KDK-Harman Foundation

Congratulations! Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!           Dr. Seuss

Taking inspiration from the infamous Dr. Seuss and closely following our First Resolution of upping our game in social media, we look to stay plugged in with high-caliber professionals in the field of philanthropy and education. Delving deeper in advocacy and cross-sector collaboration as a way to strengthen our education system, one of our top priorities in the coming year is to attend events and conferences focused on strategic grantmaking and leveraging advocacy as a way to affect positive policy in education. We aim to build our network and keep a forefront on the latest developments in the field of education and philanthropy.

Here is where you'll find us this year - so check your calendar because these events you'll not want to miss!

• Grantmakers for Effective Organizations: For the first-time, we are excited to attend the GEO National Conference in Seattle, WA on March 12th-14th. This conference attracts more than 500 grantmakers who are dedicated to smarter grantmaking and better results in the communities they serve. We look forward to connecting and learning at this event!
• Foundations on the Hill: March 20th-22nd, we’ll be travelling to our nation's capitol in Washington DC to meet with Texas Congressional leaders to discuss philanthropy's role in society. During Foundations on the Hill, foundation trustees, executives and staff across the nation schedule meetings on Capitol Hill to personally discuss their philanthropic work with members of Congress. At these meetings we inform and educate Congress about philanthropy, create visibility for foundations and philanthropy on Capitol Hill, advocate on issues affecting foundations and encourage Congress to view foundations as resources on key public policy issues. There is still time to register, so we hope to see you there!
• Save Texas Schools Statewide Rally at the Texas Capitol : Coming out of spring break season refreshed and ready, Saturday, March 24th join thousands of pro-public education advocates at the Texas capitol steps to ensure policymakers know public education is a PRIORITY for Texans. Proud supporters of Save Texas Schools, we hope you'll join us to ensure our legislature that understands the vital role public education plays in our state's future!
• Grantmakers for Education: Hands-down the PREMIER conference for philanthropists serious about making an impact in education. On October 24th-26th, KDK-Harman will be in New York City motivated to tackle the challenges and problems we face in American education—from early learning to postsecondary success, from out-of-school time to career readiness.  We look forward to a growing Texas contingent at this GFE conference.
• Conference of Southwest Foundations: We'll be closing our year of professional development by attending the 64th Annual CSF Conference in Colorado early November.  Networking with grantmakers from across seven states in the Southwest, in many ways CSF and its membership have helped build the foundation of our philanthropic efforts.

Keep an eye out for us at these events and others around Texas.  You can also find out more about where we will be and what we've learned by following our Facebook and Twitter posts!

Stay tuned weeks to come to learn tips directly from the experts who help keep KDK-Harman stay attuned to our social media and networking goals for 2012. Both NonprofitNicole and ElMundodeMando are legendary in what they do in this space. So, sharpen your pencils, take note and get ready! Oh, the places we'll we'll go!

New Year's Resolution: Gear-up on Social Media!

Foundations & nonprofits alike hone in the power of social media

By Mary Verhaeghe, KDK-Harman Foundation

Happy New Year’s everyone!  We’d like to start the year off with a month of blogs about technology for nonprofits.  The first blog of the year is about social media and what it can do for your nonprofit organization.  KDK-Harman started signing up for social media accounts about mid-year in 2011.  We signed up with Facebook, then we added Twitter to tweet about what was on our Facebook, added Blogging to our website, and started tweeting about our Blogs, and then adding videos to YouTube and socializing on Linkedin, etc.  We then hooked into HootSuite, which is a dashboard to manage all our social media accounts.  It sounds like a lot, and it is at first, but once you’re up and running, you can easily start socializing your cause across the internet and actually keep track of how many people you’re truly reaching through social media.

KDK-Harman found that social media is one of many great tools to keep track of what is going on in the arena of education in and beyond Central Texas.  In addition to keeping abreast of  education news at local, state and national levels,  social media has enabled real-time, two and sometimes three-way dialogue on strategies for breaking the cycle of poverty through education. 

Social media is also a great tool for informing our nonprofit partners, funder colleagues, and education advocates of special events pertaining to education. It's proved to be an effective marketing tool.  We found that it doesn’t matter how big or how small your organization is, when you decide on social media for your organization, it’s always about the content; keeping your audience interested in the subject at hand, and also making sure you’re targeting the people you want to target most on the subject matter at hand.

Below we've highlighted some 'go-to' websites we frequent for learning about social media for nonprofits and foundations.  These sites will help you frame how social media can be a fit to your organizational need and reach. Also included in the list below are some PDF documents and books that talk about social media in nonprofits:

Websites

●     http://www.ventureneer.com

●     http://www.nten.org

●     http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

Documents: 

●     "Non-profit and Social Media - It ain't optional"  (This will forward you to the Ventureneer.com website)

●     Social Media for your Non-Profi: Take Charge!  (This will forward you to the Ventureneer.com website)

●     What is Social Media (iCrossing ebook) (PDF document)

Books:

●     DragonFly Effect by Jennifer Aaker (Click on title to sample a few pages from Amazon)

●     The Networked Non-Profit by Beth Kanter and Allison H. Find (Click on title to sample a few pages from Amazon)

●     Social Media For Social Good by Heather Mansfield (Click on title to sample a few pages from Amazon)

Remember when deciding to go to social media to get your cause known and what your organization is doing...you don’t have to spend a lot of money or even have an education in technology to learn what is already free on the Internet.  Doing research on the Internet on how to use social media is all at your fingertips.  All you have to do is start typing.

