[00:00:00] Speaker A: SA.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Hello, my name is Noor Al Masri. Welcome to Echoes of Impact with Noora. We believe that everyone is capable of making an impact and changing the world, changing the world around them. So we challenge limitations and uncover stories that inspire a greater impact for you.
The world.
As usual, we're gonna start with a very special segment sponsored by Noora's books.
Save Taxes with Nura. No, don't be afraid. Don't shut down. Like just come here, listen to me because I'm gonna share just a small tip with you as usual. But today what I'm gonna share with you is something about nonprofits. Yes, nonprofit do file taxes. Nonprofit has a lot of compliance requirements. So stay here. Whether you are looking to start a nonprofit or maybe you already have a nonprofit. I'm going to share a few things that will be very, very important for you. The reason why I wanted to talk about nonprofit today because we have a deadline coming up soon. Not too soon, but quite soon, like on May 15. And also my guest today, she is running a non profit and I wanted to talk about nonprofits since the entire episode today we're talking about youth nonprofits. So stay here if you like any of these topics. If you are parents, if you just like youth, you can stay with me until the end or just stay with me because they let you like the show, right? Or maybe you like to hear me talking to you. So stay here with me today.
So first thing, I want to cover what is due on May 15 for nonprofits, your taxes.
So nonprofits are required to file taxes every single year regardless of you have activities, you don't have activities, you have funding. No funding expenses. No expenses, nothing. You just registered the organization and did nothing. You still have to file informational return every single year. Yes.
Now you have an option when if you don't have, if you don't have activities or even if you have activities, but you have an option. Let's say you make less than $50,000 a year. Now you can file 990N which is the smaller tax return.
Not so many. So much information I do not recommend. But you still can do it if you're eligible to it. If you meet less than 50,000.
But you have to file as long as you file the other option is the 990 easy. Also, there's a different threshold for that. I'm not going to share with you so I don't overwhelm you. You can talk to your accountant or maybe connect with me. You can connect with me or my
[email protected] contacts and we can talk to you about this more. I also talk about this and more details in my YouTube channel. But here, I don't want to overwhelm you. I know you're watching tv. You want to get some information. You want to just lay down and watch tv. You don't want so much heavy information. So I'm not gonna overwhelm you with that.
So that's the other, other option, the 990 easy. The last option, which I'd always recommend regardless is the 990. Now if you are of, if you made like certain amount of money, you have to file the 990 that complete the form, full form. But if you did not reach that threshold, you might have an option.
So you need to talk to IRA accountants. But the main thing I want you to get out of this today is you must file the 990, which is the tax returns for nonprofit. Every single year?
Yes, every single year. Why? There's a consequence. What's the consequences? You're gonna lose your exempt status. What is your exempt status? Technically, everyone knows like if you've registered a nonprofit, you probably know that you register it at the state and then you get, after you get your tax ID number, you have to apply to be tax exempt. What does that mean? If I'm a donor and I want to donate to you, I get the benefits to be tax exempt. So I get, I get a deduction.
I can pay less taxes because I donated to you. Because you have an eligible nonprofit that has a tax exempt status.
So if you do not file your taxes, you're going to lose that.
IRS automatically revoke that exempt status from your organization if you did not file for three consecutive years.
So if you did not file for three consecutive years, you will lose your exempt status.
So you don't want to get there. You have to start over with the application, with the fees and all over again and file your BAS due 990s. You don't want to get there. It's costly and a headache and you would lose major donation because not everyone is willing to donate to you if you do not have exempt status. A lot of donors, they want the benefit. Yeah, they want to support you, but also they want to get the benefit they are entitled to. Otherwise they might find another organization who might do the same similar things that you do, but they have their exempt status.
So you want to make sure you do your taxes. And it doesn't end there. Wait, doesn't end there. After that, they will send You a penalty you have to pay money.
