shalom house & the impact of capacity building
In 2018, the Community Foundation of Boone County (CFBC) awarded grants to three local nonprofits as part of our Deep Dive Capacity Building program. One of the grantees, Shalom House, received a $11,020 grant to focus on improving and enhancing the ability to achieve their mission and sustainability. Lisa Williams, Executive Director for Shalom House, recently presented the final grant report to CFBC staff, board, and grants committee. “This Capacity Building grant has been pivotal for us”, said Williams. “As a small nonprofit, we don’t have the same resources as larger nonprofits, so this grant has been key to helping us reach our next milestones.”
A little about shalom house
Each year, Shalom House serves on average 13,000 warm meals to the public and 22,500 sack lunches to 4,500 children during the 13 weeks school is not in session. Free meals are served weekly, which is open to the community, on Tuesdays 5-7pm, Saturdays 11am-1pm, and the last Thursday of every month 5-7pm. The Shalom House is located at 304 West Green Street in Lebanon. The organizational mission is to impact the people of Boone County by feeding bodies and encouraging the spirit, while feeding the community, so that one day no one will ever experience hunger. To volunteer and/or learn about board opportunities, please contact Lisa at 765. 891. 9065.
the grant impact
We are excited to share the impact of the grant! Several focus areas were established in partnership with Shalom House, CFBC, and Rozzi & Associates, the consultant group hired to guide Shalom House through this process. Board education and engagement, fundraising, and technological advances were the identified areas. Through this grant, Shalom was able to expand board knowledge on how to provide for the sustainability and growth of the nonprofit organization. Shalom also made forward strides in their technology department. They now have a new website (http://www.theshalomhouse.org), allowing Boone County residents to see who qualifies for meals and when community meals are available, and also acts as a resource for volunteers to sign-up to serve. In addition, they launched a new donor database, which allows for better outreach to supporters through various channels such as an electronic newsletter. Using the $11,020 investment made by the CFBC grant, Shalom House was able to capture a 78% return on the investment through increased fundraising efforts. With fundraising results up, staff hours were increased 50%, enabling them to serve more Boone County residents. “The best part was getting everyone together on the same page. We were able to work together as a team with our board, learning more about fundraising and relationship-building. Fundraising is now part of everybody’s day, day after day”, says Williams.
Susan Rozzi, president & owner of Rozzi & Associates, shared with us, “It is really exciting to see Lisa and her board looking at the future, looking down the road at what else they can do to help Boone County. This is what capacity building is all about.”
With forward thinking, the goals for the Shalom House are to continue serving breakfasts to kids 5 days/week in the sack lunch program, create a waitlist for people who can’t leave their home (Shalom currently delivers 2 meals/week, but only in select areas of the county and a limited number of meals), and work to collaborate with others to help address rural food insecurity.