Time for a New Approach

As Spring arrives unseasonably early, it seems like a good time to update you on some of the projects that Dinter Consulting, LLC has successfully completed in recent months:

• We carried out an Executive Search for a new Executive Director for the Maisha Foundation, and then coached her in her first months in the position. Maisha, founded by acclaimed director Mira Nair, trains African filmakers so they can tell their own stories.
• Conducted Human Resource training sessions for sexual harassment prevention, interviewing skills, dealing with difficult employees, conducting performance appraisals, human resource essentials, and motivating employees.
• Worked with several Bronx non-profit community-based organizations to meet the city’s stringent new guidelines for daycare by developing and submitting funding proposals for EarlyLearn NYC grants.
• Led organizational review and restructuring at both not for profit and for profit institutions of higher education.
• Our partners led the staffing of positions in higher educational institutions, from Vice-Presidents, through Deans and faculty.
• Collaborated with a major non-profit housing developer In the Bronx in submitting an application to the New York State Homes and Community Renewal (formerly DHCR) to fund construction of units funded by a grant from NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for formerly homeless mentally ill individuals
• One of our partners saw a new non-profit from startup to 501(c)3 status and successfully applied for and received state workers campaign funding for a Virginia nonprofit.
• We wrote and submitted a federal Earmark Grant to the US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration to job training for high school and GED graduates on behalf of a storied south Bronx non-profit organization.

As you can see, the range of what we are doing is wide, and that doesn’t even include our capability at supporting you in strategic planning, fundraising, Board building and management, and starting a small business.

We hope you will keep Dinter Consulting, LLC in mind this year, and into the future. We are here with fresh ideas and skills to bring you and your organization greater success.

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter, as well as on our blog.

All the best,

Gail and the Dinter Consulting crew

www.dinterconsulting.com

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HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: State and National Non-Profit Funding

Paul E. Dinter, Ph.D.

Despite these very lean times, many non-profit groups are not taking advantage of a generous source of revenue available at both the state and federal levels. This untapped resource comes not from governmental agencies but from millions of government employees who contribute to charity via the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) and comparable state campaigns.

Each year millions of dollars are contributed by the thousands of municipal, state and federal employees, as well as members of the military, who designate automatic donations from their paychecks to charities of their choice.

In fact, CFC amounts to the world’s largest and most successful annual workplace charity campaign. More than 200 local CFC campaigns throughout the country and internationally participate in a sign-up period that runs from September 1st to December 15th every year.

To benefit from this public/private largesse, non-profit organizations which provide health and human services must apply a year in advance of the pledge sign up. Once an application is accepted, an organization takes on the task of publicizing its work and building a charitable brand which will appeal to the public employees’ sense that their regular giving is making a difference and fulfilling the mission of the CFC to promote and support private philanthropy through publicly sponsored giving.

Despite the long history of these well-established campaigns, many charities also pass up a significant revenue source from their state and local campaigns because they are not familiar with their requirements or do not have experience with the application approval process or pledge cultivation.

In response, Dinter Consulting, LLC will guide organizations through the process of benefiting from this employee-focused, cost-efficient, and financially effective program. We will do the research and work with you to position your organization to achieve the higher visibility that will allow you to reach a pledge level that will contribute a significant revenue stream and broaden your donor base.

Successful Search for Maisha Executive Director

We are delighted to have found the perfect match in an Executive Director for the Maisha Foundation. This is the announcement we sent out:
Dinter Consulting, LLC is pleased to announce the appointment of an Executive Director for the Maisha Foundation, LLC, a nonprofit training initiative for East African filmmakers. After a nationwide search, Maisha’s board of directors has chosen Tracey Bing of Los Angeles, California to fill the position.

