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The Porch Writers' Collective General Information Contact Information Nonprofit The Porch Writers' Collective Address 205 31st Avenue North #106 Nashville, TN 37203 Phone (615) 574-8746 Web Site Web Site Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Email [email protected] At A Glance Year of Incorporation 2014 1 Mission & Impact Statements Mission The Porch fosters the artistic and professional development of writers and promotes a vibrant and diverse literary culture in Nashville through educational, inspiring, and community-building opportunities and events for adults and youth. Background In January of 2014, The Porch officially launched, touting a small batch of writing workshops and a kick-off event, the Heartbreak Happy Hour. Three and a half years later, the Porch has run well over 150 successful workshops, retreats, book clubs, and outreach programs; hosted over 65 unique literary events and collaborations; launched a teen arm; and worked with a wide array of at-risk youth, patients in drug and alcohol recovery, and immigrants and refugees. The dream of the Porch perhaps had its genesis in Chicago, where founder Susannah Felts had witnessed a flourishing literary community. Returning to Nashville a decade later, the memory of Chicago’s vibrant literary culture fueled her desire to build a similar community on her home turf. While Nashville boasted a stunning array of places and experiences to feed its readers, including Parnassus Books and NPL’s Salon@615, it lacked an institution focused on advancing the art and craft of writing—something found in many other major cities. Minneapolis has The Loft, the oldest nonprofit literary center in the country. Boston has Grub Street; Denver, The Lighthouse; Seattle, the Richard Hugo House. The list goes on. Joining forces with fellow writer and native Nashvillian Katie McDougall, the two began the work of launching The Porch Writers Collective with the dream of layering another rich ingredient to the city’s literary life and heritage. Impact The Porch serves Nashville’s writers and literary community, providing instruction, inspiration, enrichment, community, and experiences. Major Accomplishments Include: • Offered and ran 50 writing workshops in FY17 in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry with approximately 450 class registrations. Scholarship program launched July 2016. • Hosted over 65 unique and well-attended literary events in three years • Developed a membership program of over 250 members in the program's first two and a half years. • Offered 22 free SLANT (Student Literary Artists of Nashville, TN) workshops and several reading events for Nashville's Teens • Brought world class talent, National Book Award winner Tim O’ Brien and Grammy Award winning Tim O’ Brien for inaugural fundraising event, “A Tale of Two Tims.” In 2016, we brought Rodney Crowell and Mary Karr together for the event. In 2017, headliners included Wally Lamb and Mary Gauthier. · A Goals for FY 18: • • • • • Engage in Strategic Planning process with staff and board through CNM Address current needs for physical classroom and administrative space Increase diversity of students (adult and youth), instructors, and board members Fine-tune and expand our Expressive Writing for Immigrants and Refugee program Offer workshop opportunities at branch libraries. 2 Needs 1.A permanent physical space, including classroom and administrative furniture and materials/equipment. 2.Growth in our donor and membership base 3.Corporate backing for our annual fundraiser as well as for programming 4.Increased part-time wages for our SLANT support staff 5.Increase board membership in both number and diversity Other ways to donate, support, or volunteer Donations may be mailed to: The Porch 205 31st Ave. N. #106 Nashville, TN 37203 Donate on-line at Porchtn.org Contact Katie at [email protected] for information regarding volunteering. Service Categories Primary Organization Category Arts,Culture & Humanities / Arts & Culture Secondary Organization Category Education / Adult Education Tertiary Organization Category Education / Secondary & High Schools Areas of Service Areas Served TN - Davidson While we are located in Davidson County, workshop participants have come from a number of locations within three hours driving distance. Board Chair Statement The Porch is an exciting new organization in Nashville, and in its short time has done much to enrich Nashville’s literary culture. Not only does The Porch offer a wide range of classes for writers, but they have planned and orchestrated numerous literary events and writing retreats as well as built strong partnerships for creative writing outreach and youth programming. As Nashville is a city with a rich literary history, the work The