Bottom Line MA Regional Board Meeting April 1, 2014, 8am-10am Bottom Line JP Office

1. Bottom Line MA Regional Board Meeting April 1, 2014, 8am-10am Bottom Line JP Office 500 Amory Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

2. April 1 - Meeting Agenda State of the Board and National Kevin 15 Minutes Welcome National Updates State of the Organization Mike W/Denella 15 Minutes Dashboard Metrics Welcome Denella Clark Fundraising Mike W/Mike R/Jen 30 Minutes FY2014 Fundraising Status Dinner Update and Logistics Closing the Gap Nominating Committee Update Viola 15 Minutes Committee Structure Kevin 30 Minutes Marketing Update Mike 10 Minutes Next Board Meeting: Friday, June 6th,12pm-6pm with Dinner Following, Location TBD Next Events: Get In, Graduate, Go Far Dinner – April 8th, 6pm-9pm, Boston Convention Center Bottom Line Recognition Night – June 4th, 6pm-8pm, State Street, 1 Lincoln Street, Boston

3. State of the Board and National • Chicago Update • Chris Broughton, Chicago Executive Director has joined the team. • We are currently searching for office space. • We are still looking for friends and colleagues who might be interested in the Chicago Board. • Current MA program staff are being interviewed to move out to Chicago and help lead the programs. • Chicago Kick-Off Reception is taking place on June 12th. • External Evaluation Details • Recruiting is underway. In June, we will let students know whether we are able to offer them a spot. • At the last Board Meeting, there was a request for some language and detail around the evaluation. That is included in the appendix. • National Board • We are currently looking to expand the National Board. • We are working to align Board committees across National and our local sites. More details and discussion later in the meeting.

4. State of the Organization Our Mission Bottom Line helps low-income, first-generation youth get in to college, graduate from college, and go far in life by providing guidance from the beginning of the college application process until college graduation Our Vision We work to ensure that every student can access and attain a college diploma, regardless of their family background or where they live. We believe that helping enough students from each community realize the dream of a college diploma can transform that community with lasting change Dashboard Metrics

5. State of the Organization • Director of Leadership Giving Update • Denella Clark has joined Bottom Line as our Director of Leadership Giving. Welcome Denella! • Denella has an impressive background in development and building relationships with major donors at institutions including The Dimock Center and Joslin Diabetes Center. • Denella’s goals for the first 3 months include meeting with Board Members, building a portfolio of donors, setting up external meetings, supporting our fundraising in Q4 (Apr-June), building a more robust metric system for donor cultivation, and supporting the creation of business rules for our internal processes. • Hiring Plans • Background Check Update: HR Concepts Total Solutions (HRCTS) will manage our background checks. They use a company called Easy Backgrounds. We have a draft policy. The policy is being finalized with input from an attorney introduced to Bottom Line by Ruthanne and by Marsh and McLennan. This policy will first be used for our current open positions, set to begin this summer. • Counselor Openings: We have begun the process of hiring counselors for our Access and Success programs. Positions are posted and phone interviews have begun. The final number of counselors will be determined by the number of internal promotions, staff leaving for Chicago, and turnover beyond what we already know.

6. Fundraising: FY2014 and Q4 Status: We are slightly behind our revenue target to date. Based on our projections (see next slide) we need to raise approximately $200,000 in new and increased support in the final quarter of the year (April-June) in order to break even.

7. Fundraising: Annual Dinner Projected Fundraising (Included in revenue projections on previous slide) This Week • Finalize invitees (send names and e-mail addresses). • Inform Mike, Jen and Denella about VIP guests. April 8 • Serve as “host” at event. • We will ask that each Board member introduce yourself and say “thank you” to a few supporters – we will e-mail you specific names in advance of the Dinner along with talking points in case they are helpful. • Encourage group bidding during auction (see next slide) and Fund-a-Need participation After April 8 • By April 10th, let us know who you spoke with at the event and whether they may be interested in getting more involved or supporting. • We will send each Board Member quotes from the student speeches and pictures that can be used in follow-up with attendees and those who couldn’t make it. • Help us set up 2-3 meetings by the end of April with attendees or those who couldn’t make it. We want to make sure to follow-up while the impact of the Dinner is still fresh in people’s minds.

