NONPROFIT THURSDAY | Cleveland Neighborhood Progress • Cleveland Foundation • United Way Summit and Medina • Cuyahoga County Library

Joel Ratner stepping down at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress

Tells board “right time to make a change”

 By R. T. Andrews

Joel Ratner

Joel Ratner, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP) president & CEO since 2011, will be leaving the organization on December 31 of this year. Ratner told the board, “After 10 years, this is the right time to make a change.”

In a statement announcing Ratner’s departure, Board Chair Grace Gallucci said CNP staff grew to 28 professionals during his tenure and moved to new headquarters in the rehabilitated Saint Luke’s Hospital. Other major achievements this past decade include establishing local Community Financial Centers, initiatives to build awareness for racial equity and inclusion, and support for neighborhoods affected by redlining and disinvestment including significant reinvestment in the Buckeye neighborhood.  The statement also credited Ratner for strong fundraising and advocacy work in Columbus and Washington.

Gallucci said that Ratner would be working with government, the non-profit sector and private business as a consultant to Vibrant NEO, to help Northeast Ohio grow faster and smarter, with a focus on sustainable economic development. He is also expected to help that organization as it turn its recently developed plans into practical action and implementation.

Galluci is chair of Vibrant NEO’s executive committee in addition to her full-time employment as executive director of NOACA, the Northeast Ohio Area Coordinating Agency.

Looking ahead, Gallucci said that CNP intends to focus tightly on its commitments to Cleveland’s neighborhoods through programs such as facilitating small business loans to address economic challenges related to COVID-19. “During this time of national civil unrest, we especially want to build on our efforts to address racial inequity.” 

The board has hired Sally Sterling Executive Search, the Washington-based firm that recently completed the search for the new president and CEO of the St. Luke’s Foundation. Candidate recommendations may be submitted to Sally Sterling at CNP@sallysterlingexecutivesearch.com.

One candidate could be Stephanie McHenry, who joined CNP as vice president of government relations and strategy a few months ago after serving for several years as vice president for business and financial affairs at Cleveland State University.

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Cleveland Foundation announces $26.2 million in Q2 2020 grantmaking

The Cleveland Foundation board of directors this week announced $26.2 million in grants approved in the second quarter of 2020, bringing its year to date community grantmaking in Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties to more than $58 million in the community year-to-date.

India Pierce Lee

“This has been an unprecedented time for all of us,” said India Pierce Lee, Cleveland Foundation senior vice president for program. “It has been heartening to see the community respond, first to the pandemic, and now to the national reckoning with racism. It’s more important than ever for the foundation to continue to fund across all of our priority areas, identifying opportunities where philanthropy can disrupt systems that have created barriers to equitable prosperity for all who call Greater Cleveland home.”

In addition to the board of directors authorizing a significant grant to help launch the Greater Cleveland COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund alongside corporate, civic and philanthropic partners across the region, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in dollars granted from donor advised funds at the Cleveland Foundation. In the weeks after COVID-19 cases were first identified in Ohio, giving from donor advised funds jumped 70% from the same period last year, reflecting a nationwide trend.

Highlights of grants approved in the first six months of 2020 by the foundation’s board of directors include:

Youth, Health & Human Services

·  Sinai Health Care Foundation ($1,000,000) – Funding to the fiscal agent for the Lead Safe Cleveland Home Fund for a first-of-its kind, public-private partnership that will provide families and property owners the resources they need to make homes lead safe. This, along with investments from the City of Cleveland, State of Ohio, and philanthropic partners, brings the total pool of funds to more than $19 million.

· Famicos Foundation ($2,946,000) – Funding to the fiscal agent for My Commitment to My Community (MyCom) for full-time staffing to meet the increased needs of the Say Yes Cleveland partnership, in addition to MyCom’s regular out-of-school-time programming and employment assistance for more than 8,000 youth across Cuyahoga County.

·  Cleveland Rape Crisis Center ($200,000) – To support an expanded service footprint – new offices in Shaker Square and Clark-Fulton – as well as ongoing outreach efforts supporting the African American and Latinx communities in order to become more accessible, both geographically and to individuals from underserved populations.

