One word - genius. Check it out. Have a biz idea you're dying to get out?  Tell me about it.

Sam Jethroe of the Cleveland Buckeyes joined the Boston Braves in 1950 at the age of 32.  He is hailed as the oldest person to win Rookie of the Year.  To date, no one has broken his record.

Read up on the Negro League Teams of Cleveland (there were 11 total). 

Have a look here: The Nonprofit Times Power & Influence 2009

I just learned about The Harlem Children's Zone (via a HBS case I did in Marketing class) so I was glad to see its director, Geoffrey Canada made the list.

So did Robert Egger, of DC Central Kitchen and Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, among others.

These folks are definitely inspiring me to get reading again. Note to self: most people fail or have to adjust greatly after their first attempt so I'm in great company!

Mortenson takes you on a journey (no, really) he began in 1993 while hiking the 2nd largest mountain in the world. He got lost, some villagers in the Himalayas took him in and he vowed to re-pay their kindness by returning to build a school. This book is about how he did just that and created an organization that has built over 100 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  

My school is even reading it together and collecting Pennies for Peace to help the Central Asia Institute (Greg's org) build more schools. He's coming out to visit and talk about the project See here --> Three Cups of Tea Author to visit Case. 

Sometimes, I never want to leave grad school. :-( Maybe I should get another degree. 

The site can download, categorize and graph your spending for you, everyday! Can you believe it? I'm a little depressed because after inputting info from my checking acct. and credit card I realized I had a negative net worth, but hey! At least I know... :-/So far I'm $5 over my budget for restaurants. I can adjust my budget using the little sliding buttons or let it create a general one for me. 

So, I recommend Mint.com for anyone who isn't savvy enough to be/have an investor or who just wants to keep a close eye on their moolah. Check it out!

As with any completely new project, I have things I want to change and lessons learned for the next go round.

1. Diversify funding streams - we are completed funded by a city agency and 5 months after getting an agreement for funding, we are penniless. Supposedly, we will get the funding this week but I've heard that before. 

2. Have check-ins with staff - Even if you have no news and no one seems to have questions, talk to them anyway. One staff member was pissed at the end of the camp when she hadn't been paid (Very understandable) but it was mostly because after the first few debriefing meetings she didn't know what was going on. I'm from the school of not meeting unless I have something to say but for people not involved in the daily meetings with the Councilmember regarding our funding and for those not going back and forth with everyone in the Youth Trust and Dept. of Parks & Recs, an update on administrators' daily activities, regardless of how little they avail, is refreshing.

3. Lay the ground rules first - I loved my volunteers but over time I realized they do not all have the same concepts of timeliness or following scheduling. I should've explained that you have to call if you aren't coming in/stick to your schedule ahead of time.  I thought everyone knew that but go figure!

4. Find ways to motivate your staff - Esp. in the NP sector where funding may me slow and minimal you have to find ways to keep your staff motivated and to let them know how much they are appreciated. I will definitely work on this for next year.

5. Have 2 back-up plans for funding - that's probably not as necessary when working with foundations but our funder kept us waiting on money promised to us for over 5 months. We never anticipated it taking this long so we had just about no more for our program as it was happening.  We had a small BBQ fundraiser that provided money for copies, some class equipment, etc. but not enough for salaries. I want to have funding commitments for next year's camp secured by mid-January. NEVER AGAIN will I rely on a city agency/single funder for all of our money. I will have some contingency plans to put in place if something happens with funding (i.e. series of fundraisers, sponsoring teachers for the program, sliding scale for app fees, combining large grants and small community grants, etc.).