Imagine having no middle school for your child. That’s the situation for many East Austin families. A new middle school not only fills that void, it creates an innovative learning environment that prepares these kids for college – not just high school but college.

Tomorrow night (November 5), Southwest Key will host an open house for the East Austin College Prep Academy. They’re very proud. And they want everyone to attend.

We had a feature about mentoring and middle school and drop-out rates in AISD in our latest issue (download it here). Frankly, the numbers scare the hell out of me. And if you plan to raise a family in Austin, they should scare you, too.

Great news: Not only can you do something about it, others are doing something about it, too.

Southwest Key has a weird name but you should get to know them because they are the largest Hispanic-serving nonprofit in Austin. They started this middle school where there was none, and it’s going to make a huge difference in Austin’s Hispanic community.

We talked to John Turner, the Interim Director of Communications for Southwest Key.

1. This year there were 90 sixth graders that started the academy. Next year you’ll have a seventh grade and then an eighth grade campus. Who are these students and what middle schools/high schools would they otherwise attend?

We are based in the Govalle/Johnston Terrace neighborhood in East Austin, a neighborhood that has not had a middle school for many years. As there is no local middle school, the students were being bused out to middle schools in other parts of the city.

 Our students come from 26 different schools in Austin and have chosen our school because it is based on the highly successfully YES college prep model that has been ranked among the top 100 schools in America by US News & World Report. 

 2. Why a middle school? Wouldn’t a college-prep program focus on high school students?

There’s a number of reasons why a middle school. We canvassed the local community and parents, and they overwhelmingly requested a middle school. Many parents found it hard to get involved with their kids education due to the busing, so housing the school in our community center made a lot of sense.

We also analyzed research about at what stage was the best place to start affecting education and the drop-out rates, and it was apparent that starting with middle school would have a greater benefit and impact for local kids and families. 

3. So at this open house tomorrow, what can we expect to see?

All of the classrooms and facilities will be open, visitors will also be able to talk to the principal Dr. Nellie Cantu, school staff about the curriculum and approach, and hear from Southwest Key CEO, Dr. Juan Sánchez, about our future plans to expand quality education alternatives in East Austin.  

(Editor’s note: I heare there will also be food and drinks….)

4. I want to support your work with this middle school/academy. What are some ways I can get involved?

We always need advocates and supporters for our approach, which is simply providing an alternative quality education for children in East Austin.

Volunteers are welcome for the many after-school and other support programs, (the Boys and Girls Club is also housed here), offering to host field trips for the students service projects, and donations of school supplies are most welcome too! 

For more information, please contact Victoria Gutierrez at vgutierrez@swkey or 512-583-2567.

ABOUT THE EVENT:  

Open House
Thursday, November 5, 2009
4:30-7:00pm

6002 Jain LaneAustin, TX 78721

MAP TO EVENT

Appetizers, wine and hors d’oeuvres, performance, and more!

 

Last week, Andrea (Austin American-Statesman), Sandra (Austin Business Journal) and I attended a meeting organized by Erica Ekwurzel of KDK-Harman Foundation and attended by other foundation representatives and Border Media.

Erica’s goal was to get us talking about what we could do as a team to get more information out about nonprofits, foundations, and the needs in Austin in general. What a fantastic idea! A few things have stuck with me from that meeting.

1. The first is that foundations don’t seem to really want media attention. Apparently they want to focus on the need and the cause, and not their magnanimous support of the nonprofits that address those needs. I can understand this… to a degree. The problem is, not many organizations are as knowledgeable as foundations about what the needs are and which nonprofits have the biggest impact.

When I go to a nonprofit to talk about, say, high school drop-out rates, they only have part of the information. They have data relevant to their work, but it’s not necessarily data that’s actionable by the rest of the community. Foundations should have this data – or at least be able to tell me where to go. Foundations, we need you to return our calls!

