PRACTICE AND POLICY LECTURE SERIES, AUGUST 2013: PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN PUBLIC ISSUES

No Audio: Practice and Policy Summer Lecture Series. Thursday, July 25, 2013, Noon to 1 p.m. Location: Sequoyah Memorial Office Building, Concourse Theatre 2400 N. Lincoln, Oklahoma City, OK 73105.

Connie Schlittler: What we're going to do is I've asked each of them to talk a little bit about their foundation, what their role in the foundation is, and kind of what their areas of interest are. Then we'll ask some questions and we'll open it up to the floor, so probably about 30 minutes for them to describe their activities and then we'll open it up and I have some questions and I know other people in the audience have questions as well. So Pat... 

Pat Potts: Okay well I feel like I'm kind of out-gunned here because the other two foundations do so much more in the state than we do. But our role is, right now, focusing very much in public policy. I'll try and explain that to you. We are a supporting organization which is a kind of foundation and how we distinguish ourselves is that a majority of our board is community leaders, actually from other parts of the state as well. 

And the work we do is focused on building strong relationships with the organizations we work with. So it's not like giving a whole lot of grants or giving even big grants, but instead being partners with them and trying to be their advocates within the larger community. And we started out with the Center for Non-Profit and, looking back, I realize it's because we have been focused from the beginning on developing human potential. 

And the Center for Non-Profit's focus has been helping non-profits all over the state develop that capability within their organizations. Well in about the last five, six years ago we continued to support work at the Center for Non-Profits, they've existed for over 30 years and are doing incredible. So we provide monetary support for their work and then we focus our time and staff on early childhood. 

And that's because we see early childhood as the root cause of most of the problems we have in our state. And a place where we can, as a state, invest the fewest dollars and have the greatest outcome. So it's trying to deal with prevention instead of treatment and in many cases punishment for all the things that go wrong because the first year, few years of life weren't right. We certainly are not the experts in early childhood, but what we've done is create sort of a network of what we perceive as helpful agents of change and these are business men and community leaders throughout the state who call themselves "OK CEOs." 

And it's through a partnership of three entities. One of the entities is Smart Start of Oklahoma. They are the feet on the ground, working with services to families and small children in some 18 communities throughout the state. We have a close working relationship with them. And then with the Oklahoma Business round table we borrow the credibility with the business community and hope for increased investment from them and the credibility that they bring to policy makers. 

So how do we use them? Well we have in the last... actually it's been since 2009, we've had some 3,000 people all over the state attend conferences that we have done, trying to increase awareness, trying to increase advocacy and ultimately active involvement in advancing investment in early childhood in our state. And we, at the Potts Family Foundation, our job is coordinating opportunities for, what started out as some 30 plus people who are leaders in business and professions in their communities agreeing to be spokespersons, where ever they're called, to now well over 50 such people. 

And we're now... we have prepared presentations on four different areas that we think is critical to advancing the wellbeing of Oklahoma. One of them is the connection to education. And certainly we're in the midst of major reform that has to start with early years and with families. 

Secondly, with health. We have some of the worst health statistics in the nation. So we are helping people understand the connection between what happens in those earliest years and families and health outcomes, statewide. 

Thirdly, we look at the role that the business community has in helping strengthen families. In our nation we have... our businesses work the most hours of any the industrialized nations. Our kids go to school one of the fewest hours. And we have a tremendous gap between... What that does to families is a big piece of why we have a lot of problems and why Oklahoma has truly bad statistics. 

We do focus on the first three years of life and the reason is because 85% of a brain develops those first three years. We are so proud of the four-year-old program we have. It really leads the nation, both in quality and in utilization. Those first three years are where the building blocks occur and that's where we have our focus. 

So in public policy, how do we do this? Connie and I actually shared... there was a lot of pressure on our government leaders to not go for the early childhood... What did they call it? The Early Childhood? The Race to the Top Grant. And we kind of mobilized our network to send messages to top legislative leaders and to the governor that this is something we need to do and we actually got a call back saying, "Back off, enough is enough." So they really were out there. 

And we believe, often times, they can have more impact than all the people working in the field. Because those people are perceived to have a vested interest as opposed to business leaders who also have a vested interest, but also can be major contributors to political campaigns. So we're really trying to work through opinion leaders to help change some of the priorities in our state that can ultimately help lift the state. I can talk about some of the rest of this. 

