826 National Application

826 National is now accepting Letters of Interest for its chapter application process. A completed Letter of Interest must be submitted by 5:00pm PST on Friday, March 30, 2012.

Upon review of Letters of Interest, 826 National will invite a limited number of groups to begin the 826 chapter application process.

In your letter please include information about:

• Why your community needs an 826 center
• Your organization or group
• Your team
• Your you believe having an 826 presence will bring to your community
• How your group fits with the 826 mission
• A description of the philanthropic community in your area

Please consider our Community Assessment Rubric when composing the letter.

Letters should be no more than 2-3 pages in length.

We look forward to learning more about your project and being in touch once we have received your letter.

Thank you for your interest,
826 National

In addition, here is some helpful information for those considering starting a community-based program:

• For inquiries about the 826 model or about attending an 826 101 Seminar focused on creating a blueprint for your community project, please contact Mariama Lockington, our 826 National Operations Manager, at mariama [at] 826national.org.
• Prior to contacting 826 National about the chapter application process, please review the Community Assessment Rubric below. This may also be useful to you in developing the need for and the structure of your own community-based project. You may also see our specific FAQs below for more information.

Community Assessment Rubric
A tool for exploring the community to you wish to serve

Location

• Where will you be located and what are the demographics of the neighborhood?
• Who are the students you hope to serve?
• What are some of the challenges faced by students in the area?

• What are your existing or potential connections with schools and teachers in your community?
• List and describe the schools in the neighborhood which you hope to serve. Include demographic information such as: graduation rate, literacy rate, free and reduced lunch data, English language learner/ESL data, and any other pertinent school district or neighborhood data.

• Identify other literacy and tutoring organizations in your city and list any that are within five miles of the proposed site.  What do they already provide? How will your organization be different? Are you open to collaboration? Are they?

• Identify your potential volunteer community.
• How will they learn about your organization?
• How will you actively recruit volunteers and ensure a diverse pool of volunteers that reflects the community you’ll be serving?

• Identify potential partner universities, colleges, and community groups, businesses for potential sponsorships, and connections to the literary/arts community that could benefit the proposed site.
• What efforts have you made/will you make to ensure that your staff, board, and volunteers represent a broad cross-section of the city's population–racially, culturally, and socio-economically?

• Who on your team has nonprofit fundraising experience and connections to the local philanthropic community?
• Have you identified key local individual donors and foundations that would be prospective funders?
• Is there someone on your team who has public relations and marketing experience? Does this person have connections to the local press?

• How much foot traffic does your proposed retail location have? Is this location attractive to shoppers?
• Is the store accessible by public transit?
• Is the proposed location near the population of students and families you intend to serve?
• Consider at least five other businesses in the proposed retail area: What are their average sales like? How busy are they on a weekday? On a weekend? What are their hours? Who are their shoppers? How do they do outreach in the community?
• Who on your team has experience with retail? Has someone run a business?

In preparation for the full application process, please be prepared to supply the following:

Support

• Please send in at least five letters of support for your plan from community members. Please include letters from educators, business owners, local leaders, program officers at foundations, and literary or arts professionals. Please include information about your organization’s relationship with the local government (districts or municipalities) in your site’s region.

• It is essential to have an experienced educator on your leadership team (these will be your initial staff members). If you have someone in mind please describe his or her qualifications with bios. Does this educator have nonprofit experience? If not, who else on your team does?

• Please provide bios for your prospective board members. From where do you plan to recruit the board members?
• Will your board represent the community you plan to serve– taking socio- economic levels and ethnicity into account– and also have skills and ample experience in fundraising, law, human resources, education, business, and nonprofit management?

Can I visit an 826 chapter to learn more about the work you do?
Since September 2005, we have met with 826 enthusiasts and community leaders from around the world to visit our writing lab and learn all about what we do. We have been holding these 826 National 101s a few times a year at our flagship location in San Francisco. We invite you to come join us during our 101s to learn more. Our seminar includes a tour of our space as well as a great deal of additional information about the 826 program. We'll discuss details about both our programs and nonprofit administration. Exact dates are posted as soon as possible on the front page of the 826 National website with all of the other upcoming events, and can also be found here. If you're interested in attending, you can email Operations Manager Mariama Lockington at mariama [at] 826national.org, and we will be sure to share to more information.

If you have any questions about these preparation materials, please contact Erin Archuleta, Director of Field Operations and Strategy, at erin [at] 826national.org

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