UNC Campus Y: 2011-2013 YFund Pilot Report

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| The UNC Campus Y

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The YFund Pilot Report 2011-2013 |

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An Introduction to the Campus Y

The Campus Y is the Center for Social Justice and Social Innovation, the oldest and largest student service organization at UNC-Chapel Hill. For more than 150 years, the Y’s passionate students, empowered by skills and resources, have created lasting change in communities at home and around the world. The Campus Y is a student movement with deep roots in advocating grassroots social change, within UNC-Chapel Hill and our wider society. Campus Y students have played a pivotal role throughout UNC’s history in ad-dressing issues of campus free speech, integration, gender equality, diversity, workers’ rights, world hunger, apartheid, and armed conflict. The Campus Y strives to uphold its legacy as “the conscience of the university” through the education and engagement of student youth who address the greatest challenges in our communities. In the present-day Y, more than 2,000 students work in 30 different student-led social justice committees and three pan-University initiatives modeled on public service, educa-tion, advocacy and activism. Students engage in direct service: Campus Y committees develop long-term rela-tionships with nearby communities in need. The Bonner Leaders Program uses work-study funds to create an intensive public service model that matches students with community partners for four years of service and “graduates” students from volunteers to public poli-cy advocates. Students engage in global work: Campus Y committees fundraise throughout the academic year to support summer service projects in countries such as Jordan, Uganda, Honduras, and Ghana. The Y also engages high school students in global service, offering a Global Gap Year Fellowship to high school seniors who defer admission to Carolina to spend a year committed to public service abroad. Students develop entrepreneurial skills: Campus Y committees function as on-campus social ventures, with student leaders accessing skill-building workshops and competing for seed funding to launch innovative ideas. This model inspired the launch of the Y’s cam-pus-wide social innovation incubator, the CUBE, which is now UNC’s hub for social innova-tion, providing space, business support and mentoring for student/faculty ventures. Students engage in education and activism: they build awareness on campus about issues ranging from tuition hikes at UNC to slavery and trafficking around the world. The Campus Y unites all of these approaches to driving social change - local and global, entre-preneurship and activism - in one building. The Y provides the resources, the skill building, and the social capital for students to work to create lasting social change in the world.

Designed byPranav Haravu c/o 2016

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| The UNC Campus Y

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THE YFUND PILOT REPORT

2011-2013executive summary pg 4history pg 6process pg 8project profiles pg 10impact pg 14the future pg 16finances pg 17

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executive summary“...a competitive, student-run micro-fund for social justice

ventures...”

Mission

The YFund provides seed fund-ing for innovative social justice initiatives led by UNC students.

OverviewThe YFund is a competitive micro-fund for social justice ventures that aims to maxi-mize the financial and social impact of the Campus Y’s dollars. Run by students in the Development Committee and staff of the Campus Y, the YFund provides grants and loans to student-led projects that demon-strate commitment to social justice impact, sustainability, and meaningful evaluation. Students awarded a YFund grant not only receive funding to put their idea into ac-tion, but also develop critical grant-writing, budgeting, project design, and evaluation skills through a series of workshops that promote fiscal responsibility, foster student

leadership, and support social entrepre-neurship.Ongoing goals include increasing the number of capacity-building workshops to enhance the quality and variety of YFund proposals and the impact of projects, and creating marketing materials for donors to inspire continued financial support for the YFund.

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| The UNC Campus Y

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Meet the Development Committee

Why Seed Funding?Currently, the YFund provides seed funding for innovative social justice projects. The Campus Y is committed to innovative solutions in social justice advocacy and programming, which by nature are constantly evolving. This type of funding encour-ages Campus Y committees to implement new programs, thereby increasing their overall social impact.

“...the YFund provides seed funding for new projects or innovative

components of existing initiatives...”

Values

Provide seed funding to social justice initiatives on UNC’s cam-pus.

Take a double bottom line approach to YFund projects, atempting to maximize both social impact and financial re-sponsibility.

Enhance student “life skills” and increase the impact of of stu-dents’ work in the community.

Help student applicants develop skills around grant writing, bud-geting, strategic planning, mar-keting, pitching, and presenting.