I've seen nonprofit coming with benefits penalty for forty thousand dollars, a hundred thousand dollars, I swear to God, I'm not kidding. I've seen it. I see it every day. It happens because there's no non filing penalties. So you want to make sure you file your nonprofit taxes every single year. And yes, it's due on May 15th. However, it's not early. You should start now. So if you did not start yet, start now. Connect with your tax professional and if you do not have someone to help you because I know a lot of tax professionals don't like working with nonprofit and don't like to do the 990, you can definitely connect with my
[email protected] contacts and we can definitely help you. We are the experts in that area. I also have prepared course for tax professionals to help them help you. So if you know a tax professional who are looking to know to learn and to help you, maybe you can direct them to Noura's books and they can find that course online. They can just get it, it's pre recorded. They can study it at their base and they want to make sure to get the information in order to protect you. So make sure when you work with a tax professional that someone who knows how to file the 990 because it's not similar to the personal return or business return. It's much more complicated. Let me tell you. IRS. If you go to the IRS.gov you will see an entire section for exempt organization. You're gonna see it on the top right corner. Go there and check it out. A lot of information overwhelming.
It's more than what they have for personal or business return. So keep in mind when you have a nonprofit you have to have this expenses you have to pay for professionals you have to pay in order to keep to stay in compliance. Because otherwise you'll be faced with penalties, you'll be faced with revulsion, you'll be faced with a lot of problems that you did not start your nonprofit to have those problems. You started your nonprofit simply to what to create an impact. And that's what I want you to keep focusing on. This is why you should always have someone on your side to help you with compliance and accounting and and marketing and all of these administrative stuff so you can focus on your main mission.
I don't want to keep you here forever talking about taxes and nonprofits. But make sure you do not let your taxes bust you. Because once you pass that line, pass the deadline, whether it's your personal taxes, your business taxes, your, your nonprofit taxes, you're going to start getting interest and penalties and other consequences. You don't want to get there if you know you cannot file on time for any of these taxes. You want to make sure you file an extension and you have to file the extension by the deadline, maybe a little bit before because once we pass that date, you cannot file the extension. But the good news is when you file an extension, it gives you six more months. So let's say your business return escort, maybe your partnership, it's usually due on March 15th. So if you do an extension that gives you until September 15th for your personal returns, if it's actually due on April 15th, if you did not, if you want to do an extension, if you're not ready, you do want to do an extension, it's going to give you time until October 15th and for your non profit, it's going to give you until November 15th. But one thing I want you, I want to leave you with any extension is an extension to file, not an extension, not an extension to pay. So if you think you might owe taxes, go ahead and pay those taxes because even if you did an extension, you're going to be faced by penalty and interest and you don't want to get there. Enough with the taxes for today. This segment was sponsored with Noora's books tax and accounting firm, Safe Taxes with Nura. This is your segment. Now let's get to the show. Let me talk to my guests after the break. I will be talking to guest who is the executive director of a non profit and she's going to talk about the mission of their her non profits, how she works with the youth and more. She's going to talk about how she actually get the finances or the donations. How do they get help in those center they have because yes, she has more than one youth center. I know a lot of you over there, love to have you center. I spoke to a lot of people who are already a nonprofit or maybe they are looking to do that. And you also care about the youth. So stay with me and let's talk to my guests. This is your host Noor Al Masri and this is Echoes of Impact with Noora. See you after the break.
Welcome back. This is your host Noora Masri. And this is Echoes of Impact with Noora.
I can't wait to introduce my guest for today who's doing an incredible job with the youth, our youth.
So welcome Amanda. Amanda, welcome to Echoes of Impacts with Noora. How are you today.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Oh, I'm wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. I'm just thrilled to be a guest on your show.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Usually I like to have my guests introduce themselves. I feel like no one introduce can introduce you better than you do. So can you give us a little background about yourself?
[00:13:54] Speaker A: For sure, yeah. Well, my name is Amanda McMillan. I am a licensed clinical social worker. I'm currently the executive director at this amazing nonprofit called the Alive center in Naperville, Illinois. We actually have three sites, one in Naperville, Aurora, Illinois and Hanover Park.
I have four children of my own. They're all teenagers. And I'm currently on the District 203 Naperville School Board. I've been working in social work for over 20 years, specializing with children, youth and families. I've worked in all kinds of social impact issues from homelessness to early childhood education, teen violence prevention, juvenile justice, etc. So I am really passionate about giving back to the community and I love doing it through the Live Center.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Awesome. So how long have you been in non profit world?