This is from our very first blog:  “The KDK-Harman Foundation's social media networks will serve to inform and engage grantees, funders, policymakers, media, and education advocates about key issues, events, and policies as they relate to the Foundation's funding priorities and beliefs. Our intention is for our social media use to be more than just a one-way street in communication.”

As we head into 2012, we plan to utilize this as our overarching strategy in our social media communications. We hope you find this month's series in social media for nonprofits helpful and as always, we are open to learning more about "what works" for you furthering your mission & philanthropic endeavors!

To learn more about how KDK-Harman has embraced social media and capture pointers that were shared with us along the way, visit our Knowledge Center's Social Media Toolkit.

Mary Verhaeghe, most notably, is referred to as the "cornerstone" of KDK-Harman Foundation. She has supported the Harman family and the Foundation for almost seven years, stretching beyond the inception of the family foundation. In fall 2011, Mary formally joined the Foundation team utilizing her keen expertise in event planning, office management and technology. A champion of new media coupled with her passion to community, Mary enthusiastically embraces her role as a key contributor to ensuring all children have access to quality education.

My blog this week is simply a reflection back on the year 2011 and what we’re thinking about here at the Foundation as we move into 2012. 2011 was a tough year. We are still reeling from the state cuts to public education and other health and human services during one of the most difficult legislative sessions in Texas history, the nation’s economic recovery has been unimpressive at best, and any finance person will tell you that it’s been one of the most erratic stock markets in US history, in much part thanks to the economic, political, and financial uncertainty in Europe and throughout the world. I think it’s safe to say we’ve had better years.

But being a pretty optimistic person, I must also note that we’ve also experienced some pretty amazing and wonderful things as well. We’ve seen people around the world stand up against corrupt governments and dictators, and even citizens of this nation speak out about the wealth inequalities in our own country and the growing gap between rich and poor in a way that hasn’t been seen since the 1960’s. More locally, we’ve seen our school district and community based partners work collaboratively and creatively to find innovative ways to educate our kids despite the dramatic cuts in public investment, and a community that’s banding together in ways we’ve never experienced to participate in civic engagement in a more direct and vocal way. We’re seeing a growing awareness among citizens of our state and our nation that they have a responsibility and a duty to speak up about injustices and more action on their part to do just that.

As we look into 2012, we here at the KDK-Harman Foundation are hopeful. We are hopeful that schools and community based organizations will continue to educate each Texas child to the best of their abilities despite historic cuts to public education, and that they might even find some innovative ways to save money and work collaboratively. We are hopeful that parents, students, and all Texans who believe that the future of our state depends on the education of our kids will continue to find their voice in the public policy debate. We are hopeful and we hope you are too. We’ve got lots of great stuff planned for 2012, so stay tuned! Until then, we at the KDK-Harman Foundation wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a very happy new year!

Timing is of the essence and with the Foundation's recent coverage from The New York Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy, KDK-Harman has officially kicked into high-gear our Foundation's Advocacy Plan to build a growing coalition designed to create a public response to the Legislature's shortchanging of public education.  The last 48-hours have been among the most collaborative learning experiences KDK-Harman has engaged in with its partners as we delve deeper into how philanthropy can effectively engage in positive policy change for the children our mission aspires to serve.

From exchanging advocacy strategies with funders from across the state to assessing where Texas grantmakers currently stand in supporting advocacy-related activities as reported in the recent Texas Foundations Speak survey, the path of Texas grantmaking in affecting public policy in education is in motion.

Texas cannot continue to think its public education system can do more with less - undeniably, this mindset is short-sighted, unsustainable and simply, un-Texan. When, if ever, has Texas settled to be less than best? Currently, Texas public school districts, who educate the lion's share of students, are grappling with state budget reductions and are increasingly wary of its implications to deliver quality, core education that will inevitable have severe economic consequences on the innovative and competitive traction of our Great State.

To respond to the Legislature’s decision to cut public education by $5 billion dollars during the last legislative session, the Foundation is harnessing the interim period leading up to the 83rd Texas legislative session by mounting a public engagement campaign—supported by data quantifying the magnitude of these budget cuts—in an effort to make public education THE priority for Texas.

