The Davis FoundationAPPLICATION FORM

Organization: Step Up Contact Person: Marci Scott Address: 3800 South 48 th Street Lincoln, NE 68506

Phone: 402.486.2657

Email: mascott@stepup.org

Organization Web Site: www.stepup.org

About Your Project

1. State the underlying need, problem or opportunity. Include as much information as possible, such as numbers, location, socio-economic status, ethnicity, gender, age, physical ability and language.State the anticipated effect on the need, problem or opportunity. Include how the project will be evaluated.

Fact: 500,000 children will die this year alone because they did were not able to receive timely access to

primary healthcare (artificial statistic). Every minute a child is born without health insurance. (Edelman).

Step Up works to fight these statistics by “helping families obtain healthcare.” Over the past ten years,

we have helped over 3,300 families from Lincoln, Omaha, and Council Bluffs achieve a better quality of life. In

fact, this year alone we served over 600 underprivileged families who make too much money to be

considered for state programs such as Medicare, but too little money to afford health insurance.

Some Key statistics about the people we help are:

Families Helped

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10

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Single Minorities Parents 18-25 year oldparents

60 percent of the parents of the children we help are single parents

25 percent of the parents of the children we help are minorities

15 percent of the parents of the children we help are between 18-25 years old

However, our work is far from over, among the “11.1 million uninsured parents, about 56.9

percent cannot afford coverage and have no access to public assistance (Daley).” With these statistics

in mind, Step Up provides families with programs designed to enhance their quality of life.

One example of Step Up’s many programs is our career management and development

program. This program focuses on helping parents pursue better jobs and careers. We do this by

encouraging them to pursue high paying careers fields, such as nursing, that require an associate’s

degree or less. We give parents the tools to pursue a more satisfying and well-paying career by helping

them apply for financial aid and assistance, giving tips on how to be a successful student, resume

assistance, and job interview preparation. In addition, we work with local businesses to help provide

our clients with jobs.

Step Up evaluates our program based on the amount of families whom we have been able to

successfully help of the 3,300 families we have helped 99.7 percent improve their quality of life.

Program results as of 2004

.3 percent (99) of Step Up families do not complete the program

99.7 percent (3290) of families successfully complete one or all of Step Up’s programs

0500

1000

15002000

25003000

3500

Drop Out Success

Step Up Statistics

39.7 percent (1310) of Step Up parents have entered the medical

profession and are currently employed in hospitals around the Lincoln,

Omaha, and Council Bluffs area. This is strength of our program because

we are both helping our graduates and alleviating the nursing shortage in

the area.

60 percent (1980) of Step Up parents have reentered the job market and

are continuing to budget for their health care needs. 40 percent of these

parents are currently with an employer who provides quality health

insurance. Our successes in helping these families obtain affordable heath

care insurance is our strength.

Step Up is impacting the lives of families. The Davis funds would be used to provide career

management and development for underprivileged families. With your gift of a $15,000 one hundred

children would be helped this year. The Davis Foundation could invest in the life of a child.

Project Cost

Career Management ……………………………….$25,000

Project Income

First Donor…………………………………………$2,500

Other Donors ………………………………………$7,500

Amount requested from the Davis Foundation:…….$15,000

Total need met …………...………………………...$25,000

II. About Your Organization

1. Year established: 1995

2. Briefly describe your organization’s history and purpose:

Mission Statement: Step Up helps families obtain healthcare and build a better

future for today and tomorrow

Background: Since 1995 Step Up has been helping families in Lincoln, Omaha,

and Council Bluffs obtain quality healthcare and build a better future for today

and tomorrow. Step Up serves people who otherwise would not have the

resources to afford quality health insurance. Moreover, during the past 10 years

Step Up has helped 3,300 families who otherwise would not be able to afford

health insurance.

However, Step Up is different from most organizations because we believe

in giving our clients a ‘Step Up’ not a handout. Therefore, Step Up’s programs

help our clients achieve a higher standard of living. These programs include

lifestyle management, financial & healthcare management, Career Management

and Development; each of these programs work together to give our clients the

opportunity to build a better life.

Strengths, Weaknesses, & Opportunities

The strength of our program comes from both our strong volunteer

network and the high percentage of our clients who give back to the program.

Our weakness is that we are constantly growing, our needs are increasing, and

sometimes we do not have the resources that we need. Our opportunity is the

families that we will be able to help in the future.

Distinctive Competency

STEP UP believes that as much possible the donor’s money should go to help our clients. Therefore,

90 percent of the money our donors give us goes directly towards serving their needs. This compares to

a national average of around 50 percent* (Heck).

*based on averages from California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee,

Washington.

Operational Goals

STEP UP has already served 3,300 families; within the next ten years, we want to double that figure to

6,600 families helped. To do this we have the following operational goals:

Maintaining a low overhead so that as much as possible the money donated will continue to

help our clients

Families Helped by Step Up

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200

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600

800

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Years

Fam

ilies

Increasing our volunteer staffing to help with our mission of empowering lives

Increasing our total resources in order to better help our clients

Personnel and Facilities

We keep our costs low by using a volunteer force comprised of college students, professionals and

retirees. This works especially well for our college students because it helps them gain valuable work

experience. In addition, our retirees are particularly valuable because they bring important lifetime and

professional experience to STEP UP.