·  Kinnect ($105,250) – To continue to provide individual and group counseling to LGBTQ youth in the child welfare system via the Chosen Affirming Family Program, which also engages adult caregivers, providing outreach, education and counseling regarding LGBTQ issues.

Arts & Culture

·  SPACES ($50,000) – To expand the emergency relief grant program so that working artists in all disciplines may apply for a grant of up to $1,000 to replace income lost due to the COVID-19 crisis.

·  Rainey Institute ($300,000) – To continue to provide El Sistema (“The System”) youth classical music education training to 240 students at four different sites, with the goal to expand to more than 320 students by 2022.

·  Twelve Literary Arts ($175,000) – To expand the organization’s programmatic reach in the literary community through its various offerings, including in-school writer-in-residence programs at 12 partner schools, the after school youth poetry fellowship and poetry slam competitions.

Neighborhood Revitalization

· MidTown Cleveland, Inc. ($600,000) – Two-year funding to help accelerate growth focused on equity and inclusion via a new master plan that will include catalyzing innovation, cultivating a mixed-income residential community, placemaking projects and strengthening AsiaTown.

·  Neighborhood Connections ($3,792,000) – Three-year funding to continue to invest in the people and neighborhoods of Cleveland and East Cleveland via its small grants program and community building work.

· Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation ($1,183,737) – Two-year funding for the continued implementation of the Greater Circle Living initiative, which provides assistance to the employees of participating Greater University Circle non-profits and anchor institutions who wish to buy, rent, and/or rehabilitate housing in the surrounding neighborhoods.

·       Downtown Cleveland Alliance ($500,000) – To support the Downtown Cleveland Recovery Fund, which was established to provide grants and business support services to small independent businesses in danger of closing following the property damages suffered after peaceful protests turned violent on May 30, with a focus on vulnerable and minority owned small businesses.

· Group Plan Commission ($200,000) – To provide funding for the Group Plan Commission to continue to adapt and retool its operations, programming and maintenance in response to COVID-19 in Public Square and on downtown Malls A, B & C, including staff training, visitor education and awareness, installation of handwashing stations and virtual programming.

Environment

·  Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) ($100,000) – To support the organization as it expands into Ohio, with the goal of educating young people on the science, impacts, and solutions of climate change, while also creating a cohort of Action Fellows from area high schools.

·  Cleveland Water Alliance ($300,000) – Two-year funding to help strengthen and expand clean water innovation and research, to foster “blue economy” business attraction and to position Cleveland as a center of freshwater innovation.

Workforce & Economic Development

· Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET) ($415,000) – For continued development of the Early College Early Career (ECEC) program, with the goals of increasing the number of students in internships across the 10 participating schools, growing the number of participating employers, and expanding the educational options by offering additional industry certifications.

· NewBridge ($850,000) – To help the organization expand its no-cost workforce training in phlebotomy and patient care, while growing its school-based offerings at John Adams High School and New Tech West.

Education

·  Cleveland Metropolitan School District ($989,700) – To support the start-up and phase-in of nine new innovative high schools, including Campus International High School (Year 4); Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School (Year 4); Garrett Morgan School of Engineering and Innovation (Year 1); Garrett Morgan School of Leadership and Innovation (Year 1); John Adams College and Career Academy (Year 4); Lincoln-West School of Global Studies (Year 5); Lincoln West School of Science and Health (Year 5); Rhodes College and Career Academy (Year 3); and Rhodes School of Environmental Studies (Year 3).

·  College Now Greater Cleveland ($950,000) – To address postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and completion in Cleveland via the organization’s Say Yes advising program within Cleveland Metropolitan School District, as well as programs, services and scholarships for the more than 424,000 adults (aged 25+) in Cuyahoga County who are eligible to start or continue their postsecondary education; additional funding will support the Say Yes Scholars Program that provides coaching, comprehensive services and financial assistance for Say Yes-eligible Cleveland Metropolitan School District graduates who enroll as full-time students at Tri-C.