8. Fundraising: Dinner Auction

9. Fundraising: Closing the Gap Dinner Follow-Up • Mike/Jen/Denella plan to use April-June to meet with current and potential supporters. • Each Board Member can help by setting up 2-3 introductions or meetings by the end of April. This can include Dinner attendees or those who couldn’t make it. Growth Campaign • We have $811,000 left to raise for our Growth Campaign, but we would like to raise at least $23,000 more by the end of June to complete our match requirement for the coming year. Recognition Night • Recognition Night is taking place on June 4th from 6pm to 8pm, hosted by State Street at 1 Lincoln Street • Please use Recognition Night to engage potential supporters. • We ask each Board Member to bring at least 1 guest who could support Bottom Line Other Opportunities • House Parties: We would like to host at least 2 house parties or cultivation events by June 15th. • Creative support: Ideas like asking for support of Bottom Line in lieu of birthday gifts. • Board Commitments: If you have yet to make your gift or set up meetings from your Board Commitment form, we hope we can use the last quarter of the year for that. • We are working on several grant opportunities for the final quarter of the year that could help us reach our fundraising goals

10. Nominating Committee Nominating Committee Dashboard Current Board Membership: 17 • Current Maximum: 25 • Max Available Board Positions: 8 • Board Members with 3rd Terms Ending June 2014: 1 • Board Members with 1st or 2nd Terms Ending June 2014: 5 • Current Board Candidates: 10 Potential Board Candidates Next Steps Set up meetings between candidates ready to move forward and Board/Staff • Decide timing for bringing on new Board Members and on-boarding

11. Board Committees As the organization grows and we add more locations, each with a Regional Board, the importance of alignment across sites has become clear, to facilitate communication and planning. Below are the recommendations for the National Board and Regional Board committee structure. This is not a fundamental shift for the MA Regional Board, but hopefully it helps further clarify the objectives of each committee and provides context for how the MA Regional Board relates to the leadership of Bottom Line’s other sites. • National Board • The National Board shall have 3 standing committees: (1) Governance Committee, (2) Development and Strategy Committee, (3) Finance and Audit Committee • Each National Committee will include a set of standing responsibilities and can elect to set additional goals on an annual basis.  The chairs of each committee shall report to the National Board Chair. • Regional Boards • Each Regional Board, when it reaches at least 9 members, will have at least three committees that are reflective of the National Board: (1) Governance Committee, (2) Development Committee, (3) Strategy and Finance Committee – at the regional level, financial role is secondary to strategy. • Each Regional Committee will include a set of standing responsibilities and can elect to set additional goals on an annual basis.  The chairs of each committee shall report to the Regional Board Chair. • Additional temporary and/or ad hoc committees can be created by each Board (National or Regional) as necessary to carry out the task of the Board (i.e. Marketing Committee) • Next Steps • Review committee job descriptions on following slides and clarify any questions • Feedback on what isn’t covered that we need or want to address locally in MA • Before the June Board Meeting, share the committee you’d like to be a part of (preference and second choice). Also, let Kevin know if you’d be interested in a Committee Chair role. The options are the 3 standing committees and the Marketing Committee.

12. Board Committee Roles • Governance Committee (Currently Nominating Committee) • Nominate new members to the Board: The Committee will accept suggestions and seek out on its own qualified candidates for open Board positions taking into account the current Board matrix and need for diversity and ability to garner resources. • Orient new Board members: The Committee will arrange for both written and verbal education of new members. • Regional Executive Evaluation: In consultation with the CEO, evaluate on an annual basis, the performance of the Executive Director of each region. • Evaluate the Regional Board’s Set of Responsibilities: Annually, review the regional board responsibilities document and recommend changes where appropriate. • Evaluate the effectiveness of the Board: On an annual basis use an instrument to evaluate the effectiveness of the Board and its governance structure by seeking input from various constituencies and make recommendations for changes in governance when warranted. • Evaluate individual members of the Boards: Prior to nominating a Trustee for re-election, determine whether the individual has contributed sufficient time, talent, and treasure to be re-elected and ascertain whether the individual feels their personal situation will allow them to continue their contribution. • Review conflict of interest situations: Annually, and in cooperation with the Strategy and Finance Committee, review all self-identified conflicts of interest and make recommendations to the Board.

