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Latest Developments
- Vera proudly announces the launch of its Spin-Off Tool Kit, a guide for Vera employees engaged in spinning off a demonstration project, for other organizations interested in launching a new nonprofit, and for anyone who wants to better understand the history of our spin-offs and the spin-off process.
- Since its creation in 1961, Vera has spun off 29 projects.
Vera is now in the process of spinning off Esperanza and the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC). Staff from the two projects and from Vera's central office are working together to ensure that the two new spin-offs will be self-sustaining and continue to grow their capacity. Vera's legal department works closely with all of its projects during the spin-off process to ensure a smooth transition to independence. Esperanza became incorporated in November 2006, and expects to complete spin-off within one to three years thereafter. PARC is also already incorporated, and expects to achieve full independence in January 2008.
- Smaller and innovative nonprofits typically lack the computerized information systems they need to manage their work over time. With them in mind, software developers at Vera created a generic program management application that can be customized to support almost any service and evolve as services change.
- Vera has developed a guide for trustees [PDF: 216 KB] of spin-off organizations that describes the legal duties of nonprofit board members and provides information about how they can fulfill their obligations.
- Former Vera demonstration project La Bodega de la Familia, in partnership with the New York State Division of Parole, received the prestigious Innovations in American Government award, which recognizes government initiatives that are original and effective. The Institute for Government Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s at Harvard University gave the award, which is funded through an endowment from the Ford Foundation and administered in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government. La Bodega received a $100,000 grant to support state-wide and national applications of its innovation.
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Overview
From its start, Vera has served as an innovation shop for the justice system, rather than as a service provider. Our innovations often involve the provision of services ranging from drug treatment to job coaching to legal representation, but we operate these services ourselves only long enough to test and refine their designs. Then we spin off the successful operations into government or to publicly funded nonprofit organizations.
The discipline of spinning off successful projects has advantages for Vera, for the project, and for the fields in which we work. For Vera, it allows us to concentrate our resources on the process of innovation and to be always looking for the next new idea. During spin-off, we help the projects develop management and governance structures suited to their particular fields and funders, allowing them to grow and sustain their operations far more aggressively than Vera's own resources could support. And by spinning off projects, Vera creates a wide array of organizations, each of which attracts funds, staff, and volunteers into its work, and each of which experiments with its own innovations.
Some Vera demonstration projects eventually become part of government. For example, in 2002, Vera merged Project Confirm into the operations of the New York City Administration for Children's Services. Other demonstrations become part of existing nonprofit organizations. In 1988 Job Site became a project of the Lighthouse; four years later, the Bail Bond Agency became part of the Education and Assistance Corporation; and in 2000 the Citizens Jury Project became part of the Fund for Modern Courts.
Most often, however, the spin-off process involves the creation of a new nonprofit organization to expand the project and continue to shape a field of work. The first of these, incorporated in 1967, was the Manhattan Bowery Corporation, now known as Project Renewal, Inc. A more recent spin-off to acheive full independence is Family Justice, Inc., which was incorporated in July 2001 and became fully independent in March 2004. In all, Vera has created and spun off 19 new nonprofit corporations, of which the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC) in Los Angeles and Esperanza in New York are currently on the road to full independence. PARC's goal is to achieve total independence by the end of January 2008, and Esperanza, which was incorporated in November 2006, aims to complete spin-off within one to three years thereafter.
When we spin off a new organization, we do more than legally incorporate an existing project. The legal structure of the new corporation is important but so are the quality of its board of trustees, its physical workplace, its systems for recruiting and retaining a talented staff, its fundraising capacity, its public image, and all the other aspects of its organizational culture. Vera's Counsel's Office manages the spin-off process, working closely with the spin-off until it is fully independent. The goal is to create lasting institutions that are valuable to society and good to work in. Counsel's Office has produced a Spin-Off Toolkit, which details the many tasks that must be completed in order to turn a successful demonstration project into an independent organization. The Toolkit is a useful document for both demonstration project directors working toward spin-off as well as outside organizations that are considering turning a project into a separate independent organization.
[ last modified 11/8/2007 11:42:02 AM ] |
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