New York Cares Challenges
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New York Cares Challenges. Opportunities. Impact. New York Cares 2012 Annual Report Table of Contents Dear Friends 3 Our Story 4 The Way to Volunteer 5 New York Cares’ Programs 6 Investing in the City’s Future 7 The Year in Review 8 Financial Report 11 Supporters 13 Community Partners 19 Board of Directors 28 Staff 29 New York Cares 2012 Dear Friends The friends who founded New York Cares 25 years ago had a simple but powerful idea. They believed it should be easy for even the busiest New Yorker to volunteer in a meaningful way, and so, they created an organization which allows everyone to come together to help those who need it most. We’ve come a long way since 1987. That first year, we ran a few dozen projects. Today, we plan and fill as many as 1,500 projects every month. The 100+ volunteers who comprised our earliest corps now number 56,000 annually. Initially run by our founders, New York Cares is now staffed by a team of 80 professionals. And while we are still grassroots in action, we are also on speed dial at City Hall and the go-to organization for our city’s most civic-minded corporations. In 2012, New York Cares’ prowess at mobilizing volunteers took on new meaning. On October 30th, as soon as the waters from Hurricane Sandy had receded, our staff were on the frontlines of the response, assessing needs and planning volunteer projects to meet those needs. The 13,500 volunteers we deployed in November and December were a constant and reassuring presence in the hardest hit communities, where they knocked on thousands of doors to check on residents, distributed warm winter coats and served hot meals, provided translation services for isolated homebound seniors, mucked out flood-damaged residences, and much more. Helping demolished communities thrive again will be about much more than cleanup and physical repairs. In the months to come, much of our focus will be on providing valuable social services, from tutoring programs to adult education programs, in the most heavily impacted areas. We are also helping local nonprofits and churches return to operation. In order to give the hurricane response our all without compromising ongoing programming, we brought on new staff to manage the huge volume of Sandy-related work. The addition of this Disaster Response Department has allowed our employees to return their focus to serving our year round Community Partners at full pace. Our founders’ vision 25 years ago would be nothing more than a good intention if not for our generous funders, tireless volunteers, invested Community Partners, and the many other friends who comprise New York Cares’ truly remarkable family. Thank you for your support in 2012, and for continuing to make New York Cares a priority in the future. We can’t do it without you. With best wishes, Gail B. Harris, Board President Gary Bagley, Executive Director OUR MISSION: New York Cares meets pressing community needs by mobilizing caring New Yorkers in volunteer service. New York Cares was founded in 1987, by friends who wanted to take action against the serious social issues facing New York City. Finding few options to help, they created their own organization to address problems from the ground up. They called it New York Cares. Today, New York Cares is the city’s largest volunteer management organization, running vital programs for 1,300 nonprofits, public schools, and city agencies – which we refer to as Community Partners – to help people in need throughout the five boroughs. New York Cares was also the model for the HandsOn Network, which merged in 2007 with the Points of Light Foundation to form a network of hundreds of affiliated volunteer organizations. Taking On Tough Challenges Creating Opportunities Many of our Community Partners lack the staff, money, New York Cares volunteers dramatically expand the and know-how to effectively use volunteers. Enter New support available to our Community Partners and their York Cares. We diagnose volunteer needs, develop at-risk clients. We prepare the city’s least privileged programming, create curricula, order and pay for public high school students to take the SAT, provide job supplies, recruit volunteers, train project leaders, and training to survivors of domestic violence, assist the conduct ongoing evaluations. In doing so, we allow our working poor with tax filing, teach low-income children partners to outsource their volunteer needs to New York the joys of math, science, and reading, and more. Cares, at no cost to the agencies or their clients. Making an Impact Community Partners count on us to deliver vital services to the clients who rely on them for support. Last year, New York Cares mobilized 56,00 volunteers who helped 400,000 New Yorkers in need. OPPORTUNITY Motivated and talented low-income public high school students are eager to go to college but can’t afford SAT prep. IMPACT Every year, New York Cares brings its Kaplan SAT Prep program to public schools throughout the city. In 2012, volunteers worked in 40 schools and helped 1,000 students get into the colleges of their choice, including Cornell