There are some basic programs that we think are so evidence-based that doing anything to do cut backs in funding for them is going to be hurtful for them long-term. And among them, I think you all probably have awareness of them, is the support and the availability in our child development or child care centers throughout the state. 

Parent education is another one of those. We can't do anything without strengthening the role of parents. And Parents as Teachers program, as I recall, was defunded in this last or the prior session. I think that's a mistake. Home visitation is one of the critical interventions that can make a huge difference. And that's being re-evaluated right now. 

And then parent support systems. And I just came from an Educare board meeting and it really came home to me how important support of parents who are trying to do a better job, trying to break that cycle of dysfunction in families, in our communities. If our state isn't behind that, we are going to pay later in all kinds of ways. So ultimately our outcome that we're seeking, that more at-risk families become families of promise so that every child has the chance to realize the American Dream. That's kind of a summary of what we're about. 

Diana Hartley: Alright well, I'm Diana Hartley with Sarkeys Foundation and just to give you a little difference between our foundation and the Potts Family Foundation, we are a private foundation. And we were actually started by Sarkeys - J Sarkeys, "Mr. Sarkeys" as we like to call him - who was a Lebanese immigrant who started the foundation in 1962. And he passed away in 1965 from gangrene. And I think that's a really terrible way to die, so make sure you don't die that way. So there's good medical technology that can keep that from happening. 

He was a generous man. He was a wildcatter, oil and gas man. And the interesting thing for me is that I've come kind of full circle in my career because Mr. Sarkeys saw his very first oil well come in in Cushing Oklahoma and that's where I grew up. So he bought oil and gas leases and land and mineral rights all across the state of Oklahoma and that's where the majority of his wealth came from and started the foundation years before his death. 

His early interest was in young men who didn't have the financial means to continue education beyond high school. So right before he passed away he changed his will to send a majority of the money into the foundation. Because what he was going to do was build a boy's home in Dewey Oklahoma. 

And, you know, Sarkeys now we have assets of almost a $100 million. It was right at $98 million yesterday. So imagine what they boy's home in Dewey Oklahoma would look like. It would be a very nice place. But I think, we at least at Sarkeys and I'm sure many of you out there that have been recipients of SarkeysÆ grants are glad that he made that decision before his death. 

So we, unlike family foundations, unlike even donor funds where people are very involved, what is happening with their investments, proceeds, endowments of their foundation assets, we don't have family members of Mr. SarkeysÆ family involved in the foundation. So the trustees that are, part of them are appointed by Judge Alma Wilson in the mid-80s and then since then it's just been other people that they have appointed, friends of theirs, we now have second-generation trustees whose fathers served on our board and now sons and daughters are on our board. 

We have the governor's brother-in-law on our board right now. And I smile big because he is one of our favorite board members because he is so nice and every board meeting he thanks the staff for all of our work so we kind of like that. We like him a lot. So that really... those trustees along with really the staff at Sarkeys Foundation are the ones that really drive where our funding goes. Where it's targeted and directed. 

And so that really determines how we play a role in public policy. And Gayle and I were talking about what you probably... you can go onto our website and you can see all the things that we fund. What you don't know is what we don't fund. And so that probably tells more about what our motivation is and really what our trustees and where our staff is really focused on directing those dollars. I will tell you that mainly our focus area, unlike Potts Family Foundation is really focused on early childhood education and Zero to Three and doing everything they can to support that and when Pat said they don't do as much as our foundations, that's not true. 

Because they have such a single focus effort that I would say it's probably easier to measure the impact and the outcomes of what they do, definitely, than the Sarkeys Foundation. So I always kind of say - I'm Presbyterian. Are there any Presbyterians in the room? I always say we're the church of anything goes and... because one of our church's biggest events is a wine tasting. You don't find that in other faiths. But I also kind of describe Sarkeys Foundation sometimes in the same way. We're kind of a foundation that will fund just about anything. 

We don't fund start-up non-profits and we don't fund hospitals, but we do fund health clinics that provide support to the uninsured and low-income. We do fund, domestic violence is a really key area for us, so domestic violence shelters. Helping support causes to give women the courage, and men, to leave those situations and have the purpose-filled life that they can have. And especially anything around children that are caught in situations of domestic violence. That's just a tug at the heart strings kind of thing. And seven of our trustees are attorneys. We always have a lot of attorneys on our board so really anything around the justice and legal system that protects the most vulnerable and those that don't have a voice tends to be where a lot of our dollars are directed. 

