Client Story

Out-of-School-Time Teens are at the heart of the Indiana Parenting Institute of St. Joseph County (IPISJC), which serves over 300 high school students in northwest Indiana—focusing primarily on college and career readiness. Most participants come from the South Bend Community School Corporation, where all five high schools have a Free and Reduced-Price Lunch rate above 50%. Three of these schools do not meet federal rating standards, and two others are only “approaching expectations.” Consequently, these at-risk teens often lack the preparation needed to address the critical workforce demands of St. Joseph County.

As in most communities, there are “hiring” signs all over St. Joseph County post-COVID-19 and the challenge to hire skilled workers is prevalent. The county is ranked 13th in the state for unemployment.

IPISJC had a desire to focus programming on preparing students for post-high school opportunities. They wanted to better provide partnerships that allow students exposure to job training and certifications right after high school as well as college credit and financial aid assistance for those students who want to further their education. All of this was possible with more dollars.

IPISJC hired Transform Consulting Group to write and submit three major grants, resulting in more than $1 million of funding, allowing IPISJC to build capacity in a number of ways. With additional dollars, our team was then able to create a fund development plan that would help IPISJC diversify their funding and begin to more formally tap into donors and local partners.

The solution came together from a two-pronged approach. For IPISJC to expand their college and career-readiness programming, the IPISJC needed to improve their infrastructure. That infrastructure was critical to developing their sustainable and diversified funding strategy.

We first worked with staff to support overall marketing strategies by creating simple messaging that could be used to communicate IPISJC’s impact in all fundraising efforts. We completed an audit of the organization’s funding and a 10-year fund development plan with clear goals for diversifying and increasing funding. We trained staff in implementing the plan and developed a case statement that could be used to secure funding. We developed processes and templates to support all ongoing fundraising efforts.

• Completd 3 grant applications resulting in over $1 million for out-of-school-time programming
• Developed key messaging and case statement
• Supported communication and marketing efforts
• Created 10 year Fund Development Plan with 1, 3, and 5-year goals and strategies to increase and diversify funding
• Trained staff to implement the fund development plan
• Developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for fundraising (i.e., to process donations, gifts, sponsorships, etc.) and templates (i.e., thank you letters and forms)
• Completed donor management software research