OMAHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION

#OPSFPossible

aka OMAHA SCHOOLS FOUNDATION   |   Omaha, NE   |  www.opsfpossible.org

Mission

THE MISSION OF THE OMAHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION IS TO PROVIDE STUDENTS AND STAFF OF THE OMAHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS ACADEMIC PROGRAMS, ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES AND PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES WHICH ARE BEYOND THE BUDGET CONSTRAINTS OF THE OMAHA SCHOOL DISTRICT

Notes from the nonprofit

Over the course of the last year, the Foundation's leadership worked diligently to increase board engagement, District engagement with the Foundation, teacher engagement with the Foundation and community engagement. The development of the marketing plan was a necessary action step toward this end. Progress has been seen through social media, donations and community interactions. The journey continues.

Ruling year info

1984

Executive Director

Mrs. Toba Cohen-Dunning

Main address

3861 Farnam Street

Omaha, NE 68131 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

36-3301526

NTEE code info

Primary/Elementary Schools (B24)

Secondary/High School (B25)

Kindergarten, Nursery Schools, Preschool, Early Admissions (B21)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Blog

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

"The Omaha Public Schools Strategic Plan of Action deliberately and creatively addresses the trends Omaha Public Schools faces and reimagines a 21st century education ecosystem that prepares all students for a successful life after high school." has a focus of ensuring graduating seniors have had a complete education, focusing on the experience toward the whole child. One particular aspect is ensuring that all third graders are literate and enjoy reading when they enter fourth grade. The Omaha Public Schools Foundation is directing dollars strategically to support these objectives as well as our other priorities of universal early childhood programs, quality before/after school parent-pay childcare programs, supporting emergency needs for students in poverty and post-secondary scholarships for graduating Omaha Public Schools seniors.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Kids Club

Kids Club is a before and after school program administered by the Omaha Schools Foundation for children attending Omaha Public Elementary Schools. The mission of Kids Club is to provide high quality care for children in a safe nurturing environment. Students are greeted each day by qualified child care specialists who facilitate activities that include arts and crafts, outdoor games, storytelling, music and drama.

Population(s) Served

Omaha Schools Foundation currently provides early childhood programs at four Omaha Public Schools. The classroom instruction is overseen by early childhood certificated teachers and paraprofessionals using “Creative Curriculum.” Creative Curriculum is used to provide the children with academic, social and emotional opportunities as they begin their learning journey.

Population(s) Served

The Foundation strives to raise new scholarship dollars each year to provide optimal funding for Omaha Public Schools graduating seniors the opportunity to pursue post-secondary education, while growing established endowments.

Population(s) Served

The Foundation strives to provide more dollars annually to 6,000 Omaha Public School teachers as tax dollars for education continue to decline.

Population(s) Served

Where we work

Affiliations & memberships

Partners for Livable Communities Sustainability Award 2018

Videos

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of Facebook followers

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

The Omaha Public Schools Foundation started utilizing FB insights at the beginning at 2017.

Number of websites and organizations (outside of our organization) that share our resources and information

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

The number of organizations sharing resources/information increased with the broad implementation of the Foundation's marketing plan.

Number of return website visitors

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Kids Club

Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

The Foundation developed its marketing plan in 2017 and implemented it in 2018. The number of return visitors has increased consistently. Prior to 2017 we did not effectively collect this data.

Number of website pageviews

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Kids Club

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

There is a direct correlation between the implementation of the marketing plan & the increase in pageviews. The Foundation also made the site more user friendly with easier ways to pay for services.

Number of unique website visitors

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Omaha Public Schools Foundation Teacher Classroom Grants

Type of Metric

Context - describing the issue we work on

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

This metric showed us that our teacher classroom grant program is advancing and the message of the importance of helping to fund projects is increasing.

Number of new website visitors

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Kids Club

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

This number directly relates to our childcare/early childhood program website. What this number told us was that the need for early childhood care continues to be a community issue.

Average number of impressions on Twitter

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Omaha Public Schools Foundation Scholarships

Type of Metric

Context - describing the issue we work on

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of students per teacher during the reporting period

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Early Childhood Education

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

19-20 school year: Covid closed our early childhood classrooms on 3/1/20. As this is a parent-pay program with childcare as a key element, we are not able to offer the program for 20-21 remotely.

