http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/rss description http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/100 I'm excited to report one of my past clients, the Bike Kitchen, just launched a fundraising campaign. I'm really impressed with all of their work and just mailed in a check for $100 to help them reach their fundraising goal.  If you ride your bike in Los Angeles, I encourage you to also donate to their campaign so they can continue providing valuable services to the community. For more info and to donate, check out their blog at: http://bicicocina.blogspot.com/.  Speaking of donations, I'm leading two fundraising workshops later this week.  One on hosting fundraising events this Thursday and another on researching and cultivating a donor base on friday. For more info, check out my calendar.  Thanks Bike Kitchen! http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/99 I’m keeping busy this week with facilitation and am excited to have the opportunity to work with so many groups.  Here’s a quick glimpse of my schedule: Tuesday: -Facilitating a subcommittee of Green LA Coalition -Facilitating a community meeting for the City of Seal Beach Thursday: -Leading a seminar at the Center for Nonprofit Management on planning successful fundraising events -Facilitating a discussion with the Board of Directors of LA Voice Friday -Leading a seminar at the Flintridge Foundation on Researching and Cultivating Donors -Facilitating a discussion with the Board of the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Hosing Developers I’m thrilled to work with so many leaders of so many organizations working for positive change in Los Angeles.  http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/98 The following is an email update about today's scheduled Malibu Beach Safaris hosted by the LA Urban Rangers, a group I'm a part of when I'm not keeping busy as a Consultant:    To all our intrepid beachgoers:   We're cancelling today's safaris due to rain--as we promised in our announcement that we'd do. We're happy it's raining--the LA basin needs it!--but it's not much fun to hang out and relax on the beach when it's this wet.   We have rescheduled our last-hurrah safaris for MAY 23, and we'll be sure to send you the details as the date approaches.  Hope to see you on the dry beach! Los Angeles Urban Rangers www.laurbanrangers.org A downloadable "Malibu Public Beaches" guide is available on our website.   http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/97 Like many, I signed up for a Twitter account and invite you to follow me.  I write about what I'm up to as a Consultant and also retweet posts from others that look interesting.   One of the "occupational hazards" of twittering, as my friend Mud put it last night, is that there are risks of having your account hacked.  That's exactly what happened to me last night as I was at an event for the LA Neighborhood Land Trust.   It was actually funny, one of the Board members of the LANLT who I worked with on a regular basis last year as a consultant, showed his phone to me with a suggestive direct message I certainly did not send.  I then quickly got some texts and emails from others with folks who figured out my account got hacked.  It was both alarming and a bit hilarious.   Anyway, moral of the story is be aware of the risks, and change your passwords every now and then.  Happy Twittering! http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/96 I'm excited to lead three of the upcoming "Winning Campaigns" trainings for the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking in 2010 (Burlington, Columbus and Asheville):  New Orleans, LA: April 16-18 (Hosted by New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition) Edison, NJ: June 4-6 (Hosted by New Jersey Bicycle Coalition & East Coast Greenway Alliance) Burlington, VT: July 9-11 (Hosted by Local Motion) Columbus, OH: Aug 6-8 (Hosted by Bike! Walk!Ohio & Consider Biking) Oakland, CA: October 15-17 (Hosted by Walk Oakland Bike Oakland) Asheville, NC: November 5-7 (Hosted by Asheville Bicycle Coalition) Here's more info from the Alliance's website "Our proven curriculum will help you choose, direct, and win campaigns to promote better conditions for biking and walking in your state, province, or local community. The trainings are set up in peer-to-peer and group breakout sessions to improve communication and foster collaboration. Previous participants have won Complete Streets campaigns, Safe Routes to School campaigns, and Bike Safety campaigns at the state and local level." For more information, click on this link.   http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/95 Last Friday I attended a town hall meeting hosting by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood and Barbara Boxer.  I appreciated their willingness to listen to citizens like me, and also gained inspiration from many of the suggestions made by other attendees.  In the afternoon I attended a session facilitated by Metro.  As the microphone went from speaker to speaker, I jotted down 10 quick suggestions for improving transportation in Los Angeles.  With a little dose of humor and seriousness, I offer the following to you (to make it fun, I presented these in a David Letterman style top 10 list): #10.  Real Voices on the Bus:  As a cyclist, I often take the bus when I need to make longer commutes across town.  While the overcrowding doesn’t bother me so much, the robotic voices announcing the various stops sometimes does.  I propose an art project where Metro goes out into the communities surrounding its bus lines and record the names of stops from people who actually live near them.  Imagine taking the Wilshire Rapid from Dowtown LA to Santa Monica and hearing the diversity of voices along the way. #9.  One ticket One Way:  I also find myself taking my bike on the train to places like Long Beach (where I will be facilitating some focus groups around bicycling for the City of Long Beach).  I wish that the one-way ticket I buy on the Red Line would also work for the one-way trip I’d make on the Blue line.  #8.  Transit-oriented development:  LA developed around the trolley car and enormous potential exists to develop affordable housing and other buildings that are a short walk to a Metro stop.  I’m excited to see the statewide SB 375 get implemented. #7:  Fast track bicycle plan implementation:  Cities like New York and Mexico City are transforming their streets so that they are safer and more enjoyable places to ride at a much faster pace than we are.  Why couldn’t the City of LA fast-track implementation of its Bicycle Master Plan in a year?  