Please think of C4 this week for our ED's Birthday!
AND CHECK OUT OUR NEW C4 IMPACT VIDEO HERE:
Calvert Concept Charitable Corporation (C4) has made remarkable strides towards our community’s expectations. Its volunteers and supporters have been generous with time and money to make that possible. As a result, in a very brief time C4 has gone from a one-page idea of how all of us might achieve generational change for victims of injustice to being well on its way to do so. (See Calvert Concept (C4) In a Nutshell Community - Oct 2024.docx). But it is decision time for its future.
C4 was established as a community-based 501(c)(3) public charity to reconcile injustices affecting descendants of enslaved people, members of the Piscataway Conoy tribe of Maryland on whose ancestral land Calvert County sits, public servants of our County, and Seniors who have lost their retirement resources in service to others.
Working with other community organizations, C4 has: established and operated a 501(c )(3); secured sufficient financial support to do that; created partnerships with a wide variety of organizations; evolved an effective selection process; established a Liaison program that pairs each client with a trained and dedicated volunteer; instituted wrap-around client support and referral processes ranging from job improvement skills to health care; partnered with Maryland University extension services to create a phased, individualized onboarding process to help clients implement personal financial and life plans; marshalled community resources to support clients; developed advanced modularized training and evaluation processes; transformed a once-a-year application opportunity to accepting applications at any time throughout the year with decisions within 2 months of applying; established and improved an ongoing 60-day review process; matched client savings dollar-for-dollar up to $3000 per year per client; created a cash-based, individualized financial incentive program; established micro-grants to help people overcome obstacles; partnered with the County Library and Commission for Women to provide a financial literacy workshop series open to everyone.
C4 is now set to transition from a “super start up” to an institution that can implement generational change for hundreds of people across decades – but that requires funding at a much higher level. Early this year the Board of Directors decided that we could only be true to the purpose of C4 if we accepted the “all or nothing” risk of going for the vision, understanding that C4 would either get there or provide our current clients their matched savings, pack up all we’ve learned for the benefit of others, and close our doors. That’s the inflection point we’re at right now.
C4’s 2025 budget to make the transition from 2024’s goal of fifteen clients to thirty clients[1] with an adequate program structure for them, is a minimum of $225,000 (basic), and $305,000 for the full support program we envision. (That doesn’t count the Campus plans estimated at $12m – and for which we have an excellent site opportunity right now.)
The Board understood that to reach those necessary income levels would require half of the time of a full-time Executive Director (ED) – in addition to the ED time required to transition the organization and take care of our current clients. The Board made that investment, thanks to several generous “investors.” That ED time is in addition to the exceptional support of about forty volunteers, some of whom approach “full-time” hours of work. Raising the necessary funds requires Grant applications (an average of two new applications filed each month; none assured.) It takes ongoing communications to encourage recurring donations, the operational life blood. It takes research to identify potential major gift donors, and time and dedication by volunteers to reach out to them. C4 is doing these things.
But -- and here’s the urgency -- we cannot, in good conscience, transition into 2025 unless we have an honest belief that we will be able to attain at least the “basic” 2025 budget, and that leaves us two months to decide. The “votes” in this case need to be by major gifts, pledges of major gifts, and pledges of generous recurring donations. It’s that simple. The airplane has been substantially built, there’s a runway that will take us to the objective, but C4 can’t push the throttles forward without expecting there will be enough fuel for the next year of flight.
So, you are invited to “vote.” If you can make a major gift, or such a pledge, now would be the time. If you can make or increase a recurring donation, now is the time. If you have time to help C4 identify and reach out to prospective major donors or prepare grant applications, now is the time. If you have great ideas to offer, now is the time.
We thank you, our community of supporters, for everything you have done to get C4 to this inflection point. It’s something to be proud of! It’s exciting! But the alternative outcomes are real and imminent. We’ll keep you posted! Please “vote.”
With great thanks,
Kip At Lee
W. Kipling At Lee, Jr.
President
CalvertConcept@gmail.com
[1] Which our “numbers gurus” tell us would mean about five hundred people positively and substantially affected overall. As the number of clients increase beyond thirty, the larger number of those positively affected could increase exponentially.