We also, probably it was about, may have been as long as five years ago, had kind of a convening if you will at our foundation offices in Norman and had about 65 agencies that do anything around foster care and particularly children aging out of foster care. And I say children because even when they're 18, 19, 20 years of age, they're still children; very, very much. And I think that we have forgotten that in terms of public policy and just even as a culture. We have forgotten how needy those children still are when they age out of foster care system. So we support a lot of transition programs and they're not cheap. 

It takes a lot of wrapping your arms around those children to make sure that they have the tools and the success and resources and mentors that they need because they didn't have what Potts Family Foundation was doing years ago when they were that age. So kind of that cycle. 
Probably the other area that Sarkeys Foundation funds a lot in is education. So we fund a lot of higher education initiatives. 

We also do a lot of things around community literacy. We have funded Smart Start, Partnership for School Readiness, some of those types of things as well. And we are always anxious to partner with other foundations and use our grants to leverage and create an even greater impact in our state. So we give away around $5-6 million a year. Sounds like a lot of money, but when it's $50,000 here or $10,000 here, we may not be able to always have the impact that we've had so that's why partnership is real important. 

In terms of public policy, as a foundation, I'm not sure that we do a lot of work directly in that, but we are always willing to support agencies that do that type of work. Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy is an agency that Sarkeys Foundation has provided grant money for throughout the years. 

And then also advocacy work that non-profits do. There's a book called "Forces for Good" that talks about high-performing non-profits and what those common factors are that you find in those and about 30 students every spring and fall at OU read that book because I teach a non-profit management class and that's one of the text books that I use. 

And one of the factors in there is advocate and serve. And so even within the non-profit sector, encouraging non-profits to advocate and have a voice when it comes to public policy. And we don't see that a lot in Oklahoma. And that's certainly something that we would like to encourage and see more non-profits involved in, is advocating. 

I think many of you are so involved in day-to-day direct-client service that the last thing that you could probably ever even think about is talking to a legislator or being involved or tracking any type of legislation that has come through. But just to share a story with you. My state representative in Norman is 25 years old. And wasn't even able to rent a car until this year after her birthday. And she is a lovely young woman and I met her several times, but when she first went into office I would say she didn't really have a very strong knowledge base about the non-profit sector or what non-profits do to make a difference. 

And so I have had several conversations with her, invited her to coffee almost immediately after she was elected, just to sit down and tell her, number one what Sarkeys Foundation does, and then what our role is with non-profit and just kind of educate her more about the sector. So I think all of us have a responsibility to do that. And that's a way that we advocate. Whether it's a formal way or an informal way, but just letting people know about the sector. 

Carrie Brown is here from Payne Education Center and she and I were at the BoardSource Conference in Chicago last September. And one of the things that very outspoken speaker said was, "No one knows you all exist. 
No one knows the non-profit sector exists." So when legislators are talking about doing away with the tax incentive for charitable giving, for making donations to non-profits, when people talk about that, they're not coming to us and asking us what we think about that. 

So one of the things, our charge I think, is to make sure that we have a voice and that our voice gets heard as the non-profit sector. And we're not ignored and just kind of left out when they are making policy changes and decisions. So I think that's probably more time than I was supposed to take. I get going and I'm like a preacher. I can just go and go and go. But I'll turn it over to Gayle. 

Gayle Farley: Okay, my name is Gayle Farley and I'm with the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. And we're yet another different variation of foundation. Unlike theirs which is, pretty much the money source comes from one individual, community foundations are set up a little bit different. We're a public charity and we really serve the people in the community that want to improve the quality of life in the community which they live, hence ôcommunity foundation.ö So we are really a financial institution that invests charitable dollars and through that we work with donors who have passions and interests, things that these ladies have discussed that maybe use their individual charitable funds to support those and take it further to a policy level. 

We have about $700 million of other people's money. So other people are going to make those decisions. We do have a small amount of money at our disposal for things that are going to benefit the community and those are usually based upon trustee initiatives. So, you know, we've had initiatives in areas of education and literacy. We've had initiatives in the area of health where we've done the same thing they have done in providing grants to non-profits who are serving those areas. 