Porch is doing serves to deepen the tradition as well as to complement the growth of its creative culture. As the current board is essentially The Porch’s first, my leadership role is especially exciting. We have an enthusiastic and active group of members who are deeply engaged in the process of building the scaffolding to make The Porch successful and sustainable in the long haul. Our committees—finance, governance, development, and programming—are laying the groundwork for a having a well-oiled, intentional, and engaged board for years to come. It perhaps goes without saying that we strive to help The Porch secure diverse funding sources, but we also are supporting its hardworking directors in negotiating the challenges of building a sound and thriving organization. 3 CEO Statement This endeavor began out of a love for the written word and the writing life, and with this spirit at it core, The Porch has filled a niche in Nashville’s creative culture and is quickly becoming part of the fabric of our city’s rich cultural identity. We consistently hear from local writers and publishing professionals that what we’re doing is sorely needed in Nashville. After all, a literary life in the present means a future literary heritage. We’re also firmly dedicated to creative writing as an outreach tool. Its benefits and applications are many, from a way to build communication skills, self-esteem, and critical thinking to a means of empowering marginalized groups. The Porch believes in the power of the written word as a means to empathy, connectivity, creativity, knowledge, and advancement. We believe the world needs writers. There are so many voices, so many stories, so many perspectives, and literature in all its varied forms is one of the oldest, most powerful channels of building empathy into experiences outside of our own. Writers understand perhaps better than anyone else the primacy of story and the incredible power and agency that comes with knowing how to wield words. In a world in which reading is at risk and the literary arts are in battle with twenty-first century distractions, fostering the art of writing is vital. 4 Programs Programs Writing Workshops Description The Porch offers multi-week as well as one-day writing workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, and special interest topics such as Writing for Healing, Travel Writing, or How to Interview Like a Pro. Workshops at the Porch are rigorous yet welcoming, encouraging creative expression while sharpening participants’ understanding of craft. Led by instructors with extensive teaching experience, each class focuses on a particular genre, approach, or use of writing, and allows participants to learn from one another in a supportive, friendly atmosphere. Two to three times a year, The Porch brings in high profile visiting authors to lead workshops. Budget 60000 Category Education, General/Other Adult Education Population Served Adults, , Short Term Success In the FY16, there were 500 individual registrations for Porch workshops, more than double the number the previous year. Workshop surveys indicate approximately 90% “Extremely Satisfied.” Currently, approximately 30% of our participants are repeat customers. Long term Success The Porch aims to raise the bar for writing instruction in Nashville and offer a local alternative to the MFA route. In the long term, more Nashvillians will be learning the craft of writing under the guidance of professionals. Program Success Monitored By Participants are asked to complete a survey following the workshop. Additionally, we track the number of repeat students. Examples of Program Success “I had not done any creative writing since college and feared I wouldn’t fit in because I wasn’t a “real” writer. But the easy-going style and nonjudgmental environment the instructor created made me feel comfortable from the beginning. The feedback, guidance and encouragement have been invaluable.” 5 Community-building Events Description The Porch hosts monthly events that serve to connect, entertain, and enrich Nashville’s writing community. Types of events incude: • • • • • • • • • “Socials,” including the annual Heartbreak Happy Hour educational programs and panels "Lit Mag League," a monthly book club discussion of a literary magazine bi-annual weekend writing retreat at Rivendell Writers' Colony in Sewanee, TN author and poet readings food-writing events Nashville Reads annual writing contest and award presentation Collaborations with other nonprofits annual fundraising event, a uniquely "Music City" literary evening, featuring the pairing nationally acclaimed authors and musicians. Budget 245000 Category Arts, Culture & Humanities, General/Other Literature Population Served Adults, , Short Term Success Our most recent event, the Porch Summer Social, was fairly representative of our events as a whole. The goal of the event was simply to create a social situation in which writers might meet and engage. Approximately sixty people attended, and a wide range of ages, neighborhoods, and ethnicities were represented. Long term Success Our vision is to create a robust writing community that will put Nashville on the literary map. For example, model literary centers in cities like Minneapolis, Boston, and Denver host a wealth of events, some of which include regularly inviting renowned authors to their communities. Additionally, The Porch strives to plan a variety of events so as to offer appealing opportunities to a broad population of writers and literary enthusiasts. 