College students as catalysts for social change: a case study

Networking

In applying for their non-profit status, lawyers donated time. The founders used their network to put out the word they were looking for an office and someone they met at a conference worked to provide the office space free of charge. This space also includes the phone, Internet usage, copy machine, utility costs and parking so they have no overhead costs for their office. Youth Frontiers, another youth organization, knew they needed furniture. A roofing company in Minneapolis had planned to open a second office and when they decided not to, they first called Youth Frontiers, who contacted SLP, and all the office furniture was donated.

Trying to hold weekend retreats with large numbers can be challenging, but the group put out a call for space and Roy’s high school principal made the connection for them to use Storybook Lodge. This facility simply asks for a donation they can afford for usage. SLP has used the facility for the past three winters and this past year had 98 students present. This space included lodging, meeting space, gymnasium, and dining facilities.

Other examples of in-kind donations included a three day strategic planning retreat at a home where someone provided all meals and space. On the Make a Difference trips there are numerous places such as churches, Colleges, YMCA’s, community centers and other facilities that allow the groups to stay for free.

An SLP development committee member paid part of the cost for the three founders to go to a professional fundraising school. While at the school they received financial support from the other participants in attendance. Pete explains how this came to be:

Our fundraising school class donated about $1,500 dollars to us…which is more than it cost for SLP to go there. We’ve kept in touch with them so we give them updates on big things that happen. I’m sure some of them are annoyed and some of them are like emailing us back saying, ‘Hey, you guys are the best.’

When asked why they would donate money to them, Pete said the other participants got excited when they heard what SLP was doing and the passion the three founders shared about their work. A board member paid for Mackenzie to attend an Experiential Learning conference, which led her to make a connection to a family foundation that SLP hopes to approach about potential future funding.

Networking has also led to many of the committee and board members’ participation and some other opportunities. The SLP office is located at an alternative school in Minneapolis. In exchange for the office space, SLP is required to lead some service learning programs for the students. This led to planning a trip with the Metropolitan Federation of Alternative Schools in the Twin Cities. These alternative schools serve at-risk youth. Serving this population of youth was of interest to Social Venture Partners (SVP) and was highlighted when SLP applied for a grant from them. SVP awarded SLP a $25,000 renewable grant. SLP competed against 40 other organizations, many very well established, with professional paid grant writers. Additional funding to support the organization comes from individual and private donations. In 2008 SLP officially partnered with Serve Minnesota, an organization that oversees AmeriCorps Minnesota. This provides opportunity for SLP to align with an organization that has a similar set of values and purpose. The goal of this partnership is to encourage college students to consider a year of service beyond college and provided some additional funding for SLP.

Even though the networking has had positive results one of their board members expressed a concern about the purpose of some of the networking.

Part of it is they have met people who have enabled them to…meet other people…the other part is sometimes just going out on a limb and…calling up Jack Canfield or whatever I think is how some of it happens. What…is hard for me sometimes to kind of get a handle on is…so you met with Jack Canfield, so what? You know, what is that, how does that help? …In the long term it may, in the short term, you know, sometimes you wonder…So you can have lots of meetings and spend lots of money eating, but…how does that turn into results?

As can be seen from the networking examples a great deal of the energy of SLP has shifted to sustaining itself. Networking is a shared strength and a common value with all of the founders, from the need to fundraise, to develop the infrastructure of the national office.

Organizational Components

Programmatic Elements

Programmatic elements are those created by and unique to SLP. To understand how all of these leadership characteristics and qualities of the founders are put into practice, one must understand the Core Model. The Core Model influences all of the various leadership roles within the group from the national core (the founders), to the chapter cores (individual campus chapters), bus cores and celebration city cores. The Core Model proposes that the community supports people, who support chapters, who support National. At the same time, National supports chapters, who support people and so on (SLP website). For a visual representation of the Core Model see figure 4.


Figure 4. Core Model, SLP website, 2008.