And through those grants, as you all know the big buzz word is outcomes. You know what those outcomes are, how those outcomes are going to drive changes and how we are working with whatever area that we are working with. This is the other important way that we do that through our grant making. But, you know, again it comes down to what your foundation's mission is. 

And where Pat's mission was very focused, you know, the Community Foundation's mission is charitable giving. And so that's where we're going to put a lot of our "oomph" into supporting the changes that are happening in charitable giving. You mentioned the tax deduction that is going on and, you know, Congress is working with those issues right now trying to find ways to better the budget and that was one of the options that they thought of. We are in a lobbying group of nine other community foundations across the nation that have a lobbyist in Washington that does speak about those particular issues any time there are legislative changes coming up about charitable giving we know that they are working there for us. 

So with our focus being charitable giving, you know, we try to educate and raise awareness, not only of our donors and the people who are bringing money to us to support the community in lots of different ways, but also, create a knowledge base; we do this through communication, through networking, through convening groups just like you two and this is kind of where our focus is. 

We can help elected officials better understand charitable giving and how it supports non-profits. And like Diana said, they don't know you exist. So I don't know how long you've been there. Pat I know you've been there for a long time. I've been with the Community Foundation almost 14 years and yet there are non-profits in this community I don't know. And I know they're doing valuable work but, you know, they've not raised theirself to an awareness level that people really would know that. 

There's an area that we can really help non-profits do that. We've done that through capacity building grants to help them with their planning efforts, their communication efforts, lots of different ways to do that. The other areas that we work in, you know, funding those specific initiatives, again we don't go direct to the legislature and talk about any of that kind of stuff. We donÆt have feet on the ground here on the state capitol, but through the influence that we have, through our trustees, through the different donors that we work with we have some indirect play in that. 

So what we're really are going to work with on this is on leveraging those assets like you mentioned. You know, we may give a grant to the same organization that Sarkeys gives a grant to support whatever activities that it is. (Inaudible) And then creating those stores of knowledge, having a knowledge base that people can go to. I frequently say, you know, at Community Foundation we have a lot of knowledgeable and experienced individuals, but if we don't know it we usually find out somebody who can. So we can be a great resource in that way. 

So that's really how we play in the area. Again, very indirect. I had copied a hand out from the Foundation Center just talking about facts on foundations in the public policy. And one of the things that stuck out to me at the very beginning was it says, ôOne quarter of surveyed foundations currently fund or engage in direct charitable activities that could be considered public policy making.ö So there's not a lot of us and, you know, we are here to be educated, you know? 

There's things that we don't know that you're working in. Like Diana said you've got your heads to the ground about serving the people with programs and services. Educate us about that and help us learn more about that and in those ways that we can probably help you further. But use us as a tool. Yes we have some power with our board, our trustees, our donors and possibly there are ways that we can help you indirectly or directly. So, you know, educate us, help us know what the needs are that are out there. 

Connie Schlittler: Wow. You guys. You guys know how to keep us on schedule. I'm very impressed. Thank you. And I actually could keep listening to everything they have to say and just keep going, but I do want to open it up. Because this room is a little bit flat on the sound, 
I'm going to ask you to stand up and ask your question and then I'll repeat it so everyone in the room can hear it. So, oh! We've got a microphone. Alright, good, good. So if you don't mind so I don't have to repeat it. Where's our first question? Is it down there? Alright, let's start with Donna. We've got plants in the audience. 

Donna Gregory: Hi, my name is Donna Gregory and I'm with OU Center for Public Management. I'm contracted to work with Oklahoma Child Support Services as their grants writer and their grants coordinator. Pat I don't know if I look familiar, but I was second Standards for Excellence Manager for the Oklahoma Center for Non-profits. And so as a result of that, I got to be very blessed fortunately at being to meet and train with over 200 non-profits statewide in Oklahoma. 

So I came to DHS understanding what was out there in the non-profit community and sitting in a room with these folks for two years. When I came here I was a little surprised with child support, and I'm not, you know, calling out anything, but the first thing I said to my child support boss was, "Well we need some community partners here. We got people out there who are doing this type of work that we need to introduce our customers to." 

So we have a couple issues that we've been looking into. One of the things that I'm also doing is I'm facilitating the OKDHS healthy parenting task force. It's a new task force. We brought external partners in a couple of months ago and what we're discovering is that we need a way to break down the silos that have come between governmental agencies and community resources including foundations and funders. 

