acting out

Finalists draw from strengths to connect with neighbors

by Elizabeth Martin   POSITIVE, EFFECTIVE community support rarely happens by chance. Whether an organization is for-profit or nonprofit, vision and planning are required to maximize community ROI.

Listening up
Twelve years ago, the neighborhood was a problem around the intersection of Franklin and Portland avenues in south Minneapolis. Crack houses, homelessness and violence were the norm, says Mary Keefe, Hope Community’s executive director.

When Keefe spoke to area residents about revitalizing the area, she heard resignation.

She asked them if they believed that the neighborhood would ever get better.

“Yes, but not for us,” she recalls neighbors answering. They feared they would be priced out of the neighborhood by gentrification.

So Hope Community, a housing and social services provider, made a commitment to work with neighborhood residents to improve the area and to maintain its affordability. To achieve this goal, Hope made a decision to dedicate resources to gathering and incorporating community feedback into their plans. To date, Hope Community has held “community listening sessions” with 1,400 neighborhood residents and opened its second building.

“Not only was it the right thing to do, but it was the best business practice as well,” says Keefe of the listening sessions.

“We have found that there’s a lot of passion, trust, and opportunity in the neighborhood,” Keefe says. “It’s been a major learning experience that’s shaped everything.”

Today the nonprofit organization has built a two-square-block Hope Campus that includes 88 low-income rental units. The organization’s second building opened in November 2006.

When the organization approaches potential funders for its activities, the funders inevitably ask whether Hope has neighborhood buy-in, Keefe says. Being able to not only say "yes" to that question but to also be able to cite the input of 1,400 neighborhood residents is a boon.

Declaring values
The year 2001 was not an easy one in which to start a business. The market for executive search firms declined, along with the market for most business services.

That was also the year that Marcia Ballinger and her partners chose to form a new Minneapolis-based executive search firm, Keystone Search.

With a lot of free time on their hands, the partners decided to put it to good use.

“We used some of that time to plan how we would differentiate ourselves in a fairly mature marketplace,”  Ballinger says.

They decided to focus on placing executives who were not only capable of performing their job duties, but would also be a good fit for the cultures of Keystone’s clients.

That decision also opened up a conversation about what type of culture they wanted Keystone to have.

“We decided to be intentional in creating the kind of culture we wanted to work in,” Ballinger says.

The partners proceeded to define their core values, one of which was community service. The suggestion was made to give 7 percent of Keystone’s pre-tax profits to charity each year.

The partners quickly agreed to this method of community support.

“The conversation took about 10 minutes,” says Ballinger of the decision to dedicate a portion of the firm’s profits. “And after that, the joy has been selecting the organizations.”

Each partner at Keystone is responsible for selecting organizations to which they will give their portion of the company’s profits, Ballinger says. In addition, the partners serve on the board of directors of various nonprofits.

Calling all staff
When Minneapolis-based Schecter Dokken Kanter began in 1990, the five founders wanted to build their values into the new business.

The main way the accounting firm still lives that idea is to celebrate the anniversary of its founding with a designated Founders’ Day. Every year on this day, the firm closes its offices and brings all its employees to a location to participate in a community improvement activity.

“We feel it’s important to live out our values so that we can have it as part of our culture. And we’ve done that by setting the tone at the top by the owners being involved, by the owners giving of their time,” says Russell Andrews, a certified public accountant and managing shareholder with the firm.

In December 2005, the firm’s 60 employees remodeled the Oak Park Neighborhood Center in a single day by laying carpet, rebuilding the center’s stage, and sponsoring a clothing and movie drive, Andrews says.

In the process of celebrating Founders’ Day in this way, the firm has learned several lessons. First is the importance of involving the entire staff in the planning and execution of the event.

Also, community service events “shouldn’t be a surprise,”  Andrews says.

In some years, employees came to work on Founders’ Day not knowing what they would be involved in. One year, Andrews says, employees were loaded onto a bus, taken to a bookstore, and told to pick out a children’s book. Then, the group was taken to a community center where they spent the day reading to children.

However, the practice of surprise community service stopped after one year in which employees showed up to work in business casual attire, only to find that they would be working on a Habitat for Humanity site and performing construction work. Although most employees still participated in the event, the activities of subsequent  Founders’ Days have been advertised to employees.

Do what you know
The headquarters of Western Bank, a community bank that focuses on serving the business needs of small businesses and nonprofits, has sat on University Avenue in St. Paul since 1915. The bank recently built a new two-story headquarters building on its original lot.

Western’s community involvement takes several forms, including thousands of hours of employee volunteer work each year, $200,000 in cash grants given to nonprofits annually, and community development lending.

“The building really accentuates our commitment to the economic development opportunities that exist on University Avenue,” says Julie Causey, chair of the board.  “We hear from others that we serve as a catalyst for other projects in that area.”

The new building’s second floor is now dedicated to the Neighborhood Development Center Inc., an affiliate nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs establish businesses in their inner-city communities.

The center offers entrepreneur training in seven different languages, reflecting the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood, Causey says.

In 1993, Western made the original $100,000 grant needed to create the organization. Over the next 12 years, more than 2,100 people have completed the training program and alumni businesses have invested $14 million back into their neighborhoods.

Causey also co-chairs the Central Corridor Task Force, which is made up of residents and business owners on University Avenue. The mayor of St. Paul appointed the task force in order to do land-use planning in anticipation of the expansion of the light rail system from Minneapolis into St. Paul along University Avenue.

The task force’s charge is to find the best way to take advantage of the economic development opportunities in the area and to make the area more pedestrian and bike-friendly.

“We’re focused on enhancing a diverse community and we’re focused on enhancing a very inclusive community,” says Causey of the task force’s vision.

With so many opportunities to spend its time and money, how does Western choose where to become involved?

“Western Bank is very focused on what we know,” Causey says, a practice she recommends to other business owners.

 “We know economic development because we work with small business and we work with nonprofits all day, every day. And we know University Avenue because we’ve been there for 90 years.”

FINALIST RUNDOWN

» Hope Community, housing and social services provider: hosts community listening sessions with more than 1,400 people to learn wants, needs and ideas.

Mary Keefe is executive director: 612.874.8867; marykeefe@hope-community.org; www.hope-community.org

» KeyStone Search, executive search firm: three principals donate 7 percent of company’s annual profits to charities chosen by partners, and serve on not-for-profit boards.

Marcia Ballinger is a principal: 612.375.8895; marciab@keystonesearch.com; www.keystonesearch.com

» Schechter Dokken Kanter, accounting firm: donates an entire day of business each year, in 2005 helping to remodel the Oak Park Center and sponsoring a movie and clothing drive.

Russ Andrews is CEO: 612.332.9309; randrews@sdkcpa.com; www.sdkcpa.com

» Western Bank, financial institution: created the Neighborhood Development Center to help entrepreneurs start businesses in inner city; 350 alumni since 1993 have done so.

Julie Causey is chair of the board: 651.290.8174; jcausey@western-bank.com; www.western-bank.com