My New Red Shoes
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The SF Bay Area is leading the state’s and the nation’s economic boom. It also leads in adult education levels, maintains the highest average income levels per family and, as a result, also has some of the nation’s highest housing costs. But in the shadows of this economic explosion, the region’s poverty rate hovers around 18.5 percent and the widening socioeconomic gap has created a two-tiered society. Students experiencing poverty confront many hardships, but the lack of adequate clothing and footwear, and the cognitive stress of not having their basic needs met is consistently cited by researchers, educators, and child welfare advocates as a major systemic barrier to regular school attendance and engagement. The resulting emotional toll can impact a child’s social and emotional well-being and physical health for years to come.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Basic Needs Distribution
MNRS’ Basic Needs Distribution Program mobilizes in-kind resources for children and families experiencing economic hardship, and works to meet their basic needs with dignity. At the core of our work is the belief that the building blocks of a safe, stable, and healthy life begins with the fulfillment of basic needs. Our approach also strengthens the community social safety net by expanding the capacity of agency partners to increase services and support to vulnerable children and households.
MNRS delivers essential and emergency items (such as shoes, clothing, personal care items, etc.) to thousands of vulnerable children and families throughout the year. Through strong partnerships that we have established with trusted local child-serving agencies and schools, we are able to identify, reach, and target our resources to the children and families who could most benefit.
Cash Transfer Program
Local and national studies affirm MNRS’ experience that providing economic support to low-income parents and caregivers improves children’s access to basic needs, reduces stress and anxiety, strengthens health and wellness outcomes, reduces food insecurity and housing instability, and improves their school attendance and engagement.
Providing economic assistance to families promotes dignity, autonomy, social mobility and children’s development and achievement. MNRS is leveraging our strengths and assets to target cash transfers to reach our community’s most marginalized households. Our goal is to balance the scales for children whose basic needs are not being met while boosting their sense of security, stability and normalcy and improving their education and life outcomes.
Disaster Relief & Humanitarian Aid
MNRS helps to meet the urgent needs of children and families impacted by natural disasters such as wildfires and floods, public health emergencies and other humanitarian crises, locally and beyond. Working with on-the-ground partners, we provide basic needs items and/or emergency financial assistance in the aftermath of disasters.
MNRS also provides technical program and logistics support to NGOs and other private sector partners to assist the processing and delivery of humanitarian aid. During the fall of 2022, in partnership with USA for UNHCR, and with the help of more than a thousand volunteers from across the Bay Area, MNRS prepared 120,000 pairs of winter boots for shipment to Ukrainian refugees.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of new programs/program sites
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Basic Needs Distribution
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
With the goal of scaling our impact and reach, MNRS launched a Portland Affiliate in 2015, an Oakland Satellite in 2016, and new initiatives to clothe newcomer immigrant and migrant students in 2017.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants
Related Program
Basic Needs Distribution
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The impact of the clothing gap on school-age children is significant. Studies show that students without adequate clothing and footwear are more likely to miss school, experience bullying and experience social isolation. The emotional toll and toxic stress of poverty can impact their social and emotional well-being and physical health for years to come.
The goals of our program are to:
1. Strengthen the capacity of our agency partners to increase services to students experiencing economic hardship
2. Reduce toxic stress factors related to poverty and improve social-emotional and health outcomes for youth experiencing economic hardship.
3. Improve school attendance and participation outcomes for students benefitting from the program.
4. Improve the financial stability of families.
Beyond providing the necessities of new shoes and clothing, MNRS helps to create long-term impact by boosting the self-esteem and confidence of students whose families experience economic hardship. By supporting a positive educational experience, MNRS helps disadvantaged students to break the cycle of poverty.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
My New Red Shoes provides a pair of new shoes and needed clothing to Kindergarten through 12th grade students at any time throughout the year. MNRS reaches the homeless and low-income children it serves by establishing partnerships with schools, homeless shelters, transitional housing programs, domestic shelters, case management agencies and other community-based child-serving organizations to identify the children and youth who would receive the greatest impact from its services. This partnership helps to maximize the use of community resources, assures that MNRS continues to address an unmet need, and allows its partner agencies to fill a gap in basic services they would otherwise be unable to provide.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Since 2006, My New Red Shoes has clothed more than 90,000 students, filling a critical, unmet need. We do this with the support of a dynamic team, an engaged Board of Directors and an active and enthusiastic volunteer corps composed of families, individuals, community groups and corporate teams.
MNRS strives to continually strengthen its impact in high-need communities by deepening its relationships with current and new partner agencies and by increasing the capacity of the community’s resources to improve or expand its services to poor and homeless children. As it continues to strengthen its community-based partnerships, it has solicited and received valuable input from agency partners, gift recipients and their families regarding ways to continue to make its program more impactful and meaningful. This input is central to ensuring the organization is inclusive of the children and families it serves, and most importantly, for ensuring its programs are community-driven.
MNRS believes that the greatest impact it can ultimately provide is to empower the communities it serves by giving them the framework to identify community-centric solutions tailored to their specific needs--and then responding to those needs.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Since our founding in 2006, My New Red Shoes has provided new shoes and clothing to more than 90,000 students. In late 2019, the MNRS Board launched a new human centered strategic planning process with the goal of increasing the organization’s capacity and effectiveness in responding to the widening poverty gap and the growing struggle low-income families face to provide for their children's basic needs. Through this process, it is also exploring new partnerships and developing new pilot initiatives that would put new financial payment products into the hands of the families we serve and provide them with supports, information, and mentoring to help close the financial literacy gap that so often holds lower-income families back from engaging with the banking system. MNRS hopes to elevate the organization’s impact as it strengthens and scales its program reach and undertakes a broader presence in the community.
In 2020, in response to the widening poverty gap and the growing struggle low-income families face to provide for their children’s basic needs, MNRS has expanded its program offerings by piloting a Long-Term Services Initiative. This initiative seeks to close the clothing gap for a select group of students and provide a measure of financial stability to their families by addressing their student’s on-going footwear and clothing needs for an extended period of time--often for a full year or more depending on family circumstances.
My New Red Shoes’ Long-Term Services Initiative works closely with staff from local schools and with case managers from partner agencies to identify the families that would benefit most from their children receiving new shoes and clothing. As each child’s clothing needs arise, MNRS receives information from case managers, social workers or counselors and works to provide needed items/support. Responsiveness to seasonal needs is critical to reducing anxiety and closing the opportunity and inclusion gap for students whose families struggle.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
My New Red Shoes
Board of directorsas of 01/05/2024
Minh Ngo
My New Red Shoes
Term: 2023 -
Minh Ngo
My New Red Shoes
Kelly Reck
Employer Health Innovation Roundtable
Catt Olazabal
Hispanics in Philanthropy
Hellena Ruiz
LISC
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/05/2024GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.