Minutes: September 21, 2010

Minutes of the Board of Directors, The Special Hope Foundation

After receiving proper notice via e-mail on September 6, 2010, a quorum of the Directors named either by the Incorporator or listed in the Articles of Incorporation, constituting the Board of Directors of this Corporation, held their meeting at this time, on the day, and at the place set forth as follows:

The following Directors, constituting a quorum of the full Board, were present at the meeting:

• Lynne O’Hara, President
• John O’Hara, Vice-President
• Tracie Sloat
• Ed Hoskins
• Via Skype
  • Carrie Jones
• Excused:
  • Mary Wilson, Treasurer

Minutes Approved

The first order of business involved the review of the minutes from the previous Board Meeting on May 11, 2010. All reviewed and accepted the minutes.

Review of Existing Business

Old Business

• The Board of Directors of the Special Hope Foundation recognized their approval of a new policy that administrative fees in excess of 20% of the total project budget will not be covered in any grant application.

Updates from Previous Grantees:

• The Arc of San Francisco – Winter 2009 newsletter had a front page article about the “Independence” video that we funded.  The article contained the following: “The film was made possible by a grant from ‘The Special Hope Foundation’…”
• UCLA Extension Pathway – sent a thank you letter to Special Hope that included their final report.  More thank 60 UCLA student volunteers were recruited to partner with Pathway students during the 2009 – 2010 academic year.  Changes in federal regulation are moving faster than expected, allowing for greater inclusion of students with disabilities.
• Oak Hill – sent an e-mail to thank us for our support for their sex education book, “Positive Choices”.  So far, they have made over $15,000 in revenue from the sale of the book.
• Futures Explored – sent a letter to update Special Hope of their progress with “Project Search”, their supported employment program that we funded.  The program places developmentally disabled people into jobs in the health care industry.  With the help of our funding, they have been able to expand their program into new locations.  So far, they are expanding into Sacramento and Elk Grove.
• Kay Center – sent an update e-mail regarding a meeting they had with SSA, and that some measures have been put in place by SSA to keep SmartWorks on their radar screen.  There was no information directly involving us, or our past grant.
   

Committee Reports

Report from Communications Committee – Ed Hoskins

Ed passed out an update on the transition from the old website to the new site, and discussed the benefits of the new system and how it will allow for a great deal of flexibility moving forward.  Changes include and updated look to the external website, along with a complete content management system that can handle both internal and external data.  The new pre-app interface was also mentioned.

Finance & Investments Committee – Lynne O’Hara for Mary Wilson

• Portfolio Summary document was discussed.
• Total Return is experiencing good performance and remains very balanced.
• Portfolio Summary shows foreign stock performance is doing really good.
• Grant Distribution document.  It turns out that a mistake was made and that the recommended dollar amount for projected grants in the September cycle should have been $216,000 but was actually $240,000.  However, since the foundation is changing it’s focus, it is quite possible that by the end of this year that we may not have enough grant requests that we need to fulfill.  So, by granting more now, we won’t be in a position where we are looking for organizations that aren’t a perfect fit.

Grant Review

The board was asked if anyone has any personal connection to any of the following organizations: Casa Allegra Community Services, Jewish Vocational Services, Pasadena Child Development Associates, Piper Center for Family Studies and Child Development, Kay Center for E-Health Research, and Special Olympics of Southern California.  No one had any connection or had been contacted by any of these organizations

Teach Social – still have $10,000 left from their grant because they were able to do it for less.  We need to decide should they return the money, or re-allocate it in some way.  It would be better for us to authorize them to use the money for general operating expenses.  We would need to ask for an accounting.

A motion was made to approve Teach Social to apply the excess funds to general operating costs.  The motion was seconded and the Board unanimously approved the motion.

Casa Allegra Community Services – this organization has been around for 35 years, and they have set the bar for the care for disabled adults in Marin county.  At an administrative level, they are surprisingly un-polished.  Lynne & John met the incoming Directory of Business Development (the funding is for training this position).  She seems like she’s starting from scratch, but will help the organization as a whole.

A motion was made to fund 50% of the $20,000 that they asked for.  It was seconded and the Board unanimously approved the motion to award $10,000 to Casa Allegra.

Jewish Vocational Services – This organization is looking for funding for their Work Resource Program that serves foster youth with disabilities.  The entire board like this organization, in particular that they are working with an often under-served group.

A motion was made to approve a grant for the full amount requested ($40,000).  The motion was seconded and approved by everyone attending.

Pasadena Child Development Associates – Although we appreciated the idea behind their request for funding to buy video equipment for a new program that they are developing, there were a variety of red-flags in regards to the viability of many aspects of their organization.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that we don’t fund the purchase of equipment as a general rule, many other aspects of their current infrastructure lead to a motion that we not grant any of the $10,000 requested.  The motion was seconded and approved by everyone attending.

Piper Center for Family Studies and Child Development – This organization is raising funds for the development of an inclusive classroom on the campus of Baylor University.  In addition to the fact that their program would be used to create an inclusive classroom, in addition, this classroom would be used for teacher training (which widely expands it’s impact) and ultimately the model could be replicated across the country.

A motion was made to fund Piper Center for the amount requested ($40,000).  The motion was seconded and approved by everyone attending.

Kay Center for E-Health Research – Kay Center has requested continued funding to take their prototype of the SmartWorks system (an online portal to ease the significant administrative challenges the disabled population faces when attempting to get benefits through the TTW program.  The success of this program could potentially help millions of disabled adults to become self supporting.

A motion was made to fund Kay Center for the amount requested ($100,000).  The motion was seconded and approved by everyone attending.

Special Olympics of Southern CA – The board was interested to learn that the primary participants in the Special Olympics is adults.  This program sets out to make it easy for children to participate in Special Olympics by allowing them to train at their own or nearby schools.  Without a program like this, many children are unable to participate.  Traveling far distances are not possible for many, and training with much older participants can be intimidating.

A motion was made to fund Special Olympics for the amount requested ($50,000).  The motion was seconded and approved by everyone attending.
 

New Business

Update from The Arc of San Francisco – an e-mail was received an e-mail regarding the Arc’s success in their advocacy to reform health care for transition age youth and adults with developmental disabilities.  The CA Acadamy of Family Physicians now supports their CART reform model.

Special Hope Transition to a focus on health care for developmentally disabled adults

As a foundation, this new direction will enable us to have a greater impact in an area that really needs help.  There is no other group that has as poor coverage than disabled adults.  Prisoners, illegal aliens, ethnic groups, etc.  There are no doctors that specialize in the disabled adult community.  This population needs more than 15 min doctor visits.  People need to be trained who have a general understanding of how to interact.

A high percentage are non-verbal or greatly non-verbal.  There are many complex issues regarding the adult disabled population.  There are huge communication barriers, which make it extremely difficult to get the proper care, and to take care of the administrative costs associated with that care.

Worked on Vision Statement – “the why” part

Worked on Mission Statement – the “what and how” part

We have acquired legal council, Adler and Colvin.  We need someone who specializes in foundation law to make sure we are in compliance with all pertinent laws.  Our new attorney will begin by reviewing our Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws, vision statement, and mission statement.

Next meeting Jan 18, 2011.

Adjournment

There being no further business to come before the meeting, upon motion duly made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 7:47 p.m.

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Lynne O’Hara, President

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Ed Hoskins, Secretary