13. Board Committee Roles • Development Committee • Fundraising Planning: Support development staff in building and leading an active fundraising program. Review fundraising plans and budgets developed by staff and present them to the Board for approval. • Support the Development Staff: Provide overall volunteer leadership for the development program and set the example for Board participation in the development process. Be actively involved in the identification and cultivation of prospects and, where appropriate, in the solicitation of those prospects. • Individual Board Member Development Plans: Work with the development staff to create and oversee annual fundraising plans for each of the board members. • Strategy and Finance Committee (Currently Finance Committee) • Regional Financial Planning: Work with Regional ED to ensure the expense budget reflects national goals and regional priorities. • Participate in the creation of the Regional Strategic Plan. • Support the launch of any new initiatives according to the strategic plan: Regional Ex. Grand Circle Spine Initiative Support. • Foster intra-board cooperation where necessary/possible regarding fundraising initiatives and encourage bridge building between regions. • Cultural development: retention, recognition and career development. • Regional Budget Support: Support local staff in creation of annual Regional Budget and monitor financial performance. • Whistle Blower Policy: Annually review the organization’s procedures for reporting problems.

14. Marketing Update Advertising Status: $18,000 MA Budget, $10,000 National Budget • Media Buying (initially budgeted $5,000): Hill Holliday is providing pro-bono support and has been incredibly generous with their time. • WBUR: From 1/20 to 3/23, we purchased :20 underwriting messages during commutes. • WBZ: From 1/20 to 3/30, we purchased :30 underwriting messages during commutes, and we were also a sponsor of their 3/19 Business Breakfast. They are now promoting our Dinner. • Billboards: We had billboards on the Mass Pike and 93 in March. Now, both billboards are on 93. • Newspaper and Online: Hill Holliday is working to identify opportunities for in-kind donations of advertising in local papers (Boston Globe, BBJ, etc) and online (Patch, Huffington Post, etc). • MBTA: We currently have ads placed on the Red and Orange Lines. They will run through April. PR and Media Status: $75,000 MA Budget (Jan 15, 2014 – Jan 15, 2015) • WBZ: Mike has been featured twice on WBZ stories. The first was about the SAT changes and the second was about financing a college education. • WBZ Business Breakfast: Mike was able to serve on a panel with the President of Suffolk University and the Chancellor of UMass Lowell to discuss financing a college education. • NPR: Jasmine Boyd-Perry (BL Student) and Mike were on The Takeaway with John Hockenberry talking about Bottom Line and the college experience for first-generation students. This aired nationally. • WGBH: Mike and several students were in WGBH stories about SAT changes and financing a college education. We are talking with WGBH about participating in a long-term story that focuses on a first-generation student’s experience throughout the year. • Boston Globe: Justin was quoted in the Boston Globe about SAT changes. • NECN: Mike was included in a NECN story about paying for college. • Urban Update: Mike and a current college student were featured on Urban Update with Byron Barnett.

15. Appendix • Organization (5 Slides) • Finance (4 Slides) • Nominating (1 Slide) • Development (1 Slide)

16. Appendix • Organization (5 Slides) • Finance (4 Slides) • Nominating (1 Slide) • Development (1 Slide)

17. Evaluation (1 of 5) About Bottom Line’s External Evaluation Bottom Line was founded in 1997 to help low-income, first-generation students get into college, graduate from college, and go far in life. Our program features a high-impact / high-touch model in which our counselors provide one-on-one, long-term mentoring and support to low-income and first-generation students. The goal is to ensure that at-risk students stay in college and earn a bachelor’s degree. We have spent the last 17 years perfecting our program and have grown from 25 students in 1997 to serving more than 3,000 students this year and are poised to serve nearly 8,000 students annually by 2017. With our growth, comes a need to test and demonstrate that our program is effective and will stand up to a rigorous evaluation. In order to do that, we have launched a randomized control trial (RCT). The results of this study will directly impact our work as well as policy and programming throughout our field. • Importance • Across the country, millions of dollars are being invested in programs like Bottom Line. Most can produce anecdotes and internal numbers to attempt to justify these expenses. Some have taken a further step and invited independent evaluators make to comparisons to assess their results. But few, if any, are able to present scientific evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of their programs. We are positioned to be one of the first college success organizations in the country to assess our program with a rigorous long-term RCT evaluation. It’s important for Bottom Line, our stakeholders, higher education institutions, and the students whom we serve to know that our interventions lead to the outcomes we believe are true. If proven true, our program model will be shown as an effective and appropriate solution to one of the most critical social and educational issues facing our society today and we feel that policy change will occur.