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Madhu VulimiriCo-director of Development

Hunter GrayConsulting on Funding

Kate MatthewsConsulting

Rangoli BhattacharjeeDevDocs

Christa VardaroYFund Evaluations

Shauna RustYFund Selection

Sarah MolinaFundraising

Cora WentCo-director of Development

Pranav HaravuYFund Marketing

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historyUntil just a few years ago, the Campus Y funded projects on an ad hoc basis, and focused primarily on how such projects enhanced student development. In 2011, the Campus Y received $52,000 from the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund and $10,000 from Strowd Roses Inc. to strengthen student- and community-led projects, and build an overall evaluation process for the Y. Thus, the Y broadened its focus to include eval-uation of whether its work aligned with clearly identified community needs, how effective its efforts were at meeting those needs, and how these community-based projects might sustain financial viability for the long-term.

In 2010, the Campus Y student Directors of Development de-signed and imple-mented the YFund, a student-run, mi-cro-fund program that disburses funds to so-cial justice ventures via a competitive and rig-orous process, which focuses on deliberate and enforceable stan-dards of evaluation and accountability. In FY 2011-12 academic

Fall 2011: Disbursed $2,068 to six projects

Spring 2011: The inception of the YFund

“This past year, DevCo saw huge growth in the committee and the YFund itself.”

-Madhu Vulimiri, Co-Director of Development

Spring 2012:Created separate YFund tracks for projects, theme weeks, and Bonner

Disbursed $2,700 to eight projects

Instituted Memorandum of Understanding letters as part of YFund process

Fall 2012:Disbursed $2824.95 to ten projects

December 2012:Received $4,000 gift from

Fund for Southern Communities ear-marked for Bonner Leaders

March 2013: Awarded Carolina Parent’s Council Grant

of $10,000Awarded Water Theme Grant of $2,000

Spring 2013:Disbursed $4,035 to eleven projects

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history

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year, the YFund operated as a small-scale pilot project that supported 13 initiatives from 11 different committees within the Campus Y. Additionally, the Directors formed a Development Committee (affec-tionately known as DevCo), consisting of a few students and Y staff who sat on the Se-lection Board and helped shape the YFund processes. In Spring 2012, the Directors of Development continued to enhance the YFund by requiring recipients of grants to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MOU), which tied disbursement of funds to evalu-ation and reporting requirements.

In 2012, the Development Committee saw huge growth in the committee and the YFund itself. The members of DevCo tackled specific issues, such as making the Campus Y more accessible to first-years, creating sustainable sources of funding for committees, grant-writing for the YFund, providing consulting for committees, and creating a workshop curriculum for the Y. In Spring 2013, DevCo grew to nine mem-bers, with a diverse range of ages, majors, and experience levels within the Campus Y.

DevCo also secured substantial funding sources for the upcoming 2013-14 YFund grant cycle. DevCo received a $10,000 grant from the Carolina Parents Council to expand the YFund to any UNC student

organization pursuing a compelling social justice project, as well as $2,000 grant from UNC’s Water Theme for water-related projects. DevCo also received $4,000 from a private foundation to support projects undertaken by Bonner Leaders.

DevCo has set the stage for a strong fu-ture performance by the YFund, with an experienced team of student leaders, and a budget nearly six times its original size (approximately $20,000 in FY 2013-14), and formalized processes in place to attract social justice projects from other parts of campus into the Campus Y. DevCo is ded-icated to helping students cultivate social justice initiatives with high impact for the community.

“DevCo is dedicated to help-ing students cultivate social justice initiatives with high impact for the community.”

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1. Application

Applicants to the YFund submit a formal proposal and forecast a budget. The appli-cation asks students for a 25-word impact statement, including a verb, a target pop-ulation and an outcome; a description of

their project and its main goals; and quan-titative and qualitative metrics to evaluate success. The YFund budget asks students to break down their request into line items so that DevCo knows exactly where YFund

dollars are going.

2. Application Review

DevCo reviews all applications and selects which proposals will advance to the pitch

round. After reading the applications, Dev-Co notifies applicants of questions and/or concerns that applicants should address

during their pitch.

