Wharton Nonprofit Board Leadership Program: Deep Impact
Matt Parker (WG'09) Contributing Writer
Issue date: 4/20/09 Section: News
My mom had been the long-term
president of our local humane society,
so I had many great childhood memories
of Saturdays spent washing and walking
the dogs living in the shelter. So when
I came to Wharton, community service
was one element of my previous life that
I was very interested in reconnecting to.
Even before I moved to Philadelphia, I
began to seek out opportunities to be
involved, and I first became familiar
with the Nonprofit Board Leadership
Program (NPBLP) through Wharton's
website.
I applied and interviewed to become a Nonprofit Board Fellow in Q4 of my first year, and was very excited when I was accepted to the program. During my first year at Wharton, I volunteered as a House Manager for Rebuilding Together Philadelphia (RTP) and became one of the Co-Presidents during my second year, so it was a natural fit that I be matched with RTP's board. Although I was generally familiar with the organization, the Nonprofit Board Leadership Program held several training sessions to familiarize us with nonprofit governance and operations.
The president of the board, Jennifer Shropshire, a fellow Wharton grad, was assigned to be my liaison and mentor on the board. I had met her briefly during my time as a House Manager the previous year. As soon as I was matched, I contacted her and we met at a coffee shop in Center City, where she explained what she wanted me to contribute to the board. Because the Wharton operation generally ran very smoothly, she wanted me to capture some of our practices into an operations scheme that the rest of the organization could benefit from. I had developed a lot of ideas about this during the previous year and was excited to take on this project. RTP rebuilds and repairs approximately 80 houses each year in low income areas of Philadelphia, so the operations and logistics can be very challenging. In addition, most of the work effort is done by volunteers, which adds to the challenge.
Unfortunately, RTP suffered a tragic loss in October. The Executive Director, Steve Seweryn, died at the young age of 61 from pulmonary fibrosis. The ED is the only full time employee of RTP, and the board members are all busy professionals, so this naturally threw the organization into a state of disarray. In addition, Steve had been an exceptionally strong leader of RTP, so his absence was immediately felt. The board had to start an extensive search and screening process for a new ED; there were more than 200 applicants, so this naturally consumed much of their time, particularly Jennifer's.
During our next board meeting, Jennifer brought up a potential project that would normally be under the ED's responsibilities, but at that point it was in danger of not being done. The project was a joint venture between Rebuilding Together and Home and Garden TV. Every year HGTV and various Rebuilding Together chapters conduct a campaign with a different theme. This year, they wanted to repair a homeless veteran's house. Naturally, this was something I was very interested in doing, both because I believe in Rebuilding Together's mission, and because I am an eleven-year veteran of the Marine Corps.
Jennifer agreed to let me take it on, and my role on the board shifted from improving operational efficiency to conducting this project. The campaign, which HGTV calls "Change the World, Start at Home," is a contest between eight cities. Each of the cities would nominate a house, which had to meet certain criteria, and then HGTV would post a description and pictures of each house on a dedicated page of their website. Then, the public could vote for their choice of house once a day from January 2nd until March 2nd. The two houses receiving the most votes would each be awarded a $40,000 grant and the remaining six would each be awarded $5,000.
The previous year's winner had received more than 70,000 votes, so even when we did pick a house, it would require a significant marketing effort to garner the votes to win.
The first thing I had to do was find a house to nominate. This was the first year that HGTV had decided to work on a veteran's group house, so we were really starting from the beginning. Jennifer had a few points of contact for various veterans' housing organizations, so I started setting up meetings with them. HGTV had fairly strict criteria for the house, for example it had to be in a historic district. In addition, the deadline for our submission to the contest was rapidly approaching. Unfortunately, none of the contacts I had been given had an appropriate facility, so after a couple of weeks I was back to square one. Jennifer and I brainstormed on other ways to approach this, and she spoke with the executives of both the Rebuilding Together national office and HGTV and they granted us a two week extension on the deadline.
At this point, I was pretty stressed out about getting this project done, because I had not made any real progress. So, I basically resorted to cold calling local veteran's organizations and explaining the project, to see if I could get anywhere. Fortunately, I came into contact with a man named John Tomosky who was a member of the Pennsylvania American Legion Housing for Homeless Veterans organizations. I met with him, explained the project. Luckily, they owned a house in North Philadelphia that was a perfect match. It houses up to three veterans in transition for up to a year while they get back on their feet. Three days later I went out there, saw the house, met the residents, and took all of the pictures for HGTV. I submitted our official application to Jennifer and the rest of the board and then to HGTV. Since the original deadline had come and gone, it was rapidly approved.
Next, we had to figure out how to get more than 75,000 votes for this house. RTP had hired a new Executive Director during this time, Carrie Rathmann, and she and the rest of the board were instrumental in this. We basically started a grass roots marketing campaign, reaching out to other organizations we had previously worked with as well as friends and family. I also created a presentation for John, which he gave to the annual American Legion convention in January. In addition, we were up against larger cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles.
We put together a very organized and aggressive campaign, and in the end, it paid off as we were awarded one of the $40,000 grants. The work on the house will take place this summer and will be featured on an HGTV special in the fall.
Although my role with the Rebuilding Together Philadelphia board took an unexpected turn, it was one of the best and most rewarding experiences of my time at Wharton. Through my involvement with the Wharton Nonprofit Board Leadership Program, I had the opportunity to work with many great people and work on a project that will improve peoples' lives. The board trusted me enough to hand me an important project and let me run with it, so I was very thankful for that.