In a snapshot, our focus over the legislative interim is to:

• Ensure the Texas Constitution is upheld and each child, regardless of race, ethnicity or income status, receives access to an excellent education;
• Measure the qualitative and quantitative impact of budget reductions on both Texas school districts and community based organizations that serve students in and out of school;
• Share stories of how the impacts are directly and indirectly affecting Texas students, particularly economically disadvantaged populations;
• Discover and disseminate best practices as districts and CBOs learn to do more with less; and
• Build political and public will that public education funding is restored, and inclusive of the projected growth in population of our state.
• Support grassroots community engagement to ensure low income families’ voices are incorporated into the process

Questions we should all ask ourselves:

Ø Are these lofty aspirations to change the narrative that public education is worth the investment? Yes, most definitely.

Ø Are these ambitious aims to think a new wave of comprehensive and collaborative philanthropic and nonprofit support can and should engage in public policy to ensure education policy serves all Texas' children adequately and effectively? Absolutely.

Allegiance at KDK-Harman Foundation, alongside the efforts and passion of our partners, lies in the best interest of each Texan child and their access to quality education. This is the very opportunity that will pave the way to the future of Texas' vitality. 

Erica V. Ekwurzel, CFRE and M.P. Aff., serves as the Foundation's Grantee Consultant which reinforces the Foundation's commitment as a high engagement grantmaker and enables KDK-Harman to offer grantees fundraising, operation and networking support. Additionally, Erica manages the Foundation's social media efforts. Keep abreast of KDK-Harman and our activities by following our Facebook and Twitter profiles.

 by Lonny Stern, Director of Technology & Education Executive Council, Skillpoint Alliance

This is the last component to the four-part series in building STEM Culture for Education in Central Texas. Stern eloquently lays out not magic, but key ingredients to keep at forefront to ensure students on a STEM career path will benefit across a community's region for greater economic opportunity for all Central Texans. Many thanks to the knowledge, data points and commitment of organizations, such as  Skillpoint Alliance and others, working to prepare the next generation of our workforce.

EQUITY

One challenge we all face in developing and sustaining worthwhile STEM programs is funding.  We readily appreciate that some communities have more financial resources to draw upon for hosting extracurricular activities that extend the learning day or STEM camps that reduce summer learning loss.  In fact, within the Austin metropolitan statistical area (MSA) alone, you will find some communities with families that can afford hundreds of dollars a week for their children to attend summer game camps, while other families must drive to another city before they find the nearest supermarket.  It is important that, as a region, we invest across our communities – across highway, economic, and gender divisions alike – if we are to continue to grow a robust high-tech sector fueled by a qualified STEM workforce.  But why focus on shared economic opportunity when companies can simply bring workers in from other parts of the country or the globe?

Companies experience a higher cost of doing business when they have to recruit and relocate talent from outside the region.  It is commonly stated that relocating a skilled STEM worker costs an employer roughly $100,000.  Yet, while professionals are more willing to relocate during a recessionary period, competition becomes fierce in good economic times, leading to progressively more expensive costs for employers to import talent.  As we saw in the booming semiconductor industry during the 1990s, competition for talent leads to a Cogswell Cogs / Spacely Sprockets tug-of-war, where companies are forced to offer greater and greater financial incentives to lure good workers.  Workers may benefit in the short-term but, in the long-term, the region becomes less attractive to employers, who see a dearth of available talent and increases in labor costs as a reason to search for greener pastures elsewhere.  It is this very problem which led to the creation of Skillpoint Alliance and its Gateway programs, which provide individuals with rapid training to meet employers’ immediate workforce needs.  It was industry’s longer-term interest in developing the region’s engineering pipeline that led to our youth-focused career training programs offered through the STEM Council.

Depending solely on importing human capital creates additional costs to our region as well.  As our population grows, taxpayers are forced to share additional costs associated with swelling classrooms, highway congestion, police and health services, and greater demands for natural resources.  Further, hiring workers from outside the region does nothing to reduce the local unemployment rate.  Rather, it perpetuates cycles of poverty, where incoming workers are hired at the expense of those that could be trained locally.  If we do not address this systemic issue – sharing economic opportunity through programs that steer students into high-demand and rewarding career paths – no amount of philanthropy will ever stem the tide between the haves and the have-nots.  Given the context of paying roughly $100,000 to relocate a skilled STEM worker, one has to wonder: at what point do local STEM workforce programs stop representing a greater return on investment?

IN CONCLUSION

Our shared focus on STEM career paths is not one bred from international competition; it is one that is specific to the needs of our regional employers.  Our focus on project-based, industry-connected, STEM education programs is preparing students for the kinds of jobs available now and in the future.  By reaching students in the context of what motivates them about a rewarding career, we can get more students on a STEM career path that will ensure more households benefit from our region’s increasing ability to retain, grow, and attract high-tech companies.  In the end, our efforts will not only support greater economic development, it will also ensure greater economic opportunity for all Central Texans. 

Lonny Stern, serves as guest blogger to KDK-Harman topic on key components of building STEM Culture for Education in Central Texas. Sequenced as a four-part series, Stern shares insights he has learned as serving as the Director of the STEM Council at Skillpoint Alliance. Skillpoint connects industry & education for workforce development in Central Texas. Stay abreast of the activities of STEM Council at Skillpoint on Twitter @skillpointSTEM