3. Pitches

For each project that advances, project leaders give a ten-minute formal pitch to members of the DevCo, and participate

in a Q&A session. Questions may include: Which partnerships have the applicants

pursued? Have they confirmed the costs of the line items outlined in their budget? Are

they certain that they are meeting a real and expressed need? In this stage, the De-velopment Committee interacts personally with the applicants and challenges them to expand, rethink, or tweak their project to

maximize its impact.the yfund process

S e l e c t i o n C r i t e r i a

Clarity Is this project easily under-

standable?

Fiscal responsibility Does this project maximize the value of the Campus Y’s

dollars?

FeasibilityCan this project be imple-

mented successfully?

InnovationIs this a new project/idea or

does it take a new spin on an existing project?

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the yfund process

6. Evaluation

After project leaders submit the evaluation materials specified in the MOU, DevCo releases the second half of the funding. Blog posts or photographs from projects are shared on the Campus Y Blog. DevCo follows up with project leaders to debrief about the project or event, and discuss

lessons learned and best practices for the future.

5. Memorandum of

Understanding (MOU)DevCo members meet with the project leaders to sign an MOU, specifying the

evaluation and reporting materials that the project leaders will submit to the Develop-ment Committee once the project ends.

4. Selection

DevCo convenes to evaluate the projects based on the selection criteria and decides

to provide zero, partial, or full funding.

S e l e c t i o n C r i t e r i a

Social justiceDoes this project fit the

Campus Y’s mission? Does it address an unmet need at UNC-Chapel Hill or in the

wider community?

Sustainability Does this project have the capacity to support itself

once seed funding runs out?

EvaluationDoes this proposal include tools to measure impact?

CollaborationDoes this project leverage

partnerships from within and outside the Y?

7. Capacity-Building WorkshopsDevCo organizes capacity-building work-shops to address needs that emerge from any challenges faced by YFund recipients. Workshop topics have included Finance

and Accounting, Graphic Design, Building Organizational Culture, Membership Re-

tention, and Project Evaluation. Recipients of awards from YFund are encouraged to

participate in a broad array of CUBE work-shops as well (http://campus-y.unc.edu/

incubator/workshops-speakers).

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project profile human rights

WeeK

Advocates for Human Rights (AHR)theme WeeK/advocacy$668.00

To involve a plurality of perspectives in an effort to spread awareness on human rights and social jus-tice issues through a diverse range of events and partnerships.

Partnerships

Project Stages:Monday 2/11: AHR co-hosted a debate on the topic “Are human rights universal?” with the Di-Phi Society, UNC’s debating and liter-ary societies.

Tuesday 2/12: AHR screened the documen-tary, “The New Asylums,” about the mentally ill in America’s prisons.

Wednesday 2/13: Keynote speaker, Nadine Strossen, Former President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) spoke to stu-dents and community members alike about “Defending Human Rights for All: From Right to Left and From Right to Wrong.”

Thursday 2/14: AHR campaigned in the Pit to inform students about fair trade chocolate, a fitting connection to Valentine’s Day. AHR also held a coffee break discussion with Professor Rudi Colleredo-Mansfield on community economics and cultural change in the context of globalization.

Friday 2/15: In conjunction with the Roosevelt Institute | Social Justice Cen-ter, AHR co-hosted a Buckley Public Service Scholars skills training on writ-ing effective lobbying letters, with an emphasis on comprehensive immigra-tion reform.

Saturday 2/16: AHR held a Human Rights Dinner focusing on the topic, “Women’s Rights as Human Rights: Current issues in Our Community.”

half the sKy

Carolina Against Slavery and Trafficking (CAST)

advocacy$75.00

To screen “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” by Nicho-

las Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to raise awareness about the oppression of women.

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human rights WeeK

Advocates for Human Rights (AHR)theme WeeK/advocacy$668.00

To involve a plurality of perspectives in an effort to spread awareness on human rights and social jus-tice issues through a diverse range of events and partnerships.

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project profile

half the sKy

Carolina Against Slavery and Trafficking (CAST)

advocacy$75.00

To screen “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” by Nicho-

las Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to raise awareness about the oppression of women.

Project Stages:1. Publicized the screening using flyers and social media.