18. Evaluation (2 of 5) • Over the past 17 years, we’ve internally tracked our college acceptance and our college graduation rates. It appears that our programs produce graduation results that are more than double the national average. In 2010, we worked with a Harvard graduate student, to evaluate our programs by running a matched comparison student analysis. This analysis reported that our program had a profound impact on college graduation. As a result of working in our College Success Program, there was a 17 to 19% increase in the probability that a student will graduate in 4 years and a 27 to 43% increase in the probability that a student will graduate from college within 6 years. While the results are encouraging, the research method is not the industry gold-standard. • This spring we have begun a rigorous evaluation of our combined College Access and Success intervention to attempt to demonstrate that the Bottom Line model of a third party partnering with students and an institution is an effective solution to the college graduation challenge facing the nation. In doing so, we will: • Build the evidence base for Bottom Line's effectiveness for students, families, partners, investors and policy makers • Produce data and results that will improve the level of our service and that of other institutions • Demonstrate the importance of college completion and show the impact of a model that features high- touch and long-term counseling • Encourage policy change on a local and national level that focuses the lens squarely on the solutions we’ve put into action through a series of periodic (yearly) releases of information and details of the study’s progress

19. Evaluation (3 of 5) • Study Design • Program Structure - Bottom Line serves current and aspiring first generation college students from low-income families in select urban areas of Massachusetts and New York through two linked programs. In the Access program, students in high school work with our counselors to identify colleges where they are likely to be successful, apply to those schools, complete financial aid applications, and identify the best available option. If a student attends one of Bottom Line’s 36 “target schools,” that student is placed in our Success program, which provides a student with continued one-on-one personal, academic, and career counseling for up to six years of undergraduate studies. The primary purpose of this study is to measure the effect of College Access and Success programming on a student’s likelihood of obtaining a degree. • Evaluation Strategy - In this study, we will randomly assign students to a “program group” and a control group with similar demographic and academic characteristics, and compare the subsequent college enrollment and degree attainment of the two groups to determine the effectiveness of our high-impact/high-touch model. With this study design, we are able to isolate the effect of Bottom Line’s services. Working within an existing program, using data already being collected for programmatic purposes, the design of this randomized control trial achieves the study’s purpose at a low cost. • Student Recruitment - This study design benefits from an existing circumstance that affords the opportunity to efficiently create a valid control group. Every year, student interest in our program outstrips the number of available spots. The total number of confirmed-eligible students allows us to fill all available seats and construct a large control group (see Group Size and Statistical Power below). • Student Eligibility - Students will be eligible for the Bottom Line program if they have submitted an application and our program staff has verified that they meet Bottom Line criteria for academic performance, first-generation status, and family income. Bottom Line verifies each applicant’s eligibility through high school transcripts, family tax returns, and an in-person interview. Only students who are eligible for Bottom Line are placed into the random assignment lottery. • Random Assignment Methods - Among students who meet these eligibility criteria, we will randomly assign the experimental groups at the student level and within each program site (i.e., Massachusetts and New York). We will confirm, using academic achievement and demographic data, that the treatment and control groups are statistically equivalent following randomization. The data used in the randomization process is already collected for the purposes of serving Bottom Line students.