2. The second – and really, most amazing – thing I heard about was the power of Spanish-language radio and the incredible giving power of Central Texas Spanish speakers. Border Media, which runs three Spanish-language radio stations, really knows how to tap into its audience and get them to take an action, whether that’s attending the 7,000-attendee Feria Para Aprender or donating almost $200,000 to Dell Children’s Hospital … in 2 days. And that’s one person at a time, not huge grants from major corporations.

Attention fundraisers and development professionals: Get some help – I suggest Juan Tornoe, Sebastian Puente, and Mando Rayo from Cultural Strategies - and call up Jerry and Todd at Border Media to get in touch with Austin Spanish-speaking donors. Andale!

3. Andrea and Sandra are busting their ass to cover as much nonprofit news as they can. Let me tell you, people who don’t already know this: Those “short and simple” stories you see in the papers every week take real work to put together. I don’t blame nonprofits, but… they don’t always have the time or talent to make a reporter’s job easier, you know. Most of them can put out a fantastic press release, but a good reporter wants to go beyond what the PR people put out there. And that takes some homework, some phone calls, some emails… and usually all three to multiple people.

Did I mention there were more than 6,000 nonprofits in Central Texas, all vying for Andrea’s and Sandra’s attention?

I should also mention that KDK-Harman leads the way in a lot of respects, but what I’m seeing is a very transparent, highly collaborative and innovative organization that others in the nonprofit community should emulate. Thanks again, Erica, for a very informative meeting.

PS: I hope to be back with GivingCity soon, so I can help out Andrea and Sandra…

The issue above – Issue 4 – will be our last issue. That is to say, until we can afford to make another.

Torquil and I are beat. Our families want us to come home. Our bosses are wondering what we’re working on. And the credit card companies are wondering why we can’t pay them off. How do we explain to them that we’re spending the hours of 10 pm to 3 am - and thousands of dollars from our personal bank accounts – on a project that pays us zilch?

GivingCity has paid off in some ways. The praise is very nice, as are the thanks from the organizations and people we write about. From the emails, requests for introductions, and feedback we get, it feels like we’re having an impact. And clients have hired us for other projects because of GivingCity. All of that’s good. But at some point, and especially in this economy, we need to see a financial return.

We haven’t given up all hope. We’d love to see GivingCity return, and so we’re going to stay plugged in to the community. In the meantime, we’re looking for collaborators, funders, angel investors, and/or winning lottery tickets.

Finally a request and a piece of advice:

1. If you are looking for a custom publication – digital or print – and you have a budget, please contact us at http://octobercustompublishing.wordpress.com/

2. If you are thinking about starting an online publication, website, or other form of media and you have no money… be prepared to bust ass, risk your job, and kiss-up to your spouse. Or else make real nice with a millionaire. (Just make it sound like their idea. That works best.)

Thanks for your support!

Monica & Torquil

CLICK HERE to download (takes about 10 seconds)

Inside this issue:

John Thornton launches the new Texas Tribune website, the $4 million nonprofit. Learn how you can help reduce the number of high school dropouts in Austin. Sara Hickman offers the merits of volunteering with your children. Thousands of state employees in Central Texas give millions to local charities every year – who knew? The Lance Armstrong Foundation is a global organization with a local commitment. Just because you’re unemployed doesn’t mean there’s not work you can do. Dozens of small churches are cropping up in Central Texas, ready to serve. Finally understand what all this Obama “call to action” business is about. Alissa Magrum starts a nonprofit with a jersey and a dream.

WIN A WISH LIST JERSEY! We’re giving away a Wish List Jersey to the person who best describes their reason for participating in a “ride for the cure.” Do you ride for someone you care about? Have you participated in a ride that had a particular impact? DOWNLOAD this issue and visit the WIN A WISH LIST JERSEY page to enter.

FEEDBACK! Tell us what you think below. Thanks for your support!

In 1999, Alissa Magrum and Tammy Stanley met while training for a Texas AIDS ride. Both had HIV-positive family and friends and both were avid “ride for the cure” participants.

