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GUARANTEED RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT
There are very few “sure things” to invest in these days. The economy and the stock market may be on hiatus, but there is one valuable commodity you can put your money into and know you’ll receive a healthy return – our youth. Nothing is more important than ensuring the future security of the next generation.
Yet our leaders continue to embrace band-aid approaches to “helping” young people without actually investing in them financially. The current approach to enhancing our educational system best exemplifies my point. Why is it that many still believe that the panacea for better schools is focusing on reform only? Whether we blame teachers and administrators, raise performance standards artificially, add truancy centers, or teach to a test, we will never produce more competent young citizens in the global market until we also invest in changing their perspectives.
Big Brothers Big Sisters programs are helping positively change a child’s attitude about school. Consequently, this contributes to the creation of an achievement culture, and should be a part of any serious comprehensive strategy to improve our school systems. Leaving this critical component as an afterthought has not worked in the past and will not work today or in the future. We must implement prevention options such as one-to-one mentoring because much data supports that this proactive approach is effective in helping to approach academic performance.
You have heard me say many times that Big Brothers Big Sisters needs your investment of time, talent and treasure in order to continue the dynamic growth and impact of our services. The challenge is that while most know that Big Brothers Big Sisters is a great place to give of their time and talent as volunteers, many don’t truly understand that we are also a great place to invest their treasure. The services we provide are indeed free to the children and families we serve, but it takes paid professional staff to deliver those services.
I am very proud of my team here in Middle Tennessee that consistently goes above and beyond what is required of them on behalf of the children and youth of our community. A lot goes into making what we do, and what we achieve, appear “easy”, including but not limited to:
• Recruitment of volunteers, educational organizations, and, in the case of the Amachi program, children.
• A marketing strategy that supports and compliments our recruitment efforts.
• Managing and training hundreds of volunteer mentors (nearly 2300 in 2008).
• Extensive interviewing of children, volunteers, and parents/caregivers.
• Comprehensive reference and criminal background checks of volunteers.
• Ongoing match relationship support by professionally trained match support specialists, most with advanced degrees.
• Tracking success of the relationships we nurture with the assistance of a cutting-edge agency information management system.
• Comprehensive liability insurance to protect our matches for the life of the match.
And this is not taking into account the normal overhead charges associated with running any business of our size and complexity. Nevertheless, given all of the above, 87% of the investment of your dollars into the mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee still goes directly into programs. This is a stellar accomplishment for a social profit organization and indicative of our effective stewardship of your generosity.
We have tripled the number of children we serve annually and doubled the revenue of the agency during my administration. We are also creating new jobs with our success. But there is still much work to do! Our vision is to be serving 5000 children annually in the coming years, which will take additional resource acquisition, both human and financial.
As mentioned earlier, we are not just an organization to give your time and talent; Big Brothers Big Sisters is also a great financial investment with a guaranteed return. It costs roughly $1000 per year to support a typical Big Brothers Big Sisters match ($2500 for an Amachi match). As the old adage goes, an ounce of prevention saves a pound of cure. By facilitating professionally supported one-to-one mentoring relationships for our most vulnerable young people, $1000 is a drop in the bucket compared to the enormous cost of housing an inmate in the future, by most estimates, $20,000 per year.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is an evidence-based program proven to help kids from making the wrong choices that may land them in the criminal justice system. Investing in Big Brothers Big Sisters and other youth centered organizations means saving our state and us millions of dollars in the future. Those choices don’t just mean avoiding joining a gang, not doing drugs, or engaging in violent behavior, all of which are residual impacts of this program. Big Brothers Big Sisters one-to-one mentoring is also effective in improving a child’s attitude toward school, which lowers the likelihood of skipping school, which improves grades, which increases graduation rates.
But then you already know all of this, right? Isn’t it time for you to share this good news with your family and friends, plus others at your work, church or professional organizations: there is such a thing as a “sure” investment with a guaranteed return that they can make even during these challenging economic times. Please do it today. Kids are waiting.
Blessings,
Lowell
Read previous editions of our CEO Corner by clicking below:
Lowell Perry, Jr. is CEO of
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee.
If you would like to direct questions or comments to him,
he may be reached at
615.329-9191 ext. 222 or lowell.perry@bbbs.org.
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