 Well the room got quiet. Welcome everybody. We appreciate you coming out this afternoon and taking the time out and we appreciate Mayor Taylor for coming back to address the council members. If those of you who are here in August remember the meeting that we had and the table breakouts that you participated in and we gave that information, comments, questions, and things to the mayor's office and they took a few months to call through the information and wanted to get back to us to talk a little bit more about the nonprofit sector in the community and things that the mayor's office is currently doing and how we as a council of nonprofits can participate more and hopefully in the future in the direction of our community in our city and especially from the nonprofit side where we touch so many in the community in need and so with that I would like to turn it over to Mayor Taylor and thank you again for for coming out and we appreciate it. Thank you. Well good afternoon everybody. I apologize for being tardy. Sometimes it's hard to get away from City Hall but I appreciate you all waiting for me and appreciate the opportunity to continue the dialogue that we started a few months ago when I came by to see you so I hope that we can delve even a little bit deeper and think and talk about how the city can be more helpful to you in the work that you do in you know meeting the community's needs recognizing that you all are partners in that work. I certainly want to advocate for policies that allow us to do that. I think I've made it clear to you all that really my heart is for the work that you do and if you asked me years ago what I envisioned myself being or doing I thought I would have been sitting in one of your seats right here but I've taken a little bit of a different path but certainly want to make sure that we can can be helpful and then also I have beyond me kind of interacting with nonprofits as employee at a nonprofit and as an elected. I also did have the opportunity just as a city employee I was a grants manager and so worked directly with with folks that were providing services so I've been inside of the machine that pumps out those contracts and gets you your checks cut and gets those performance reports from you albeit that was some years back but just so you'd know that I have some perspective from inside the belly of the beast. Okay so but on the other you know certainly as an elected it it's very clear from this perspective that you know taxpayers want accountability and they want transparency. There's so many demands on our tax dollars and from what I've observed San Antonio is kind of unique in the commitment that we have in providing such a large amount of money from our general fund every year to the nonprofit sector and with such a large city with so many competing interests it certainly is a challenge to determine and prioritize how we should spend those dollars which makes the conversation that we're having even more important because we want to spend them in the most efficient manner possible. So I wanted to reflect on a few things that I'd gleaned from a survey that I guess you all did point out a few points and then hopefully hear from you though I do want to before I do that acknowledge the not the elephant in the room but the camera in the room. So we are being live streamed on now cast and I certainly think that that is wonderful for people who aren't in this room to know more about the work that you do to know more about how we partner with the city. I also know from being from being an employee at a nonprofit from being the board chair of a nonprofit and from being a funder of nonprofits that there sometimes are some sensitivities and people always don't always want to hear the truth. I hope that everyone in this room is able to express in some fashion to me what I need to hear but if you're not able to do that in front of the camera I want it to let you know that I am more than willing to hear you when the camera is not on so that we can really get to the heart of the matter as far as dealing with the challenges that you that you face in trying to strengthen the partnership that we have with the city. I hit something okay just wanted to make that disclaimer. So what I kind of what I've learned from some of the surveys that were provided so the city could do a better job in a few areas first off distinguishing between outputs and outcomes it's really easy for it's easier for us to just point out to outputs but really the work that you all are about should be about outcomes and we need to figure out how we can do a better job at data gathering and sharing in general because I think that would help us to have a better understanding of and demonstrate outcomes. I think there are a number of folks at the city we heard who kind of treat you all as though your extensions of the departments that we've organized at the city and you all may not necessarily be doing your work in that fashion so I think to a certain extent more education on behalf of some of the city staffers beyond the walls of city hall. I think we could do a better job in working more closely and understanding the targeted populations that you serve and develop goals and metrics to help us evaluate how effective our investments are there. I would like to see us create a more collaborative model that includes not just nonprofits but also our academic and research institutions philanthropic organizations and the local government. I think all those entities are working on some of the same issues but not necessarily in alignment and certainly from the perspective that data should drive you know where we make investments I think there's lots of opportunities for more for more collaborative model that allows us to share data across the various types of institutions and then for me this is the last one is really important how the ongoing work of the city and the nonprofit community for those who are unfamiliar as say tomorrow is our comprehensive plan for the city of San Antonio. We've not had a comprehensive plan in the city of San Antonio for really over 40 years. We had some master plan policies that the mayor Howard Peake had worked on back in 1998 but it wasn't a