This Is ME, Inc. Reviews

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HeatherS

My Role: Professional with expertise in this field & I founded the organization and serve as the Executive Director. Login to send private message

March 7, 2011

Of course, the impact on the girls and families This Is ME serves is the most important success it’s had, but I would point to the organization’s ability to work with limited resources to make such a strong impact as its greatest success. They owe this to being able to translate their budget from dollar amounts to in-kind opportunities – what/who can they attract and utilize without spending actual money? They look to three important areas: 1) partnering with other groups to use resources efficiently: For example, they don’t have their own space; they currently partner with a park, schools, and a library to drastically reduce overhead. And they work with Girls in the Game, the Junior League of Chicago, Metropolitan Family Services, and others to expand programming opportunities in a number of ways; 2) relying on volunteers to run the organization, including a very active Board of Directors, program directors, a Resource Development Coordinator, a Marketing pro, interns from universities, and dozens of direct and indirect support volunteers, and even the volunteer hours of the Executive Director and other stipened employees; 3) making the most of in-kind donations and free resources. In-kind donations tend to be program and office supplies so they get creative in planning projects and tasks based on what they have on-hand. Free resources tend to be technology products like Mailchimp that allow them to maintain high standards of professionalism without heavy financial investments.