[00:14:55] Speaker A: I've been in nonprofit work now for over 20 years. I know it doesn't look like it. I mean, I'm, you know, but yeah.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: So what's. What was your involvement? What draw, What. What dragged you to this work? Because, like, I feel like this is an addiction once we get there, like, we stay there. But. Yeah, but how did you start with the nonprofit work? Like, what. What was your passion? What. What was your turning point?
[00:15:22] Speaker A: I was, I would say, you know, I was exposed to social work at a very young age actually, because my father is a social worker. I actually grew up in rural Ohio where there weren't that many jobs available besides like farmer or factory or, you know, the trades. But my dad was in social work and he worked with adults with developmental, different developmental abilities and supervised homes where they could live more independently. And I remember every weekend going and hanging out with him and hanging out with the residents and playing games with them and stuff and going on different trips and what? I just really.
I just really looked up to my dad because he just was different, you know, he was a really kind person.
He dedicated his life to helping people that were typically overlooked and giving them the power to really live up to their best potential as independent individuals, especially if, you know, their families maybe have passed on or couldn't be able to take care of themselves. So when I went to school, I actually was thinking about becoming a teacher. I studied to become a math Education teacher. And I unfortunately got all the way through my senior year and did the student teaching. I was like, this doesn't feel quite right. I know I want to help people, but this just isn't like my niche. And I did a lot of soul reflection and realized that I wanted to be more like my dad. I wanted to help address more larger social issues through individual, community and family work. And so I chose to get my master's then in social work and I've been in the field ever since.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: So they always worked with the youth since you started?
[00:17:21] Speaker A: I have, yeah, I have a passion for kids.
They just light, light. I light up when I'm around them. I think they're so much fun.
They're so honest and transparent and vulnerable.
And you know, I also feel like when you're working with kids, you're shaping the future.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: And so that's something that I just really love about that age group.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Awesome. So what age group are we talking about?
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Currently I'm working with awesome teenagers starting in middle school, around age 11 to 18, which is about seniors in high school. So at the Alive center, we provide free drop in services for them after school. Right now. I see a bunch of them coming into our center right now to enjoy having a safe space for them to just be themselves and create. And it's just a really fun space because what we really focus on is allowing teenagers to just be themselves and we welcome and accept them for who they are, however they are, however they present, and then giving them opportunities to try to push them to become leaders in their community.
So.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: It'S after school care.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Okay. But you provide like an. A safe space for them. I know you have so many activities that they can do there. So what type of activities do you provide them with?
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah, so we have a pretty broad space and we have a lounge area where they can just hang out in some comfy couches. They can play video games or they can play different types of board games, put together puzzles. We have an art room where, which is a draw for a lot of students. And through donations, we have all kinds of medium that they can use from clay to paint to canvas, drawing to fabric, just whatever their little creative minds can come up with. We have resources for them to create. We have a huge kitchen which is the number one spot for them to go first because they're very hungry after school. We partner with organizations like Panera and Chick Fil A that provide regular donations to us. And the, the food bank of DuPage county also supports and provides Free snacks for several of our centers as well for the kids. They have healthy food as well to eat after school.
And then we have a huge recreational studio area where they can run and get all that energy out. We play a lot of games there. Soccer, football, volleyball, badminton, ping pong, you know, all those things so that they can just run around, get that energy out.
And then we have a tutoring space for every Wednesday and Thursday we provide free tutoring for students that's facilitated by other teenagers.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: So they help each other with the school.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So the high school students, we partner with Mary Tutors and that's a group of high school students who volunteer to provide tutoring every week for anyone in the community. So we target kindergarten through high school for that. And then these high school students are able to tutor anyone in any age on any subject to help them.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: And they do that for free for other kids?
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Yep, yep. Everything we provide is free.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Okay. And those kids provide the tutoring. They are also the kids that come to you or they come just for.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Tutoring, that we have a little bit of both. Some kids just come for the tutoring, especially if they're younger, because we in our drop in center, we. You have to be at least in fifth grade.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's, that's interesting. And when we spoke the other day, you said like, okay, this is the time like where people, where they, that's age group, like they stay home because you're allowed to leave your kids at that age at home, but they might get in trouble because they are home for a long time alone in a very dangerous age. So that center provide a safe heaven. So a life center, does that fill that gap? So can you give us like some example? Like did you have, I don't know if you had like any family like came to you after they experienced something that they didn't like, okay, let's find a safe place for our kids to come.
