Welcome to Doing Good!

Welcome to the premiere issue of Doing Good, the monthly e-newsletter of do good Consulting! Perhaps you are a staff member at a local non-profit, serve on the board of an agency in town or the mission committee at your church, volunteer at your favorite charity, or donate to good causes. If so, this Doing Good e-newsletter is for you!

Last week, I formally threw open the doors to do good Consulting, a full-service training and consulting operation designed specifically to meet the needs of small- to mid-sized local non-profit organizations and service committees.

Every day, we see the great work of local charities – housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, teaching children, protecting the environment, and fighting for equal rights.

Yet each day, these groups struggle to secure funds, run responsive programs on tight budgets, find and coordinate volunteers, and get their message out in an era of advertising saturation.

Challenges from all directions test these charities: an unstable economy, constant staff and board turnover, increasingly strict accountability standards from donors and foundations, technology impediments, and new government regulations are but a few.

I have experienced challenges first-hand through my involvement in local efforts like Save Our Trees to statewide groups like the Illinois Student Environmental Network to national subsidiaries like Habitat for Humanity. I spent over 13 years in the trenches dealing directly with nearly every issue and challenge that could be thrown our way.

I began do good Consulting – and the Doing Good e-newsletter – to bring my experiences and lessons learned to help local non-profits deal with challenges and issues. Together, working with group leaders, staff members, board members, donors, and volunteers, we will grow a fleet of powerful, responsive, pro-active organizations working on critical issues, networked and collaborating for the community good.

Regardless of your role in the non-profit sector in our community – staff member, volunteer, board member, donor, or all of the above – you are working to make our community – and world – a better place. Thank you for taking the time to read this premiere issue of Doing Good. I look forward to working with you to build a better community!

Sincerely,
Laura Huth
Principal Trainer and Consultant
do good Consulting

P.S. - If you know of colleagues, neighbors, or friends who should receive this Doing Good e-newsletter, please forward this message on, or email me to have them added to the list.

do good Consulting Open House Kicks Off New Business in Style

This past Friday, things were abuzz at 201 West Green St. in Urbana. Headquarters to do good Consulting, a crowd gathered for the new business’s official Grand Opening and Open House. Over the course of the evening, over 100 guests came to CEO Laura Huth’s cozy home office to celebrate, despite tight parking and rain. Guests filled out raffle tickets to win three free hours of do good Consulting time for the charity of their choice.

At 4:15, Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart and the Urbana Chamber of Commerce joined Laura and her support base for an official ribbon cutting to mark the occasion. The house began to buzz with conversation as Chef Ben Lubchansky from Salt Fork Catering served up a dizzying myriad of elegant dishes featuring locally-grown, organic food throughout the night tantalizing guests’ taste buds.

Throughout the night, community members and nonprofit representatives stopped by to show their support and to join in the celebration. In all, nearly 50 local nonprofit organizations were represented! Guests enjoyed wine, provided in part by the Corkscrew Wine Emporium, and feasted on Salt Fork Catering’s savory appetizers as Laura made her way to personally greet each guest.

Concluding the evening’s festivities, the raffle winner was drawn, who named Crisis Nursery as the lucky recipient of the three free hours of consulting time. There was a toast to do good Consulting’s future successes as the last of the guests thanked Laura for a wonderful evening.

A special thanks to these businesses for making do good Consulting’s Open House such a success:

Salt Fork Catering - Ben Lubchansky
benlubchansky@gmail.com
337-4314

The Corkscrew Wine Emporium
urbana@thecorkscrew.com
337-7704

Articles in this section of future issues of Doing Good will feature profiles of area non-profit organizations. To see – or write – a profile of your favorite local charity, email laurahuth@dogoodconsulting.org.

UI Computer Science Department Seeks Opportunities to Work with Area Non-Profits

Is your organization struggling to get a handle on technology? Have a larger information management project you dream of undertaking if only you had expertise and resources to do so?
 
Students from the University of Illinois’ Department of Computer Science may be able to help your organization. Through two different opportunities, CS students may be available to help your non-profit with problems or issues ranging from quick fixes all the way to year-long application or site development issues.
 
Here’s a quick glimpse of the opportunities and requirements:
 
Senior Design Program (SDP) 
To be eligible for consideration for the SDP program, an organization must have a project with clear goals appropriate for a team of four CS students to accomplish during a typical academic year (August 07-April 08). To meet class requirements, students must create tangible products such as websites/software applications, fixes/upgrades to existing solutions, or redesign non-professionally developed prototypes for enhanced performance. Client satisfaction comprises half of the students’ grade. Please note: SDP projects are sponsored by a fee paid either by the organization or by philanthropic sponsor (foundation, donor, etc.). For more information on SDP, contact Mike Woodley, UIUC CS Capstone Projects Coordinator at mwoodley@uiuc.edu or 244-1971.
 
Programming Studio (PS)
PS is a less formal program which entails proposing a relatively simple project that can be accomplished by one or two students in the last four weeks of either the fall or spring semesters. Interested organizations will be selected on a voluntary basis by participating students (or the students will select a project of their own choosing). Project examples include: rebuilding non-profit database applications or adding functionality to a website.  Students must write code for this requirement. Projects are proposed in class and approved by the instructor and must provide the students with sufficient work for four weeks. For more information on PS, contact Mike Woodley, UIUC CS Capstone Projects Coordinator at mwoodley@uiuc.edu or 244-1971.