20. Evaluation (4 of 5) Student Tracking Process - Students consent to participation in the study before they are placed in the random assignment lottery. We will track the enrollment and degree completion of both the program group and control group via the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). This method of tracking student progress provides us with definitive data that will allow us to draw statistically significant conclusions about our effectiveness. Specifically, NSC data shows the name of the institution where a given student is enrolled, whether they are enrolled on a full-time or part-time basis, and whether they have earned a degree. This data will allow us to compare the rate of degree attainment among students who receive Bottom Line’s support to the rate of demographically and academically identical students who do not work with Bottom Line. Study Duration – Bottom Line will be recruiting the control group from the high school class of 2015. The majority of these students will enter college in the fall of 2015, and will be tracked for up to six consecutive years of college attendance. As such, the study will produce seven sets of analysis, and continue through the 2020-2021 academic year. Group Size and Statistical Power - The design of this study requires no change to any aspect of Bottom Line’s program model, including the number of students we serve. The randomization will be conducted by the evaluation team at the University of Virginia, led by Dr. Ben Castleman. Based on power calculations conducted by Dr. Castleman, we estimate that we have 80 percent power to detect reasonably-sized degree completion impacts with program and control groups of the following sizes: These calculations use a conservative estimate of the total number of confirmed students we will be able to recruit at each Bottom Line site. A copy of a communication from the UVA Institutional Review board to Dr. Castleman confirms that this project has been reviewed and approved by UVA. As such, we believe this demonstrates that the study meets recognized ethical standards for research with human subjects.

21. Evaluation (5 of 5) • Partners • We’ve assembled a team of three key partners essential for the study to be completed successfully. The lead researcher is Professor Ben Castleman, on the faculty of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Additional researchers from the University will be participate in the study design and analysis, as necessary. Additional data for this study are provided by The National Student Clearinghouse. • Summary • We have spent much of the past year speaking with evaluators to get their insights about how to set up and manage such an evaluation. After our initial investigation period, the choice of evaluators was reduced to two and ultimately we decided to work with Dr. Castleman. His depth and breadth of knowledge and experience in our field is impressive. We feel confident that the correct choice was made and we are looking forward to the subsequent years of the study. We expect that this evaluation will be critical to providing real time information to us and our peers to enhance our quality control and lead to program innovation and evolution as necessary and we look forward to the opportunity to share information more broadly as it becomes available.

22. Appendix • Organization (5 Slides) • Finance (4 Slides) • Nominating (1 Slide) • Development (1 Slide)

23. Finance Budget Snapshot P&L Snapshot

24. Finance – Last Fiscal Year Bottom Line Massachusetts Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual By Class July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013 (Fiscal Year 2013) Unaudited Financials

25. Finance – This Fiscal Year Bottom Line Massachusetts Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual By Class July 1, 2013-Jan 31, 2014 (Part of Fiscal Year 2014) Unaudited Financials P&L Notes Development Events: We will see a large spike in this line once Feb-April is included in our financials. Other Charges and Fees and Professional Fees: These include our budgets for PR and Advertising. We will catch up and spend those full budgets. Program Expense: We should end up under budget on this line because we were able to offset many of the Go Far Forum costs and because State Street is hosting Recognition Night once again. Scholarships: This will even out as well. We have reserve money from one scholarship for whenever it is needed. That will get spent.

26. Finance - Budgeting • Budgeting Process for 2014-2015 • George Chu, former Board Member and now Bottom Line consultant, is creating a plan that will update our finance systems – including adding a staff member, moving to a new accounting system, and creating a budgeting system designed for local control/national approval. • Budgeting Process: The budgeting process will be completed soon and we will begin setting the budget for 2014-2015, along with estimates for the following several years. • Important Changes or Decisions • Based on our current growth plans, we will serve an additional 250 students in Massachusetts next year. • At current counselor-to-student ratios, that would add 4 additional Success counselors. • Based on Board and staff discussion, we plan to increase the size of teams as a way to maintain efficiency (Success teams were 4-5 counselors and they could move to 5-6 counselors. Access teams were 2.5 counselors and they could move to 4-5 counselors and therefore eliminate a manager role). • We plan to replace our Access co-op counselors with Full-Time counselors. This will be more expensive, but will add valuable capacity for recruiting students in the spring. • We will add the Director of Leadership Giving (we have hired Denella!) • Currently, the PR and Advertising budget is set to drop from $75,000 this year to $20,000 next year. We will need to decide if we want to increase that amount.

27. Appendix • Organization (5 Slides) • Finance (4 Slides) • Nominating (1 Slide) • Development (1 Slide)

28. Nominating Committee Current Board Member Terms

29. Appendix • Organization (5 Slides) • Finance (4 Slides) • Nominating (1 Slide) • Development (1 Slide)

30. Director of Leadership Giving Roles Summary