2. Held the screening for “Half the Sky” at the Varsity Theatre on two separate days, and distributed action packets to the attend-ees outlining how they could get more in-volved with issues related to the oppression of women.

3. Held a follow up event in February to reiterate and build upon the conversation of the oppression of women that was spurred by the screening of “Half the Sky.”

Distributing action packets at the Varsity Theater.

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project profile

Bringing BacK fridays

Helping Youth by Providing Enrichment (HYPE)education/community engagement$400.00

To bring back the Friday after school program at Dobbins and South Estes neighborhoods, in order to continue to provide a safe and enriching envi-ronment for the low-income elementary students.

Project Stages:1. Held Friday sessions from October 26, 2012 to April 19, 2013, for a total of 16 ses-sions.

2. Developed curriculum for sessions, cov-ering a variety of topics. For example, stu-dents learned about elections and the White House by talking about the Obama family; another day, students had a cooking session, and mentors taught the students how to make fruit-flavored ice cream.

3. Evaluated student retention during Friday sessions and showed marked improvement in the after school program. Student leaders are now focusing on writing grants to sustain the program and involving teachers more in the program.

“HYPE has made such great strides as a team in collaboration with our community (and with the invaluable guidance from DevCo!). We real-ly feel empowered and are excited to improve on our current projects, as well as explore new initia-tives. Next semester and beyond, for HYPE, the possibilities are endless!”

-Nariman Heikal and Brandon Malley, co-chairs of HYPE ‘12-’13.

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project profile

human rightscenter (hrc)

educational garden

community development/Bonner leaders

$500.00To create a community garden to benefit the Ab-bey Court community in Carrboro, providing pro-duce to food-insecure families and teaching chil-

dren about healthy nutrition.

“Overall, I have had a great ex-perience with the YFund. It’s allowed us to expand our lead-ership and involvement in the community and it’s been a great tool for our personal develop-ment as well as allowing us to work with the community.” –Patrick Mateer, Bonner Leader, Class of 2015

Project Stages:1. Construction: UNC Bonner Leaders built the garden in the Spring 2012.

2. Planting and maintenance of the garden: Bonner Leaders, Y Committees, Girl Scouts, Abbey Court residents, HRC mem-bers, and service-learning students partici-pated in the upkeep of the garden. Through these extensive partnerships, the HRC har-vested a large amount of produce through-out Summer and Fall 2012.

3. Ongoing work at the HRC Educational Garden: The project leaders planned a short, month-long program in May 2012, which met two to three times a week after normal tutor-ing ended. This after-school program pre-pared students for end of grade exams and encouraged the kids to grow their own plots in the garden. The Bonner Leaders launched this program at their Closing Community Din-ner in April 2012 for the Fun Friday Program, which was also funded by the YFund.

Bringing BacK fridays

Helping Youth by Providing Enrichment (HYPE)education/community engagement$400.00

To bring back the Friday after school program at Dobbins and South Estes neighborhoods, in order to continue to provide a safe and enriching envi-ronment for the low-income elementary students.

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impact

The Big PictureFrom September through April of the 2012-13 academic year, the YFund has financially supported 21 student-run social justice projects, spanning from direct ser-vice to advocacy to social entrepreneur-ship, and beyond. From tutoring efforts, to movie screenings, to microfinance ini-tiatives, projects have met a wide-range of social service-based needs. Not only has the UNC student body been impacted by the projects, but the Chapel Hill communi-ty and larger national and global communi-ties are also affected, given the scope and variety of initiatives.

Qualitative Analysis of YFund Grants

In 2012, the YFund granted $6,967 to social justice initiatives, covering more than the committees’ minimum requested $6,238. Most of the initiatives targeted education/youth development and pover-ty/income disparity. A majority of the funds went to one-time events. More than half of the funded projects engaged the campus community, while another 44% of the proj-ects targeted local and community issues. The YFund grants, undoubtedly, were a significant factor in the initiation of such projects.

