The New Hampshire Governor’s Council for Thriving Children, co-led by New Hampshire’s Departments of Health and Human Services and Education, engaged Pear Associates to compile and write a 2020 Year in Review.
This celebratory document presents 20 stories that illustrate how the Granite State worked towards the New Hampshire Strategic Plan for Early Childhood goals: positive learning experiences, healthy children and families, strong families, and statewide coordination. These stories represent a range of initiatives, including those funded by federal and state resources and philanthropy, and those happening at the state, regional, and community-based levels. The Year in Review was released on April 14, 2021 with an event featuring New Hampshire’s First Lady, Valerie Sununu, who endorsed the value of statewide efforts that help children and families thrive.
Through a competitive procurement process, ACET engaged the services of Pear Associates to provide objective facilitation and strategic planning services.
ACET, Inc. delivers culturally tailored evaluation services and solutions to an expanding list of local, regional, national, and international clients. Over a six-month timeframe, Pear Associates developed an actionable strategic planning document to guide and strengthen ACET’s activity over the next three years. The plan focuses on three strategic priorities: Mission and Values, Infrastructure Development, and Branding and Marketing, which will enable ACET to achieve its aspirational and sustainable programmatic and organizational model.
Pear Associates delivered a personalized, three-part tutorial on proposal writing and grant seeking to the leadership of Schooling for Hope, an emerging nonprofit that supports private schools that serve predominantly families of color.
Schooling for Hope collaborates with organizations like East Ed to provide low-cost consulting by education experts to schools, including those within the NativityMiguel Coalition. Pear Associates provided critical training and coaching to Schooling for Hope as they pursued regional and national foundation funding to support their programming.
Root NS engaged Pear Associates to provide ongoing strategic grant writing support
Root NS, the only youth job training program North of Boston that utilizes the culinary arts within an experiential learning social enterprise model. The relationship has already proved fruitful as Root has secured several grants from new funders and sustained funding from established foundation partners.
The Milford Thrives Early Childhood Collaborative contracted with Pear Associates to conduct an assessment to better understand the service and resource needs of local families with young children.
Through document review, data research, stakeholder engagement, and strategic discussion, Pear Associates helped the Collaborative identify its priorities for the coming year, including Family Engagement and Community Programming, Family Communications, Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Building Referrals to Milford-Based Services.
Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center engages Pear Associates to address patients’ social determinants of health through an assessment and strategic planning process
Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center provides comprehensive, patient-centered health care services to the diverse communities in Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury, and surrounding neighborhoods. Pear Associates was engaged to explore a range of quantitative and qualitative data sources to identify the non-medical issues that were impacting patient health, including food insecurity, housing instability, stress, and violence. We developed a set of actionable recommendations for Harvard Street, including strengthening partnerships with other community organizations and formalizing a referral process for patients to access services. All data and recommendations were incorporated into a final deliverable report, which was shared with senior leadership.
Seven Hills Foundation Engages Pear Associates to Provide External Assistance on Strategy, Funder Research, and Grant Writing
Seven Hills Behavioral Health, an affiliate of Seven Hills Foundation, was nearing the close of a multiyear Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant cycle that supported its youth-focused health promotion services. To assist with the sustainability of this critical work in the New Bedford and Fall River area of Massachusetts, Seven Hills Foundation engaged Pear Associates to provide external assistance on strategy, funder research, and grant writing. Pear Associates worked with the Seven Hills Behavioral Health program team and the Seven Hills Foundation advancement team to identify opportunities, develop a compelling program proposal, and build internal capacity for the future acquisition of public and private grant opportunities.
