white folks often told people how they lived in a “diverse” neighborhood. Most people did not relate to neighbors who were different. The white people in this area did not like African Americans sitting out on their front porches or washing their cars on the street. The people in Shaw blamed residents of McRee Town for any crime in their neighborhood.
I lived in the Shaw neighborhood for 19 years while I worked at MIDTOWN. I would often see neighbors who came to MIDTOWN walking down the street or on their porches. At Halloween, this neighborhood filled with children from all over mid-city. Parents knew residents could afford to pass out candy and it was safe.
The Southwest Garden neighborhood was just west of Shaw. It bordered the Missouri Botanical Garden on two sides. The fourth side of the neighborhood was a great city park called Tower Grove. This neighborhood was filled with rental housing. Homeowners lived on its north and south sides. Housing was in decent condition, although there were signs some properties were not being maintained by absentee landlords. It was a majority African American neighborhood. Most of the homeowners were white. The small group of middle-class families and their homes were on blocks separated from the low-to-moderate-income renters.
Tiffany was the neighborhood east of McRee Town. It was south of Cardinal Glennon Children’s and St. Louis University hospitals. It was developed responsibly by the Midtown Medical Redevelopment Corporation of St. Louis University. The people living in Tiffany had to move for the development to happen. When it was finished these same people were given first priority to return to new Section 8 housing. There were two and four family flats and larger buildings housing 8 or more families. People in this neighborhood would pay 30% of their income under the section 8 program, while people across the street in McRee Town, paid more than 50% of their income to rent much lower quality housing. Almost all of the residents of Tiffany were low- and moderate-income African Americans.
OUR FINANCES
Because I managed our finances well, income and expenses were almost always in balance. I prepared the budget for the first 20 years I was at the agency. The budget was included as part of our parent organization’s budget, but managed separately. I made certain we had multiple streams of funding. This included many grants from foundations and corporations. Grants were usually for specific programs or services. For example, one foundation provided a grant of $300,000 which allowed staff to evaluate how low-income families cope. We hoped to find evidence of what allowed some families with the same income to seem better off than others. We wanted to prove which issues related to poverty or family dynamics kept this from happening. At a foundation meeting where we were requesting other funding, the foundation Director who had approved the large grant, told the group considering our application, “They always have great outcomes”.
I prepared two mail solicitations per year—for Summer Day Camp scholarships and a Holiday Appeal. The former was dedicated to one of our larger annual programs, Summer Academy Day Camp. The other was an open appeal for support from donors during the holiday season. The Christmas “gifts” had no restriction as to how they could be spent. The scholarships were used to subsidize the cost of day camp for families. There were also several events and fundraisers each year. For more than 20 years an annual golf tournament was sponsored by a neighborhood business and supported by businesses throughout our service area.
Each year, we held a “Trivia” Night at a church outside of the neighborhoods, but supportive of MIDTOWN. Trivia Nights are contests to see who knows the most useless information. Our Trivia Night was called “I Knew That” and each year had over 300 guests in attendance. To help donors, volunteers and supporters be comfortable coming to our building in the inner city, a local gourmet Italian restaurant prepared a Holiday Pasta Dinner. Guests were treated to some of the best Italian food in St. Louis. The dinner was part of an Open House where staff visited with guests about our work and asked guests to make a donation to our programs. Individuals and businesses made donations throughout the year. These were usually unsolicited but sometimes came after visits and/or presentations at local churches or at public organizations. Lastly, we received some monies from CC and the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
This multiple stream of funding helped us through economic highs and lows. Usually during economic lows, donors continued to provide support although a little less than their usual. During the Great Recession, our donors provided enough support; we did not have to make any drastic changes. We continued to search for new sources of funding for our programs as our budget and programming grew. Our budget started at $35,000 in 1990 and when I left in 2016 was nearly a million dollars.
The money which came from Catholic Charities (CC), Catholic Community Services (CCS) and the Archdiocese of St. Louis was always the least of our sources of support. The way in which this support was determined made budgeting difficult. Catholic Charities and Catholic Community Services waited until we had created our budget with all other sources of income. If we had a deficit, this difference would be made up by our parent organization. We never knew how much we would receive until this point. The other outreach sites received the majority of their funding from CCS and the Archdiocese. I did not consider this to be fair as most of our budget came from money we raised outside of the church. However, I determined early on, if we wanted to have the kind of programs and services our neighbors both needed and wanted, we would have to find the money to provide them.
We were usually on budget with income and expenses. Sometimes there were short falls—usually because our parent organization and CC controlled where we could seek funding. When we were free to find funding wherever we could, we had budget surpluses. During a three-year period in the late 2000’s, we had a budget surplus of more than $100,000 one year, $15,000 another and in the third year took on a program and its costs from another outreach site at the request of CC. We were over budget about $15,000 that year, including the costs of the transferred program. In the last five years I was at MIDTOWN we were over budget 3 years. During that time, I was no longer allowed to prepare the budget. The way the budget was determined was changed so income and expenses were hard to track. Because there was a disastrous deficit at Catholic Community Services all five of those years, manipulation of funds by the organization made it difficult to know what was real about income and spending.
MANAGEMENT STYLE
My approach to staff and decision-making had a goal of participatory management. However, I found it difficult to get all our staff on board. Some of the decisions could require staff to do more or different work in addition to what they were already doing. I tried to be open, honest, accountable and friendly. My desk was in our first-floor office, in the back corner of our open setting. It was designed so anyone could stop and talk. Board members, volunteers and neighbors enjoyed my availability. In this open style room, with no cubicles, our neighbors felt more comfortable. I was able to communicate with the staff at any time—helping with ideas, saying thank you for their work and commenting on the success of the St. Louis Cardinalsbaseball team.
We had regular meetings where staff discussed what they were doing, any help they needed and their availability to help other staff with agency-wide activities. Whenever we had a new idea, we discussed it at staff meeting getting input from anyone interested in sharing their thoughts. Sometimes, we would delay things to think about them further. Other times there was near consensus on an idea or program and we began to address it. I tried to be encouraging at staff meeting about the people we served. I reminded staff that people living in poverty always had it harder than we sometimes felt we did.
Staff was paid $26-$30,000 (2005-16) depending on their degree and experience. It was important our salaries were not so far above those we served that we might forget their struggle. I started at $18,000 in 1990 with ten years’ experience and a Master’s Degree in Social Work. I told staff; I made more money than they did because I had been around longer. Staff usually received a raise—from 1-3% as determined for all employees of the Archdiocese. I would use the money available for raises and distribute it based on merit, educational advancement, or because of a special request from a staff person—marriage, newborn or
