Today, CMW is a booth ‘vendor’ at the first big conference being put on by Illinois Resource Net, a nonprofit based at Univ. of Illinois at Chicago. They don’t write your grant proposal for you, but they will help you navigate the process.

Richard Kordesh, co-director, just laid out federal funding so simply I totally understood it! Check it out, he says “every federal grant has a story” and they fall into some very distinct story types (please note this is just straight off of his slide presentation, I do not know that this is on the Web anywhere–so please contact Richard if you want to know more): Read the rest of this entry »

It was a sunny warm morning when I arrived at Union Park for the March. A swirl of people began to fill the park. Some of them arrived on foot others in big yellow buses. An army of paleteros also descended onto the park the bells on their carts clanking merrily. American flags blowing lazily in the wind.

I decided to take a moment and ask a few folks why they were there and what impact they wanted the march to have.

Jorge Andrade

“El año pasado nadie nos ayudo, este año queremos que alguíen nos ayude. Nosotros somos parte de la fuerza laboral y contribuimos con nuestros impuestos a este pais. Hay muchas familias que tienen años aqui pagando impuestos y pore so necesitamos que el gobierno nos ayude.

Tony Wasilewski
Young Polish Initiative

We need to change the immigration law because so many people are being deported everyday. This isn’t only a Latino problem. People need to know about the other people being deported. We need to keep families together to strengthen the country. My son Brian asks me everyday, “ Why doesn’t the U.S. like my mommy?” My wife Janina was deported in February to Poland and can’t come back for ten-years. She had been living in the U.S. for 18 years.

Alie Kabba
United African Organization

This year I want us to send a clear message that the community is united across ethnic boundaries and we are hopeful that the plight of 12 million undocumented gets the human rights it deserves and takes the center stage in public policy. As a community of color we are coming together and sending a shared vision of America and we want to be part of this society.

Jose Larios
Dream Act Mascot/Student
Kelly High School

We need people to know more about the Dream Act and for workers to get paid what they deserve and not be afraid to ask for a raise. The Dream Act gives opportunity to students to bring something to this country and help their families.

When I finished chatting with folks I began thinking about how powerful the movement of people is. People migrating from place to place, urban caravans colliding with cities. Marching gives us an opportunity to come together and create dialogue between ourselves and the society we live in. -Diana Pando

P.S. Check out the photos marchers posted from their cellphones throughout the day at www.photobucket.com

Shore Bank is the country’s oldest and largest community & environmental bank and serves 12 Chicago communities as well as Detroit & Cleveland.

We are now seeking a Communications Supervisor for our office at 7054 S. Jeffery in Chicago. This position will be responsible for drafting and authoring corporate communications and marketing vehicles in a wide variety of mediums (written, oral, electronic) and conveying ShoreBank’s brand and message. The Communications Supervisor will maintain and update the content of information on the holding company and bank’s websites. In addition, the Communications Supervisor will write, edit and assist with the development and maintenance of the ShoreBank Intranet site. Will assist with the design and implementation of an internal communications program and strategy, and assist the entire marketing department in shared projects or special assignments. The Communications Supervisor will manage internal and external third party relationships and provide communications counsel and coaching as needed to employees.

Qualifications include a B.S. in Journalism or equivalent work experience, although a graduate degree is preferred. Four to six years experience with an agency, nonprofit or corporation. Demonstrated proficiency in website technology, graphics packages (i.e. Photoshop), Desktop publishing packages and Microsoft Office Suite.

ShoreBank offers career advancement opportunities, work & family balance, competitive salaries, a diverse workplace, business casual dress, and an attractive flexible benefits package that includes medical & dental, vision, tuition reimbursement and a 401(k) plan.

Interested candidates should submit resume to: elsa_luna@sbk.com

Just a perfunctory moan about the need to keep this up to date. Sorry readers–if you’re out there!

I just joined the listserv of TechSoup, whose motto is “Technology served the way nonprofits need it.” It’s pretty geeky, but — free stuff!

Most people seem to know about TechSoup and its parent, CompuMentor–because they get their free software this way. I can’t believe I ever worked at a nonprofit that paid for Microsoft Office or Adobe PageMaker–since they are available as donations at TechSoup. But the San Francisco nonprofit also has a lot of useful information on how to use and think about technology.

I wouldn’t write about any email list that only makes the dinner spectrum of spinach; this one is more like a steak. That is to say, it’s good and solid. If you like to eat (or read blogs in this case to stretch a metaphor) you’ll love it. It’s not dessert, though. For that, I read I Want Media, a simple list of news-related headlines that mostly describes how the Internet is, allegedly, rolling over the gray old newspaper-TV-industrial complex. I like to tell myself that this has some relevance to my job, but the truth is it’s just as much fun as going to the aquarium to watch feeding time at the shark tank. A slightly more sober daily treatment of media business news and media policy is compiled–right here in Chicago– by Kevin Taglang of the Benton Foundation.

I suppose that nonprofit tech (the subject of a lot of nonprofit oriented blogs out there) is slightly higher on the list of organizations’ priorities than communications but perhaps not too much. We’re looking forward to having Marnie Webb from TechSoup at our conference June 7-8, 2006 on the Columbia College Chicago campus, by the way.

On an unrelated note: big changes at Woods Fund of Chicago. Effective March 8, Ricardo Millette has left the position of president and Deborah Harrington, formerly vice president, has been appointed interim president, effective immediately. Many people appreciated Ricardo as a foundation executive who showed up at community meetings; among Deborah’s other work she recently has been leading the foundation’s South Side Capacity Building initiative. Phillip Thomas of Woods, meanwhile, has gone to Chicago Community Trust as senior program officer. We’re hoping he will be our person at the Trust!

Communications Coordinator
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois

FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS ILLINOIS is a state affiliate of a national, non-profit advocacy organization comprised of over 2,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders and violence survivors who support public investment in programs that cut crime by helping kids get started on the right track and stay there. The major issue areas are preschool, after-school programs, prevention of child abuse and neglect, and youth mental health services. The three-person Illinois office is a joint project of the Illinois Center for Violence Prevention and the national FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS.

Responsibilities: We are seeking an energetic and creative Communications Coordinator to be based in Chicago. He or she will have primary responsibility for the development and implementation of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDs Illinois’ earned media strategy, which is centered on putting forward law enforcement leaders and crime survivors to call for public investments in young people that are proven to prevent crime. This position also has responsibility for connecting our nearly 200 Illinois members to our media work as well as coordinating our work on new membership recruitment.

Competitive salary and benefits. Please fax, email or mail completed questionnaire (available here), resume, writing sample and cover letter to:

Communications Coordinator Search
FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS Illinois
70 E. Lake St., Suite 720
Chicago, IL 60601
Fax: 312-922-2277
Email: illinoisjobs@fightcrime.org