Board members focus on building awareness, expanding marketing
Family & Children’s Service, Minneapolis, a member of both the Alliance for Children and Families and United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA), has offered help and hope to Minnesota families since 1878. Each year more than 27,000 people turn to the organization for mental health counseling and a unique combination of school success, violence prevention, and community-building services that build strong families, vital communities, and capable children.
The Family & Children’s Service Board of Directors has 31 volunteer members who meet monthly for nine months of the year. Board members include a variety of business and community leaders. In addition to serving on the full board, each board member also serves on at least one committee, such as the giving and awareness, program planning and evaluation, and governance and public policy committees.
According to Denise D’Rozario, who has served on the board for four years (see companion article), one of the biggest difficulties currently facing the board has been a decrease in funding from traditional sources. This has posed a challenge to find new sources of income to meet the organization’s $5.6 million operating budget.
To address the challenge, she says the organization and the board have responded with efficient management of the organization’s finances to minimize the impact of reduced funding, while simultaneously identifying and cultivating new sources of funding. There is also a concentrated effort to expand marketing and raise the organization’s profile in the larger community in order to get more people connected to the mission of Family & Children’s Service.
In the past two years, efforts to increase awareness in the local community have resulted in the organization’s volunteer base expanding by a dramatic 500 percent.
Learn more about Family & Children’s Service.