plan plan per se in the same sense that I say tomorrow is so I think that the plan allows us to have a blueprint for where we're going in the community and again when dollars are scarce resources time and talent are scarce then I think having some sort of blueprint is all the more important. So some of the things we are working on to address some of those challenges there's a number of things that are going on. Don't hold it up here. Okay thank you. So we've done some work in relation to the data ecosystem we want to make that more robust but we've been working with CI Now, UTSA, the P16 Council on SA 2020 to kind of strengthen the capacity for gathering data and also change the narrative on how we rely on data in relation to making public policy. I think many of you probably know better than me that in some instances there are folks in the funding community who decide that they're passionate about a particular issue and they're going to inject millions of dollars towards that cause regardless of what the data shows is a real need in the community or regardless of what the data shows period and they're within their rights is their money they can do that but I think that to the extent that if we had more robust systems to show them well this is where the needs are or this is where we're getting good results or strong outcomes in relation to certain programs or investments then perhaps we could be more persuasive in encouraging them to invest their dollars in different ways. So we're looking at having a convening on this data issue in February and also within the city department within the city we're trying to get people to work outside of the silos. I think I kind of started a lot of that with our work on the east side and that was even going beyond the walls of the city but there were so many partners that we were working collaboratively and trying to share data and now even within the city where we have some positions that we're trying to encourage those persons to be like point person to cut across various departments like we have an educational liaison. You know there are some other things other areas where we're looking and going in those directions. We're also developing research partnerships to to help us with specific issues. I recently attended the National League of Cities Mayor's Institute on post-secondary success and I was accompanied by Judy McCormick from P 16 as well as Adriana Contreras from San Antonio Education Partnership and we went to share ideas ask questions and learn about how we can improve the post post-secondary success rate specifically for minority males because we were doing it within the context of my brother's keeper. So we kind of have a we have a partnership through that institute and they're going to help us do some more research on you know how we can get better. So we're looking at a few other areas where we can do research there and then another area where I think there's still quite a bit to do but just making the transition from essay 2020 to essay tomorrow and how we kind of bring them in alignment. I think is still a bit of a challenge and also our city boards and commissions getting them in alignment with with essay tomorrow is something else that we've been working on. So that's just a little bit of a of a snapshot. From our perspective it is you know it's easier to be reactionary as an elected right especially in these days with social media and in order to get to the kind of results and system that I'm that I'm talking about requires a lot more time and attention and within a large bureaucracy of course it's kind of it's hard to get all the parts moving in the same direction but that's where you all can come in as far as being helpful and getting on the same page because you know I'll just be candid you know with some of the various roles that I've played in throughout my professional career and my life as a civically engaged person. I've observed a lot of competing for crumbs between organizations that are serving communities that you know are disadvantaged or at risk and I know that we have we've we've made some progress and we have some models here that speak to a new paradigm but I still think there's some work for us to do there as far as people getting outside of the mindset of well it's my nonprofit against all these others and my cause I hear here recently you know I got caught in the crosshairs frankly of someone for political gain pitting nonprofits against each other well my this cause is more important than that cause you know why are we getting into those kind of conversations we know that there are a number a broad range of needs throughout the community and we have to figure out how we can better work together to address them so that's really why I'm here today so that there's just a little bit of reflection based on the survey questions and answers that I saw and just a little bit of an update for you of some of the things that we're doing that specifically address some of those concerns but what I hope more than anything is that we can just kind of have an open dialogue okay so I'll pass the mic to somebody else so what we'll do is we'll go ahead and we'll take if people have conversations about what the mayor just talked about or some of the other things that the office has thought about that we would like to get feedback on our whether or not it would be beneficial to have a quarterly meeting with nonprofits to continue brainstorming on an ongoing basis predominantly before we hit budget season so that we know what needs are in place and how we can better coordinate our efforts and not necessarily be reactionary when it comes to funding so that's one area a second area where we would like to receive feedback is potentially utilizing the nonprofit council as a clearinghouse and by that I mean the mayor's office stays in constant contact with the nonprofit council provides information on an ongoing basis and then what we do from there is the nonprofit council disseminates that information we receive feedback that way so that the staff can sort of help support and coordinate some of those efforts in a more ongoing manner so we're really looking to see how you might want to get involved