Browsing by Subject "Nonprofits"
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Item Amanda Veasy Interview(2022-02-18) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Amanda Veasy, co-founder of One Love Longview, a nonprofit resource center for unsheltered, uninsured, and underserved populations. Amanda talks about the rapid rise of her organization as a response to community needs for accessible mental and physical health care. She describes the changes in her religious experiences over time, including being spurred to leave the church over her unwillingness to condemn the LGBTQ+ community. Amanda also talks about her methods of helping effectively by putting the individual’s desires and consent first and about the strength of her value of southern hospitality.Item Challenges facing non-profits in affordable housing development(2008-05) Ng, Michelle Denise; Mueller, Elizabeth J.This professional report examines the key contextual and organizational factors affecting community development corporations (CDCs) in the development of affordable housing. Using the findings of a systematic case study carried out by William Rohe and Rachel Bratt, I offer a detailed discussion of these factors in the context of a number of case studies, including an extensive discussion of the life cycle of Eastside Community Investments (ECI), a CDC that served the Near Eastside Neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana. Following this discussion, I explore a number of policy implications of this case study for the community development sector. The effective production of affordable housing involves a number of key players, including CDCs themselves, their intermediaries, the government, and the community; the active participation and commitment of all of these organizations is crucial to the long-term sustained success of the entire industry.Item Female veterans face complex transition, high unemployment(2015-05) Kulshrestha, Kritika Pramod; Todd, Russell; Rivas-Rodriguez, MaggieJulie Puzan left Falls City, Texas, to join the Air Force in September 2003 as soon as she completed high school. Over the next six years, she was deployed to Guam twice as a weapons loader. In 2009 she left the service. That’s when things got tough. When she mustered out, she knew she needed help getting back in civilian life. She just didn’t know where to get it. Eventually she navigated the maze of assistance programs for vets and began putting her life together. Help was out there, but it was hard to find. She also realized that a flood of female vets was coming home to assistance that had been designed for men. Lots of programs dealt with problems like combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, but few were out there to treat the aftermath of sexual assaults and other challenges faced by females. Puzan is among 2.3 million female veterans in or entering the American work force after America's recent series of wars. The economy hasn't been good at absorbing these veterans. The V.A. and other veterans organizations are beginning to reach out to female vets, but find themselves behind the curve given the fast growth of the population they serve. As long as that's true, female vets will have to look hard to find the help they need in a system designed for males.Item Grace Carlin Interview(2021-07-30) Institute for Diversity & Civic LifeThis interview is with Grace Carlin, a San Antonio-based environmentalist. Grace discusses finding her passion for nature through exposure to national parks and educational opportunities. She talks about her work coordinating the Urban Land & Water program with the Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas, describing the impacts and challenges of community gardens. Grace also shares her interest in youth engagement, particularly the value of young people’s contributions and their right to a future with a stable global climate.Item Gregory Han Interview(2022-03-14) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Gregory Han, an educator and Presbyterian minister active in interreligious dialogue in Houston. Gregory shares his story of growing up biracial in a very White area and the experience of simultaneously fitting in anywhere and nowhere. He talks about his path in education toward discovering his passions for both academics and ministry. Gregory discusses his work with Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, such as leading visits to houses of worship and organizing dialogue between leaders and communities of different faiths. He also talks about the unique challenges of interfaith work in Texas as well as doing this work in the aftermath of 9/11.Item Interdisciplinary curriculum and media literacy education in Global Action Project(2021-05-08) Gold, Valarie R.; Straubhaar, Joseph D.Global Action Project (GAP) is a nonprofit organization in New York City founded in 1991 with the goal of providing media arts programming for youth from low income, new immigrant, and LBGQT+ communities. This paper will focus on GAP’s Youth Breaking Borders (YBB) program, an education and leadership program for new immigrant and refugee youth within the theoretical context of critical media literacy. GAP’s educational approach is self-referred to as “Transformative Media Organizing”, focusing on social justice media production by youth. In 2007, Stephen Charbonneau analyzed a GAP documentary production created within the YBB program. Charbonneau shows criticism of GAP’s approach to auto-ethnography by immigrant youth, arguing that GAP embraces American globalism, a single global youth identity, and a universality of the immigrant youth experience (Charbonneau, 2007). GAP continued its Youth Breaking Borders program up until December of 2020, when they announced the organizations closure. By an analysis of GAP’s more recent short films produced through their Youth Breaking Borders program, this paper gives insight on how GAP’s