3-Day Seminar co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership

Date: March 22-24, 2011
Time: 8:30am – 5pm
Location: 1 Badger Road, Framingham, MA (United Church Conference Center)

Continuing its tradition of support for community development corporations and nonprofits, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership is teaming up with the Mel King Institute to sponsor a three-day clinic designed to help smaller non-profit housing developers strengthen their financial management skills.

The clinic is scheduled for March 22-24 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the United Church of Christ, 1 Badger Road, Framingham. The program is geared toward smaller non-profits and is designed to help them:

• Learn how to read each element of an audit
• Assess the financial strength of their organization
• Practice with sample financial statements and then apply what they’ve learned to their own audits
• Develop cash flow projections for their own organizations

To realize the full benefits of this program, organizations should commit to all three days of training and have their executive director, chief financial officer and board treasurer all attend. The clinic is free and space is limited.
To RSVP, contact Dina Vargo at 617-330-9944 ext 260 or dvargo@mhp.net.

The program’s curriculum is based on Strength Matters, a national initiative designed to advance the strength, productivity and profitability of non-profit development organizations. Strength Matters is a collaborative that uses the best practices of three successful national housing nonprofits – Housing Partnership Network (HPN), NeighborWorks America and Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF).

Hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University

Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Time: 10:30am – noon
Location: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

By the fall of 2008 the severe problems in U.S. credit markets that began with rapid erosion in the performance of nonprime mortgages in 2007 and then spread to nonprime consumer credit and commercial mortgages helped spark a global financial crisis. Credit markets were seizing up. The U.S. government was expending hundreds of billions of dollars to ward off a complete collapse of the financial system. With home foreclosures estimated at more than 2 million a year, personal bankruptcies rising, large financial firms failing or on the brink of failure, and widespread fear and uncertainty about the ability of the financial system to weather the storm, references to the possibility of another Great Depression were not mere hyperbole.  In February 2010 the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University hosted a two-day symposium that considered the future of consumer credit and mortgage finance in the light of the financial crisis and lessons learned from it. The goal of the symposium was to explore how public policy can facilitate access to credit for low-income households that is not unduly risky or costly. The symposium was built around 15 papers commissioned from leading academics and practitioners in these fields.   Published by the Brookings Institution Press, Moving Forward: The Future of Consumer Credit and Mortgage Finance features selected papers from the symposium and explores the roots of the current crisis and, more importantly, focuses on the path ahead.

10:30 a.m.                   Coffee, Danish, & Networking

10:50 a.m.                   Welcome

Eric S. Belsky, Managing Director, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

Nicolas P. Retsinas, Senior Lecturer in Real Estate, Harvard Business School

11:15 a.m.                   Guest Speakers

Lynn Browne, Executive Vice President & Economic Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Tom Gleason, Executive Director, MassHousing

Aaron Gornstein, Executive Director, Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA)

RSVP (required) to kerry_donahue@harvard.edu by February 10, 2011.  (Also, please bring Photo ID for admittance to building.)

Moving Forward: The Future of Consumer Credit and Mortgage Finance can be ordered at http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2010/movingforward.aspx

Date: Monday, April 4, 2011
Time: 9:30am – 4:30pm
Location: NeighborWorks Homeownership Center (674 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610)

Financial awareness and planning are essential for any nonprofit and community-based organization.  Often times though, mid-level staff and program managers are not as comfortable taking a lead role when it comes to monitoring and planning their finances.  This interactive workshop will solidify financial basics while also empowering you to comfortably analyze your budget and effectively communicate that analysis with accountants, executive directors, CFOs, board members, funders, and peers.  This session is intended for program staff and managers who have professional experience with financial basics, and wish to develop a more strategic and empowered level of knowledge in order to improve the productivity and sustainability of their programs or services.

The Full-Day training will address several fundamental elements of Program Finances including:

• Establishing strong financial foundations
• Analyzing and developing program budgets
• Actively participating in the annual budget process
• Realistic costs for reaching your mission
• Reliable and creative funding streams
• Shifting from financial back tracking to program planning

This training session will be led by Ann Silverman, respected nonprofit and CDC consultant and Eva Boyce, Chief Financial Officer of GLAD.

Date:  Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Time:  8:30am – 12:30pm
Location: O’neill Federal Building Auditorium (10 Causway St. Boston)

The major topic of this Forum will be small dollar/payday alternative loans, featuring a:

o       FDIC Washington Staff presentation on the recently completed Small Dollar Loan Pilot Program

o       Panel of two MA banks that participated in the FDIC Pilot

o       Presentation on the National Credit Union Administration’s new Pay Day Alternative Pilot, and

o       Panel of local credit unions currently offering pay day alternatives

There will also be a presentation about the FDIC’s new Safe Account Pilot Program.