Number of children who have emerging literacy skills such as beginning letter recognition and phonological awareness, story comprehension, and use of writing materials.

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Early Childhood Education

Type of Metric

Context - describing the issue we work on

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

These numbers represent the number of children who have successfully left our program, ages 4-5, and entered kindergarten in the same school. We have gradually increased the number of sites.

Number of students at or above a 90% attendance rate

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Early Childhood Education

Type of Metric

Context - describing the issue we work on

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

This represents the number of students at 90% or above attending our early childhood program.

Number of children who received childcare services.

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

No target populations selected

Related Program

Kids Club

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Context Notes

This data represents average daily attendance at 42 elementary schools, before and after school.

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Goals:
1) The Foundation is strategically focusing teacher classroom grant dollars on District-aligned initiatives. However, based on a recent survey of teachers, it is now understood that the pressure on teachers to perform remote AND in person learning is the first priority. 60% said that they would not have the time or inclination to focus on a teacher classroom grant this school year.


The Foundation works to ensure that graduating seniors have scholarship opportunities to pursue post-secondary education. There is an ongoing effort to provide scholarships for students who are going on to trade schools, as well. The increase in interest in Career Education Academies in the District has grown exponentially over the last few years and the Foundation is supporting dual-enrollment, certifications, tools/equipment needs. The 21-22 school year will show an increase in wall to wall academies.

Strategies include:

1) Quarterly meetings between Foundation leadership and the Superintendent to ensure that there is a clear understanding of how we are supporting her efforts and that they are targeted;

2) Continued quality communication with parents to ensure their childcare needs are met when their children are in the school buildings. Covid has taken a toll on working families and childcare remains a necessary service. Our challenge is providing the program under health guidelines to keep all participants and staff healthy;

3) Continued review of our business model (including grant writing and seeking increased donations) to ensure we are able to continue operations during Covid;

4) Continued pursuit of scholarship dollars to ensure our student membership which is currently 53,000 and 76% FRL, have the best funding available to pursue a post-secondary education.

Our capabilities include an engaged board of directors, a strong partnership with the Superintendent and her leadership, a strong partnership with community leaders and a solid social media/community presence that is overseen by qualified media professionals.

The OPS Foundation Executive Director is also the president of the board of directors of the National Schools Foundation Association which is a membership organization to K-12 education foundations across the U.S. Through this opportunity, one of the most interesting notes is that our ed foundations struggle with operational dollars nationwide. The OPS Foundation continues to mentor other colleagues to develop a business model, such as the one that exists around parent-pay childcare and early childhood classrooms. Unfortunately, Covid has hit non-profits as hard as businesses. The important piece to remember is that K-12 education foundations serve a very specific role for their Districts and as tax dollars continue to be diluted, the mission of these foundations does not change. The OPS Foundation is proud to serve the student membership of the largest urban school district in the State of Nebraska.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

    Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Suggestion box/email,

  • 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,

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    A recent example of how we changed a program was a class size reduction in our early childhood program. We surveyed parents and found that they thought 24 children per classroom was too many and there wasn't enough personal attention. The classroom size will be reduced for the 21-22 school year.

  • With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

    Our staff, Our board, Our funders,

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback,

Financials

OMAHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build 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.

OMAHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION

Board of directors
as of 11/3/2020
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Steve Kinkead

Rehab Visions

Cheryl Logan

David Van Metre

Barbara Velazquez

Gema Simmons

Sara Howard

Tracy Casady

Robert Miller

Adam Steffen

Sharon Kirshenbaum

Sarah Gilbert

Antonio Espejo

Alberto Varas

Herman Colvin

Tiffanie McCowin

Theresa Barron-McKeagney

Nancy Oberst

Steve Kinkead

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • 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

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 11/03/2020

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or Straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability

Equity strategies

Last updated: 11/03/2020

Policies and practices developed in partnership with Equity in the Center, a project that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems within the social sector to increase racial equity. Learn more

Data
  • 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.
Policies and processes
  • 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 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.