News You Can Use

Give.. You'll feel like a Million Bucks

This posting comes from the new book by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley, the author of The Millionaire Next Door. His new book is, Stop Acting Rich…And Start Living Like a Real Millionaire. In it Stanley breaks down the difference between how we think millionaires act and consume and how the majority of them really do act.

There appear to be a number of very relevant observations in this book (which I have not read, but now intend to). The most salient to me is the statistic Dr. Stanley presents that millionaires are more apt to give 10% of their income to charity. Apparently, there is a relationship between this habit and the avoidance of "impediments to wealth," which the author defines as expensive homes, cars, designer clothing and such.

Another tidbit from this book is that 25% of millionaires living in houses of less than $300,000 gave away 10% of their income annually. Of those living in houses of $1,000,000 or more the percent that were this generous was 25% less.

Furthermore Stanley's research finds that those who gave away 10% or more recorded that they were happier than the group as a whole.

The book also points to educators as a surprisingly robust source of millionaire. About 385,000 of our teachers have reached the status of millionaire. In short, the book sems to say that living prudently and finding joy in what you give to others is the roadmap to wealth and happiness.

Good advice!

Inspiration

"How lonely it must be for a boy not to have a man to talk with, or a man to provide some type of inspiration and direction."

-Frank S. Land
Founder, DeMolay International

October 12 marked the birthday in 1244 of Jacques DeMolay, the best known prior of the Knights Templar and the Order's historic martyr.

The Knights Templar were one of several martial orders predominantly organized to seize and protect the Holy Land and Christian interests in the Middle East and elsewhere, to protect pilgrims and to convey financing of the noblity of Europe who when on Crusades.

DeMolay saw work in Acre, but rose prominently on the island of Cypress where the Knights Templar had a strong fortification.

The strength of the Templars truly was amplified by their role as fiduciaries for kings seeking to "liberate" the cities of the Holy Land. This power became their downfall as Phillippe IV of France became heavily indebted to them. During the schism of the Catholic Church in the 14th Century, a Papacies was seated at Avignon, France. This Pope - Clement - was considered by many to be under the control of King Charles. On Friday, October 13, 1307 Jacques DeMolay was arrested and most Templars hunted down and all Order property confiscated under seemingly trumped up charges of heresy and scandal. The elderly Prior was tortured. He ultimately confessed and urged his Templars to confess as well. In 1312 the Order was abolished. The following year, DeMolay, now having spent almost six years imprisoned, was sentenced for life. He then recanted his confession and was burnt at the stake the following year.

This is the story of chivalry and courage that inspired nine boys, encouraged to start a club based on improvement and camaraderie by Mason Edwin S. Land in 1919, to choose the name "DeMolay."

Though our effort differs greatly from the one prompted by "Dad" Land, we could easily restate his quote:
"How lonely it must be for a child not to have the ability to read or effectively write, no comprehension of our bounty of written resources to provide some type of inspiration and direction."

Now, as then, Masons and like-minded people are working together to help our future generations.

Ideas That Work

Another Walk Idea...

Note: I am taking a week's break from discussing the rebranding process. I gave the board of governors' chairs until this Wednesday to respond to the survey in that was featured last week. I received a number of well-thought responses. I still have yet to receive response from roughly half the board chairs and hope they will respond by tomorrow. Remember if you don't respond, you will have to abide by decisions made from the input of others.

This time of year is the typical conducting our dyslexia walks. It amazes me that the walks are currently in their sixth year of operation. As with any event proposed for use in many locations, it is successful in some places and not the best thing in others. As with any event, a successful walk relies on enthusiastic volunteers, a decent body of people who will sponsor the event and participate in it, and a manageable site to hold it.

There are a lot of walk-type events. In some cities there are so many that gaining a foothold may seem impossible. Fortunately, there are ways to tweak the walk so it reaches a slightly different audience. Also there is an almost infinite universe of special events that might better suit you.

In this case the Waterbury Learning Center's volunteers successfully tweaked the model.