And I know that private foundations do not fund governmental agencies and I also know that everyone is very aware of the need for collaborative relationships to serve our poor and our needy here in Oklahoma. So my question is: what ideas might you have to help us break down the silos and bring more collaboration between governmental agencies and non-profits?

Pat Potts: Well I'll start off because I have seen some concern about silos between the education department and DHS that there are things that need more of a continuum of work together to benefit families. And I think that that's really critical. I do see, you know, having done some wrestling with the impact of sequestration that we are going to have to see a lot more public and private partnerships and things that we're used to government funding are not likely to be the same. Probably be a whole lot less. 

So that means not only foundations working with the government to fund projects that are critical to our society, but I think it means foundations working together. One thing I would love to see in our city is a grant maker's association where if grant makers honestly came together just think of the impact they could have on legislation. I worked on that for a little while at one time and there wasn't a readiness for it. I think there's beginning to be more and more readiness. Tulsa is doing a really good job of bringing foundations together and bringing their resources and potential influence to bear on issues that can make a difference in their community. And I think we can learn from them as well. 
One thing I didn't mention in my presentation that we do that I think is important, that is utilization of the media. And when we have our OK CEOs speak either to a city group or they're doing... going on TV or radio, we encourage them to do op-eds and support that as well. I think there is a lot of opportunity to influence there as well as in social media. And I think that there's ways that we can reach people who are not literate through some medium as well. So, I mean that's, I guess that's one of the main things I would suggest.

Connie Schlittler: Diana, what's your response?

Diana Hartley: Well, on our grant application we ask no-profits to give five examples of partnerships or collaborations and one of the things I would say is a lot of people don't realize what that even is. A lot of non-profits think that partnership is going to a quarterly meeting with other people and that is absolutely not the case. So true collaborations... I think about the child advocacy centers that we have across the state and I know in Norman we have the Mary Abbott House, where I think at least three or four police officers from the Norman Police Department are co-located with that non-profit. 

They also are entering a capital phase, and they are building a suite of offices specifically for DHS. So they have a grant with Sarkeys right now and so they haven't entered any kind of formal agreement or anything with DHS, but they said, "If we build it, they will come." Have you heard that before? So they are building an office suite where there will be, you know, a place for six people. So if one of the child support teams for DHS actually wanted to office out of Cleveland County in Norman, there would be the space for them to do it at absolutely no charge. 

So that's a perfect example of bringing people together to actually work and I just, I mean I hope our trustees support that and I think that is an effort they support. And that is a real tangible example of that collaborative effort. The Family Safety Center also in Tulsa, is another example of police and non-profit, domestic violence shelter coming together to create basically a one-stop-shop for individuals and families that are dealing with justice or you know bad stuff. Couldn't think of anything else, bad stuff. 

Pat Potts: Another example that occurs to me is communities without quality child care centers. The businesses come together and agree to commit to help pay for their employees to be in this child care center. And that's making something available because of collaboration of business leaders. 

Gayle Farley: I agree with them 100%.

Connie Schlittler: We got another question right here. 

Audience Member: Yesterday at the National Chamber of Commerce Convention they had a workshop on collective impact for schools creating college ratings and because the education wars are so bitter and brutal they didn't know how to ask the question, just ask if you would want to comment on the recent Atlantic Magazine article on Cincinnati schools. Because in education, Cincinnati's a metaphor for the full community working together, breaking down the silos between education and health and social services within the (inaudible) community, schools and interim education. 

And so of course I got shouted down. I mean really, all three of the national experts from the Chamber of Commerce full throated in their support of this Cincinnati collaboration and then people from the audience did the same thing. And so the question that I have is could we do in Oklahoma City what they do in Cincinnati? 

Diana Hartley: I think I would have to read the article first. I haven't read it, but what did you say it was in? 

Audience Member: Atlantic Magazine.

Diana Hartley: Atlantic Magazine. 

Audience Member: Bringing together all different service providers and grant makers and community schools and (inaudible). 

Gayle Farley: You know we do have so many entities in the greater Oklahoma City area and bringing those public school systems together, you know, is an important thing. We all tend to operate like Lone Rangers here and, you know, if we give up that mentality and come together for the common good, but there's got to be the vehicle for getting us there. And I'm not sure what that is. 