and some of the projects the mayor just mentioned that that she's initiated especially in particular as it relates to essay tomorrow and she's honest about that she wants to wants to know if if there are ways in which you can plug your agency in it doesn't matter if you're an agency that receives funding from the city or not but whether or not you feel like there's added benefit and things that you can provide and bring to the table to if you would like to be a part of an ongoing conversation that meets regularly to discuss some of these problems that we can identify where we really need where we what we really need to address within the community and then three whether or not it would be beneficial for you to receive ongoing information from the council as a point of advocacy so I don't know if we want to open it up for conversation and what I'll do is I'll hand the mic off to somebody and then if we can just sort of talk about it that way does that all make sense to want to start back over here the data and so forth if there was a way to create more conversation around United Way Area Foundation the city to maybe model some of the reporting similar United Way invested in a new data and I'm not saying that all of them are perfect and and that you know if there's one in particular that's perfect but you know they put the resources in to find a new reporting mechanism and rather than recreating another one is there a way to have those conversations before we move too far and in different directions and so that maybe there's some similarity if the area foundation is funding you know high school graduation if United Way is doing that if the city is doing that could we talk about some similarities in their outcome reporting and then maybe even looking at systems that are similar so that it would be a little less taxing on the nonprofits but even one thing I see with the city is just having you know we're having to do so many paper copies you know for the grant and things like that and so maybe getting some of the systems that have already been put together and maybe that would save on some of the recreating of that and so I'm wondering if maybe that conversation can happen as we start talking about data elements and so forth. So as a recap so looking at how we can coordinate the efforts from the area foundation United Way city where it's less taxing on agencies and then transition in particular the city from having to have multiple paper documents to an area which we're doing things digitally right starting there it's great. I'm Kimberly Britton with epicenter and you know to build on what you're saying if you want a specific example one of the things when I was with the museum and I was applying for DCCD funding one of the things that I said you know the Konkoski Foundation everyone can attest to applies for money there is pretty arduous the process you go through with them and the vetting that they do and the information that you provide and and I've been raising money for 30 years even prior to that experience and then we were working on the DCCD grants and the level of proofs and documentation and the things were more arduous than an already arduous process from like a Konkoski funder and I think I've even in discussion in the community had folks offer and it to be a resource and saying then and I know some efforts have been made to streamline that process and I applaud that very very much so because it's hard because you see that things have been put in place because something went wrong you know people are trying to recover and cover themselves because somebody did something stupid and that that's always hard to protect against stupid but but but I think that we're more than people and I don't want to speak for everyone in the room but that you you're willing to say you know gosh we'd love to look at a new model and something that makes sense so that you really are eliciting information that's helpful because that was one of the things I always ask what does this information testing that my CEO is actually in the position which is one of the attestations you have to make they have to prove that they're actually in the job what does that do for you to protect you what if they're lying what if you know they somebody's attested to that so I think just trying to go to a more private model that was just an example of something that I saw very personally and I see the other thing that I hope and I love what you said about trying to be having had more exchange of information and collaboration between city staff and nonprofits but I will tell you I've witnessed it as I've gone through this bond process and that you have a lot of nonprofits who are hopefully applying for different things on the committees and they're seeing it's difficult because these committee members of citizens are about to have all of their final meetings this next week are being pitted against one another's projects and so whether than achieving sort of a collaborative and I don't know if there's a better way but I was a citizen would love to help feed into something that makes that better for because my nonprofits the same thing your your mission is not better than my mission or how do I go up against this project when it's going to be important to that community but the same time my project is important and the committee members are now put in a position where they have to rob Peter to pay Paul they've got to go into a design that's already designed by city staff in some respects and then try to disrupt that and it's just miserable for everyone I know it's got to be miserable for staff who put their hard hours in it and it's certainly a little difficult for the committee so I probably preaching to the choir in that respect but I will tell you as an observer I know there I keep going there's got to be a better way there's got to be a better way than then what's about to have happened which is another round of one committee going well I want to take a million from you and I want to give it to so-and-so but anyway thank you thank you so sorry I'm just hello I'm Angela from Alpha Home we have some staff here with me today which is great thank you and I really want to understand what