2007 Year-End Summary

To Springboard Foundation Members, Contributors and Friends:

I am pleased and proud to report to you in my role as President of the Springboard Foundation, as we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of our organization’s founding. 

As most of you know, the Springboard Foundation is a group of dedicated individuals who, in addition to making a significant annual financial commitment, volunteer their time to assure that the money we collect is well spent in advancing our goal of improving the lives of inner city children.  Springboard’s membership remains steady at just around 40 people.  This year, once again, the average contribution per member increased significantly, as did outside fundraising.  All told, we will raise more than $400,000 in 2007, which brings the total we have raised in our 10 years to nearly $3,000,000.

Springboard’s aim is to provide “venture-philanthropy” funding for grass-roots not-for-profit organizations that otherwise would have difficulty obtaining financial support.  We search for worthy recipients and provide them with  cash grants as well as operational consulting and support, all with the intention that after five years of funding and support, they will have grown and become sufficiently organized so that they can move on and prosper without us.  Our primary area of focus is after-school and supplemental education programs.  Since our inception in 1998, we have helped a large number of programs, having highly diverse approaches and constituencies, become strong and self-sustaining.  Most of these organizations continue to prosper, providing inner city children with the educational and other out-of-school activities that are so critical to personal growth and success.

Of the 23 programs supported by Springboard this year, 16 have been funded in previous years and 7 are first time awardees.   They range from Urban Initiatives, an emerging, community-based organization bringing the sport of soccer, as well as fitness, mentoring and health education to the youth of the challenged Cabrini Green area, to Kids Off the Block, a grass-roots, after school sports and academic program in the far south side’s Roseland neighborhood, run out the home of a very charismatic, dedicated executive director. 

Grants range from $5,000 to $20,000.  Because our grantees have an average budget of less than $200,000, we believe we are making a meaningful contribution to these programs.  In many cases, we represent their first and/or largest institutional award.

In 2007, we distributed approximately $375,000in grants through a combination of direct cash grants and subsidy payments to third party service providers who assist grantees in areas such as strategic planning, board development, fund raising, and technology.

 Most of our funding has come historically from our members but our ability to reach so many grantee organizations depends on our ability to raise additional contributions from friends, family members, foundations and corporations who have an affiliation with Springboard or one of its members.  This additional support is vital to our growth and we thank all who have contributed in the past, and hope to expand that base of support in the future. 

As a supporting organization of The Chicago Community Trust, we rely on their personnel and resources to assist us and our grantees.  Importantly, all of our remaining expenses are underwritten by our membership so that 100% of contributions from outside supporters can be invested directly into the community.

In 2007, the Springboard Foundation continued its well-received roundtable series. This year, we focused on internal organization, strategic planning and succession planning.  We thank Executive Service Corps for their assistance in providing these informative sessions for our grantees, and we look forward to providing similar roundtable resources in the future.    

Springboard’s most recent activities are detailed on our recently updated website, at www.springboardfoundation.org.  This website continues to be operated and maintained with help from West Monroe Partners whose pro bono design and implementation efforts made it possible.  This year, with leadership from former Springboard president Steve Kaiser, we began a directed effort to expand our communication programs to better raise community awareness of the role the Springboard Foundation plays in addressing some of the Chicago community’s needs.  Thanks to Eileen Rochford and The Harbinger Group for their pro bono marketing and communications assistance in this effort.

On November 7, 2007, we held our Annual Dinner at the Murphy Auditorium.  In celebrating 10 years of success, we enjoyed several keynote addresses by some of our grantees, past and present.  Thanks go to Brother Ed Siderewicz of San Miguel School and Johnnie Jones of Make A Difference Youth Foundation, whose stories provide tremendous inspiration for those of us concerned with bettering the lives and improving the opportunities of underprivileged children.

Our annual Springboard Award was presented to Make A Difference Youth Foundation, for its extraordinary efforts in making the dream of a college degree (and even graduate studies) a reality for many inner-city high school students.  Make A Difference Youth Foundation’s program is featured on our website, and more information can be found at www.makeadifferenceyf.org.  The Springboard Award is presented annually to the Springboard Foundation grantee program that best exemplifies our core mission of “improving the lives of needy children, their families and their communities in the greater Chicago area” and it comes with an unrestricted $10,000 grant.  

As we begin our second decade, I am pleased to hand the reigns of leadership over to Jack Keller as Springboard’s incoming President.  Jack will be joined in the new leadership by Mike Ochsenhirt, as Vice President. 

As always, we are thankful for the ongoing support of our Board of Directors:  Prudence Beidler, community leader and Chair of The Chicago Community Trust’s Board of Directors; David Coolidge, Vice Chairman of William Blair & Company; Richard Driehaus, Founder and Chairman of Driehaus Capital Management; and Jim Glasser, Chairman of the Chicago Community Trust.  Jack Keller, Prue Beidler, outgoing Executive Committee Chair of The Chicago Community Trust and Doug Mabie, the Springboard Foundation’s Founder, will also serve on the Board of Directors in 2008.