Development and Transformation

I find it terribly ironic that our agency is gaining new resources even as the economy continues to struggle. As we discussed at the board meeting a few weeks ago, more utility assistance (LIHEAP) and Weatherization funding has been appropriated by Congress, an additional $23 million is available to the state of Missouri for Neighborhood Stabilization through the Community Development Block Grant, and our Head Start program has taken on nearly $2 million (over the next several years) for projects around health literacy and healthy relationships. Sadly, much of this funding is a reflection of the fact that more people are struggling to make ends meet. Even with new resources however, we are not able to address all of the causes of poverty by ourselves, much less the influx of families who are struggling because of the current economy. This is all the more reason to continue implementing our transformational plan. CMCA must be about more than providing programs and services if it is truly to be a catalyst to ending poverty in mid-Missouri. Our transformational plan incorporates all of our programs but expands to engage the community to work together to address the root causes of poverty that our individual programs do not. This leads me back to our sources of revenue. We are not funded to implement our transformational plan nor to do much of the work that it outlines. Certainly we will work to maximize our programmatic budgets by looking for acceptable opportunities to braid our funding around certain activities but ultimately we will need new revenue. To fund our plan we will take a three-pronged approach. First, we will continue to look for grants that specifically fit our plan. Second, we will establish a development plan that incorporates events and direct fundraising (see our Development Plan for more details). Third, we are building capital to start a social enterprise that will generate revenue for the agency. For this reason I am all the more excited to get our Development Advisory Board up and running.

Before we get too much further along, I should point out that we have some significant recruiting to do to fill our board back to capacity (21 members). Cooper, Howard, Moniteau, and Osage Counties particularly need representation. Please share any ideas about people that would support our mission and be active board members. The Membership and Training Committee will be meeting on November 13 to discuss the current openings and to discuss recruitment strategies. We will also be discussing a new application process that will allow us to analyze board members’ and recruits’ knowledge, skills, and abilities to help us develop the most well-rounded board possible.