Yeah.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: You know. Yeah. Actually several stories, you know, I've. A lot of it actually is focused on students whose parents are. Were concerned that their kid was spending all their time alone in their room. You know, they were. Every day they come home, they'd ask how was school today? Like fine. And then they just go upstairs and they just sit in their room, they play on their phone or their computer and just, you know, weren't really socialized. And, and the parents were concerned about them because they were so isolated. And as teenagers, that's very, that's not developmentally appropriate.
[00:22:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: That's the age where they're really supposed to be engaging with peers their own age and really trying to kind of create their own level of independence and ident.
And so a lot of those families then were like, let's go to. I'm going to make. Take you to the Alive Center. You need to go and socialize. And, you know, you have to at least do this right?
And, you know, some of the youth, you know, some of our youth that were in the LGBTQ population, unfortunately, like, some of them were really in a dark place and felt like they weren't fitting in at school and were having thoughts about harming themselves. And so when their parents brought them here, they were able to find a community. And the moment they walked in, they were greeted with huge smiles. And, you know, people learn their names right away. They asked them what they like to do, and they sat and hung out with them.
And then we have these different specialized groups that are run by other teens. So they have positive teen role models, like our Alive with Pride group that they can go to twice a month and hang out with other middle school and high school youth that are in a similar community and just have fun and hang out and have. And build their own network of friends so they realize they're not alone.
So that power of belonging is really, really important. And our center doesn't just focus on LGBTQ youth. We accept everyone. We don't care how much money your family makes. We don't care what kind of how smart you are or what kind of interests you are you have. Like, we welcome everyone. We don't care what kind of ability you have. We have another.
I'm sorry I'm saying so much.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: We're going to continue to talk after the break, but for now, we're going to take a short break. This is your host, Nural Mosri. And this is Echoes of Impact with Noora. We'll be right back.
Welcome back. This is your host, Noora Masri, and this is Echoes of Impact with Noora. You've heard from my guest Amanda about the Alive Center. A safe space for your kids or the community. Kids between, like, age, I guess, teenager, like, between 13 and 18. And Amanda will correct me if I did not say that. Right. So we're gonna continue the conversation so you can learn more. Amanda will come back. So did I say group? Right?
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it is teenagers, but we go as young as fifth grade, which can start as early as 11 years old.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: 11 years old. Awesome, awesome. Thank you for the correction. So, yeah, so, yeah, go ahead. Sorry I cut you off. Before the break, you can go on with what you are saying about, like, a life center.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I get so excited and so I can just keep rambling on.
I was just sharing that, you know, some of the other special students that we have are students with different abilities that come in that maybe have been. About 50% of the students that attend our centers actually have some sort of diagnosed different ability. So that may be adhd. It may be anxiety, depression, or maybe down syndrome or some other type of different ability.
And we really welcome a lot of these students and engage them just like everyone else, and they really feel a sense of belonging. That's a really big focus and core value of what we do here. Our focus of what we do is not only to provide a safe space for those teenagers after school in a safe, supervised space where they can have fun and just be themselves, but a lot of that is grounded in preventative mental health as well. You know, we're in a. Go ahead.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: Yeah. So, like, for all kids. Do you do that for all kids or like, just for the age, for the certain area, like if they have certain diagnostic or not?
[00:27:23] Speaker A: No. Yeah. So the. Our model about being open and welcoming to all youth is focused on preventative mental health. It doesn't matter what kind of ability or not that you have. But youth that do have some sort of diagnosis or maybe are some sort of special population tend to be at higher risk for some sort of mental health issue.
And at the ALIVE center, we actually specialize in providing or focusing on what's called preventative mental health. Right. We talk a lot about, you know, if someone is struggling with mental health issues and we're in a youth mental health crisis to get a therapist or to join a group or have some sort of intervention. But what we're not talking a lot about in this situation is how do we promote positive mental health and make it so that youth can reduce those signs and symptoms, to get to an area where they need that kind of treatment or only have that kind of treatment. Right. So that's the preventative part. Right.