6 Outreach Description The Porch believes competence in writing is an essential skill for success within both academic and professional lives. Incorporating creative writing as a supplement to traditional curriculums revitalizes writing instruction and student progress, and it inspires character development through deepened self reflection, self expression, and creativity. Our Outreach Partners: TN Foreign Language Institute and TN Immigrants and Refugee Rights Coalition: These two organizations have helped us to facilitate and populate our Expressive Writing Workshops for Immigrants and Refugees, a program which we launched in the fall of 2016. NAZA: The Porch is currently teaching poetry workshops to middle school students as after-school enrichment at Beech Creek in North Nashville. Cumberland Heights: The Porch is facilitating monthly writing workshops at Cumberland Heights for patients in drug and alcohol recovery. Oasis Center: The Porch has an ongoing relationship with the College Connect program at the Oasis Center and has facilitated regular college essay workshops. Nashville Scholars (formally Mayor's Scholars Academy): The Porch facilitated college-admissions essay writing workshops at each of the campuses as part of the 2015 and 2016 program. Nashville Adult Literacy Council: The Porch has facilitated a writing workshop to NALC tutors and students. The stories collected contributed to their annual In Our Words publication of student work. Nashville Public Library: The Porch partnered with the Nashville Public Library in the fall of 2014 to offer college essay writing workshops, open to Nashville’s high school seniors as well as to non-traditional college applicants. Additionally, The Porch partners in the Nashville Reads program each year by facilitating a writing contest for both adults and teens. Martha O'Bryan Center: The Porch participated in the Cayce Unbound program by facilitating after-school writing workshops to middle-school girls. Budget 8500 Category Education, General/Other Educational Programs Population Served Immigrant, Newcomers, Refugees, At-Risk Populations, Adolescents Only (13-19 years) th In June 2015 alone, The Porch worked with approximately 130 at-risk 4 , th th 5 , and 6 graders through Time to Rise and approximately 50 rising juniors through the Mayors’ Scholars Academy. One hundred percent of the younger children produced both stories and poems, and the high school students were given an introduction and a “way in” to the college admissions essay process. Short Term Success 7 SLANT (Student Literary Artists of Nashville TN) Description In the fall of 2015, The Porch launched a city-wide teen writing program: SLANT (Student Literary Artists of Nashville, TN). The groundwork for this program was laid in February of 2015 with the Nashville Emerging Writers (N.E.W.) workshop, which was facilitated in partnership with University School of Nashville and Hume Fogg Academic Magnet, and was partially funded by a grant from Humanities Tennessee. The program involves free monthly genre-specific workshops to be held in the new Studio NPL teen space at the downtown Nashville Public Library. A leadership team of young writers is currently engaged in crafting the future of the program. Budget 5000 Category Arts, Culture & Humanities, General/Other Literature Population Served Adolescents Only (13-19 years), , Short Term Success In its first ten months, SLANT has offered and facilitated nine workshops in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, songwriting, podcasting, and screenwriting, taught by professional writers. (SlantNashville.org.) Long term Success The mission of the teen program is to provide year-around instruction, engagement, and community for Nashville’s high school writers and promote literary citizenry among youth so as to help ensure a vibrant literary culture for the future. Program Success Monitored By Students are given surveys at the end of each workshop. Examples of Program Success SLANT hosted its first reading in January 2016 at Parnassus Books. Eight teens had the opportunity to share their literary