· Friends of Breakthrough Schools ($500,000) – To enable the continued phase-in of grade levels at Citizens Leadership Academy Southeast in the Lee-Harvard neighborhood, as well as the expansion of the E Prep & Village Prep Woodland Hills campus in Union Miles by 50 additional seats.

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Summit and Medina County United Ways merge to form United Way of Summit & Medina

The local United Ways of Summit County and Medina counties today announced that they had merged to become United Way of Summit and Medina. The merger, which took effect on July 1, follows extended discussions between the boards of the Summit County and Medina County United Ways, which began late last year.

Drew Liebrecht, former board chair-elect of United Way of Medina and newly appointed board member of United Way of Summit and Medina, said in a press release that the  “merger will allow us to better leverage our resources to benefit the children and families of Summit and Medina counties.”

Before the merger, United Way of Summit County was the largest single-county United Way in the country in terms of revenue.

“United Way remains committed to serving the residents of both Summit and Medina counties, especially as we respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” said Jim Mullen, president and CEO of United Way of Summit and Medina. “Summit and Medina share deep economic ties, and once we get through this crisis together, we will continue to ensure we build thriving communities.”

The newly merged nonprofit will maintain a physical presence in both counties, with headquarters in Downtown Akron and in Downtown Medina. The merger will allow the new organization to coordinate a regional strategy for community impact.

• • •

Cuyahoga County Library branches will 

reopen next week

Cuyahoga County Public Library re-opens its branches to the public on Monday, July 6. Patrons should expect more physical distancing, more frequent cleaning, and the continuation of the county system’s 72-hour quarantine on returned materials.

All Library users and staff members will be required to wear a face covering. More details about the re-opening can be found here. 

NONPROFIT THURSDAY | Black Philanthropy Summit, COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, Christians and Jews

Cleveland Foundation’s sixth biennial African American Philanthropy Summit going virtual 

Activist and business leader Valeisha Butterfield Jones will be featured speaker

The sixth biennial African American Philanthropy Summit, presented by the African American Philanthropy Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, is going virtual and will take place Saturday, May 30, from 1-3 p.m. This year’s Summit, “2020 Vision: Disrupting the Cultural Landscape Through Philanthropy,” will highlight philanthropy in our community and focus on how to raise the visibility of those who have the passion and drive to create meaningful change.

Valeisha Butterfield Jones

The 2020 African American Philanthropy Summit keynote will be delivered by Valeisha Butterfield Jones, business leader and co-founder and CEO of WEEN (Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network). Butterfield Jones will discuss how strategic giving can be a compass for transformational change during uncertain times.

Butterfield Jones’s career started at HBO Sports and has been centered at the intersections of technology, politics and entertainment. She formerly served as the National Youth Vote Director for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, in the Obama Administration as the Deputy Director of Public Affairs for the International Trade Administration, as the Executive Director of Rush Communications and as the National Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the Alzheimer’s Association.

The Clark Atlanta University graduate has been recognized for her work by Forbes Magazine, Essence Magazine’s Top 40 under 40, Ebony Magazine’s Power 100, TheRoot100, and others. Butterfield Jones hosts the podcast “Off the Record with Valeisha” and is the author of The Girlprint, a career mentorship guidebook for young women.

Ronald V. Johnson, Jr.

Ellen Burts-Cooper, PhD

The African American Philanthropy Committee [AAPC] is co-chaired by Ellen Burts-Cooper, Ph.D., Senior Managing Partner, Improve Consulting and Training, and Ronald V. Johnson, Jr., Senior VP and Senior Counsel, KeyBank.

The AAPC was created as an advisory committee of the Cleveland Foundation in 1993 under the leadership of former Cleveland Foundation Executive Director and President Steven A. Minter. The committee launched the Summit in 2010 as a signature event to engage the African American community around charitable giving and to honor African American philanthropists in the region. The Committee also maintains a legacy fund at the Cleveland Foundation that supports a variety of nonprofit organizations within the African American community.