We utilize our model of focusing on providing autonomy for youth to be able to make their own decisions, to focus on positive adult relationships, to focus on a sense of belonging and connectedness to. When students are here, they're not on their phones because they're having too much fun, hanging out and playing with others or creating. Right.
So those components are just a piece of the foundation for youth mental health, first aid, and like, 15 preventative factors. And we follow 12 of them at our center to help create that foundation to reduce instances of anxiety and depression. Because these youth find a space where they belong.
[00:29:29] Speaker B: Okay, so you mentioned, you mentioned like gaming, like, and I can hear a lot of parents who say, okay, what's the difference between spending their time doing their game, like video games or just sitting on their phone like they're the same. So.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Right, yeah, no, those are similar types of kind of media. The difference between video games at our center? Well, two things are, first of all, they're time limited, right. So they have a limit of like 30 minutes that they get to sign up or 45 minutes and, and then after that they have to find something else to do. The other component is they're also playing with someone else at the same time.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: So while they are playing technically. So what other activities. I know you said the creation center, do you have like someone who plays with them or they just like have like whatever they want to do? They do.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: We do both.
We have structured activities. For example, they might have a planned activity like making friendship bracelets or painting and designing rocks or making lava lamps or slime is the biggest favorite.
So every day we plan some sort of special activity for the youth to engage in.
But they also have all the freedom to choose whether they want to participate or not and then just use what all the resources to create whatever's on their mind.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: Uhoh, okay, that's nice. So what would you say in the center, like what's the most age group that you have? Like is it like in the older teenage or is it in the younger? So what's the, what do you have?
[00:31:18] Speaker A: Yeah, our highest age range range is really that 12 to 15 year olds. So more that middle school range or fifth grade to ninth grade is really where we have the majority of our youth come in. And that's a really great age for them because it's. Once youth get into high school, they often find their own type of group or activity or sport or club that they participate in.
And, but, and that's, that's what we allow them to do here. You know, teens and youth are told what to do all the time at home, at school. And this is one place where we don't tell them what to do. We just encourage them to just be themselves.
[00:32:10] Speaker B: Okay, that's awesome. So like, I'm wondering now, like how long do they stay in the center after school?
[00:32:19] Speaker A: We are open from 3pm to 7pm every evening, Monday through Friday. In the summer we're open from 1pm to 5pm Nice.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: But like who bring them there? Like do the school bus get them there? How do they get there? Because I imagine their parents at work at that time.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: Yeah, great question. Well, our Naperville center, we're literally right behind Naperville North High School. We're also less than a mile away from Washington Junior High. And then we do have one bus that drives students from one of our middle school pools to our center in Hanover Park. We're right in the middle of a community center. And so youth that are. That's less than half a mile from both the middle school and elementary. And so youth often just walk there. And then for the Aurora site, either parents drop them off, they might take an after school bus, or they'll walk to the center.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Nice. So we're talking about not only one location, you have already three locations.
So are you in charge of managing three locations or each location has their own person?
[00:33:33] Speaker A: I am responsible for managing all three locations. So each location has their own drop in manager, which is a full time employee that oversees and runs that specific site. And then we have an amazing relationship with Aurora University and North Central College that provide interns for us to help supervise and guide the students during programming. I'm sorry, I need some water here.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: Awesome. So if we want, if a business owner needs, needs some interns to help them, like do you help them with that or just like to provide for you for your.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: The interns are work for us. Right. So we. They're mostly social work interns. So they have that foundation of that social, emotional and mental health background that helps with our preventative mental health model. And they are the ones that provide supervision, lead activities with youth, hang out with them, offer mentorship activities as well.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: And you provide, provide like leadership opportunities. So like they do get a chance to experience being leader for other.
So like can you, can you give us like some example on maybe a story that you have. I know you shared a story the other day offline. So can you share some stories of that for the audience?
[00:35:02] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. At the core of what the Alive center does is we offer, we have teen leadership. So for high schoolers, they can apply to become part of our teen advisory board.