Tracey Bing has over sixteen years of experience in the entertainment industry, with a focus on producing, acquiring, developing, and distributing films for mainstream and independent audiences. Among her diverse experiences in the private and public sectors, Tracey has held senior positions at Warner Independent Pictures and Paramount Classics; and has consulted for both WNET/PBS NYC and the Kenyan government, developing policies related to the film industry. She has a unique perspective on the domestic and international film marketplaces, and brings a blend of Hollywood and East African cinema experience to Maisha’s operations.

More specifically, from 2003 to 2006, Tracey was the Vice President of Production and Acquisitions at Warner Independent Pictures (WIP). At WIP, she acquired and reformatted March of the Penguins, which went on to win the 2006 Oscar for Best Documentary film. While she worked at WIP, the company achieved a historical milestone by receiving Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Documentary in the same year (respectively for Good Night, and Good Luck; Paradise Now; and March of the Penguins). Prior to her work with WIP, Tracey served as the Director of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Paramount Classics where her projects included the films Bloody Sunday; Mostly Martha; and Man on the Train.

Since leaving WIP, Tracey has produced a number of projects including Harsh Sun, set in Kenya and to star Idris Elba. In addition, she consulted for the Kenyan government to grow the country’s film industry and devise programs to train local filmmakers and film crews. She also consulted for WNET/PBS NYC where she programmed a series called Reel 13 that featured films without distribution; and for Warner Home Video, advising the company on its acquisition and original production program and strategy.

Most recently, she worked for Wananchi/Zuku—a Pan-African cable/satellite venture based in East Africa—creating five branded channels (two movie, documentary, general entertainment and sports); five additional genre channels; and a Pay-Per-View Platform.

In collaboration with Universal Pictures, Tracey raised funds and secured sponsorships for Out of Africa: A Night to Celebrate Short Films by Kenyan Filmmakers, which was a unique and successful cross-cultural exchange between the United States and Kenya.

Tracey is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School.

About Maisha
Founded in 2004 by acclaimed director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake, Amelia), Maisha (www.maishafilmlab.org) provides hands-on intensive labs in screenwriting, directing, producing, cinematography, editing, sound recording and acting. The labs are operated in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, under the rubric that “If we don’t tell our stories, no one else will!” In addition, Maisha intends to create the Maisha Art and Cultural Center in Kampala, Uganda to further enhance the appreciation and dissemination of African films, and recognition of the talents of African filmmakers.

My Home Office: Focusing with the Pomodoro Technique

Gail Dinter-Gottlieb, Ph.D.

In my previous work lives, whether at a lab bench or in an office, my time has always been externally structured. An experiment would have its own internal clock: incubate for 15 minutes, stir for 30 minutes, add this, add that. Once I started on the day’s work, my attention was fully engaged. Similarly, in my administrative life, the clock was set, and not by me: meet with the Council from 9 to 12, lunch with the Mayor, attend reading, dinner with–you get the point.

Since I started work as a consultant, probably the biggest change I have had to make is scheduling my time and using it productively. Of course a given project has a timeline and an end date, but from day to day, the time is mine to arrange, and my computer provides an infinite variety of time sinks. In college when I had a paper due, rearranging my dorm room always seemed like a good idea. Now, at my fingertips, there is the New York Times to read, my calendar to update, the possibility of delving deeper into whatever subject I am working on, with each line of research diverging into a half dozen others, and a world of information to explore–and that is not even considering the distracters of Email, Facebook and Twitter.

For me, a useful way to focus my attention is through the Pomodoro Technique (www.pomodorotechnique.com), invented by Francisco Cirillo, which I discovered as an app on my iPhone. In short, you set a timer for 25 minutes (the app does it all), work on a task for that time, take a 3 minute break, then back on task. After four Segments, you get a 15 minute break. That’s it. The name comes from the Pomodoro, or Tomato-shaped kitchen timers that substituted for the app for the past 30 years.

Cirillo has developed more complex levels within this simple technique. There are articles and even a book you can read, and then advance to become a Certified Pomodoro Master; but for me, so far, the piece I have outlined is enough. That 25 minutes flies by as the Tomato Clock ticks, I am happy for the break, and then I can focus again for the next segment. My red iPhone Pomodoro is ticking away as I write this piece.
There is so much complexity in our lives. How often can we find a simple solution to a nagging issue?

