On Tuesday, March 17th, our staff participated in a ‘Brown Bag Lunch Lab,’ facilitated by Art in Praxis, a capacity building enterprise that specializes in placing art and culture at the center of organizational growth. Over food and interactive discussion, SEM’s staff creatively engaged in a group discussion and an individual exercise that focused on funding our priorities.
Using a mock budget of $500 and our current strategic priorities, ‘The Budget Game’ gave each staff member an opportunity to determine how much and where each staff member would allocate money for expenses. The six categories were as follows: Educators and Mentors, Employee Benefits, Client Expenses, Grant Writing, Accounting, and IT Support.
Following the idea that a budget can tell a story of how an organization plans to achieve it’s strategic priorities, our staff had different perspectives on where the money should be allocated, but we all had the same intention and vision for Southeast Ministry. “I think it was interesting to see that we all have different perspectives on where the money should go based on our roles. For instance, data systems is something that I don’t use daily, so it wasn’t a priority for me, but it’s good to see we all have the same vision for Southeast Ministry,” said Riley Grime, one of our GED instructors. “For me, I would allocate more money to grant writing and client expenses, so that the people we’re serving are getting the best services,” said Kevin Gibbs, a custodian at Southeast Ministry.
For information regarding donating to Southeast Ministry, our programs, or volunteering, please visit. www.southeastministrydc.org, or call 202-562-2636.
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