprofits with annual budgets under $500 thousand (a category representing the majority of LANO members) currently provide employee health insurance.

To meet this pressing need for Louisiana nonprofits, and as part of an ongoing review and revision of its member benefits, LANO is pleased to announce a new partnership with group health insurance provider Group Brokerage, Inc.
Baton Rouge-based Group Brokerage, Inc. offers statewide reach and strong ability and expertise in serving small groups—specializing in organizations with two or more employees. The company represents major state insurance carriers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of LA, United Healthcare, Humana and Coventry Healthcare. It provides a complete range of group and individual health insurance policies with both full and limited coverage options.

As a special benefit to LANO members, Group Brokerage, Inc. has allied with the Louisiana Dental Plan (LDP), Louisiana's oldest and largest discount Preferred Provider Network (P.P.N.), to offer a unique menu of dental and other healthcare-related products and services at its lowest available rate.

For a full listing of LANO member benefits offered by Group Brokerage, Inc. and LDP, download the LANO 2010 Group Health flier or email info@lano.org, writing Group Health in the subject line.

For a special review of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (signed into law on March 23, 2010), see the LANO Public Policy page Healthcare Reform and Nonprofits. The new US law provides unique tax incentives to nonprofits that extend health insurance to their employees, a change sure to boost interest in securing this important benefit for Louisiana's nonprofit workers.

Catch Kingsley House on HBO’s Treme

The seniors at the Kingsley House Adult Services program love watching tv. A new flat screen is mounted on the brick wall of an enclosed porch. Just to the left of it hang two beautiful old shutters. The white board shutters, with crescents carved into them, lead into a room that’s sparsely furnished and quiet now. Just a few chairs and a sofa lay around as the sounds of the tv and the shouts of children filter into the room. The only unusual thing about the room is the walls. They’re covered with dozens of empty picture hooks hanging at every level. The room is waiting, ready to be transformed into a set for the new HBO series Treme. This Sunday, April 18th, the room won’t be to the side of the tv. It’ll be at the center of tv screens around the nation as the office of Creighton Bernette, John Goodman’s character on the show, which is a music-filled drama about the months following Hurricane Katrina. Bernette is a college professor who is a passionate, and often profane, voice for the rebuilding of New Orleans.

It’s fitting that Kingsley House would be the set for Creighton Bernette’s office. After Hurricane Katrina, the nonprofit played a key role in the rebuilding of the city and the return of its citizens. It’s part of a 114 year tradition of service that has confronted the key challenges of each generation. “When the community needed education on Tuberculosis we were at the forefront and when Hurricane Katrina devastated our city and our families, we created the first Resettlement and Recovery Center in the Gulf Coast,” said Kingsley House Development Director Donna Paramore. “We are the community’s safe haven through dramatic change.”

Kingsley House serves more than 7,000 people annually through the Adult Services program for seniors and medically fragile adults; the largest Head Start Program in the city; an afterschool program; a summer camp; a teen program; Food Stamp and Medicaid Enrollment Assistance; Family Counseling and Community and Supportive Services. The nonprofit serves with an excellence that has attracted regional and national recognition. Kingsley House holds the highest four star rating for financial integrity from Charity Navigator. Kingsley House is a member organization of LANO, and their Executive Director, Dr. Keith Liederman, is a board member. Kingsley House is also a Louisiana Standards for Excellence® Seal Holder. Standards for Excellence® is a national accrediting program that promotes 57 standards based on eight guiding principles. These standards describe how the most well-managed nonprofit organizations should, and do, operate. LANO is one of five inaugural replicating partners of the Standards for Excellence and is spreading the model to other states.

Treme has received its own critical acclaim and after one episode has been signed for a second season. Tune in on Sunday night, April 18th, at 9pm (central time) and watch for the scene shot at Kingsley House!

State Budget Hearing this Monday, April 19th

For those nonprofits that would like to testify on any state budget related items in House Bill 1, there will be a hearing in the House Committee on Appropriations this Monday, April 19th.

The Committee is taking public testimony on the state budget bill, or HB1, from anyone who did not testify the first time around in March.

This is your last chance to speak with the committee.

Date: Monday, April 19, 2010

Where: House Committee on Appropriations, Committee Room 5

When: 9:00 AM

LANO encourages nonprofits to submit oral testimony in regards to budget decisions that could impact their organization.

To see the agenda click here.

Local Nonprofits to Receive Grants

The Slidell Heritage Foundation, Inc., recently announced its 2010 charitable grant recipients.

