Not much sleep if you lead a small non profit

It's Monday morning, and last night was a bit rough. Payroll is due Thursday, and we have just received a new bill for General Liability insurance. I woke up at about 4am and spent the next two hours worrying about where the money would come from.

Fortunately my mail contained a July 16 Golf Benefit Birdie Sponsorship payment of $1500 from Carol and Bruce Ebel, along with a dinner donation from them as well. Carol is a member of our Board of Directors, and president of a small manufacturing firm, Janler, Inc. She's also the current president of the Tooling & Manufacturing Association. Thus, she has her hands full with work and professional responsibilities, but still makes time to help find the dollars it takes for Cabrini Connections.

We also received $250 from US Bank, as a sponsor donation from their branch at 745 N. Milwaukee Ave, for the May 28 and 29 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference.

And Mark Fragassi sent in his check to be a player in the July 16 Golf Benefit.

It all adds up, and we're covered for this week's expenses.

Yet, we have these expenses every month. We've had them every month since we started Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993.

Our commitment to the 7th graders who join us is that we're going to do everything we can to help them stay in school, get a high school degree, then continue to the next level, so that by age 25 they are starting a job and career. The only limits to what we achieve are what our volunteers and donors are willing to do to help us.

In many ways this is like parenting. The kids don't always make steady progress toward these goals. Parents don't kick kids out when they are not doing well in school, or get in trouble with social issues. They find a way to pay their family expenses and continue to try to help their kids.



Cabrini Connections has the same challenge, each week we not only need to find a way to keep kids and volunteers together, and support their interactions, but we also need to find donors who will make large and small contributions to help us pay the fixed expenses.

This chart illustrates that nearly 30% of the cost of Cabrini Connections is rent, utilities, general liability insurance and other fixed expenses. Of the remaining 70% payroll is the major cost. Without generating regular revenue to cover these expenses, week to week, month to month, and year to year, we cannot stay connected to our kids, and we can't keep our commitments to them.

Thus, the work our volunteers (tutors, mentors, board, advisory council, friends) do to help find donations, is critically important.

Yet, in this economy, it has never been more difficult.



Chris Warren has been writing some articles about cause related marketing, and I encourage you to read these. We recruit volunteers who already hold jobs in various industries because they can model a wider range of career opportunities than our normally held by parents and neighbors in high poverty areas.

Furthermore, as volunteers bond with kids and understand the strategy, we believe they can educate their companies, and industries, in cause marketing and other strategies that support all tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region, not just Cabrini Connections.

We're not there yet. But the work we've done with the Lawyers Lend A Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Association since 1994 illustrates that a group within a business sector can form, and take on a role of raising revenue and recruiting volunteers for tutor/mentor programs in many locations.

If we can create leadership in other industries who take on this same role, we can generate operating revenue from many sources, and not loose so much sleep every night worrying about paying the bills.

It's hard enough keeping the kids and volunteers involved.