work in a public forum, gaining first-time reading experience as literary citizens. Poetry on Demand/Versify Description This ongoing project is one of our most innovative programs. The project sends trained poets into Nashville neighborhoods to gather stories from community members, who then turn these stories into original poems which are shared with the story sharers. The project allows a new way for both community members and poets to experience the craft of poetry and the practice of oral history. It makes people aware of the power of poetry as an expressive and documentary tool, as a way to archive experience. And it helps amplify voices that otherwise might not be heard. We have received MAC funding through the THRIVE program to continue Poetry on Demand through June 2017. In addition, the Porch has partnered with WPLN in creating a podcast based on the project, Versify. The Podcast was awarded a grant/training through PRX (Public Radio Exchange) and will be launching in August of 2017. Budget 9000 Population Served ,, CEO Comments Our biggest challenge is a good one to have: many balls in the air, and only two full-time staff. As co-executive directors, we are responsible for coordinating classes, teaching, planning events, social media, marketing, inquiries, and website. We manage membership, outreach, youth programming, and our board. We write grants, manage accounting, and design and implement fundraising. 8 These are the tasks of any organization. But as educators and writers, both co-directors are newcomers to nonprofit management, and we’ve grown rapidly. That said, we’re dedicated and dogged—our standards are high—and we’re proud of what we’ve contributed to Nashville’s literary culture. 9 Governance Board Chair Board Chair Jessica Pearson Company Affiliation Random House Term June 2017 to June 2018 Email [email protected] Board Members Name Affiliation Status Scott Chambers Germantown Partners LLC Voting Tiana Clark Vanderbilt MFA program NonVoting Whitney Haley McKenzie Laird PLLC Voting Karen Hayes Parnassus Books Voting Kendall Hinote JKS Communications LLC Voting Stephanie Kohler Ingram Content Voting John Lavey Hammock Voting Korby Lenker singer/songwriter Voting Rory Levine CMT Voting Andrew Maraniss Author of STONG INSIDE: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South NonVoting Cindy Oliva Pinnacle Financial Partners Voting Jessica Pearson Random House Voting Sandy Solomon Vanderbilt MFA/Associate Director Voting of Creative Writing Program John Strohm Loeb & Loeb Voting Alex Tapper Compound Creative NonVoting Board Demographics - Ethnicity African American/Black 1 Asian American/Pacific Islander 0 Caucasian 13 Hispanic/Latino 0 Native American/American Indian 0 Other 0 Board Demographics - Gender Male 6 Female 9 Unspecified 0 10 Governance Board Term Lengths 2 Board Term Limits 3 Board Meeting Attendance % 80% Written Board Selection Criteria? Yes Written Conflict of Interest Policy? Yes Percentage Making Monetary Contributions 100% Percentage Making In-Kind Contributions 55% Constituency Includes Client Representation Yes Number of Full Board Meetings Annually 6 Board CoChair Board CoChair Whitney Haley Company Affiliation McKenzie Laird Term June 2015 to June 2018 Email [email protected] Standing Committees Board Governance Finance Development / Fund Development / Fund Raising / Grant Writing / Major Gifts Risk Management Provisions Directors and Officers Policy CEO Comments It is our goal to increase our board membership in number and diversity. The governance committee had finetuned our materials and our strategy for seeking new board members, and we are actively seeking members who fit our criteria. 11 Management Executive Director/CEO Executive Director Ms. Katie McDougall Term Start Jan 2014 Email [email protected] Experience Katie McDougall is a native Nashvillian, a novelist, and a teacher. She earned her B.A. from Colorado College and an MFA in Fiction Writing at Colorado State University. Her short stories have appeared in BarcelonaReview.com and in Storyglossia.com, and she is currently in the process of finding a home for her second novel. Katie has over fifteen years experience as a teacher of literature and creative writing, most recently at Ensworth high school. She has also worked as an outdoor educator, a freelance writer, and a bookseller at Parnassus Books. Additionally, she has coordinated writing workshops, ranging from the annual one-day Nashville Young Writers Workshop to the week-long Sense of Place Workshop with Richard Bausch at Cape Eleuthera, Bahamas. Since co-founding The Porch, Katie has taken a lead role in the organization’s fundraising and nonprofit management. She is delighted by the growth of The Porch, through which she hopes to give a little something back to her beloved hometown. Co-CEO