“The riders are incredible, and their stories are just so moving,” says Magrum. “We all just bond.”

Wanting to tell their story, Magrum and Stanley reached out to Brian Andreas, a writer well-versed at summing up huge emotions and hope at the same time. He came up with this story:

I wish you could have been there for the sun & the rain & the long hard hills.

For the sound of a thousand conversations scattered along the road.

For the people laughing & crying & remembering at the end.

But mainly, I wish you could have been there.

Stanley, a graphic designer, took the story and, with permission from the writer, designed the Wish List Jersey. They’ve sold thousands to riders who want to honor someone they’ve lost. And all proceeds from the sale of the jersey got to AIDS, cancer, and various other disease-fighting nonprofits in Central Texas.

WIN THIS JERSEY: It’s easy to enter: Just comment on this post and tell us why you participate in a ride, run, or walk for the cure – any cause or organization will work, as long as it’s a race that benefits a health-related nonprofit.

We’ll review the entries and pick a winner. Please make sure to leave a valid email address.

Get more information about the Wish List Jersey (valued at $100).

DEADLINE TO ENTER: November 20

We’re experimenting with some great photography by Joel Salcido of John Thornton, the founder and chairman of Texas Tribune, the soon-to-launch, nonprofit, news website. He’s our cover story this month, and we’re thrilled to have snagged an interview with this super-busy guy.

GivingCity Austin Issue 4 to come soon. Facebook fans will get the message first, so if you haven’t yet, please visit our page and fan us now. (Did I just say that?) Or just sign up to get the email here.

This post is for nonprofit boards and the nonprofit staff who love them.

I was reading this blog post from Good magazine, and it made me think of those board meetings, when everyone’s sitting around listing all the to-dos for the annual fundraiser. This is for those of you who, when you start to wonder how you’re going to promote the fundraiser, think, “Do I know anyone who can design the invitation for free?”

Don’t. Cheap. Out.

Here’s why:

1. Cheap shows. When you get an intern or a junior designer or even a design firm on pro-bono (which, by the way, uses the project to keep its interns and junior designers busy) to design your collateral for really cheap or free, it shows.

And please, do not call in your nephew on this one. InDesign and a Mac do not a designer make. Just because you have a hammer, some nails, a measuring tape, and some wood doesn’t mean you should be building your own deck.Get a pro. They’ll make it right.

2. Cheap, in the end, can cost you more. When you get an inexperienced person to create your collateral, they may not know enough about production, printing, mailing, materials, etc to save you money.

So the invitation might look great from the printer, but now you’ve got an odd-size envelope to mail, which means extra postage. Or you’ve got signage for an event that looks exactly like the hotel signage – and you have to start from scratch. A million things can go wrong. An experienced designer knows how to avoid them.

3. Cheap is not what your donors – or prospects – want to see. Think of it this way – if all your donors, volunteers, prospects, and supporters were in a room, would you send the intern or junior member of your staff to talk about your fundraiser? While you might think the professionally designed invitation makes it looks like you blew money on a fancy designer, from the recipient’s perspective, it looks like you’re an organization that’s going places.

If you’re unemployed and broke, you don’t show up to a job interview in tatters. You bust out the good suit, shine the shoes, and try to look like a million dollars.

Besides, the pro is a better value every time. Good design is worth every penny.

I’m telling you, someday someone is going to write a book about Alan Graham, founder of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. No, a book isn’t right. Too flat.

They’re going to make a movie about him. He’s just that charismatic of a guy. But it’s beyond charisma; it’s the way he uses his brain.

Alan Graham has the rare ability to find the shortest path from problem to solution. You won’t spend 10 minutes talking with the man before he says something so fresh and so startling that the only possible reaction you could have to what he just said is, “Duh.”

Not in an “Everybody knows that,” way but rather in a “Well, shit, why didn’t anybody else think of that?” way.