Honorary co-chairs for this year’s Summit are: Lonnie Coleman, President, Coleman Spohn Corporation; Donté Gibbs, Manager of Community Outreach, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Don Graves Jr., Head of Corporate Responsibility & Community Relations, KeyBank; Alex Johnson, Ph.D., President, Cuyahoga Community College; Connie Hill-Johnson, Owner & Managing Director, Visiting Angels Living Assistance Services, and a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors;

Also serving as honorary co-chairs: LaRese Purnell, Managing Partner, CLE Consulting; Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, M.D., Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals; and Ronald B. Richard, President & CEO, Cleveland Foundation. 

The virtual Summit is free. Donations are encouraged to the African American Philanthropy Committee Legacy Fund, which supports the work of charitable organizations serving Greater Cleveland’s African American community. Proceeds from this event will be distributed by the committee to nonprofit organizations whose work is vital to helping those most impacted recover from effects of the current pandemic.

Register here by Friday, May 29. More details are available here.  A link to the Zoom presentation will be emailed to registrants.

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Criminal Justice and COVID-19

Just as any halfway astute student of American history knew it was premature to declare that the election of Barack Obama was proof that America had become colorblind, there was little likelihood that the novel coronavirus would be an equal opportunity disease. Many of the reasons this silent killer of a disease is far more lethal for people of color are rooted in pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and heart disease.

But not to be overlooked are the socioeconomic conditions under which too many black and brown people live, the consequences of hundreds of years of racism effected by private American citizens and public policies intentionally drawn to reinforce subjugation.

So we certainly are not surprised that the coronavirus pandemic has proven a blessing to the likes of certain Americans, like Frank Russo, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Michael Avenatti, and a host of other white complexioned, white collar criminals. And we are even less surprised that tens of thousands of people of color whose crimes were far less heinous than those of Russo et al remain incarcerated in Ohio and across the country, where they remain sitting ducks for COVID-19.

The Greater Cleveland YWCA is one of our community’s institutions working to eradicate many of the inequities baked into our society. Education and dialogue are among their tools.

All this month, under the rubric, “Go Live for Equity”, the Y has been offering weekly sessions that have highlighted racism as a public health crisis, and the impact of COVID-19 on our fragile democracy and our uneven system of public education.

The series wraps tomorrow from 10-11am with a fourth and final Zoom webinar session that will examine our criminal justice system under the glare of the COVID spotlight.

Register here. The webinar is free and open to the public.

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Rabbi to speak on “Faith in Cleveland” at S.E. United Church of Christ

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking in 1963, described Sunday at 11am as “the most segregated hour in America”. While there has been some change, it is still largely true today.

Cross-cultural exchanges do take place across our community, and we like to acknowledge those that appear especially genuine.

This Sunday, Rabbi Nosanchuk, senior rabbi of Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, will speak at the worship service of South Euclid United Church of Christ [SEUCC]. He will speak on "Faith in Cleveland".

The service will be livestreamed on Facebook, YouTube, and SEUCC’s homepage.

The Rev. Courtney Clayton Jenkins, senior pastor at SEUCC, spoke at an Anshe Chesed sabbath service in January of this year.

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A Near Perfect Summer Day [except for those pesky Tigers]

What? You didn’t know that Cleveland sat in a valley with mountains to the south?
On this day, standing in front of the Cleveland Botanical Garden, you could at a glance mistake the curved steel roof of Case Western Reserve University's Peter B. Lewis Building for some distant mountains. 

Today was a day to celebrate Cleveland. We had some typical Cleveland weather — a sudden late-morning rainstorm that momentarily transformed the upper Larchmere area into a feeder stream for the nearby Baldwin Reservoir, followed by a perfectly lovely sun-drenched canopy for Wade OvalWednesday in Cleveland’s unsurpassed University Circle.

Wade Oval Wednesdays always suggest the kind of generative spirit that outsiders see as emblematic of Cleveland’s potential. It’s a summertime party for the community, a casual recapitulation of a healthy cross-section of our diverse region, and seemingly a far remove from the tortured spirits of the Anthony Sowells, Ariel Castros, rogue cops, and predatory lenders that prey on the abandoned neighborhoods and people of that larger community.

