For the first 10-years of UrbanPromise Charlotte’s history, we have served the Charlotte Community by creating and developing agents of restoration. Now, as we embark on the next 10-years of our mission,

we are ready and rooted for restoration!

Our goal for this campaign is not to expand to additional sites – but to deepen and strengthen our existing programs so we can better support the increased needs of our community. We want to deepen and strengthen our organizational roots so that we can become a healthier more sustainable organization for the long haul.

YEAR 1

1 staff member

1 site with 80 campers
and StreetLeaders

$150,000 budget

YEAR 10

18 full time staff members

4 sites with 600+ campers, StreetLeaders, and StreetLeader Alumni

$2.8 million budget

$5 million Rooted for Restoration Campaign Goal!

We’re halfway through the 20-year journey and are beginning to see our vision take root. In order to move through the next 10-years with excellence, there are 3 roots we need to invest in to better serve the Charlotte community.

Root #1 | Strengthen the 20-Year Journey

Rather than expansion, UrbanPromise will spend the next three years deepening and strengthening our continuum of programs — especially considering the increasing needs of our students. UrbanPromise spent our first eleven years establishing a city-wide presence and investing in students from kindergarten through college. Next, our focus is on going deep into those communities for maximum impact.

  • Expand our site teams from 3 to 5 full-time staff members to better meet the increased needs of our elementary and middle school campers and StreetLeaders. Add part-time “Super Literacy Tutors” at each site.

  • Deepen the level of mental health  and social work support we provide our students, StreetLeaders, Alumni, and families.

  • Currently, we have two full-time Alumni Directors supporting a community of 163 Alumni. We expect to graduate between 20-30 alumni each year over the next 3-years outpacing the number of alumni that age out of our program.

 

ROOt #2 | Invest in Passionate Staff

Our passionate, talented staff is the key to UrbanPromise’s success. Yet, our team has battled burnout over the past few years as they cared for our students through a global pandemic and the academic and mental health crises that resulted. At the same time, our team has faced a growing cost-of-living here in Charlotte. For us to live out our values, we must invest in our team so they can afford to live in Charlotte and build a career at UrbanPromise. Our team deserves it — and so do our students.

  • Research shows that a salary of $61,000 is needed to afford an average one bedroom apartment in Charlotte. Thus, we want to increase our staff salaries to help meet the growing cost of living so that our staff members can support their families, focus fully on UrbanPromise’s mission, and continue supporting youth for many years.

  • Provide our team with a home of our own – which can be used by our central staff and to host gatherings for our StreetLeaders and Alumni (which cannot always be hosted at our site locations). Provide our team with much needed technology.

 

Root #3 | Deepen our Organizational RootS

For our first decade, UrbanPromise Charlotte has been incredibly lean. At our current age and stage, we must add infrastructure to ensure a healthy, sustainable organization for as long as our communities need us. Additionally, we need more storytelling capacity so that UrbanPromise is no longer “one of Charlotte’s best-kept secrets.”

  • The infrastructure of UrbanPromise is small in comparison to its service. There is not a lot of “back office” support and most of those responsibilities rely on the Executive Director. Finance, HR, and administrative team members are needed to create a healthy, sustainable organization. 

  • Create evaluation metrics and collect program data to validate UrbanPromise’s effectiveness, discover insight to help us improve programming, and pursue new funding opportunities.

  • Create a Communications Director position to better tell the UrbanPromise story in the Charlotte community.

 

A Firmly Rooted Goal of $5,000,000 —
An investment in UrbanPromise Charlotte will result in:

    •  Increase percentage of elementary and middle school students’ reading at or above grade level 

    • Increase percentage of StreetLeaders maintaining a 3.0 GPA StreetLeaders have more college access 

    • Increase Alumni Persistence (those entering college will start and graduate) 

    • Improved mental health and wellbeing for students and StreetLeaders

    •  Higher staff retention   

    •  Increased staff well-being and reduce staff burnout

    • A stronger infrastructure means a more sustainable organization  

    • Less dependency on specific leaders / more resilience to staff transitions 

    • Greater brand awareness as UrbanPromise Charlotte will be  a known and valued resource in  the community.

    •  Implementing this plan is a pathway for growth. Investing in larger staff teams and building out the infrastructure of the organization will allow UrbanPromise to open new sites in a healthier, sustainable way.

Campaign Cabinet

Steve Gassaway, Co-Chair
Retired

Jessalyn Rochefort, Co-Chair
Community Member

Reginald Bean
White Label Management Group

Brad Cherry
JLL

Zack McLaren
Cresa

Jessica McLaren
Community Member

Matt Hultquist
Hillandale Advisors

Matt Mollozzi
Moore & Van Allen

Nate Sittema
CBRE

Want to learn more about the Rooted for Restoration Campaign and how you can invest. Contact Brittany Jenkins, Development Director, at brittany@urbanpromisecharlotte.org.