University and New York University. The Way to Volunteer For the last 25 years, New York Cares has made it possible for all New Yorkers to come together to strengthen the city. Making It Easy to Make a Difference Community Partners recognize Team Leaders When New Yorkers want to volunteer, for their excellence, professionalism, they come to New York Cares. Our diverse reliability, and dedication. programming means anyone can find a volunteer opportunity that meets their Responding to Community Needs interests, and our flexibly scheduled, New York Cares is dedicated to New York team-based projects make it convenient for City, delivering volunteer support to the individuals, groups, and corporations to communities that need it most and to the participate in hands-on activities that make a agencies tackling the city’s toughest issues. tangible impact. From providing warm winter coats to New Yorkers facing a winter on the streets to Building Leadership rebuilding lives after Hurricane Sandy, Our 1,300 Team Leaders receive specialized volunteers are involved in systemic solutions, leadership training and serve as group and are always at the ready to respond coordinators and project managers. rapidly to emerging challenges. Our programs help New Yorkers in need in every borough: homeless and low-income children and families, unemployed adults, lonely senior citizens, children and adults with special needs, immigrants with limited English, and others — even four-legged New Yorkers in animal shelters. We tend public spaces, including public schools, Mobilized Served 56,000 400,000 volunteers Supported men, women & children 1,300 Hunger, Homelessness, Revitalization Community Health & Wellness & Environment Partners Mobilized 13,500 Oered Program 2012 41% 23% 14% 9% 8% 5% volunteers Impact 1,500 Areas projects each month Delivered 822 relief projects Children Adult Education Seniors & Adults Animal Care Collected & Job Readiness with Special Needs & Other 123,000 homes Granted Mucked out 256 coats through 40,000 the Coat Drive Winter Wishes New York Cares Programs New York Cares develops and runs an average of 1,500 volunteer programs Programs for Adults every month, providing vital support and a full range of free services to our Our programs provide a safety net for vulnerable men and women, Community Partners. helping them build stronger careers for themselves – and thus better futures for their children – through job Children’s Programs readiness, tax preparation services, English language practice, computer When families struggle, children and skills, and financial literacy. young people are at a greater risk of dropping out of school, turning to drugs and crime, and continuing a life of poverty. We help break this cycle by setting them on a different path – one focused on learning and Youth Service Programs self-sufficiency – by working with public Our award-winning Youth Service schools, homeless shelters, and other program for public schools cultivates community organizations on projects the next generation of volunteers. We involving SAT and college preparation, inspire young people from struggling tutoring and homework help, urban neighborhoods to become lifelong adventures, fitness, and more. contributors to those communities by educating them about social issues, engaging them in youth-led volunteering, and developing their leadership skills. Community Programs We improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers by revitalizing public schools and open spaces, providing companionship for senior Corporate Service citizens, serving warm meals to the hungry, stocking food banks, Our Corporate Service program working with the homeless, caring harnesses the power of corporate for shelter animals, and responding employees through customized to disasters. We also unite the city projects for volunteers who may not through large-scale service days otherwise have the opportunity to on New York Cares Day Fall (school serve. Our offerings, which are tailored revitalization) and Spring (park to each corporate sponsor’s specific revitalization). priorities, address our city’s most pressing issues. Mobilized Served 56,000 400,000 volunteers Supported men, women & children 1,300 Hunger, Homelessness, Revitalization Community Health & Wellness & Environment Partners Mobilized 13,500 Oered Program 2012 41% 23% 14% 9% 8% 5% volunteers Impact 1,500 Areas projects each month Delivered 822 relief projects Children Adult Education Seniors & Adults Animal Care Collected & Job Readiness with Special Needs & Other 123,000 homes Granted Mucked out 256 coats through 40,000 the Coat Drive Pictured opposite page: High school students Winter Wishes attend the 2012 Youth Service Conference. Graphics based on 2012 data Investing in the City’s Future As the city recovers from the worst hurricane New York Cares has been, and will continue in its history – exacerbating existing record to be, a reliable and powerful philanthropic rates of unemployment and homelessness investment by transforming every dollar – New York Cares’ services have never been donated into six dollars in value through the more relevant and in greater demand.