And these teen advisory board members, when they're selected, they go through a leadership program to help build those foundational skills to become leaders in the community. And then each of them are expected to facilitate and run at least one or two programs, programs, camps or activities with either younger youth or in the community. And right now in a really exciting program that we have and this is all based off of what they're interested in, what they're excited about. It's all their ideas. And we just give them the resources and training to make sure they're successful in what they're doing. And so the innovative program that we have right now is that a group of high school students wanted to purchase 3D VR sets and partnered with a senior facility and goes there on Sundays with the VR sets and teaches the, the more mature population that they are there with how to use them so that they can go explore Greece or go skydiving or walk through the Amazon just from the comfort of their own couches. And it's really amazing. Just really opens up the eyes to these seniors and like, helps them feel more connected and exciting. But then it also really builds these relationships, intergenerational relationships between the seniors and the high school youth. And they both get so much out of it. It's really fun.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. We're going to talk more about the Life Center. And guys, a Life center is a nonprofit. So we're going to get in the last in the next segment to talk about how do they get funded and more. So stay with us, especially if you are thinking of starting a nonprofit or maybe you already have a nonprofit just not able to get funded. So stay here. Let's hear their story.
This is Echoes of Impacts with Nouria. We'll be right back.
Welcome back. This is your host, Noor Al Masri, and this is a cause of impact for Noora. We were talking to Amanda, the executive director for Alive Center. She mentioned that they have three different center here in the Chicagoland area. So we're gonna talk to her in this last segment about how do they get funding, what is their, what are their future plan and more. So welcome back, Amanda.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: I know, like, there's a lot of people who start nonprofits, but they're struggling. They don't know. They don't have an idea about, like, how do we get funded? What do we need to do? So one of the ways that we try to help people create that impact is talking to success stories. And so that can inspire them. Like, oh, maybe I can do that. Maybe I can do this. So tell us a little bit, like, how did the Life center get to have not only one nice center and like three already?
So. And so tell us about this. But then I'll ask you one question.
[00:39:02] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. No, that's a great question. Thank you so much.
So we're as a nonprofit One of the important things is to have what I like to call braided blended funding where you have multiple resources to help fund your vision. Because, you know, as the executive director, one of the biggest things is being the face of the organization and kind of helping to get out there and build relationships with other people that are willing to able, are willing to contribute towards your mission and helping the population that you're serving with that.
We have a variety of individual donors, foundations that align and fund nonprofits like ours. And then we have key events that fundraising events. We have a Mardi Gras gala that's coming up that'll be a really fun party and we hope to raise quite a bit of money for that to help support the center that's coming up May 16th. And then we also have our giving Tuesday event.
And then we. So those are the like some of the biggest components, right?
[00:40:17] Speaker B: Individual donations, which.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: My favorite. Yes, yeah. Individual foundations, corporations, small businesses, those kinds of things. Because we're a community center and I think that when you have most of your funding that way, then you're demonstrating support from the community and you have hundreds of donations from a lot of people coming together to strengthen this one center. We have in the past had some state funding and federal funding. I know a lot of nonprofits do that, but those funding sources tend to be short term, whether it's two, three, five years. And then they expect you to try to replace a lot of money without, without their funding. And that's really, really a challenge for a lot of programs. So for sustainability, the local fundraising is how we found success.
[00:41:08] Speaker B: Absolutely. I love that. And this is why I actually always, always tell people, well, you have to build your sustainable donor base because that's what can keep you going. Yeah, it's nice to get like grant funding from state, from federal, from whatever. But that's not, you don't have to say the say on that. And like I said, anytime the government might stop it, they don't like something you did like, it requires a lot of work from your end for reporting to make sure you keep the money because they can take it. So, so yeah. So I love that you are relying on that.
If you don't mind me asking and feel free not to answer if you don't want, if you don't like to answer. But I'm asking just because like I know non profit is nothing private and non profit, but feel free like to answer or not.
What's the budget to run such center?
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Yeah, so we run three centers currently and we have our Budget's a little over a million dollars.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: Okay, nice. But that's really efficient. That's really efficient. Like to be centered with just like that month. So, and what's your future plan like? I know you, you have a plan to have more center. Like, can you, can you tell us more about it? Maybe someone is interested.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's great. Thank you so much. Well, we're celebrating 10 years. Very exciting. Our theme this year is 10 years strong, where teens belong.
And our future vision is that we want to start a franchise of the Alive SO Center. Our founder and CEO, Candace Henning, who built the life center from scratch from her vision, her passion has created a strong and very thorough outline of how to develop your own Alive center and what it would cost to be able to implement that. And so she's working with other local communities that are interested in having their own a live center to become an ALIVE franchise.
