Winner: Share
Diane Christie, executive director
Secured grant funding for a new building and increased programs
Vancouver-based Share was founded in 1979, and started out with Share House, a shelter for 28 single men, and a hot meal program that served five meals each week.
Since 1996, it has grown consistently, adding programs and facilities, and operates on the mission to lead the hungry and homeless to self-sufficiency by providing food, shelter, housing and education.
In 2008 – after five years of work – the organization secured $1.4 million to buy the former Timber Lanes building, which after renovations, will allow Share to consolidate facilities, expand capacity to meeting growing program needs and generate income through the leasing of space.
On a program level, Share increased its BackPack, summer lunch, Achieving Self-sufficiency Personal Improvement and Resource Education, and financial assistance programs.
The BackPack program was started in 2005 to provide food to low-income children on weekends, when free breakfast and lunch is not available through schools. It has grown from serving 75 children a week at three schools to more than 500 a week to 23 schools.
The summer lunch program served an extra 100 children, and ASPIRE – a transitional and permanent housing program – grew to serve an extra 25 households a month.
The financial assistance program was started in 2007 as a savings program that matches a client's savings in an Individual Development Account one-to-one or two-to-one. In 2008, Share started a secured credit card program to assist clients through financial education and improved credit.
In 2008, the organization also grew its budget 44 percent, thanks to successful grant writing and increased private funding for many programs, said Executive Director Diane Christie.
With the economy, Share has seen an increased need for its services, she added.
"Especially at the holidays," Christie said. "We consistently have to turn people away from our programs due to capacity."
The holiday cheer program distributed 1,500 more gifts in 2008, and there was an increase in the number of families who had never accessed Share's help before.
– Megan Patrick-Vaughn
Finalist: YWCA Clark County
Kathy Kniep, executive director
Increased employees and operating budget 12 percent in 2008
After more than 90 years in Vancouver, opportunities could appear exhausted for YWCA Clark County. But the nonprofit continues to expand its services.
In 1916 the organization began as a lunch counter to serve women.
"At the time it was not OK for a woman to be out alone in public and eating, so our earliest days were serving women who needed to have a place to eat and be unescorted," said Jennifer Werdel, director of development and communications.
In 2008, the nonprofit served more than 10,000 people with programs for victims of domestic violence, homeless children and those transitioning from jail or foster care.
The YWCA's Independent Living Skills program expanded to serve Cowlitz County youth aging out of foster care, along with the Clark County youth it previously served. The organization also opened a transitional home for girls with Vancouver-based YW Housing.
The organization established a Social Change program that partnered in 2008 with the city of Battle Ground Cultural Task Force, reaching more than 260 people in workshops addressing racism and tolerance.
The organization added positions in 2008, including a bilingual resource developer for its Court-Appointed Special Advocate Program, three advocates for its SafeChoice Domestic Violence program and a manager for the Social Change program, which tackles verbal abuse, harassment and discrimination. Employee counts grew from 63 to 71 from 2007 to 2008.
Volunteer numbers were up 5 percent in 2008, completing work valued at $773,173.
From 2007 to 2008, the organization's operating budget increased 12 percent, or nearly $330,000, while operating expenses were up 11 percent. Its total assets in June 2008 had a 10 percent increase from the year prior, up by $600,000. Net assets in June 2008 were up 9 percent.
About 60 percent of the YWCA's budget comes from government grants, and individual contributions make up 24 percent.
– Charity Thompson
Finalist: Dream Big Community Center
Nathan Webster, executive director
Served more than 100 youth in 2008
When Nathan Webster founded Dream Big Community Center in 2004, he used the concept behind its name to shape the organization.
"We say you can follow your dream without repercussion or ridicule," said Webster, the organization's executive director. "You provide the dream and we provide the tools."
The Vancouver-based organization aims to instill confidence and leadership skills in teens in the Vancouver-Portland metro area, and became a tax-exempt nonprofit in 2007.
"After conducting research I found out (that teens) were the most neglected demographic in America," Webster said. "That was alarming to me."
Most adolescent programs are recreational, he found. Programs tackling social issues are less common, but are needed in all socioeconomic groups, he said.
In 2008, Dream Big helped bring the Operation Hope Banking on Our Future financial literacy program to Vancouver's Skyview High School for the first time.
Also in 2008, Webster held the first five-week Dream Big 101 workshops at Hayes Freedom High School in Camas, where 25 youth learned to identify their life ambitions and make plans to realize them.
"We talk about challenges they'll face, persistence, and (ways) to be around people who will encourage them," Webster said.
Since that series ended, students still meet weekly in a support group to help them pursue their goals, Webster said, and future workshops are in development.
Also in 2008, 86 students from 13 schools entered the first-ever Dream Big essay contest, which was partly sponsored with prizes from local businesses.
Income for the nonprofit increased from $455 to $2,290 between 2007 and 2008, largely from individual contributions and business sponsorships. Webster and 17 volunteers have worked without pay to develop the nonprofit since 2004.
"I do it because it needs to get done," Webster said. "I'm going to do everything humanly possible to reach out to (youth) because they're crying out for our attention."
– Charity Thompson
Humane Society for Southwest Washington
Chuck Tourtillott, executive director
Broke ground on a new facility in 2008
After 12 years of fundraising, the Humane Society for Southwest Washington broke ground on a $6 million building in late 2008. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of other costs associated with the new facility on 192nd Avenue in Vancouver, but the construction costs are covered, said Executive Director Chuck Tourtillott.
The organization's current location at the Port of Vancouver is bursting at the seams, but the new 30,000-square-foot space is triple the square footage the organization has now. Walls started going up in November, and is expected to be complete early.
The new space, which is being built by Vancouver-based Robertson and Olson Construction, tremendously increases its animal holding capacity – doubling the dog holding capacity and tripling the cat holding capacity.
But it's not just added room, Tourtillott said. The building adds diversity of space.
It will add isolation and quarantine areas, benefitting the flow of animals in the system, create a larger space for an on-site spay and neuter clinic and add space for humane education programs.
The education space will host classes such as animal obedience training and responsible pet ownership programs.
In 2008, employment at the organization stayed relatively flat, but the Humane Society added a Lend a Hand program, which provides some of the excess pet food that is donated to the organization for pet owners who may be otherwise unable to feed their pets due to economic circumstances.
"Once a month, we got out to a site in the city and distribute about 3,000 pounds of food," Tourtillott said. "It's our way of helping people keep the pets they might have otherwise turned into us because they can't afford to keep them."
– Megan Patrick-Vaughn
