Newsletter | May 2008

The Lab recently granted $90,000 to three initiatives aimed at business owners, city residents and urban teens, respectively.

Jodi Marchewitz's project, iGuiders.com, will act as an online mentor to business owners by helping them determine their business needs.

Eddy Eckart and Tom Dillon created Sustainable Community Housing Assistance to provide housing down payment assistance to civil servants.

Aerospace engineers Lizalyn Smith and Mark Sorrells aim to introduce minority high school students to the field of engineering through NSBE Jr.

Read more about these newest Lab "champions" below.

This issue of Lab Link also features champion Jeff Griffiths.

Griffiths first approached the Civic Innovation Lab with a broad idea and big plans -- and was promptly rejected.

The Lab's workshops, along with feedback from mentors, helped him "drill down" -- hone his focus and articulate quantifiable goals. Both helped him eventually land Lab funding for Hands On Northeast Ohio, his effort to change the way people volunteer in Greater Cleveland.

In this issue

Upcoming events Lab provides $90,000 to new projects Sharper focus buoys volunteer initiative

Lab provides $90,000 to new projects

Civic Innovation Lab recently awarded grants to entrepreneurs shepherding three promising projects.

Jodi Marchewitz, iGuiders.com, $30,000

iGuiders.com will act as an online mentor to Greater Cleveland entrepreneurs and small business owners by walking users through logic-based decision trees to determine exact business needs. It will also provide useful, task-related search results and local resources. Marchewitz will use her Lab grant to complete a prototype by June. Her Lab mentors are Tim Mueller, president of Phylogy, and Charlene Hyle, president of Collaborate2Win.

Eddy Eckart and Tom Dillon, Sustainable Community Housing Assistance (SCHA), $30,000

SCHA will work with groups representing civil servants and others to create a sustainable investment vehicle that would provide funds for housing down payment assistance. Grants will be made available to participating groups' members to purchase homes inCleveland and its inner-ring suburbs. Eckart and Dillon will be assisted by Lab mentor Ari Maron, a partner of MRN Ltd.

Lizalyn Smith and Mark Sorrells, NSBE Jr., $30,000

Affiliated with the National Society of Black Engineers and led locally by Smith and Sorrells, aerospace engineers at NASA Glenn Research Center, NSBE Jr. introduces high school students to various engineering disciplines and prepares them to enter engineering colleges by pairing them with black engineers who can serve as mentors. Mentors provide students with hands-on project experience, and students have opportunities to participate in engineering internships and develop skills by leading projects and meetings.

NSBE Jr. will use its Lab grant to create a strategic plan to increase the number of students, mentors and collaborating corporations involved with the program; to create a sustainable and effective curriculum; and to establish connections with key program directors, graduate students and faculty members of local colleges of engineering, including Case Western Reserve and ClevelandStateuniversities. Smith and Sorrells will be assisted by Lab mentors Jon Adams, president of Noom Enterprises, and Alton Tinker, vice president and underwriting officer, Key Bank.

Jennifer Thomas, the Lab's director, said these new initiatives are excellent examples of ways the Lab promotes innovation.

"Jodi and Eddy are building their initiatives from the concept stage and will have the opportunity to create new economic development tools with a great team of mentors," Thomas said. "Lizalyn and Mark plan to build a program that can change the lives of inner city teens.

"These three efforts will help forge stronger communities and a strong economy in Greater Cleveland."

Sharper focus buoys volunteer initiative

When the Civic Innovation Lab turned down a request for funding from Jeff Griffiths, the problem wasn't with his idea for Hands On Northeast Ohio -- a "volunteer action center."

The problem was how to execute that idea.

His passion and enthusiasm were evident, said Jennifer Thomas, the Lab's director, but Griffiths needed to sharpen his focus. With input from Thomas, Griffithsmade another request for funding, clearly communicating his vision to the Lab's Mentor Panel that decides which initiatives receive funding and mentorship.

"Instead of articulating the full-blown, 10-year vision, I realized I needed to drill down to three or four core areas," Griffiths explained of his successful request. He received $30,000 from the Lab in April 2007.

A successful pitch meant laying out plans to sustain his organizations' funding after the grant money was gone and defining, at least initially, a core audience -- young professionals who wish to "do good" while connecting with others like themselves.

Hands On Northeast Ohio tackled the funding issue through a combination of grants, private donors and fees from corporate services. For corporations, it collects fees for identifying, organizing and assisting with successful volunteer outings for large numbers of employees.

Griffiths currently is building the young professionals component of his plan. He also is leveraging partnerships; Hands On Northeast Ohio is theCuyahoga County affiliate of the national Points of Light/Hands On Network. (The two organizations merged last summer to create the world's largest global volunteer network, encompassing 370 affiliates and serving an estimated 83 percent of the American public.) Hands On Northeast Ohio is also the officialCuyahoga County affiliate of the Ohio Volunteer Center Association. Meanwhile Griffiths is making the rounds speaking to lunch crowds at law firms, corporations and civic groups to get the word out.

"I consider myself a social entrepreneur dealing with things that any company would -- dollars, marketing and continuing to fortify our legitimacy," Griffiths said. "To tackle these, I have been lucky to have great people supporting me, from my family and board of directors to the Lab and my Lab mentor Michael Obi."

For do-gooders with limited free time, the Hands On concept holds appeal. It works like this: people interested in volunteering register online with Hands On, undergo a background check and attend a volunteer orientation. Then they choose projects that fit their time and talents through the Hands On web site, www.handsonneo.org. Hands On supplies details of specific volunteer opportunities, and a Hands On Volunteer Leader meets them onsite. The service is free to both volunteers and agencies.

For volunteers, the service offers a one-stop shop to find fun and convenient opportunities. For organizations such as nonprofits, schools and municipal agencies, Hands On technology makes it easy to tap into a capable, trained workforce. Additionally, Hands On will use its technology to facilitate volunteer referrals for agencies starting in June.

"We're going to make sure that the relationship works for the volunteer and the agency -- that everyone's time is used in the best way possible and that they have the best experience possible."

Thomas, the Lab's director, said the Hands On story illustrates an important quality shared by Lab champions -- a well-defined focus.

"We loved Jeff's idea from the beginning, but wanted to see it honed for sustainability," she said. "Once that happened, the Lab's Mentor Panel was confident the idea would work."