You know, I always tell people that aren't from Oklahoma that we have a pioneering spirit. We were... our land was gotten in the land run. It's very territorial and we still are.

(laughter) 

Audience Member: I'm aware of a couple of events (inaudible) and that's collaboration of public schools, social service non-providers, private missions, shelters, like that. And then my organization helps transition eight month lead (inaudible). So it brings people from DHS, Oklahoma public schools and social service providers. It's an informative session, but also (inaudible).

Audience Member: Pat, one of the things that you had mentioned was the use of evidence-based information. What are the foundations' particularly doing because... to really push this forward? As we know government funding is way, way behind on actually funding true evidence-based practices. So is, policy-wise, are the foundations able to do more in the sense of really encouraging organizations to be adopting and routinely using all of these evidence-based practices?

Pat Potts: I guess I could start off by saying that I think that the larger foundations tend to do that. They really look at evidence and how, what success looks like, how you measure success. You know, we have lots and lots of small foundations with very few staff and either don't have the capability or the know-how to do that. And I think they are persuaded often times by preferences of their foundation leadership rather than what is proven work. And I would say that happens in our legislature as well. 

That sometimes it's way too political and not enough based on what's going to really make a difference. And I think that's where all of you who are working on the field, you have the facts, we need to find ways to share them. And business leaders are one of the important conduits, but foundations can be as well. So you can't give too much solid information. We can help get it out. 

Connie Schlittler: Diana?

Diana Hartley: I would say, especially on prevention... I think one of the things that disturbs me about them, just the non-profit sector in general is that the number of new non-profits, the number of 501C3s that people are applying for, the increased dollars. I mean even though the economy has gone down since 2008, almost $300 billion has gone into non-profits within our country. And yet, are any of the problems going away? 

So I think, we have to do more on the prevention angle. Pat mentioned that. And I think that evidence-based model is so important for that for prevention. Because we are so... you've got to... You've probably read the story of the ogre that's putting babies in the river and then the citizens are plucking babies out of the water at the bottom of the river and the babies just keep coming and they keep coming and they keep coming and nobody went up to find out where the babies were coming from at the top of the river. And this ogre was there putting babies in the river. 

So we've got to get to the ogre. And we've got to make the ogre stop putting babies in the river. So, anybody who is with the food pantry please don't take this wrong way, but just giving out bags of food doesn't get to the root of the problem. So that's where we've got to get to prevention and more of those solutions. 

Pat Potts: I'm going to get really frank and I think our state is way too focused on punishment and certainly the example of that is us being number one in incarceration of women and number three in incarceration of men and we are paying the price in dollars and in human lives and that's taking what she's talking about to a specific example that can change. And there have been people trying to change it but there hasn't been enough support passed on to legislators. 

There are more effective, evidentiary, proven ways to address crime and to get more into prevention and treatment as opposed to punishment. So that's huge. 

Diana Hartley: My favorite quote from Leadership Oklahoma when I went through that program three years ago was, "We have to stop locking up people we're mad at and only lock up people we're afraid of." So that's where all the money is going. 

Connie Schlittler: Very good. Very good. Alright we have another hand over here. And our constant we will ask you to do an email evaluation and we never have enough time at these events but we want you hungry for more, hungry to attend other events from the Robinson Foundation. So, go ahead. 

Jennifer Arlan: Okay, thanks I'm Jennifer Arlan. I'm with NorthCare - speaking of a non-profit that not too many people know about. We have jail alternative programs like you were just talking about, we have collaboration, we have variety care embedded in our facility. We have collaborations with the DA and Public Defender. At DHS we hold the largest contract for child welfare services, lots of collaborative partners that are real true partnerships. But we're a non-profit that not too many people know about. So my question to you is how do I go about spreading the news? You talked about how there are non-profits you don't know about. How would you like to be told?

Gayle Farley: Well, you visited my office recently.

(laughter)

Diana Hartley: Here's my card. 

Gayle Farley: Yeah and that's exactly what you need to do. You know, we all know that you're out there. You don't ever come and ask us for money. And that's one of your problems. 

Jennifer Arlan: I will say that in our 31-year history we have not had to ask the community for support, but we are working on a new building. We have capital campaign. We actually are putting offices in for the public defender, district attorney and court services. We're putting offices in for TEAM, we've got offices for DMH. We're even looking at putting offices in for the VA. So we really do need our community to support us and understand who we are and where our focus is going. 

