91 Place : Next Level Nonprofit

91 place started as a vision. I was a case manager for homeless high school senior girls. And I would ask them, if you could have one thing that would change everything, what could it be? And they would almost always say, a family. And it was a light bulb moment for me that housing can't just be housing. It has to be relational. And so that's how 91 Place came to be. 91 Place is an organization in Indianapolis that serves unhoused young adults between the ages of 18 and 24. And we do that through transitional housing, mental health support, and workforce development opportunities. Back in 2022, we received a very sizable grant from the city of Indianapolis, and it took our staff from two full time to about 25 in a matter of six months. And with that kind of exponential growth, I knew we needed some sort of system to keep us track. I am very candid. I don't have a master's degree. I am young. We are a fairly new nonprofit. I was like, we have to have a foundation that is going to be solid if we're going to continue to expand at the rate of growth that we went through. And so when I found out about Next Level nonprofit, I thought, wow, this could really transform what we're doing and who we are and how we view progress. I was nervous about bringing this coaching program that's very intensive and totally would change the way that we were doing our work. It would change how we were having our weekly meetings and how we were prioritizing things and how we even have strategy around our organization. And so I was fairly nervous to bring it. But when I introduced it, everyone was like, this just makes sense for the kinds of goals that we have and the kind of impact we want to create in our young adults. As the leader and the one who was implementing this into the organization, Next Level Nonprofit made it so easy for me because I didn't need to have anything figured out. I mean, our assessment scores were, like, so bad. We were not in a good place. And that made it feel even more daunting for me as the person leading it, because I was like, man, how are we going to get through this mess? But the coaches and the books you read and all, like, they give you everything you need so that it really takes the burden off of the team so that they can focus on transforming the organization from the inside out. Since implementing Next Level nonprofit, I've seen a huge increase in just our efficiency and getting things done. Like, there's so much more clarity in our quarterly priorities and having the weekly meetings where we're going over all those things gives me so much insight as a leader without having to do one on ones with everybody. I think the efficiency has helped lead to greater impact. Impact. Late last year, 91 place received a very generous donation from some incredible local community members. And I got feedback from them that our participation in Next Level Nonprofit was a really influential part of their deciding to give us such a sizable gift. Not only because they knew that we would be good stewards of it and were able to manage the funds well, but because of the intentionality that we were taking it in executing Next Level Nonprofit and making sure that their investment was going to have impact for them to see a young organization taking the time and the intentionality to go through such an intense program to make sure that their gift would be stewarded well and the impact great was just really eye opening for me because when we started Next Level Nonprofit, I was not thinking about it from a donor perspective. Wow. Like when people entrust us with this gift, like they want to know that they're giving it to an organization that's going to do as much as possible with it, but also have lasting impact. If there was an organization considering doing Next Level Nonprofit, I would tell them that the time is now. Like, there is never going to be an opportune time to start. And it is your duty to operate in excellence. It is your duty to make sure that you are stewarding donor dollars well. It is your duty to make sure that your programming is operating in a way that is impacting the lives of those you're trying to touch. And so I would say if you're considering doing Next Level Nonprofit, you just gotta start. Because the longer that you wait, you're just gonna have more things to work on in the future. You might as well just start now.