This article is dedicated to the memory of Steve Seweryn.
I applied and interviewed to become a Nonprofit Board Fellow in Q4 of my first year, and was very excited when I was accepted to the program. During my first year at Wharton, I volunteered as a House Manager for Rebuilding Together Philadelphia (RTP) and became one of the Co-Presidents during my second year, so it was a natural fit that I be matched with RTP's board. Although I was generally familiar with the organization, the Nonprofit Board Leadership Program held several training sessions to familiarize us with nonprofit governance and operations.
The president of the board, Jennifer Shropshire, a fellow Wharton grad, was assigned to be my liaison and mentor on the board. I had met her briefly during my time as a House Manager the previous year. As soon as I was matched, I contacted her and we met at a coffee shop in Center City, where she explained what she wanted me to contribute to the board. Because the Wharton operation generally ran very smoothly, she wanted me to capture some of our practices into an operations scheme that the rest of the organization could benefit from. I had developed a lot of ideas about this during the previous year and was excited to take on this project. RTP rebuilds and repairs approximately 80 houses each year in low income areas of Philadelphia, so the operations and logistics can be very challenging. In addition, most of the work effort is done by volunteers, which adds to the challenge.
Unfortunately, RTP suffered a tragic loss in October. The Executive Director, Steve Seweryn, died at the young age of 61 from pulmonary fibrosis. The ED is the only full time employee of RTP, and the board members are all busy professionals, so this naturally threw the organization into a state of disarray. In addition, Steve had been an exceptionally strong leader of RTP, so his absence was immediately felt. The board had to start an extensive search and screening process for a new ED; there were more than 200 applicants, so this naturally consumed much of their time, particularly Jennifer's.
During our next board meeting, Jennifer brought up a potential project that would normally be under the ED's responsibilities, but at that point it was in danger of not being done. The project was a joint venture between Rebuilding Together and Home and Garden TV. Every year HGTV and various Rebuilding Together chapters conduct a campaign with a different theme. This year, they wanted to repair a homeless veteran's house. Naturally, this was something I was very interested in doing, both because I believe in Rebuilding Together's mission, and because I am an eleven-year veteran of the Marine Corps.
Jennifer agreed to let me take it on, and my role on the board shifted from improving operational efficiency to conducting this project. The campaign, which HGTV calls "Change the World, Start at Home," is a contest between eight cities. Each of the cities would nominate a house, which had to meet certain criteria, and then HGTV would post a description and pictures of each house on a dedicated page of their website. Then, the public could vote for their choice of house once a day from January 2nd until March 2nd. The two houses receiving the most votes would each be awarded a $40,000 grant and the remaining six would each be awarded $5,000.
The previous year's winner had received more than 70,000 votes, so even when we did pick a house, it would require a significant marketing effort to garner the votes to win.
The first thing I had to do was find a house to nominate. This was the first year that HGTV had decided to work on a veteran's group house, so we were really starting from the beginning. Jennifer had a few points of contact for various veterans' housing organizations, so I started setting up meetings with them. HGTV had fairly strict criteria for the house, for example it had to be in a historic district. In addition, the deadline for our submission to the contest was rapidly approaching. Unfortunately, none of the contacts I had been given had an appropriate facility, so after a couple of weeks I was back to square one. Jennifer and I brainstormed on other ways to approach this, and she spoke with the executives of both the Rebuilding Together national office and HGTV and they granted us a two week extension on the deadline.
At this point, I was pretty stressed out about getting this project done, because I had not made any real progress. So, I basically resorted to cold calling local veteran's organizations and explaining the project, to see if I could get anywhere. Fortunately, I came into contact with a man named John Tomosky who was a member of the Pennsylvania American Legion Housing for Homeless Veterans organizations. I met with him, explained the project. Luckily, they owned a house in North Philadelphia that was a perfect match. It houses up to three veterans in transition for up to a year while they get back on their feet. Three days later I went out there, saw the house, met the residents, and took all of the pictures for HGTV. I submitted our official application to Jennifer and the rest of the board and then to HGTV. Since the original deadline had come and gone, it was rapidly approved.
Next, we had to figure out how to get more than 75,000 votes for this house. RTP had hired a new Executive Director during this time, Carrie Rathmann, and she and the rest of the board were instrumental in this. We basically started a grass roots marketing campaign, reaching out to other organizations we had previously worked with as well as friends and family. I also created a presentation for John, which he gave to the annual American Legion convention in January. In addition, we were up against larger cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles.
We put together a very organized and aggressive campaign, and in the end, it paid off as we were awarded one of the $40,000 grants. The work on the house will take place this summer and will be featured on an HGTV special in the fall.
Although my role with the Rebuilding Together Philadelphia board took an unexpected turn, it was one of the best and most rewarding experiences of my time at Wharton. Through my involvement with the Wharton Nonprofit Board Leadership Program, I had the opportunity to work with many great people and work on a project that will improve peoples' lives. The board trusted me enough to hand me an important project and let me run with it, so I was very thankful for that.
This article is dedicated to the memory of Steve Seweryn.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Jennifer Shropshire
posted 4/20/09 @ 10:36 PM EST
Dear Readers:
Matt got the story all wrong. It was our great fortune to have Matt choose Rebuilding Together Philadelphia as the recipient of his his talents and energies. (Continued…)
Kathy Seweryn
posted 4/21/09 @ 9:26 AM EST
Steve was very enthused about this project, as he also was a veteran. I know he is smiling with all his friends and family who voted faithfully every day. (Continued…)
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