Pear Associates Provides Consulting Services to Support the New England Alliances for College and Career Readiness
The New Hampshire Alliance for College and Career Readiness was launched with a three-year seed grant from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation which concluded in September of 2020. To assist with sustainability efforts, The Alliance engaged Pear Associates to help develop a fundraising strategy and to write grant proposals. Based on the success of this engagement, The Alliance recommended Pear Associates to Education First to provide consulting services to support the New England Alliances for College and Career Readiness, whose members are facing similar sustainability challenges. Working with Education First, Pear Associates provided one-on-one technical assistance to MaineSpark and Advance Vermont and facilitated a Sustainability Boot Camp for the three Northern New England initiatives
Pear Associates Partners with Alliances to Develop an Action Plan for Future Sustainability
Over the past three years, through a grant from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Education First has supported the New England Alliances for College and Career Readiness (NEACCR). A recent change in Nellie Mae’s grantmaking has forced the alliances to re-examine their growth strategies and fundraising goals. Education First engaged Pear Associates to provide sustainability consulting services to three of the five alliances ( Maine Spark, Advance Vermont, and the New Hampshire Alliance for College and Career Readiness) as they navigate their future growth without the continued support of Nellie Mae funding. Pear Associates worked with each Alliance one-on-one to develop an action plan for future sustainability that explored foundations, business partnerships, and membership structure and facilitated a three-hour boot camp to address shared sustainability challenges.
Pear Associates Develops Long Term Partnership with the Phoenix Charter Academy Network
The Phoenix Charter Academy was established in 2006 to provide high-risk youth with the academic and emotional support needed to successfully complete high school and become high achieving, self-sufficient adults. When Phoenix was restructuring their external affairs team in 2019, they engaged Pear Associates to fill a temporary grant writing role. Based on the great synergies between our teams, this short term gig has become a long term partnership. Over the past year, we have helped Phoenix secure grants to enhance operations, and expand the Phoenix Forward program, which offers high school students early access to college courses and exposure to workforce preparedness opportunities.
Pear Associates Collaborates with LAUNCH Manchester on their Strategic Plan
With a long-term goal of ensuring all children enter school ready to learn and able to succeed, LAUNCH Manchester, an initiative of Amoskeag Health, wanted to create a road map to help guide the initiative towards reaching this goal. After being awarded funding from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to support strategic planning, LAUNCH Manchester brought on Pear Associates to oversee the process.
Meeting monthly between January and May 2019, Strategic Plan Workgroup members crafted strategies to strengthen existing collaborations and programs while addressing gaps in services. The resulting document, LAUNCH Manchester: Five Year Strategic Plan for Young Children and Families, identifies priority areas with sequenced and actionable approaches intended to strengthen the community’s ability to support young children, birth to age 8, and their families. The Strategic Plan identifies areas to expand and deepen partnerships and highlights growing community needs.
Grant Writing Services Result in Wins for Inversant
For ten years, Inversant has been on a mission to ensure that through parental engagement, every low-to-moderate income family has the resources and understanding they need to achieve their goals for higher education.
Inversant first contracted with Pear Associates in February 2019 when a transition among their staff necessitated additional support with grant writing. Over the past year, Pear Associates has been an integral part of Inversant’s Development team, securing hundreds of thousands of dollars for their parent engagement programs.
When Heidi Hancock joined Inversant as the new VP of Advancement, she recognized the value Pear Associates brought to the organization.
In 2020, our role will expand to include services for Inversant’s sister organization, La Vida Scholars, which equips students with resources and preparation needed to enter college.
Project Hope Engages Pear Associates to Develop a Marketing and Community Outreach Plan
As a multi-service agency that moves families up and out of poverty in Boston, Project Hope first engaged Pear Associates in Summer 2018 to create a Marketing and Community Outreach Plan. Through this initiative, Project Hope was better able to communicate the value of the organization to a variety of audiences, including donors, program participants, and referral partners. Pear Associates helped develop clear and consistent messages about all programs, positioning Project Hope’s Executive Director as a thought leader, and amplifying the participant voice through the Ambassador’s Bureau.
Impressed with Pear Associates’ ability to facilitate meetings and develop content, Project Hope engaged the firm on two large-scale grant writing projects that involved a significant level of strategy to inform the proposed approach. These grant writing efforts resulted in Project Hope winning a six-figure grant from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to expand its adult basic education and English as a Second Language program. Another proposal to support Project Hope’s shelter and housing services is pending.
Pear Associates helps mission-driven organizations become more fruitful through strategic growth and fund development.