Chairman of the Waterbury LC, Charles Yohe, write and explained how the in the Hartford area, they decided to conduct a Walk/Run:

"The Valley of Hartford, AASR decided they wanted to do something on an annual basis in support of the Learning Center and the chairman of the Family Life committee, who is a 5K participant decided that they should do something different from a Family Life perspective. So, on July 25, 2009, the first ever 5K Race/Walk was sponsored by Valley of Hartford in Newington, CT. One hundred forty-eight runners took part in this first year event and all expressed a desire to come back and bring their friends along next year. We even had a runner from San Francisco, CA who was visiting in the area.

"The total donation to the Learning Center after expenses came out to almost $4800. This was due in large part to the generous support of sponsors and the donations of food items for the participants. I donated my sound system, music and support as a mobile DJ and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We had support from the DeMolay as well as spouses and family members. There was also a Child ID event on site as well.

"The event chair told me that he was contacted by the owner of a weight loss clinic who was going to encourage his clients (50+) to come and walk. The entrance fee was $15 per person and we had a professional chip timing system which we leased for the day. The plan is to make this a yearly event close to the last Saturday in July (2010 is July 24th). The local police and EMTs were on hand and were very complimentary on how well the event was run. The town of Newington has several 4'x8' billboards to announce various items of interest and gave the AASR the free use of one of these billboards in the center of town.

"So, in additon to the Walk for Dyslexia Awareness, we now have a 5K Run/Walk. We've already held one 'post mortem'/advance planning session for next year's event, with another session scheduled for October 18th. The current plan is to lease the timing equipment for the next 2 years and then purchase our own system which can then be leased out to other organizations who are holding 5K or 10K races. A timing system basically pays for itself in 3 years, even if it is not leased to others."

Great work! As a fundraiser for two hospitals, I organized Run/Walk events. They are generally successful in bringing more people to the event if you advertise the run in running publications and web sites (runnersworld.com and coolrunning.com are 2 well known sites). Walkers and sponsors are really the reliable sources for funds, but an event with a good crowd keep the excitement high and brings people back year after year.

Remember too that scheduling is essential. If there is a huge walk or race already scheduled for the day you want, you might give the established event the date. Chances are your walk/run will suffer from the competition.

Please send me any innovations you have used to help your walk event succeed. This spring we may host a webinar incorporating your good ideas.

News You Can Use

Taking loss in perspective

I write this after having read an article about recent decisions at Harvard. Bloomberg News recently reported that Harvard Management Co., the endowment investment arm of the Ivy League school is in the process of jettisoning a number of their outside investment managers.

It appears Harvard is retrenching after its recent experience in the market. Last year the Harvard endowment lost 27 % of its value, a really huge drop that has serious implications for is current and near term plans.

Over the years, Harvard has been pointed to as an example of how to invest. They bragged a sixfold return from 1990 to 2005. Over the fiscal year ended June 30, their endowment lost $10 billion. Yes, BILLION.

This loss, combined with the very illiquid nature of many of their investments, has put unusual pressure on the university. Expansion projects have been imperiled, cut or halted.

I saw that the average return on our Board Restricted Funds for the Learning Center Fiscal year that ended on August 31,2009 was -7.6%. Negative return (losses, to you and me) are always hard to stomach. Sometimes a little perspective can make one feel better, though. It is a tribute to our investment strategies that we didn't lose more in this economy than we did.

When you consider the plight of our smart peers at Harvard, you can appreciate that our BRFs are pretty well managed.

Read the Bloomberg article here.

JUST IN: (10/9) The New Yort Times, obviously in fear of being scooped by the Idea Hub, just ran a feature on the cutbacks a Harvard. No cookies for Crimson!

Inspiration

This month’s inspiration contest winner was the Youngstown Learning Center. (For contest details click here.)

Center Director Dorothy Tesner was excited to hear that her Center’s submission had been chosen.

“It’s such a joy to realize that the sincere appreciation of this child and family could touch the heart of someone beyond the walls of our Center,” she said.

Autumn Stowers is 13 and attended the Youngstown Learning Center for 2½ years. Since finishing her tutoring in 2007, Autumn has been on the merit roll at school and has even been asked by her teacher to peer tutor some of her friends in class.

“If it weren’t for the Center helping me, I would not love school as much as I do now and be as happy,” Autumn said.

Autumn’s mother called the Learning Center a godsend. She said that her family never would have been able to afford private tutoring and is incredibly grateful for the Center’s life-changing work.

