{"id":18448,"date":"2015-12-09T22:05:35","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T03:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2015\/12\/open-door-mission-provides-for-the-needy-plans-to-help-with-life-employment-skills.html"},"modified":"2017-11-08T11:03:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T16:03:05","slug":"open-door-mission-provides-for-the-needy-plans-to-help-with-life-employment-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2015\/12\/open-door-mission-provides-for-the-needy-plans-to-help-with-life-employment-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Door Mission Provides For The Needy, Plans To Help With Life, Employment Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\"open\n<\/div>\n
\n

Kim Cook, director of the Open Door Mission in Glens Falls, says she wants her organization
\nto partner with businesses, so they give back to the community that is the source of donations.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

BY ANDREA PALMER<\/p>\n

The Glens Falls area has shown to be an extraordinarily
\nphilanthropic region to live and do
\nbusiness in. One of the area’s strongest nonprofit
\norganizations is the Open Door Mission.<\/p>\n

The mission serves primarily as a soup kitchen,
\nwith other support and nutritional services.<\/p>\n

Kim Cook, director of the mission, has the
\nheart of a servant and the mind of a businesswoman.
\nThis is one of the attributes that makes
\nher suited for the job.<\/p>\n

“We are every bit a business. We have four
\nemployees. It just so happens that we don’t charge
\nfor our services, so we have to look elsewhere
\nfor that income. We get a lot of things done with
\nvolunteers. In every other way, we are a business,”
\nshe said.
\nThe Open Door, 47 Lawrence St., Glens Falls,
\nworks with consultants specializing in missions.
\nThe board of directors includes a bookkeeper,
\ntreasurer and CPA.<\/p>\n

It runs the Glens Falls Code Blue program,
\nwhich provides emergency overnight shelter to
\nhomeless people in the Greater Glens Falls Area.
\nA Code Blue night is called when the forecast is
\nfor a temperature of 20 degrees or lower (including
\nwind chill) or at least 12 inches of snow.<\/p>\n

The Warren County Board of Supervisors
\nFacilities Committee has agreed to let the Open
\nDoor Mission use the former youth detention
\nhome on Gurney Lane, next to Westmount Health
\nFacility, for a temporary Code Blue emergency
\nshelter this season.<\/p>\n

While the mission receives a small amount
\nof grant money, Cook said most financial support
\ncomes through corporate and individual
\ndonations.<\/p>\n

“We have been the recipient of many gifts
\ngiven in honor of someone who has passed
\naway. We always recognize and appreciate that,”
\nsaid Cook.<\/p>\n

Donors leaving money to charities will often
\nname the charity as the beneficiary of their 401k
\nor IRA (Individual Retirement Account). A donation
\nto the charity is tax free. Rather than pass
\nmoney through a will to a charity, donors can
\nname a nonprofit organization as a beneficiary
\nto their IRA and name their family as benefiaries
\nin life insurance, said Cook.<\/p>\n

A life insurance death benefit paid to benefiaries
\nis tax free, as is the charitable donation of
\nthe IRA to the nonprofit group. A good financial
\nadvisor can help individuals and businesses set
\nup the most tax-efficient way to donate.<\/p>\n

Though there are tax-efficient ways to leave
\na legacy with both family and nonprofits, most
\npeople give to charities out of good will and
\nphilanthropy, not for tax benefits.<\/p>\n

Cook is also working on a program called
\nBridges out of Poverty. It is a set of concepts to
\nhelp others understand why people are caught
\nin poverty.<\/p>\n

Cook plans to use a “success coach” to help
\npeople in poverty become more self-sustaining.
\nA success coach would be contracted by a business
\nto work with people struggling with things
\nlike child care, housing and transportation. The
\nsuccess coach would also work with people to
\nhelp them solve problems and become a better
\nemployee.<\/p>\n

An example of this program succeeding is
\nBest Cleaners in Schenectady. In one year, the
\ncompany went from a 300 percent turnover rate,
\nto 3 percent, said Cook.<\/p>\n

Cook wants to develop a culture of the Open
\nDoor’s guests giving back to the community.<\/p>\n

“I grew up with parents who owned a business.
\nI understand the viewpoint of people who own a
\nbusiness, and what they need in a community,”
\nshe said. “I want to partner with business so it’s
\nnot just a one-way street where they help us. We
\nwant to help them as well. I don’t want us to just
\nbe seen as a nonprofit that always has our hand
\nout. I want our guests to have a real impact on
\nthe community.”<\/p>\n

She is looking for a place to have a community
\ngarden, where guests can grow produce.<\/p>\n

“There are so many ways [a community garden]
\ncan help. It helps the people who are doing
\nit, because there’s just something about getting
\nyour hands in the dirt. These are learning tools
\nthey can take with them. They can establish a real
\nsense of pride and ownership, knowing they’ve
\ndone something important. It gives our staff
\nan opportunity to come along side our guests.
\nThere’s a lot of teachable moments,” Cook said.<\/p>\n

“We want to take it a step further and make
\nthings with our produce and sell them. There
\nwould then be income. Our guests would be
\nlearning job skills around the sale, the packaging,
\nthe marketing–all of that–skills they could
\ntake to the job place.”<\/p>\n

The mission is conducting a capital campaign
\nto raise funds for a new building. Cook hopes to
\nhave a new building in about a year.<\/p>\n

Cook said she plans to have a resource center
\nat the new facility to help people in poverty gain
\nthe tools they need to maintain jobs.<\/p>\n

“Poverty reaches across all sectors. It’s easy to
\nthink poverty doesn’t affect you, but it’s going to
\naffect our community in a negative way unless
\nwe start to do something different other than
\nwhat we’ve been doing,” said Cook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kim Cook, director of the Open Door Mission in Glens Falls, says she wants her organization to partner with businesses, so they give back to the community that is the source of donations. BY ANDREA PALMER The Glens Falls…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[66,91],"yoast_head":"\r\nOpen Door Mission Provides For The Needy, Plans To Help With Life, Employment Skills - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2015\/12\/open-door-mission-provides-for-the-needy-plans-to-help-with-life-employment-skills\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Open Door Mission Provides For The Needy, Plans To Help With Life, Employment Skills - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kim Cook, director of the Open Door Mission in Glens Falls, says she wants her organization to partner with businesses, so they give back to the community that is the source of donations. 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