Thank you, Francesco.

FACING UP TO RISKS…AND REAPING REWARDS

Louis V. Girolami, CPA and Paul E. Dinter, Ph.D.

Rather suddenly, the term “tsunami effect” has taken on more than metaphorical significance. The cascade of disasters that the Japanese people are facing, not just from twin natural catastrophes but from inadequately assessing the risk of flooding at the Fukushima Nuclear Power stations, beggars the imagination. Hopefully, few of us will ever have to face such quasi-apocalyptic events and the life-or-death decisions concomitant with them

But since “forewarned is forearmed,” it does make sense to take stock and inquire whether we know how to make crucial business, personnel, or market decisions based on properly weighing the risks we are taking against both hoped-for rewards and possible journeys “south.”

For all such decisions require some evaluation of the benefits (rewards) to be achieved as compared with any risks to the continued healthy functioning of the entity taking such decisions. The assessment should first isolate the monetary from the non-monetary factors (qualitative as well as quantitative) and then define a time-range for the planned gains. Since few decisions achieve benefits immediately, a time-range for measuring whether the rewards of a decision are realized helps to anchor the assessment in reality.

Risk assessment applies to any business decision regardless of complexity from the relative simplicity of filling a major staff position to deciding on a major change in organizational direction. Recently, a major university faced a decision about moving its football program to a new and bigger conference. The financial benefits would be impressive; the risks to upending their current status significant. By engaging in a thorough risk/reward assessment, they took the decision based on assembled data, reasonable projections, and thoughtful weighing of their options, not on someone’s gut feeling for greater glory. Without a good risk/reward assessment, failure looms a lot closer as unexpected consequences were not adequately factored in. While randomness can never be completely eliminated from outcomes in either human or natural environments, a good assessment cuts the negative risks and ups the likelihood of hoped for rewards.

All good risk/reward assessments follow a process that articulates alternatives, resolves the time range, weights costs, discovers the significant qualitative factors for each alternative, addresses the what, where, when and how questions, and then attaches a weighting and priority measures to each qualitative factor above in the form of a matrix—all as support for the experience and intuition that always comes into play.

Dinter Consulting, LLC offers Workshops on Risk/Reward Assessment to equip clients with the know-how to carry on the process internally but is also prepared to conduct the entire process as consultants to your organization. For more information, see www.dinterconsulting.com.

Cooking, Baking and Grants 101

Gail Dinter-Gottlieb, Ph.D.

Lately I have been doing a lot of grant writing, and also supporting others writing grants. What has occurred to me is how much grant writing is like cooking and baking. For many years I never thought there was a difference between the two-that is, cooking and baking. I cook, and I also bake. But I recently discovered that there are crucial differences. In short, cooking is an art, and baking a science.

In cooking, a recipe may be seen as a guide, but not necessarily a strict one. Substitutions can be made, ingredients altered, timing change, and still the final product can emerge as successful and delicious. Recently I learned a recipe for baked butternut squash with sage and feta, only to find that it was equally good, maybe better, with thyme and parmesan. Baking, on the other hand, doesn’t provide such latitude. Change the flour, substitute oil for butter, use an oven that is unsteady, and disaster may result. Not always, but a lot more often than you might care to admit. My fabulous chocolate chip cookies, made with one type of wholewheat flour, were all but tasteless when I had to substitute another brand.

So back to grants. Writing one is like both cooking and baking. Starting out, think baking. Read the rules from beginning to end. Then read them again. Get a sense of what is required. Recently I wrote a grant that required the submission be printed on 30% recycled paper. So off I went to the paper store to comply. The most basic rule is to follow the rules. It makes no sense for an important and creative idea to be lost because you didn’t use the right paper or get the requested signatures or support letters.