“You’d never believe my broken child is the the confident lady she is now,” the mother said. "She came to the Center broken and left a warrior."

As Youngstown Center secretary Cari Marshall observed, that’s exactly what our Centers do. They teach children to be warriors, arming them with the skills to battle reading, learning, school and life.

Congratulations to Youngstown on their win. And don’t forget, for your chance to win $100 next month for your Learning Center, submit a success story to ideahub@childrenslearningcenters.org by October 31.

Ideas That Work

Rebranding, Continued...

Last week's posting about rebranding the Learning Centers was our second most read posting ever. It is a strong endorsement of your commitment to the Learning Centers and your desire to do all you can to help improve your Center's success.

We received a lot of responses last week, about the "Cornerstone" brand. The feedback is appreciated. It was skewed to only 8 Learning Center Boards, however. The points brought up however deserve the full participation of our body of boards, so today the post will cover a few related topics.

First, based on the quality of responses last week, it is obvious that a full poll of the Learning Centers is important before making recommendations to the Learning Center parent board of directors. As a result, I sent an email yesterday to each board of governor's chair asking the following 3 questions:

1. Regarding naming:

• a. I/we like the name “32nd Degree Masonic Learning Center for Children” best.
• b. I/we like the name “Cornerstone Tutoring for Children with Dyslexia” or “Cornerstone Centers for Children with Dyslexia” best.
• c. I/we want to see a name change, but do not like the “Cornerstone” brand. (If you wish to propose another idea, please do so.)

Follow-up question: By what name do most people call your 32nd degree Masonic Learning Center for Children?

2. Where do you foresee most of your future donations coming from?

• a. Scottish Rite Masons and Bodies
• b. Masons and Masonic Bodies
• c. Non-Masons

3. What is the biggest challenge your Learning Center currently faces? What are you doing differently to address this challenge?

We are only taking one reply per Learning Center, so if you want to weigh in, please contact your chair.

*

As for the replies from last week, a couple expressed concern that we are turning our backs from the Masons with the new branding ideas.

Let me say categorically it is not our intention to take the Masons out of the Learning Centers. When we sought new brands for the program, first and foremost, the brand had to bear Masonic symbolism. Further, the full brand ends with ..."a Scottish Rite Masonic Charity."

The objective in this exercise is assuring that there is clarity regarding the purpose of the charity (helping children with dyslexia) and that it is not confusing to non-Masonic constituencies.

*

Finally, regarding the logo. We Scottish Rite Masons have a lot wrapped up in "the Bear." Much of the recognition in this program Masonic-wise is tied to the Teddy Bear. However, the image is not typically associated with young people 8-17 years old. The recommendation to change the logo reflects this finding. Perhaps after all we'll find that loyalty to the logo trumps the research. Your voice is important to this decision.

Throughout this process, we encourage and will be strengthened by the intelligent discussion we are seeing related to the rebranding effort. We appreciate your input. It clearly is aiding our thinking.

News You Can Use

Danger of taking things for "Grant"-ed

As you know, the folks here in the Scottish Rite Charities office are enthusiastic about grants for our Learning Centers. We are always looking for good prospects. We've developed abundant materials to help the Learning Center volunteers apply for grants. Our staff are always happy to work with a local Center that is seeking this support.

Why do we work this way? We are bullish on grants for our Learning Centers. The Learning Centers are attractive to funders because of their success and their cost-effectiveness. Generally grants should augment your funding sources.

A cloud on the horizon has arisen however. The Chronicle of Philanthropy predicts that 2010 will be a down year for foundation giving. The reason for this is the poor stock market over the past 2 years. Their problems reflect the fact that foundations are largely endowments and rely upon a regulated return of their assets. The losses of 2008 and 2009 will affect foundations in 2010 suggests the Chronicle.

What does that mean to us? Well for one, still attempt to aquire grants. The environment might be more challenging this year, but we still have a good story to tell and are quite funding worthy. Even if you don't get funded today, a good proposal may put you toward the hear of the line in 2011, when giving should rebound.

If you are receiving grants already, this is the time to keep a close relationship with your donor/foundation. Make sure you are communicating with the foundation and providing positive feedback. In a time of scarcer funds, the foundation might look at all recipients and prune back those recipients that don't appear to using the funds best.

For more information, read the entire article here.