The Foundation, along with partners the Times-Picayune, Slidell-Picayune, the City of Slidell, the Rotary Club of Slidell, and the Rotary Club of Slidell Northshore, will formally present the awards at the 13th Annual Slidell Heritage Festival on Sunday, July 4, 2010 at Slidell Heritage Park.

LANO is pleased to note the award recipients include nonprofits Safe Harbor Northshore, Northshore Families Helping Families, and Truth 180, all organizations that participated in the LANO Louisiana Enterprise Development cohort.

Safe Harbor Northshore helps women escape the cycle of abusive relationships. Northshore Families Helping Families advocates on behalf of families of those with disabilities. Truth 180 provides mental health and substance abuse services to people in crisis throughout St. Tammany Parish.

At last year’s Slidell Heritage Festival, $48,000 was distributed to local organizations. For more information on the festival and the Foundation, go to: http://www.slidellheritagefest.org/profile.htm

LANO Hires New Orleans Director Cory Sparks

NEW ORLEANS—Pastor, teacher, and nonprofit leader Dr. Cory Sparks became LANO’s New Orleans Director in March, 2010.

Dr. Sparks, a former New Orleans resident and recent head of Faith Community United Methodist Church, in Lafayette, will work from the LANO field office at Nonprofit Central on historic Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard.

The New Orleans Director’s mission is to expand and strengthen LANO’s service to hundreds of regional nonprofits and their local constituencies. It’s a task well-suited to Sparks’s talents and experience.

Cory Sparks holds degrees from Columbia University and Southern Methodist University, and received his Ph.D. in American History from Louisiana State University in 2000. He brings six years of executive nonprofit and board member service and more than a decade in leadership positions within the United Methodist Church.

An accomplished public speaker, writer and community organizer, Sparks’s work draws from extensive experience in New Orleans post-Katrina reconstruction. In the storm’s aftermath, Sparks recruited and housed more than 3,000 volunteers, helped them repair more than a hundred homes and worked with owners and neighborhood associations to improve local conditions across the city.

Prior to Katrina, while teaching at Nunez Community College in St. Bernard Parish, Sparks developed an oral history project in partnership with the Los Islenos Cultural & Heritage Society that helped to preserve that parish’s unique cultural legacy after the storm.

Finding His Stride

Contemplating a return to New Orleans and reconnecting with his adopted home, Sparks is excited by his new role in LANO. “There is so much energy in the nonprofit sector in New Orleans,” he said. “I’ve missed it in the two years I’ve been away. I knew I needed to return and be part of the work. This sector brings together so many people who share a love for the city.”

Asked how he spent his first days on the job, Sparks quoted late New Orleans artist John Scott, who said: “New Orleans is the only city that I’ve been in that if you listen, the sidewalks will speak to you.”

Almost immediately, Sparks took to the streets and began renewing old acquaintances.

“Within an hour I’d bumped into two friends from my days as chaplain at the Methodist Home for Children. It was great to listen to their sidewalk talk about the Home and other nonprofits in New Orleans,” he said. “I’m going to reconnect with old friends in the nonprofit sector…I’ll be listening to them and to the community, so I better understand the needs of both.”

In just a few weeks, Sparks has made more than 50 formal contacts as LANO’s New Orleans Director and resumed building the strategic partnerships that were a hallmark of his former work in the city. In addition, he and his staff are busy with local arrangements for LANO’s annual conference (August 25-27), to be held in New Orleans for the first time since 2005.

For more information on nonprofits and LANO’s work in New Orleans, contact Dr. Cory Sparks at corysparks@lano.org, 504-309-2081 ext. 315, or LANO Vice President of Programs Kellie Chavez Greene, at kelliegreene@lano.org, 225-929-5266 ext. 212

To read a full transcript of Cory Sparks’s interview, click here. Sparks will be posting on New Orleans nonprofits and related issues at the Louisiana Nonprofits Blog.

Priorities for Investments in Children and Families in Caddo and Bossier Parishes

In 2008, the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier selected education, health, and poverty as priority areas for its investments in children and families, and it asked the RAND Corporation to assist the community in identifying priority strategies within these three focus areas.

RAND researchers developed a unique framework based on the intersection of needs, assets, and best practices. Applying this framework to the Shreveport-Bossier community, they identified health care providers, public school teachers, and Barksdale Air Force Base as strong assets that can help the community address three high-need areas: infant health, child maltreatment, and educational attainment. The “Needs-Assets-Best Practices” framework developed to assist the Shreveport-Bossier community can also be applied in many other settings.

To learn more, follow the links below:

Research Brief
Technical Report
Report Summary