approach to auto-ethnographic expression may have changed or stayed consistent over the course of the organization’s existence. Their social justice and cosmopolitan framework will be used as a foundation to analyze the effectiveness of their approach- determining whether the final film productions by youth participants meet the organizations “Transformative Media Organizing” curriculum goals. This paper aims to determine how GAP approaches multiple pedagogy within the curriculum and whether the organization’s mission over the years may reflect opportunities to effectively empower or support youth in developing a cosmopolitan, global citizen self-identity.Item Jaime "Mujahid" Fletcher Interview(2022-01-25) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Jaime “Mujahid” Fletcher, founder of IslamInSpanish. Jaime shares about his youth, during which he was involved in gang activity in Alief then developed his value of education in Colombia. After his conversion to Islam at twenty-three, Jaime began to translate Islamic literature and thought into Spanish so his Latino family and community could better understand Islam. Jaime goes on to describe the growth of IslamInSpanish from its inception as a family project to its current state as a vibrant community in the Centro Islamico in Alief. He also discusses the social justice projects IslamInSpanish is involved in and shares his advice for working toward social change.Item Latifah Hameen Interview(2021-12-22) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Latifah Hameen, a life/relationship coach and domestic violence awareness advocate in Sachse, TX. Latifah describes her education and family life growing up Catholic in Milwaukee, WI. She talks about her conversion to Islam at twenty-one, her family’s acceptance of the change, and the ways in which Islam influences her morality and actions. She discusses her activism in domestic violence awareness, which includes several published books and life and relationship coaching. Latifah also tells of her life as an educator, including the years of teaching and tutoring she has done with Muslim youth.Item Mehlam Bhuriwala Interview(2021-09-27) Institute for Diversity & Civic LifeThis interview is with Mehlam Bhuriwala, an activist with experience in a variety of organizing settings and a former employee of IDCL. Mehlam tells his story of growing up in Texas as a Pakistani-American and part of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and how he navigated his senses of belonging and identity. He shares formative experiences of grappling with grief and mental health at a young age. He discusses involvement, such as high school debate club and college participation in United Students Against Sweatshops, that shaped his worldview and commitment to social justice. Mehlam also talks about his involvement in the Palestinian Solidarity Committee and his current work with Family Eldercare. Content Warning: The following interview contains sensitive material. Please note that the interview includes description of suicidal ideation and psychiatric hospitalization. These subjects will be discussed at 23:01-24:29 (in the transcript p. 6).Item Negena Haidary Interview(2021-03-28) Institute for Diversity & Civic LifeThis interview is with Negena Haidary, an Afghan-American Shia Muslim woman. Negena speaks about her relationships and experiences with her family, particularly as a first-generation American. She speaks about the impacts of 9/11 on her family, the difficulty of finding community as a member of a minority group, and the ongoing act of balancing immigrant parents’ expectations with the necessity of participating in American culture. Negena also discusses the challenges of navigating mental health and finding one’s own life path, sharing the wisdom she has gathered through her own journey of healing and growth.Item Nonprofitable Nonprofits: Seeking High Impact in a Low-Cost World(2019-12) Tunnell, Isabelle MarieWith the countless nonprofit organizations in America, many people are moved to donate to the ones making the most impact. Further, many people avoid donating to charities with high costs because high costs imply that less money is going to the cause than would be otherwise. This thesis will explore the operations and costs of nonprofits in order to isolate best practices for nonprofits seeking to make demonstrable, positive impact on the causes that they were designed to support. In this thesis I will explore the measurement of a nonprofit’s impact and dissect how nonprofits operate internally and externally. I will first define impact as it relates to my research. Then I will look at the external costs that nonprofits incur through marketing, fundraising, events, exposure, and changes in economic policy. The goal is to understand the costs, benefits, and impact of nonprofits’ strategies towards increasing impact. It will explore different forms of fundraising money and how large events impact costs, awareness, effectiveness, and longevity of nonprofits. Then I will explore the internal costs of running a nonprofit with a focus on employee salary and retention. Ultimately, the following question will be answered: how can nonprofits balance revenues and costs in order to create the largest positive impact on the causes they support? This thesis will explore the amounts and types of costs that nonprofits incur along with their relative impact or success, with the goal of concluding opportunities for decreasing costs and increasing revenues for future nonprofits to consider in order to best prepare themselves for success.Item Nonprofits and social media : can online actions translate into social good?