creates a compelling business case for a grant to the city we've talked about I'm we had to do drug and alcohol addiction if it is here in the room David Fitz's lifetime and we've certainly talked about collaborative efforts between the three of us because it's more bang for your book whichever way you look at it the scary thing that we talk about when we're together is that if the three of us combine you know it might save 25% but it certainly won't be the three of you will only get what one of you would ask for if he came to us that way and we've talked about that about Krunkowski grants and so on and so forth so there's a scary piece in going to the city and saying okay you're gonna get together we want to do this from adolescent through men through women hopefully women and children as well and then the city said well now you only count as one so we might have given you three times that funding and now we're only giving you one time that funding so it and in and of itself it can sometimes stop the collaborative effort but I really want to understand what data would be compelling to you how to present it we know we save the city a lot of money and we receive no city funding we haven't really asked it and think so you know I'd be really interested in what that looks like to you well that's a hard question to answer but you know I feel like the answer should be that you've got a track record of success you can point to some strong outcomes from your individual programs and or that you're modeling some evidence-based practice so that's that is one side of it those things do come into play but the the other side is I'm just gonna be real realistic with you the other side is how much money is available on the table you know where you're serving people geographically and whether or not what I've found here recently is that we've we've had a hard time being able to do anything new and innovative because we have so many existing commitments to organizations that have been funded for years so for example in this year's budget I found my what after I had pushed I guess maybe two or three years ago for us to have a small line item for new agencies that we didn't even get to spend that money on new agencies this year because of the fallout of my mission is better than you know your mission so then the the money for the new agencies ended up going to to you know squash the beef so you know I mean there's a possibility that maybe we need to relook at the system but you know I also have to say that everyone in the room has to take responsibility for their role in the in the system at large because folks that have been getting money for years want to hold on to the money that they've been getting for years even if they're not doing anything new or innovative or they're not using evidence based practices or or demonstrating some compelling outcomes so somehow we've got to figure out how to navigate that conversation it's very difficult what we've tried to do at the city the other thing I would say as far as you know trying to make a case for for a collaborative grant is well as long as I'm there anything that advances the you know essay tomorrow principles will be a priority I'll always advocate for that but we also had a few other we had some categories that we used in relation to how we how we distributed the the general funds for nonprofits and so I think we need to figure out how the council can have a more sophisticated discussion on how those dollars get arranged and distributed and if those categories are even still the categories that we need to have in place so where I would say that we're open to suggestions on that if any of you have worked in other cities like I said I think San Antonio is a bit of an anomaly as far as how much funding we give but if any of you have experiences from other places that you would like to share I would certainly be open to that and sharing that with the staff so I know I probably didn't give you the cut and dry answer that you'd like but I tried to give you a slice of the reality that we live in and an indication that there is opportunity for us to make improvements to the system but I think it's important for you to know some of the constraints that we're working within. Good afternoon, Leah Rosenauer, Girls Inc. So yes we have lots of big challenges and I think with big challenges come big opportunities so I'm gonna ask about something that I know very little about and that is social impact bonds. I have never been involved in the bond generation of physical facilities and and how that process takes place I hear some others in the room are are there other funding mechanisms that we can work together to create to implement and I only have read a few articles about bonds that are developed for social impact and I don't know if anyone in the room knows more about that or if I think maybe yes there are some mechanics I need to be fixed and and some of the of the day-to-day things that can be improved upon going to computer applications paper applications but big what how else can we work together to address some of the bigger issues that data and I say tomorrow and things are telling us and I don't know a if that's a mechanism or b if anyone knows any more about it than the two articles I read. Thank you I would say I've read maybe three articles about it certainly sounds like an intriguing concept I would say that we as a community are far from being to the point where we'd be able to sell that to the voters because folks here are very conservative as far as how they'd like to see the tax dollars used they like to focus on basic infrastructure. However I would say that if we had some of the mechanisms in place that we talked about as far as more alignment between the various institutions so that we're speaking with one voice and an authority on data and as well as an authority on public policy recommendations one of my staffers and I for years we've kicked around this idea of a think tank that do we really have you know a think tank in this community that everyone looks to that makes unbiased public policy recommendations based on data. I think if we have that organization or institution combined with a robust data