So given that we haven't needed to ask for that support in the past it's sort of unknown to us. Not so much for me. I worked at the Food Bank. I know how to let people know but to let people know what we're doing and to really talk about it. 

Diana Hartley: You know what? I am going to give you something Jennifer. 
I'm going to give you a scholarship to the Sarkeys Foundation.

Jennifer Arlan: I'm already enrolled.

Diana Hartley: Are you really?

Jennifer Arlan: Yeah. 

Diana Hartley: Have you already paid?

Jennifer Arlan: Yep.

Diana Hartley: Okay, well I'll give you one so you can bring someone else from your organization or from your board. Because we do have that coming up in November and I do have fliers and post cards on that. It's on the power of relationships and, you know, bring your boss, that's a good idea. So that you can get some of those questions answered. 

Gayle Farley: I think just what you're doing. You're visiting our offices. You're sharing information about what you're doing with not only foundations, but with your legislators, your councilmen, you know, people of influence here need to know what you're doing. I mean we all know you do good work but it seems like you kind of do it on the fringe. 

Jennifer Arlan: I know. (Inaudible)

Connie Schlittler: I want to follow up on her question. This was something that came out of our grants team meeting. We met last week. So what's the best way to introduce yourself to a foundation? What's the best approach?

Diana Hartley: I'll tell you the approach not to take. Because we have a grant deadline coming up at Sarkeys on August 1st. And I kid you not I had someone send an email at 9:57pm that I've never met before. Never met. And I have a thing about my name. My name is Diana, not Dianne. Right, Dayna? And so the email said, "Hi Dianne." So that gets me all "ugh" to begin with. 

And then she said, "I just realized the Sarkeys deadline is August 1st. I thought it was August 15th, eek!" Eek? I don't... is that a word? Is that a word? And so then she said, "I want to apply for a grant." Well I've never heard of your organization, I've never met her, never heard of her so that certainly isn't how to do it and if you call a foundation a few days before a grant deadline when the information has been out there available for a very, very long time that sends a very strong message. 

Is that how you're treating your clients? And is that how you're operating your non-profit that is a business? It is a non-profit business, but it is a business. So, you know, I brought business cards. I like to have people call, set up a time to come and meet with me. That's fine. I mean, I'm a face-to-face... I want to get to know you on and I want to shake your hand kind of person. That's my preference. And I'm always happy to meet with people, because I like to talk. 

Pat Potts: And do your online research, too, ahead of time. And you could call and have a discussion about whether what you're proposing is appropriate for the priorities of the foundation. And then if it is, the next step is set up an appointment, go in and see them before you even start putting the grant request together.

Connie Schlittler: Alright we have another question right here. 

Carrie Brown: I'm Carrie Brown. I'm with Payne Education Center and we're in the business of education. Our mission is to train teachers to prevent reading difficulties with children. So we really focus on training teachers how to do a better job (inaudible). At any rate, Diana and I were at the BoardSource conference, I think. The key thing to communicate from that conference and elsewhere, is that the federal level of sequestration of cuts have always let the non-profits be a safety net for the communities. 

And that we really need to have a very cautious balancing act in that we do not continue to be a bigger and bigger and bigger safety net. Because the more and more we pick up the slack the more they'll let us pick up the slack and it will never get back to us. So we just have to be extremely careful in doing business with government funds but we consequently try to do to continue to serve people that we serve. 

Because ultimately, once it's gone, the chances of it coming back without a real struggle is very questionable. So that's just a caution. Because it's... you know, everybody has a good heart and we always want to try and give more and so forth, but pretty soon there's a point of no return with you seeing a delay of what's not being done (inaudible). The second thing is that, on behalf of education, especially since President Obama (inaudible). Outcome measurement, research-based outcomes for education is just really the first thing on the (inaudible). And even as an education organization it's difficult for us because we don't even provide service to the children. 

We do direct service to the teacher who then has the responsibility of implementing what we teach them with children. So there's also challenges in that. We don't have that first-hand accountability to know that people trained in the program go back to the classroom and with the leadership of the principal they can actually implement what they learn from us. So any outcomes is a tricky thing in trying to work that out and I do know that some non-profits, especially the Community Foundation are really good at trying to guide you at learning how to put that in a program. To give you some help in that direction. 