Although projects were evaluated on an in-dividual basis to tailor metrics to the scope and lifetime of each project, we can better understand project success by analyzing qualitative data. Feedback surveys re-vealed the general theme that participants learned something new after partaking in an initiative; this of course is a main under-lying goal of any advocacy or social justice initiative—especially on a campus where the participants will become the future’s change-makers. In addition, the qualitative feedback displayed some broader exam-

14 |One-Time Event

|Long Term Project

|Theme Week

|Conference

|Bonner

Types of Projects

5%

5%

52%

10%

29%

By the Numbers

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ples of how the YFund and the funded projects have impacted the student popu-lation and larger communities, summarized to the right.

ConclusionThe YFund has financially supported and inspired a wide range of social justice ini-tiatives and innovative ventures. Although projects are quantitatively evaluated on an individual basis, the qualitative feedback demonstrates additional impacts of the YFund—some that are often overlooked.

Summary

» Helped Campus Y members build leader-ship and project management skills through responsibility and accountability for planning, budgeting, fundraising, evaluating, and imple-menting projects throughout the entire pro-cess

» Empowered Y members to think creative-ly about project’s financial sustainability and success

» Promoted community and global collabo-ration and engagement

» Provided an opportunity and safe space for shared learning and dialogue

» Identified and addressed the specific and communicated needs of the target population

» Allotted $7,000 to 26 social justice proj-ects, with 89% of projects impacting local communities and 11% impacting global communities

» Developed and sustained interest in so-cial justice issues amongst Campus Y mem-bers

15|Immigration

|Health and Wellness

|Gender Issues

|Human Rights

|Education/Youth Development

|Poverty/Income Desparity

|Disability Equality

|Organization Support

Target Areasof Projects

10%5%

24%

14%

5%

10%10%

24%

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the future

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The successful pilot of the YFund in FY2011-12 and FY2012-13, coupled with an award from the Carolina Parents Council Grant Program, spurred a re-evaluation of the role of the YFund within the Campus Y and the larger UNC-Chapel Hill community. Over the past year, YFund recipients have implemented and evaluated successful projects that have created lasting impact on UNC-Chapel Hill, larger regional, na-tional, and even international communities, and the students themselves.

Increased AccessWhile the Campus Y serves as a central hub for social justice, Carolina students outside of the Campus Y devote their time to serving the community and mobilizing their fellow leaders to take a stand for social change. With a generous grant of $10,000 from the Carolina Parents Council, in 2013-14 the YFund will be open to all students pursuing social justice initiatives at UNC-Chapel Hill, rather than limiting the YFund to Campus Y committees. The YFund is the only social justice fund at UNC-Chapel Hill, serving a need to fund start-up social justice initiatives on cam-pus. Opening the YFund to the entire UNC-Chapel Hill campus will create lasting and meaningful partnerships between the Campus Y, other student organizations on campus, and other UNC centers with social

justice roots.

Sustainable FundingDespite the success of the YFund, its only consistent revenue source is rough-ly $6,000 available on an annual basis through the Anne Queen Endowment. This limited annual budget has constrained the number of projects YFund can commit to in a year, and it has also limited the ambi-tiousness and scale of student projects. To ensure sustainable revenue for the YFund’s expansion to a campus-wide level, we look beyond year-to-year grants. Growing the Anne Queen Endowment and allocating a larger percentage of annual dollars would both increase the YFund operating budget and minimize the human capital needed to seek out grants and donors year after year. It would also increase the number, scale, and creativity of projects applying to the YFund.

By the end of 2013-14, YFund hopes that the entire UNC-Chapel Hill community will recognize the YFund as a seed-funding mechanism that promotes fiscal respon-sibility and innovative means to address social justice issues that affect UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the world.

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finances

2011-2012 Total

Expenditures$4,768 (includes

loans)

Future: 2013-2014 Operating Revenue$27,850

2011-2012 Operating Revenue$4,000

2012-2013 Operating Revenue$10,000

100%

22%

36%7%

14%

21%

|Anne Queen Endowment |Anne Queen Endowment

|Fund for Southern Communities for Bonner Leaders

|Carolina Parent’s Council Grant

|Water Theme Grant

|Holi Moli

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100%

|Anne Queen Endowment

|Fund for Southern Communities for Bonner Leaders

60%

|Projects

40%

Documents

UNC Campus Y: 2011-2013 YFund Pilot Report