system it would be a lot easier for us to communicate and make a compelling case to the voters to do something different but at this point there are many components of that kind of system that are missing. Any other thoughts? You'll have to excuse me for not knowing much about the San Antonio tomorrow because I am new to the community but when you talk about that I assume there has to be a component that's about vision right it's a vision for the city. So I think that there has to be some balance between you're talking about the concept of some of these you know the old institutions old nonprofits that have been around forever and they tend to be the powerhouses and they can reflect on data because they've had the consistency to be able to pull some more data. Think data is super important but I also think there has to be some room for vision. So what do we want to create in San Antonio and how do our nonprofits fit in and how we do that. So I think the data is really absolutely important but we also have to figure out a way of looking at maybe some of the softer side of it that's part of who we are as nonprofits is sometimes we are a little bit of the softer side so maybe that's something we can help the city with is that we do have that orientation we can put the numbers down we can line it up we can put boxes around it but helping to look at how do we create that vision for the city. Thank you. Well first off to learn more about SA tomorrow you can go to www.sanantonio.gov which is the city's website and type in SA tomorrow and there should be a link to the plan and and I believe also there are copies of the plan available at your local library it's actually three plans in one land use plan transportation plan and a sustainability plan. So from my perspective and I'm going to say something that pushes the envelope a little bit here even though we're live streaming I'm going to say something that might make folks squirm a little bit from my perspective we've done a lot of work on visioning already in this community between SA 2020 which really was about so as you're new to the community back in 2000 and was it was it 2010 I think it was 2010 the under the previous mayor he kind of brought folks together to talk about what their vision for San Antonio was by the year 2020 and so there was a broad base of participation in that process and there are some some reports that outline kind of that vision and then we use that to as a foundation to build on in relation to SA tomorrow to take it beyond a vision and move more towards you know how we could practically implement and also to think from the perspective of the physical city as well as the social city though those connections where I think the gap is is first off lack of as you just articulated people not knowing about any of those efforts but then also I think people not always buying into the vision and this is the part that may be a little bit challenging for people to accept but I've articulated my vision of San Antonio as a globally city where everyone has the opportunity to prosper where every resident is connected to opportunity what I have found in working in the nonprofit sector and being around the nonprofit sector that there are some folks who have spent so much time serving those in need in our community that they have a hard time embracing the idea of a future where those clients that come in to their office week after week could actually be connected to prosperity that instead their vision is I just need more money to keep serving these people who are going to be poor for the next 50 years okay and I don't think people feel that out of any malice I think that people sometimes it's just as a result of the work that they do every day seeing so much need that it's hard for them to think to a point of transformation today I was over at Haven for Hope because we had a we were entertaining a group that came in from Houston because they're trying to figure out what they're going to do there and they asked well what what is different about what you're doing now as opposed to what you were doing a few years ago and I said what's different is that Haven for Hope is about transformation while we it was wonderful that we had a caring community that came together to provide shelter for people that were in need it was just that shelter people lined up at whatever time they got their bed and they went out the next day and their lives were essentially the same what we have now is model this folk focused on transformation that we have people who are in a campus environment who are have committed to doing X you know milestones and do the work to actually change their lives to then become self-sufficient so I think that we've got to do more work as far as ensuring that folks that are working whatever whatever field it is that you're where you're laboring that we do have that in mind and I'm not saying that the food bank is gonna work its way out of business in five years you know that's probably not going to happen but I'm what I'm saying is that I hope that we can make stronger connections between those visions that we've articulated for our city as a whole and the work that you do as leaders in the community because the work that you do with each and every individual and each and every family ultimately builds towards us achieving that vision and if there's a way if you are there are suggestions on what we can do to well I mean we're already talking about how we can be better partners with you but I think part of the challenge of what we could do better at the city is just kind of getting the word out as well but for folks that are struggling with the day-to-day you know the essay tomorrow is not you know really relevant but for those of you that are in positions of leadership in the community and are have access to resources that you can provide to them and you can help them to get on a path towards self-sufficiency if we're talking about poverty or whatever it's very important I think that you all have an understanding of what the vision is that's been outlined and where the different public entities are working towards and where we're how we're looking at prioritizing investments that didn't make