And finally, and kind of talking about the coalition and partnership building, at least in the educational community, we see it from the top. We know where the leadership is coming from. Districts statewide because we train teachers statewide. And it's like some of the leadership and some of the districts across the state have an "ah-hah!" moment where they say, "Really our teachers are not adequately prepared when they come from college they don't know who to teach kids to read. They just know the science of reading." And so it's systemic. It's not just Oklahoma, it's nationwide. It's been a real serious situation for 50 years. So we're paddling upstream on that. 

But I also know that some of the districts are very enlightened. And once they get it, they do something about it. Other districts don't get it and the leadership is not in line. And I would like to suggest that I think it's a wonderful thing for the partnership thing is always going to be really supportive of partnering with any school, any district, any other group that is trying to bring literacy to the community. 

But that you really have to figure out a way to get past this... And they're also territorial because, let's say that Deer Creek has excellent scores, all across the board. They don't want to partner with another school district where they might be let down because of this and this. 
They get it, someone else doesn't, and they don't want to have to expend time and resources with partnering groups that are not going to really see the light at the end of the tunnel... 

So I really think that that kind of thinking needs to be very basic to us kind of really moving forward. That we really need to work on the leadership and realizing that resources are becoming more scarce. Partnership and sharing resources is essential, but we have to get everybody on the same page of thinking about, "How do we do this in a unified, structured way where we don't have albatrosses around our necks continually drag us backwards?" 

Connie Schlittler: This is our lightning round. We're wrapping up. So if each of you could give us a parting thought about partnership and leadership that was good, one minute each and we'll wrap it up. Pat?

Pat Potts: Well I guess I would just reiterate that I believe that potential lies within the most disadvantaged kids, the most under-resourced organization, to change and that there are wonderful examples that just have been described of that happening. It takes really a will to look at what works and what doesn't and make change. And I just have a really strong sense that we ought to be focusing on lifelong learning and that starts at birth and that continues on throughout adulthood. People are changing careers, there's just change going on all the time. We have to encourage and support that wherever we find that.

Diana Hartley: I really think the key to changing public policy because that's really what the core is for why we're here today and what we're really talking about. How do we change public policy? And I think the secret to it is the same thing as it is to collaboration among non-profits and like Gayle said, you know, that Oklahoma territorial, competitive, you know, that can be a good thing and it can also be a bad thing. And one of my new favorite sayings along with the one I shared earlier is, "You have to be willing to be part of the constellation and not the shining star." And I think we live in an area where everybody wants to be the shining star. And I think if we focus more on collaboration and working with people and not against people and competing against people we can see more policy change and more positive change within our state. 

Pat Potts: Could I just add one thing I wish I had thought of when I was supposed to be saying something inspiring? Basically, legislators are between session right now and Congress is going to be coming home and that is a great opportunity to influence policy makers and as people who are running for public office. Go to those times when they are trying to get together some supporters and let them know what you know is really important. 

Connie Schlittler: Alright Gayle. 

Gayle Farley: I'll reiterate what they said. I... what Carrie said about evidence-based outcomes. I think learning more about how to produce that information is important. I don't know if you have problems with non-profits coming to you. You know they're doing great programs and services, but they don't know how to translate that into outcomes. And we as funders really need to be providing more money to help people do that. 
So you need to be telling us that too. It is a cost to you. And, you know, you've got to work with all of your constituents. 

You know, whenever we look at charitable dollars and how your particular financial situation is set up, you know, the predominant amount of funding that you receive is going to come from individuals. I mean that's your big pool to pull from. So look to them to talk to them about how they feel about things that they're supporting through the organization. Could they be a voice for you to legislators and to Congress? So use the people that you know and influence them. Teach them how to become advocates for you. I think that would, you know, be a great thing to do. 

And, you know, just, you know, we have a passive citizenry. How do we raise them up and get them interested in things that's going on, that's benefitting them in their community that they have no idea how it happens, but it just happens. And we're glad they... it did. So you know, those are all things that I think we as individuals and non-profits need to have a focus on doing. 

And then I have another kind of beef and that's about, you know, being a part of industry. I mean you're in a non-profit industry. And if you have a job that's about banking, you know everything in that industry. Do the same thing with non-profits. Your board members need to know about that industry so educate and let them learn more and see how it works so that you can make change.

Connie Schlittler: Thank you very much. 

(applause)