(2010-05) Menezes, Eva Lopes Telles de; Gil de Zúñiga, Homero; Cash, Wanda G.With the large growth in use of social media by teenagers, young adults and adults alike, there has also been a boom in the number of charitable nonprofit organizations that are adopting the medium to reach out to existing and potential supporters. But has social media been an effective tool in spreading out the word about a cause while retaining and recruiting donors and volunteers? This multimedia report aims at analyzing how three Austin-area nonprofits are using Facebook and Twitter to connect to constituents, as well as how online and offline constituents are responding to this relatively new approach. In order to do that, a series of interviews were conducted with nonprofit professionals, supporters, and industry and academia experts. In addition to that, constituents were surveyed about their engagement with the organizations both online and offline. To view this project in its entirety, including the video interviews, please visit http://evamenezes.com/mastersreport/.Item Omar El-Halwagi Interview(2022-01-18) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Omar El-Halwagi, an employment discrimination lawyer in Houston, TX. Omar talks about growing up as a Muslim in the American south and discrimination he faced at a young age. He tells his story of being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union in order to secure the time and place to pray during high school. Omar also describes co-founding the organization Grassroot Islam, a virtual space for a diverse and inclusive Muslim community created to combat pandemic isolation. He discusses coming into his relationship with God on his own terms and learning from the spiritual journeys of others.Item Sandy "Sakinah" Gutierrez Interview(2021-06-11) Institute for Diversity & Civic LifeThis interview is with Sandy “Sakinah” Gutierrez, a Colombian-American revert to Islam and co-founder of the non-profit IslamInSpanish. Sakinah tells the story of being a spiritual seeker alongside her husband, and how the two ultimately found fulfillment in Islam. She talks about how several members of their family decided to accept Islam due to the example and education she and her husband offered. Sakinah also discusses the founding and growth of IslamInSpanish, whose mission is to make information about Islam available to Spanish-speaking Latinos.Item Stewarding the next generation of donors : understanding and engaging generation Y(2010-12) Martin, Amy Michelle, 1976-; Osborne, Cynthia Anne, 1969-; Rehnborg, Sarah J.Nonprofit fundraisers tend to neglect Generation Y as a prospective target audience because they do not feel they provide a worthwhile return on investment. In reality, this age group made over $9 billion in charitable gifts in 2009, and most who made gifts expect to maintain their support in the future (Bhagat, Loeb, and Rovner 2010). Though their giving capacity ranks far behind that of the older generations that make up the majority of nonprofit donor rosters today, as the population ages, older donors will eventually vacate that position and it will be filled by younger donors as they mature in age and means. To establish strong foundations for future support within this cohort, it is important to begin building relationships with them sooner rather than later. Because Generation Y communicates and interacts in significantly different ways from their parents' and grandparents' generations, fundraisers must develop new strategies for reaching and engaging this audience to steward them into long-term giving relationships.Item The third sector : the missing piece of the brownfields puzzle(2006-05-05) Lytle, Zachary John; Paterson, Robert G.The US Environmental Protection Agency defines brownfields as “real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.” The existence of brownfield presents enormous challenges for cities across the United States. This report explores the possible roles nonprofits can play in brownfield development. As part of this investigation, the problems and opportunities brownfields offer socially, environmentally and economically are examined through literature review. Further on, three existing brownfields-specific nonprofit corporations are discussed through case studies. Each of these organizations The Guardian Trust, The Brownfields Stewardship Fund, and The Center for Creative Land Recycling, provide unique services facilitating the redevelopment of brownfields across the country. The lessons learned are then applied to the City of Dallas. The report concludes by exploring the potential roles the third sector could play in the redevelopment of brownfields in Dallas. With increased involvement, nonprofits can help convert brownfields back to their highest and best use for the benefit of the community.Item Tina Byram Interview(2022-03-18) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Tina Byram, an advocate active in local politics in the extra-territorial jurisdiction of Hornsby Bend. Tina talks about her work advocating for underserved members of her community who do not have the time or resources to get involved in local politics. She describes the differences between political activity at the local level versus the national level, including overlooked issues such as shifting districts and water privatization. She also tells about her journey through local activism, which has involved non-profit work, collaboration with representatives, and voter registration.Item Victoria Ferrell-Ortiz Interview(2022-03-17) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Victoria Ferrell-Ortiz, an education and urban planning organizer in Dallas. Victoria describes the disconnect she saw at a young age between the resources available to the Mexican-American side of her family and to the White side. She talks about other organizers she has worked with and been inspired by in Dallas, including her co-founders of the Rayo Planning nonprofit. Victoria shares her experiences of religion throughout her life, and how her relationship to Christianity has changed over the years. She also details her work, such as with educational and urban planning nonprofits and with oral history.