Our dream is that we would love to see alive centers throughout the entire nation. Currently in Illinois, only 1% of places have a brick and mortar teen center that's not tied to the school like ours. And there's a huge need out there. This is a population that's often overlooked. And so we feel like we can really help fill that void.
[00:43:46] Speaker B: Wow, that's awesome. So you have only three right now?
[00:43:52] Speaker A: Yes, we actually started our first franchise in Addison Township, so we're very excited about that.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: Nice. Congratulations. That's amazing.
[00:44:02] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:44:02] Speaker B: So like anyone. So how can people reach you about that?
If someone anywhere in the United States would like to start their own center, how can they reach you and what, what would you like to see before they can? Because we don't want to. To waste your time. Right. So what's the minimum you think they should have in order to see? Okay, this is a good candidate. Let's talk.
[00:44:29] Speaker A: Yeah, great.
Well, they can visit us on our website. We have a webpage that's just focused on if you're interested in starting your own center. So if you go to www.alivecenter.org, you can find more information there about how to start your own Alive center and more contact information there.
The what someone would need is ideally they need to have a place. Right. So if you have a location that is big enough to house at least 20 to 40 youth that has multiple spaces that could be turned into a lounge area, a kitchen area, open space for them to run around, those are really important.
And from. And then also just maybe some idea about funding, where that funding would go to help get the center off the ground. Then we can come in and provide all the work for you in regards to policies, procedures. We start your teen advisory board. We help give you guidance on how to connect with your community and get these doors open and run a really great research, informed center.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: Nice. So technically you have the system for them. They have to bring everything else, but you give them the name and give them the system. Because also like this is a responsibility, like to have a kids, to have the kids. Like you probably have the, to have a parent's permission for so many things. And this is not really something that you can do a sloppy job with.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Right? Yes.
You definitely want to have a foundation. There's so much that goes into it, so many details. And it literally took years for our founder and CEO to get the center model right. And so she's bringing her level of expertise and coaching and consulting, you know, personalized for each new center that starts up to help make sure that they're successful.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: That's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. So last question for you. What is your favorite working with the youth?
[00:46:56] Speaker A: What is my favorite thing about working at the Alive Center? It's definitely the youth. You know, I've worked in a non profit executive management for many, many years at this point. And one of the things that was, that's special about the Alive center is literally I can look through right next door and see the teens. And I go over there every single day, hang out with them, say hello, play some cards. And just the smiles and energy and the relationships that I've built with the youth, it reminds me of the why, why we are here every single day and why I chose to go into social work in this nonprofit field. It just fills me up.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: That's awesome. So what are the kids? I know I said last question, but.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: I'm going to ask.
[00:47:47] Speaker B: So about the kids, like why do they like to come to the center?
[00:47:53] Speaker A: They like to come to the center because they feel safe, they feel seen and they feel valued. And that's what I think at the core, what every single person wants and, and needs to be able to thrive. And we are very intentional about enforcing rules. Like there's no swearing, there's no bullying, there's no fighting. And because this is, you know, individually supported, we are able to enforce those things. So if a youth violates those rules, they have to leave and they can come back the next day. But we want to make sure that the space is safe for every single person there and that they feel like they, they belong.
[00:48:40] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for the great work for you and the founder and everyone that helps in the Live Center. Thank you for being here at Echoes of Impact. We definitely appreciate that and I'm sure a lot of people got the idea if they want to start similar project or maybe they want to implement a Live center in their space are also ideas about like where should they look in funding a nonprofit.
That is amazing. Thank you so much Amanda. Thank you for being here. Okay guys, we came to the end of Echoes of Impact episode for this week.
Don't don't hesitate to email me at hello at echoes of impact.net hello@elements of Impact. Net if you are looking to see something in specific on the show or if you'd like to be considered pictures and Echoes of Impact. I would love to have you talk to you. Me and the team of the Echoes of Impact. We will see how can we make this happen. You can again email
[email protected] this was your host, Noor Al Masri. I will see you next time week Tuesday at 5pm Central or on demand. You can watch the show until next time. Keep making an impact.
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