you squirm too much did it any anything else I think maybe us figuring out how a regular some sort of regular schedule for for for meetings like this would be helpful I think you all providing to me to me in my office specifically however you work through your committees that you have here providing to me in writing suggestions on what you think could it in improve the the application RFP process I would like to follow up on meeting as you mentioned Jessica with the United Way and Area Foundation in the city maybe on the on the reporting the other thing that you could do to help is to become familiar with essay tomorrow and share that with your board and staff I mean obviously not the whole it's of biblical proportions it's a huge document but just having a general sense of the direction that that's that that's going and sharing that I think with your staff and your board so that as you all do your strategic planning that you have that as kind of a baseline and a context for you know how you want to move your organization forward and so I think that would make sense great well if there's if there's anything else please don't hesitate to reach out to Scott or myself I'll be around I can give you cards as well at the end we really do want to try to make a stronger collaboration between the office and the council so that we can start having these conversations on an ongoing basis because I think that one of the things that's most important is that a lot of times when you're sort of operating at a 30,000 foot view it's really difficult to know what a lot of the needs are on the ground and what systems are not actually working because you're not seeing it day to day and you're not operating within it and so something may sound like a great idea but doesn't necessarily always work and so I think that's really the first step in building this is continuing this conversation on an ongoing basis in particular as we're leading now that we're sort of past this past budget season as we're sort of thinking our way through and have time to have these conversations before the next one comes up and around and I think it's also we're talking about social impact bonds it's going to be really paramount to start that kind of process of thinking and strategizing now since we have time before a bond in four more years in 20 what 2022 would be the next one 2020 and at some time a long time from now so those are all really good things to start thinking about now and so absolutely please continue to reach out all that information will reach the mayor she does want to continue to come back and have ongoing conversations with people who would want to be a part of that and I think Scott is going to be facilitating some of them. I also think that the essay 2020 vision and everything that happened with that four years ago and even including today has been marketed very very well in the community and to the nonprofit sector I don't know that essay tomorrow has done as as good a job and and so therefore I think that's why a lot of nonprofits may not understand it and I know you said it's like you know a biblical document but when you say go out and pit you know kind of inform your board you know do we have to read the 5000 page document or is there someone at the city that can come and maybe do an informational workshop how it impacts nonprofits how nonprofits can impact that program because again I think essay 2020 embrace the nonprofits and really got them behind it and whether that is good or bad I think it was least informative and so I I don't know if the members would be interested in that but I think it might be a a good opportunity to you know kind of we've got a membership of over 160 nonprofits maybe kind of starting with us would be a great idea because I'm not real familiar with it other than I know a lot of it has to do with infrastructure streets drainage and all of that which are great but I don't see the connect and I also would agree and would like to see if you want to disseminate information out at least to our group of nonprofits asking questions wanting input looking for experts in particular areas to sit on committees we could be a really really good connector for that as well. So much that is a wonderful suggestion Scott I think sometimes as planners we aren't quite as good at the marketing side of things but so that that observation is is well noted but the other thing I was kind of thinking about when you're talking about it is that the nonprofits that we have been dealing with in relation to essay tomorrow has been the neighborhood associations and I'm just thinking out loud here but I feel like maybe there's some opportunity for support from folks like you with neighborhood associations and even for work for some working together I'm sure depending on if you're a geographically based organization you may already work with neighborhood associations but I just see that as an area where we probably needed to be a little more robust I think there's a real desire from folks who represent neighborhoods to be more to be included in various ways and maybe if we put our heads together we can figure out what that looks like. I know we're going to be as part of the implementation phase for essay tomorrow we're going to be doing some more planning basically with larger geographic areas beyond the neighborhood in the past the city had kind of a neighborhood planning strategy we're going to be doing some larger plans maybe there's some opportunity for some cross collaboration but I know that some of the nonprofits they want to do more but they don't have the organizational capacity that a lot of you all do so that just made me think maybe there's an opportunity for some working together or learning from each other. Anything else or. Well I guess thank you all so much for coming thank you all so much for sharing thoughts and ideas once again if you have any additional thoughts based on what was discussed today please either feel free to email them to Scott directly or you can reach out to me as well if you want I can definitely hand out my card at the end of at the end of the meeting so thank you so much and have a great rest of your evening and we'll see you all soon.