For example, a couple years ago a short-lived ice storm hit downtown, closing office buildings and reducing traffic to almost nothing. The shelters and soup kitchens were closed, but people still needed food that day, probably that day more than others. Alan Graham got a phone call. Could he bring a truck down?

No, he couldn’t bring a truck down. But he could send some pizzas. How many pizzas did they need?

He called pizza delivery, made them a deal, and had several dozen pizzas delivered downtown. Couple hundred bucks. Lots of people fed.

Maybe that sounds obvious now, but who else thinks to deliver pizza to homeless people during an ice storm, when no one else can come up with a way to help them? Duh.

I presented to the Freelance Austin group today. Good times. I never feel like I’ve prepared enough when I’ve been asked to speak, but then I remember that 15 years of freelancing and hiring freelancers might just be enough preparation.

The attendees seemed to tolerate me. It surprised me that most of them were already plugged into social media, especially blogs. This is good news for writers, especially, because I believe blogging can demonstrate your ability to write, your passion and knowledge for a subject, and your traction with readers.

The gist of my message can be boiled down to a few things.

1. Build your brand with social media. Don’t be scared to get a little personal but be sneaky strategic about it.

2. Pitch yourself, not your story idea. Chances are editors have lots of story ideas; what they need are professionals to write about it.

3. Go beyond magazines you can get on a newsstand. There are millions of magazines out there for every niche you can think of. Seek out custom publishers, especially. They have clients with nice budgets and lots of content needs.

That’s just my two cents. I also had to bring up my pet peeves – call the editorial office with questions, don’t just wonder…. read the magazine to see what they usually write about…. don’t take rejections personally; editors are busy people. Hopefully this inspired some of the Freelance Austin members to go out there and get some new work.

I hope to be hiring soon, so if you’re an Austin freelance writer/illustrator/photographer/designer, please make sure I know about you.

Today the Austin Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure revealed some alarming breast cancer statistics for Central Texas.

The stats are the results of the 2009 Community Profile report, comprised of breast cancer data and survey information compiled over a two year period from Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson Counties. Komen conducts the study every two years, but has never really publicizes the results, and instead uses them mostly to build its strategy for services. (Download the entire report here.)

The results, however, are disturbing:

1. African-American women have the highest breast cancer mortality rate in Austin’s five-county region.

2. Hispanic women lag behind other ethnic groups in seeking mammogram screenings.

3. A greater percentage of women living in rural areas are diagnosed with breast cancer because of late diagnosis in part due to higher poverty rates, lack of access to healthcare and no health insurance coverage.

4. According to the Texas Cancer Registry, approximately 900 women in the five county region will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and of those women, an estimated 159 may lose their battle with the disease

The point is that these are not women with incurable breast cancer, rather these are women (and it’s mostly women) who are being diagnosed at such a late stage that it leaves them few options. They are being diagnosed at such a late stage because they don’t have access to mammograms.

This from the 2009 CommunityProfile:

The challenges facing the Austin Affiliate are simply that demand has outstripped services.  The current economic times resulted in less money for grantees during the 2009/2010 cycle and as a result, several services were cut back:  the mobile mammography unit had to cut over 20 locations out of its schedule; more and more women are calling the office needing free screenings; many have lost their insurance and are in treatment. Everyday expenses have become more difficult for many, but especially for women battling breast cancer.  Many of the Affiliate grantees have been advised to start looking for additional funding for their programs as economic times remain unpredictable at best.  Williamson County is faced with a shortage of surgeons willing to see uninsured patients and the list grows as that population grows.  

The good news is, you can help.

Did you know that 75% of your donation to the Austin Komen affiliate stays in Central Texas and goes directly to pay for education, support and free or affordable mammograms in these five counties?

If you’d like to have an impact on whether your neighbors are being diagnosed early enough, make a donation to Komen Austin here. And/or enter this year’s Race for the Cure, Sunday, November 1 at the Domain.

Information about free and affordable mammograms in Central Texas.