As I mentioned earlier, I have found that the Scrivener software (now for both Mac and PC at www.scrivener.com) is a terrific tool for grant writing. Not only is a template built in that you can then customize, but you can upload all your research information and background material so that it is available on the main page, a click away. The screen can even be split so you can cut and paste, or compare two sections at once.

Once the grant format is laid out, it is possible to get to the cooking, or creative part. The most compelling grants are those in which a passion for the project comes through in the writing. As a third party, I try to gather as much background information as possible, to visit a site if I can, and to understand why the particular grant will make a difference, to an agency, and in the lives of individuals. The passion develops as I learn more and more.

And those expensive chocolate chips do make a difference.

Social Networking and Education

Amelia Maurizio, Ed.D.

For the past several years we have seen the rise of social networking as a medium with a wide range of uses. From finding friends to updating daily activities to seeking employment, to finding a soul mate, in one way or another, social networking seems to fit the bill. To the surprise of many, people of all ages have gravitated to social networking and to this type of communication. Today, email has become obsolete and we find the best way to reach people is via texting or sending Facebook messages.
While young and old alike have moved to the use of new technologies, in many ways, education has not moved forward to use and/or incorporate technology into the classroom. I would be remiss to paint all education with a broad brush because there are many in higher education who have moved forward and are delivering instruction through iPods, webcasts, webinars, etc. But overall, their numbers are low. And though use of technology has its own set of problems (e.g. loss of face to face interaction), at some point in the not too distant future, I believe there will be no choice but to move to using more rather than less technology in and out of the classroom.
That being said, does social networking have an application in education? Steve Hargadon, a pioneer in this field, founder of Web 2.0, and the social learning consultant for Elluminate/Blackboard Collaborate,is a strong proponent of how social networking and education and work together. When we think of social networking we tend to think of Facebook and Twitter where folks are telling other folks what is happening every minute of every day. However, social networking is more than that. As Hargadon points out, “While the tools that are aggregated in social networks are not new, putting them together to build communities does make them somehow significantly more useful.” (Steve Hargadon: Thoughts on Social Networking in Education).
When Web 2.0 began, there was much negative criticism – mostly suggesting that participation in the social network was too easy. Ning or Classroom 2.0 provided an opportunity for someone to create a presence on the Web in minutes and then provide a forum for feedback within hours rather than weeks. The threaded discussion forum is what makes Ning and other social networking platforms in education so significant (Hargadon).
Threaded discussions allow for a spontaneous discussion between professors and students and between students and students. While there are many online courses that provide a similar forum, the extent to which threaded discussions can be used has come nowhere close to being exhausted or fully effective. Adding Second Life to Ning or Classroom 2.0 takes the experience to a whole new level. In this environment you can create classrooms and bring your students to places that would never have been possible before. Students of architecture can explore digs in faraway lands; students of art can explore the Louvre or Sistine Chapel.
As Hargadon points out, “The ability to gather like-minded or like-interested educators into social networks is clearly one of the pots of gold waiting for us at the end of the rainbow. Social networking will potentially allow educators to more easily develop specialty interests that begin to influence their careers, as they become known for those interests in a way that was much harder when it required formal publishing or speaking” (Steve Hargadon: Thoughts on Social Networking in Education).
If this is what can happen for teachers, just imagine what this can do for students. For one, it will keep them engaged in learning and active participation rather than boredom or absenteeism. A recent article (http://www.valleynewslive.com) by AP education writer Eric Gorski reported that research on more than 2300 undergraduates had found that 45% of students showed no significant improvement in the key measures of complex reasoning, writing, and critical thinking by the conclusion of their sophomore year. Can “education networking” improve that statistic? Perhaps, but what is apparent is that social networking is not a phase and that we need to use everything and anything at our disposal to assist our students to learn, live, work, compete, and function in a very different and ever changing world.

Amelia Maurizio can be reached at amelia@dinterconsulting.com.