Success Stories

Supporting families in the Texas Panhandle   

For the past year, we’ve worked with a team of leaders at Panhandle Community Services. Mary Twitty, Bob Carlton, and Magi York taught us assessment work and grant writing, so it was an honor to be invited back to support this community action agency.

In 2020-2021, we raised $3.3 million for three key programs:

1. Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) CARES funds – rental assistance to address and prevent homelessness for 300 individuals and families.
   
2. Texas Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program to prevent foreclosure for 250 homeowners.
3. An Office of Minority Health three-year grant award to provide outreach and education about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The project is designed to increase EITC claims in the Panhandle (only 78% of eligible taxpayers claim this credit) and reduce adverse childhood experiences – and risk factors for ACEs – among six target groups.

Pivoted strategic planning to recovery planning during a pandemic.

Andi supported Eugene Opera in developing a strategic plan in spring 2020. We began preparing for the work in fall 2019, before the world changed. Unfortunately, the Opera had to cancel its performance of Tosca – the biggest show of the season – on opening night in March. It was a devastating blow to the company, in the middle of our planning process.

Fortunately, the Opera’s board and leadership staff had been great financial stewards and were able to weather the crisis. They also came back to the table and reduced the horizon from three years to two, to make it seem more manageable. Andi led a recovery planning session on Zoom.

The board and leadership staff are to be commended for the adjustments they made, which were not easy with so much uncertainty. When asked about key takeaways, one director replied, “We are not completely helpless in the face of the current disaster!”

Barb Wheatley, a leader on the board, offered the following: “I was amazed by your ability — and willingness –to adapt to the drastically changed situation when the coronavirus lockdown began in the middle of the planning process. Despite this crisis, you were able to shepherd us through the process and produce a meaningful product even in the midst of the overwhelming uncertainty about the future that we are facing now.”

Better grant fundraising in a music education nonprofit

“Your Community Resource Share workshop motivated us to better structure our grant application process!

We took the time to finish developing our grant toolbox to make it better up to date, and put into place your suggestion of tracking our funding research as well as our applications.

I spent a lot of quality time with the Foundation Directory at the downtown library portal, and it lead us to a ton of opportunities we’d never come across before! We’ve increased the number of applications we’re submitting each month, and each one has gotten easier thanks to all the centralized resources.”

            Rachael Young and Matrisha Armitage, Program Director and Executive Director

New VA Housing Program – Supportive Services for Veteran Families

In partnership with St. Vincent de Paul’s Housing staff, led by the venerable Anne Williams (former Housing Director), Andi wrote the grants to secure VA funding and launch this new Housing First program in 2011. Supportive Services for Veteran Families is a key program in VA’s effort to help end Veteran homelessness nationwide. St. Vincent de Paul received the first SSVF grant awarded in Oregon, to support unhoused veterans in Lane County.

Over a 10-year period, Andi raised more than $10 million with a 100% success rate for SSVF grants. St. Vincent de Paul expanded the geographic area throughout the Willamette Valley in partnership with Community Services Consortium. The two agencies combined have housed more than 1,200 Veterans who were experiencing homeless in Lane, Linn, Lincoln and Benton Counties (as of June 2020).

The remarkable staff at SVDP have developed an excellent model for housing-first programs and VA recognizes them as an outstanding grantee. It was an honor to write the renewal grant for 10 years.

See more of their good works at www.svdp.us

Multi-year grant fundraising – Raised $2.8 million for sex education and a regional health & education center

Andi committed nearly 4,500 hours over 5 years to develop 100 grant proposals supporting innovative programs and a capital campaign. Their efforts netted $2.8 million in grants with a 58% success rate on federal, state, foundation and United Way grant proposals.

• $950,000 secured for construction of Regional Health & Education Center in Lane County
• $300,000 awarded to convert to electronic health records in seven health centers
• $370,000 in federal & state grants won to launch a program for ACA health insurance enrollment assistance
  
• $1,000,000 in grants secured to sustain, develop and evaluate comprehensive sex education programs

Andi helped PPSO staff to enhance grant tracking, reporting and stewardship. The largest-ever development team of five people became more sophisticated & effective thanks to our collaborative efforts and strong leadership.

Learn more about PPSO at www.ppsworegon.org

Fundraising quadrupled in a growing nonprofit focused on kindness.

U R Awesome is an empowering leadership organization. Over an 18-month period we helped this nonprofit’s grant revenue and community support increase by 400%!

Andi helped U R Awesome select tribal foundations in western Oregon whose missions aligned closely with theirs and helped write three grant proposals with a small staff. One out of three was awarded, and the staff did a phenomenal job of leveraging a $5,000 grant award to raise $25,000 more!

This fundraising success enabled URA to offer free workshops on kindness and respect to hundreds of youth and adults in Lane County schools and nonprofits during 2015-2016. Check out their website at https://urawesome.org/ 

Raised $800,000 to support the Sprout! Food Hub in Springfield, Oregon

Andi worked with staff and leadership to develop a three-year proposal for Community Economic Development funds from the Office of Community Services. We secured an $800,000 federal grant that helped the Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation (NEDCO) create 20 jobs.

Sprout! was a regional food hub in downtown Springfield, Oregon, which was envisioned and created by NEDCO in 2010-2011. This beautifully converted church building had restaurants, a year-round indoor farm market, micro-business incubator services, and a commercial kitchen to help small growers, producers and artisans get products to market. They also hosted events in the multi-purpose community space. Following it’s sale, this location is now a thriving, privately-owned business called Public House.

Check out NEDCO (now known as DevNW) and learn more about community development corporations (CDCs) at https://devnw.org/

Please see Andi Kemp’s LinkedIn profile for more success stories!