We’ve got good ideas on paper – let’s allocate the needed resources to make it reality. #6. Bike Boulevards: My brother lives in Vancouver, Canada, which has developed an impressive network of Bicycle Boulevards.  These are quiet, residential streets that have several design features that make cycling pleasant:  traffic circles instead of stop signs, occasional barriers that limit auto traffic but let bikes through, good directional signage and prioritization when crossing major boulevards. #5. Transform Parking Lots:  Los Angeles lacks adequate supplies of affordable housing and park space.   Why not convert some existing parking lots into uses that will serve more people and create a more sustainable city?  #4.  No Free Parking:  For the parking lots we keep, let’s charge a real market rate rather than subsidizing parking.  Professor Don Shoup at UCLA has written extensively about this.  When people pay a higher cost for parking that reflects the true cost of parking, they are more willing to explore transportation alternatives. #3. Legalize street vending around Metro Stops:  In Mexico and Central America and many other parts of the world, public space is so vibrant because of street vending.  I love how there’s a weekly farmers market right outside the Wilshire/Vermont Red Line Station and would like to see that space used like that on a regular basis.  #2. Curtail Investment in Transportation Projects that only promote Driving:  The elephant in the room is that the majority of transportation spending still goes towards projects that encourage driving – whether it be highway expansion, new parking lots or new roads.  I would like to see less money go towards these types of projects and more money towards building transit, bicycle infrastructure and pleasant places to walk. #1.Ciclavia:  Ciclavia will transform LA’s streets by temporarily closing certain major boulevards to automobile traffic and opening it up to people to enjoy on foot, on roller-skates, or bicycle.  It builds community and sparks the imagination for what our streets could be.  These are just 10 quick ideas – there are so many more and so many passionate folks working throughout the region to implement other innovative ideas for a sustainable and vibrant transportation system in Los Angeles.  I’m pleased to have the opportunity to work with many of them and am excited to see these ideas come to fruition. http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/94 Here's a link to my February newsletter - enjoy! http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/93 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} I’m excited to be working with the leadership at LA Voice to create a fund development plan.  LA Voice is an interfaith organization engaging congregation members on a number of social change related issues in Los Angeles, including affordable housing, homelessness and health care.  For an inspiring video about the organization’s work, click here. Over the years, I’ve worked with many organizations to create a fund development plan, including having recently developed a plan for SOAR Charter School.  A fund development plan helps chart a future fundraising course for a nonprofit organization and contains the following:  An assessment of the organization’s current fundraising generated from a fundraising audit and leadership survey A review of the organizations fundraising materials, including past grant proposals, cover letters and appeal letters Development of an overall goal targeting specific strategies to achieve that goal A timeline/workplan to implement plan A list of possible funding sources A staffing plan An appendix with additional resources.  By investing time to create an overall fundraising strategy, an organization is in a much better position to realize its fundraising goals.  Rather than reacting in a haphazard way to fundraising strategies that may sound good but yield weak results, it stays focused on strategies that have the highest chance of building strong donor relationships that lead to sustainable fundraising in the long term.  The process also engages staff and the Board of Directors in the process of creating the plan, which helps ensure they’ll be engaged when it comes to implementing the plan. If you or your organization would like more information about how I may be able to assist you with the creation of a fund development plan, please contact me. http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/92 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} I recently completed a consulting project that took several months for the Green LA Coalition.  Green LA works to build a strong movement to win campaigns that can transform Los Angeles into a sustainable city. For this project, I collaborated closely with another consultant, Beth Steckler.  For this project, we interviewed over 30 people within the Coalition’s leadership and outside the organization, along with surveying the entire membership with an online survey.  Based on this work, we developed an assessment report and later facilitated a day-long strategic visions retreat for the Coalition’s Steering Committee.  From all of the information we gathered through these efforts, we presented a final report with recommendations for how the Coalition could strengthen itself as it moves forward so that it could have the greatest possible impact in making Los Angeles a more sustainable city.  I’m pleased to report the Steering Committee approved the majority of our recommendations and has asked Beth and I to continue consulting for them to help them implement our recommendations.  I also look forward to attending Green LA’s upcoming awards fundraiser on March 15th, from 6pm to 9pm, and invite you to attend. http://www.ronmilam.com/blog/post/91 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} I’m very pleased to be working with the leadership at the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH).   SCANPH creates affordable housing opportunities for low-income people by expanding the knowledge, capacity and influence of the nonprofit development sector.  Over the years, SCANPH has championed affordable housing in Southern California and helped build a strong network of local affordable housing developers that have generated housing that’s affordable.   SCANPH also has some excited plans to green development in the future, which I’m especially excited to see happen.  I’m working with the organization’s leadership to build their fundraising capacity so that they’re able to bring in the needed resources to do their good work.  I’m excited to attend their upcoming Board meeting in March to work with the entire Board of Directors on engaging in the fundraising process.  For some tips on how to build a fundraising Board of Directors, check out my recent blog post.