Please RSVP by October 21 (sooner would be appreciated) to phorwitz@fdic.gov.

Date:  November 8-9, 2010
Time:  9:00am – 4:30pm
Location:  United Way Financial Stability Center (270 Union Street, Lynn, MA 01901)

Coaching is a powerful tool to help people articulate their visions, identify their defining values, set goals they feel passionate about, and create plans for their own development.

For the second year, Midas has engaged trainer Virginia Kellogg from “Leadership that Works” to deliver a coaching skills training program to help you develop positive, empowering interactions with your target audience through the adoption of these new ways of working with them.

Adding coaching skills to your toolkit gives you new empowering skills to do what you already do:

• Help participants set financial goals and plans
• Develop budgets
• Track spending
• Build or improve credit

This fun and interactive training program will give you basic coaching skills that you can use immediately, all in the context of financial education. Exercises about financial attitudes and values will give you lots of opportunity to discover how you apply these skills to your work. This program includes 2-days of training and follow-up coaching by phone.

Date:  Friday, October 1, 2010
Time:  9:00am – 2:00pm
Location:  Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (600 Atlantic Ave. Boston, MA 02210)

Please join The Massachusetts Financial Education Collaborative for The Second Annual Summit on Financial Education, hosted by the Massachusetts Financial Education Collaborative.

Meet your colleagues and learn about new resources and initiatives in financial education delivery in Massachusetts.

Speakers include:

• Congressman Barney Frank, Chair, US House Committee on Financial Services
• Barbara Anthony, Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs & Business Regulation for Massachusetts
• Greg Bialecki, Secretary of Executive Office of Housing & Economic Development
• Dave Caruso, Financial Editor, WBZ 1030 News Radio
• Dee Lee, Certified Financial Planner, WBZ Radio
• Robert Powell, Editor, Retirement Weekly, MarketWatch.com/The Wall Street Journal Digital Network

Register Here

The Mass Financial Education Collaborative
jeff@massassets.org

Hosted by MassINC, the FDIC, and the Midas Collaborative

Location: Union Station (2 Washington Square)
Worcester, MA

MassINC and the Midas Collaborative invite Gateway City leaders for a workshop and networking lunch to explore strategies to reduce the use of high cost financial products that strip wealth from families and undermine our local economies. This half-day forum will also examine emerging opportunities for Gateway Cities to partner with organizations and agencies working to connect families to low-cost financial services and help them build wealth.

Registration

The Midas Collaborative

Date:  Monday, March 29, 2010
Time:  9:00am-4:00pm
Location:  Lawrence CommunityWorks (168 Newbury Street, Lawrence, MA)

The Midas Collaborative and the Massachusetts Chapter of the Financial Planning Association, with support from the Foundation for Financial Planning, present an integrated training to improve financial skills and outcomes in low-wealth communities.

Topics of discussion include Low Wealth Setting and Client Assistance with Financial Goals.

For more information and registration, Please contact:
Jeff Loundsbury of the Midas Collaborative
jeff@massassets.org
617-787-3874  x207

FIELD is a project of the Economic Opportunities Program (EOP), which is a policy program housed at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. EOP focuses on advancing strategies that connect the poor and underemployed to the mainstream economy.

Upcoming FIELD Webinars Include:

Trends in Demand, Risk, and Funding
Sponsored by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Thursday, March 4, 2010
2:00pm – 3:30pm EST
Register Here

Managing Your Microlending in a Challenging Environment
Sponsored by the Bank of America Foundation
Friday, March 26, 2010
2:00pm – 3:30pm EST
Register Here

Additional FIELD information and past webinar resources are available at: http://fieldus.org/index.html

ABCD Income Maximization Training Series

Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Time: 9:00am – 12:45pm
Location: ABCD 3rd Floor Cass Room (178 Tremont St.)
Speaker: Charlie Harak

Protect the basic rights of utility consumers: Learn the details!

• Prevent gas & electricity utility shut-offs
• Restore terminations
• Work out favorable payment plans
• Locate assistance for paying utility bills
• Receive a detailed handbook of all written materials

RSVP information:
Roxanne Reddington-Wilde, ABCD Planning
617-348-6241
redwilde@bostonabcd.org