Project for Pride in Living (PPL)
40
3
"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
The Charities Review Council is an independent resource for people who make contributions to support charities. When an organization meets all 27 of their Accountability Standards, they earn the Meets Standards seal. Project for Pride in Living (PPL) has also received the CRC seal and you can read more about their CRC recognition here: http://www.smartgivers.org/Report/Report.aspx?EIN=237232208.
Headquarters Location: Minneapolis , MN
Founded: 1972
Mission: To work with lower-income individuals and families to achieve greater self-sufficiency through housing, employment training, support services and education.
Tags:
employment training, low-income, housing, youth, community development, financial education, education, homelessness, minnesota, 2011
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Steve Cramer.
Steve Cramer rejoined PPL in August 2003, after serving as director of the Hennepin County Department of Housing, Community Works & Transit, a post he assumed in February 2002. For the preceding three years he had served as executive director of the Minneapolis Community Development Agency. From 1994 through 1999, Cramer served as PPL’s director of housing and development, chief…
See full bio.
Transparency Information
This organization has earned the GuideStar Exchange Seal, demonstrating its commitment to transparency
(learn more)
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio:
9.83%
Total Revenue:
$18,006,390
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.
Contact Info
Address:
1035 East Franklin Ave S
Minneapolis , MN 55404-2920, USA
Story:
Angela was a regular at PPL’s Computer Access Lab, learning basic computer skills, improving her typing, creating a resume, and eventually searching and applying for jobs online. When she received a call for a job interview, Angela scheduled a mock interview with PPL staff to help her prepare. Now Angela has a great job, and she’s thankful for the training she got from PPL that got her ready for it
Expert Reviews of Project for Pride in Living (PPL)
Evidence of Impact Summary:
PPL has changed the lives of thousands of families in disadvantaged communities through its package of job training, education, housing, and financial services. The organization's employment training programs are customized to reflect their participants' cultural backgrounds, and the skills they teach apply directly to career fields such as healthcare and banking.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Experts praised PPL for its comprehensive services, exceptional leadership, philanthropic support, and strong operational management. PPL has a very positive reputation and historical legacy in the community.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
The most common suggestion was for PPL to expand its geographic scope and build its capacity to serve participants.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Customized career training |
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PPL has been making tremendous impact for families, particularly in the Phillips community, through their customized training programs with the medical and banking fields. They reach hard to train/place individuals through their PPL Industries. Increasingly, they are pairing financial literacy and coaching with their job training clients through their Center for Working Families. | ||
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As a career counselor, the programs PPL offers are practical for many of my clients. They address language barriers and also give applicable skills for jobs. | ||
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Project for Pride in Living has become a successful and impactful developer of training programs that recognize a need in the market, build strong collaborations with partner employers, and do a great job of developing skills of the participants they serve through classroom based and on-the-job training. | ||
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PPL trains members of the community for entry jobs in a culturally specific way | ||
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I was referred to PPL by Commissioner Peter McLaughlin (Hennepin County) and was able to bring about the expansion of PPL services to serve Lao refugees in North Minneapolis. PPL now runs a computer lab out of the Lao Assistance Center. | ||
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They have solid training programs. | ||
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PPL has an incredible linkage to the healthcare industry and provides for laddering. | ||
Effectively packages housing, education, and employment training |
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They make an impact through their diversity of services addressing a variety of challenges for disadvantaged neighborhoods, including housing, job training, financial services, and support services. They are a real presence in the communities they serve. | ||
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They provide a strong package of employment, training and job creation enterprise resources. PPL is a leader in linking comprehensive community development, housing and jobs altogether. | ||
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They have a holistic approach that community based and innovative. | ||
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Since 1972, thousands of low-income people have built brighter, stable futures and stronger communities as a result of PPL’s innovative approach of helping people help themselves. PPL’s mission is to work with lower-income individuals and families to achieve greater self-sufficiency through housing, employment training, support services, and education. | ||
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PPL serves low income families and individuals in a holistic way - housing, education and workforce. | ||
Proven outcomes for diverse participants |
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PPL works with people of color and recent immigrants to provide workforce skills and training. | ||
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PPL provides specific outcomes and results on all of its workforce programs. The organization has deep experience and success in meeting a range of service delivery objectives for a broad constituency of low-income participants, most of whom are people of color. Specific impact data is available for all programs. | ||
Communicates openly with community |
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They are very public in their advocacy and innovation. They also host a lot of community forums to share learnings. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Exceptional leadership and staff |
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They have extremely knowledgeable staff, strong board, and high level of philanthropic support. They also have sophisticated data tracking systems. | ||
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Their strengths are stability of leadership and funding base. | ||
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They have an exceptional leadership team and are great at fundraising. | ||
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Leadership and advocacy are two of their strengths. They also have a good outreach to Somali community and share resources with the Laos population. | ||
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They have visionary leadership and strong operations overall, with special attention paid to evaluation. | ||
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They have strong leadership, United Way leaders, and good media/marketing/public relations. | ||
Positive reputation and community legacy |
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They have strong marketing, a great reputation, and I generally know what programs are being offered. | ||
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PPL has a great staff leadership and a tremendous authentic legacy of work. | ||
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The organization and its leadership are very strategic in their mission, direction, and purpose. Unlike most nonprofits, PPL seems to possess the resources to maintain a concerted focus on identified issue areas/service offerings, allowing their programs to grow, develop, and improve over time. The agency has a very strong leadership team that is well-known in the community, and staff at all levels possess savvy in marketing, communications, and development. | ||
Comprehensive services |
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First, customer service - I have hired them as a trainer in my workforce development projects. They have totally embraced me and my employer partners as their customers, providing nothing but the best service quality for us and for trainees. Second, leadership. Their executive, Steve Cramer, is substantively involved in comprehensive community development, relating those perspectives to workforce development. | ||
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PPL is a leader in creating a better sense of community in the Philips Neighborhood. The Center for Working Families has had a positive impact on many members of our community. | ||
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PPL's comprehensive services, including housing, are a strength. | ||
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They provide comprehensive services. | ||
Strong operational management and philanthropic support |
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Their strengths include stellar operations, development function, results, leadership, staffing at all levels, and diversity. They are willing to take on new programs and adapt as the funding streams and market demand. They have strong collaboration and partnerships. Their financial management, even in tough times, exemplifies the best in nonprofit management (for example, leadership level took major cuts to benefits to assure mid and lower level staff--more people of color--would maintain jobs and benefits). They are one of the leading and most results oriented comprehensive community development agencies in Minnesota offering housing, workforce, green jobs, asset building and financial literacy, education and empowerment programs that often intersect to maximize impact. They continuously improve, evaluate, reflect and modify programs based on research, client needs and changing conditions in the NPO sector. This is one of the finest organizations I have had the privilege to fund over the years. | ||
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They are well organized and able to attract substantial donations to expand workforce development services. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Foundation Professionals (F)
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Researchers and Faculty (R)
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Nonprofit Senior Staff (N)
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Other (consultants, journalists, policy makers) (O)
Expand capacity and geographic scope |
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PPL is still working on expanding into the East Metro area and largely works in Minneapolis/Hennepin County. | ||
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They could do some capacity building. They could be serving more families on an annual basis. | ||
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They could expand their services out from their base in south Minneapolis to serve clients in the north metro area. | ||
Focus more on diversity |
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More attention could be paid to diversity and inclusiveness. | ||
Sharpen focus |
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They could improve their focus. | ||
Leadership
Steve Cramer
President and Executive Director
President and Executive Director
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.