Co-CEO Susannah Felts Term Start Jan 2014 Email [email protected] Experience Susannah is a fiction writer, freelance writer, teacher, editor, and native Nashvillian. In 2009, after many years away from her hometown, she returned to put down roots with her family in East Nashville. Since then she has been an adjunct faculty member at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film, and has taught a series of fiction workshops independently, aka the beta-version of The Porch. Previously, Susannah taught creative writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, at Gallery 37's after-school arts program in Chicago, and in several other youth and community workshop settings. Her first novel, This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record, was published in 2008 by Featherproof Books, an independent publisher based in Chicago. Susannah was the recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction for 2013. She has been awarded the Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, as well as residencies at the Ragdale Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Oxford American, The Sun, Quarterly West, Corium, Redux, Hobart, Five Chapters, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Pindeldyboz.com, Wigleaf, Quick Fiction, and others. She earned her BA with Highest Honors in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and holds an MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Susannah is also a contributing writer for Chapter 16, Humanities Tennessee’s site devoted to literary culture. As founder and creative director of The Porch, Susannah has taken a lead role in developing and coordinating workshops and in heading up marketing and social media. Staff 12 Full Time Staff 2 Part Time Staff 2 Volunteers 10 Contractors 25 Retention Rate 100% Plans & Policies Does the organization have a documented Fundraising Plan? Under Development Does the organization have an approved Strategic Plan? Yes Number of years Strategic Plan Considers 3 When was Strategic Plan adopted? May 2015 In case of a change in leadership, is a Management Succession plan in place? Yes Does the organization have a Policies and Procedures Plan? Under Development Does the organization have a Nondiscrimination Policy? Yes Does the organization have a Whistle Blower Policy? Yes Does the organization have a Document Destruction Policy? Yes 13 Financials Fiscal Year Fiscal Year Start July 01 2017 Fiscal Year End June 30 2018 Projected Revenue $185,791.00 Projected Expenses $184,737.00 Endowment Value $0.00 Endowment Spending Percentage (if selected) 0% Detailed Financials Revenue and Expenses Fiscal Year Total Revenue Total Expenses Revenue Sources Fiscal Year Foundation and Corporation Contributions Government Contributions Federal State Local Unspecified Individual Contributions Indirect Public Support Earned Revenue Investment Income, Net of Losses Membership Dues Special Events Revenue In-Kind Other 2016 $105,959 $87,887 2015 $42,374 $36,276 2014 --- 2016 $0 2015 $0 2014 -- $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $36,247 $0 $73,283 $6 $0 ($3,578) $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $42,374 $0 $29,271 $2 $2,064 $743 $0 $0 $0 14 --------- Expense Allocation Fiscal Year Program Expense Administration Expense Fundraising Expense Payments to Affiliates Total Revenue/Total Expenses Program Expense/Total Expenses Fundraising Expense/Contributed Revenue Assets and Liabilities Fiscal Year Total Assets Current Assets Long-Term Liabilities Current Liabilities Total Net Assets Short Term Solvency Fiscal Year Current Ratio: Current Assets/Current Liabilities Long Term Solvency Fiscal Year Long-Term Liabilities/Total Assets 2016 $36,551 $51,336 $0 $0 1.21 42% 0% 2015 $20,651 $15,625 $0 $0 1.17 57% 0% 2014 -------- 2016 $44,407 $44,407 $0 $208 $44,199 2015 $26,128 $26,128 $0 $0 $26,128 2014 ------ 2016 213.50 2015 -- 2014 -- 2016 0% 2015 0% 2014 -- 2015 Contributions, Gifts & Grants $42,374 Program Revenue $29,271 Membership Dues $2,064 2014 -- Top Funding Sources Fiscal Year Top Funding Source & Dollar Amount 2016 Program Revenue $73,283 Second Highest Funding Source & Dollar Contributions, Gifts Amount and Grants $36,247 Third Highest Funding Source & Dollar Investment Income Amount $6 --- Capital Campaign Is the organization currently conducting a Capital Campaign for an endowment or the purchase of a major asset? No Capital Campaign Goal $0.00 State Charitable Solicitations Permit TN Charitable Solicitations Registration Yes - Expires Dec 2017 GivingMatters.com Financial Comments Financial figures taken from Form 990. Form 990 was prepared by Skyward Accounting. Comments provided by Kathryn Bennett 12/30/16. Created 08.01.2017. Copyright © 2017 The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee 15