Admission Possible has three central value propositions: -To offer low-income students the skills and guidance necessary to earn admission to college; -To provide colleges and universities with a more diverse pool of qualified applicants, thereby helping to ensure a strong and diverse workforce for the Minnesota economy, and -To help prepare the next generation of teachers, guidance counselors and youth workers by providing recent college graduates with the opportunity to serve in schools as AmeriCorps members. One of the great promises of this country is often referred to as "the American dream” the notion that everyone willing to work hard and play by the rules will have an equal opportunity to use their talents to make a good life for themselves. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case when considering a key component of achieving the American dream in the 21st century: access to a college education. Only about one in 17 young people from the nation's poorest families - or less than 6% - can expect to earn a bachelor's degree by age 24. For those from the nation's wealthiest families, the rate rises to better than one in two (USA Today, 2005). This trend is especially troubling because those with a college degree, according to the U.S. Census, will earn approximately $1 million more over their lifetime than a high school graduate. In addition, they will pay $300,000 more in federal income taxes and will experience unemployment rates 30% lower than high school graduates. A college education remains the surest path for an individual out of poverty and into a solid middle-class life. By providing low-income students with both the guidance and the basic tools necessary to compete effectively, Admission Possible has demonstrated that it can dramatically improve these students' chances of attending a college or university. To date, 98% of our students have earned admission to college, and nearly 80% of those who enrolled in college are still working toward their college degree or have already graduated. David MacLennan, Cargill In the last fiscal year, 84% of Admission Possible's expenses were put toward program support, well above the 70% recommended by the Charities Review Council. Admission Possible purposefully runs on a lean budget in order to maximize the number of students it can serve. Currently, it costs us $3,000 to put a student through two years of our program and on the path to college, an investment that will result in an average increase of $1 million in income over that student's lifetime. Due to economic forces, just like most nonprofits, Admission Possible will have to work very hard this year to raise enough money to cover its core expenses. Organizationally, we understand the importance of our website as the public face of our organization, but cannot prioritize the expense over serving more students. While this would be the perfect year for Admission Possible to invest in its website before it's introduction to new communities, in-kind support would be the most responsible, and only, route for us to accomplishing this. Lastly, Admission Possible was the first runner-up in this year's Social Entrepreneur's Cup. Through this, Admission Possible became familiar with the Overnight Website and the great success past winners of the Social Entrepreneur's Cup had in working with design teams. When we learned that we could apply for a spot in the Overnight Website Challenge, we were ecstatic! We would be honored to be part of the Challenge and are well-positioned to make the most out of the opportunity. Thank you for offering this to the nonprofit community and for your consideration of our application. St. Paul 2010-01-05T19:36:08Z 2009-12-22T00:16:13Z Jim McCorkell $2,527,482 (September 1, 2008 - August 31, 2009) 651-917-3522 We have several other website improvement ideas that could help Admission Possible "green" our work: -Online Applications: Each winter, we have more than 300 individuals apply for AmeriCorps positions with Admission Possible and they each submit multiple documents with their application. If we had an web-based system to accept applications, we could save both on paper and staff time. -Student Worksheets: Currently we provide each of our coaches with a binder of worksheets that they share with their students throughout the year. If some of the worksheets could be converted to webpages, our students could access them online in the computer labs where they have session and we could avoid making thousands of copies each year. -Password Protected Access: A password-protected section of our website to share documents, training and resources would be a greener and better way for staff and Corps members access regularly used data that would otherwise be printed and stored in hard copy form. 24 $82,000 (includes our managed services contract as well as software and hardware.) This June, President Obama drew national attention to Admission Possible's work at a White House event highlighting innovative nonprofit solutions to serious domestic challenges. He said, "Admission Possible operates in just two states now. So imagine if it was 10, or 20 or 50." Admission Possible intends to answer the President's call to service - this December our Board of Directors voted to implement a national growth strategy that will provide students across the country the support they need to gain admission to college. This growth plan has renewed our sense of urgency to develop a fully functional website, focusing on the following areas: -Navigation and Structure: Our current structure is not conducive to a multi-site operation, a capacity that will become increasingly important for our organization in the coming years. As our program has grown, more and more information has been added to our site without proper organization. We would like to start fresh and design a site with clear, intuitive navigation that provides a call to action for each segment of visitors so we don't lose them! -Optimization and Content Management System: Without any web design expertise on staff, we need help optimizing our site so that when parents and students are seeking college access support, they find us. In addition, a system that was easy to use would encourage staff members to make updates and keep information current. - ADA Compliance: In keeping with our deep commitment to ensuring equal access to all individuals, we want to improve the usability of our website based on ADA best practices. -Visually Pleasing: Admission Possible is an energetic, dynamic and professional organization.We would love to update our site design to reflect our organizational culture and possibly add some bells and whistles like flashing photos and scrolling logos of our donors. -Social Networking Space: Admission Possible supports its high school program graduates in their transition to college and through the completion of their degree. We currently use Facebook to share resources and facilitate a network of peer support but are limited by the constraints of the site. A social networking space on our website could help us better support college students as they complete their degrees. -Information sharing: Over the years, Admission Possible has gathered an abundance of resources on college access that have the potential to help students beyond those enrolled in our program. Right now, we do not have a way to catalog resources online and share them with the broader community. -Program improvement: We have long been interested in having the capability to host a library of podcasts on our website to help train new AmeriCorps members. Due to the nature of their one-year time commitment, each year we have a considerable number of incoming coaches to train and a library of best practice videos would help increase consistency and decrease cost, especially across multiple branches. /system/logos/24/normal/St_Louis_Park.jpg?1262720108 image/pjpeg St_Louis_Park.jpg 1905320 2010-01-05T19:35:08Z Admission Possible is a nonprofit organization committed to helping promising low-income high school students gain admission to college. Each year, approximately 200,000 low-income students in the United States graduate from high school prepared for college, but don't go. At no cost to students or our partner high schools, we provide four critical services to help students prepare for and earn admission to college, including: 1) Intensive ACT/SAT preparation; 2) Guidance in preparing college applications; 3) Financial aid assistance; and 4) Guidance in the transition to college. Students in the program are "coached" by recent college graduates who dedicate a year of their life to serve as AmeriCorps members. These idealistic, energetic young leaders have a powerful influence on high school students, and the AmeriCorps model allows for a cost-effective and highly replicable approach. Admission Possible 651-917-3525 $3,176,819 (September 1, 2008 - August 31, 2009) false true MN 450 N. Syndicate Street, Ste. 200 41-1968798 2010-01-12T22:04:26Z http://www.admissionpossible.org 55104