I came to Wade Oval today fresh from a smart assessment of the opportunities and challenges of our regional economy, presented by the Center for Community Solutions. I think of the Center as having a somewhat distant and sterile diagnostic approach to assessing what ails us, but that sense may stem from my once having been a board member there when it was known as the Federation of Community Planning. Then, as now, it was the pedigreed agency anointed with the task of analyzing Cleveland’s emerging socio-cultural issues and charting strategic approaches to mitigate those challenges. As the establishment agency of choice, it has both the credibility to sound the alarm but too often not the temperament to match the temperature. The data may be alarming but the analysis remains dispassionate.

But today the Center was on point doing one of the things it does best: convening a host of dedicated social and civic workers for a quality

Sandra Pianalto, president of the Cleveland
district of the Federal Reserve Bank

presentation on issues of the day. Keynote remarks were delivered by Sandra Pianalto, president of the Cleveland region of the Federal Reserve Bank.

As PNC Bank Cleveland president Paul Clark noted, our city is fortunate to be a capital city of an FRB region. It stamps us as a major league player in the same way as the Cleveland Orchestra or the Cleveland Browns.

I’m not a financial reporter so I will make no attempt to parse Pianalto’s remarks, which primarily addressed the labor market recovery and the significance of recent economic developments for the region and the nation.

I did think her appearance at this event — the Center for Community Solutions annual Human Services Institute — was noteworthy, since I don’t think her royal economic lineage affords her many opportunities to get out among the hoi polloi.[1]

Pianalto offered a sober but not hopeless picture of the US’s continuing slow recovery from the Great Recession that started December 2007. She pointed out that while the unemployment rate has declined to 7.4% from 8%, there are actually 2 million fewer people working than in in December 2007, even though the labor force has grown. She said that an unprecedented 3.1 million people had been out of work for more than a year, observing that such a prolonged period of unemployment typically contributed to declining skills.

Speaking of the Cleveland region, Pianalto said that we have 85,000 fewer workers than in 2000, that a large part of that decline was due to manufacturing job losses. She observed that manufacturing jobs were a larger share of the economy here than elsewhere and that the region’s other economic sectors had not been robust enough to offset those losses.

Pianalto’s prescription for regional growth was straightforward. Growing a talented workforce, raising the area’s education level, and focusing on innovation were essential steps she emphasized. She said that Cleveland’s recovery would require patience, commitment, and endurance. Further, she pointed out how other communities, most notably Pittsburgh, had rebounded by emphasizing regional cooperation as opposed to competition.

Finally, she said that economic inclusion was important to the success of the region. To insure such inclusion, she said, “leadership at the top has to set the tone.”

Johnathan Holifield, NorTech

Responding to Pianalto’s comments, and extending them, were a strong

Ziona Austrian
Cleveland State University

panel, comprised of Ziona Austrian, director of

Lisa Bottoms, Cleveland Foundation

the Center for Economic Development at Cleveland State University’s College of Urban Affairs; Lisa Bottoms, the Cleveland Foundation’s program director for human services and child and youth development; Paul Clark, PNC regional president; and Johnathan Holifield, the vice president of Inclusive competitiveness at NorTech.

Each of the panelists spoke with energy and passion, perhaps none more than bank president Clark. Once he referenced his Cleveland roots as a 1971 graduate of St. Edward’s. And he closed with comments that were both

Paul Clark, PNC Bank

personal and almost poetic, saying that he thought of Cleveland’s economy as a large and growing array of brush fires [small businesses, minority entrepreneurs, innovators all around] that collectively possessed the essential ingredients to lay the basis for a robust 21^st century economy.

The program was held at the Benjamin Rose Institute, a stunning facility that on this day afforded an impressive view of Cleveland’s skyline about eight miles to the west. BRI sits on the site of the former Kaiser Foundation hospital, just uphill from the Baldwin Reservoir, and at the western tip of one of Cleveland proper’s neater neighborhoods.

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[1] There are only twelve Federal Reserve Bank districts in the entire system. The Cleveland-based 4^th district consists of Ohio, western Pennsylvania, the northern panhandle of West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky. The other districts are based in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco.