Making Tough Choices:

Making CHOICES Tough!

In this difficult economy, you may be wondering how we at CHOICES are managing, and how hopeful we are for the future of our cause to keep teens “into” school. These questions elicit a theme that aptly describes exactly how we are doing: Managing Hope!

CHOICES Education Group is no stranger to making tough choices. In the nearly 24 years since we opened our doors in 1985, we have faced many external and internal challenges, and in the process we have made tough choices in order to make CHOICES tougher!

Externally, we survived the market crash of 1987 known as Black Monday, the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2000, the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (although it significantly affect a number of our CHOICES clients and beneficiaries there) and other threats more particular to CHOICES, such as losing funding from our founding grantor, now called Qwest Communications, in 1993, which at the time represented 20% of our revenue stream, and the loss of major federal funding for many of our school-based program sites over the last eight years, which represented 38% of our revenue at the time.

Internally, we have survived the retirement of our founder and Executive Director, Gary Frizzell, in 1996, the suspension of our Parenting for Education workshop in 1998 due to market changes, the separation of our payroll and benefits functions from Qwest Communications in 2000, and the comings and goings of many staff and board members over the years.

As Jim Elias (our very first board director, who remains on our board today) often says about CHOICES, “We keep reinventing ourselves!” In fact, we have made continuous adaptations over the years to respond to the external and internal challenges we have faced. Some examples:

• Changed our organization name to reflect our workshop and by extension, our mission, resulting in broader name recognition

• Migrated to 67% virtual presence by allowing 2/3 of our staff to work full time from home, resulting in reductions in our already low cost structure

• Developed a seeding strategy to subsidize qualified clients in their initial year with program grant funds, resulting in a 103% return on funder investment and more than doubling our reach with teens

• Created a delivery platform of more than 250 program sites in 45 states, engaging more than 1,500 volunteers to serve more than 150,000 teens per school year, all for less than $3.50 per teen; that’s more than 50,000 teens served per staff member!

The current economic environment certainly raises its unique challenges, but we are confident that we will weather this storm as well. Here’s a taste of what we’re already doing:

• Offering our non-subsidized clients an early renewal discount for the coming academic year if they can sign and pay by the end of April (we started this sale two weeks earlier than in past years to give our clients more time to secure the commitments necessary to take advantage of this offer)

• Expanded our grantwriting efforts to approach new funders that support the dropout prevention cause (although we have numerous funders already targeted or under submission, we welcome any suggestions for additional qualified funders)

• Created two new online ways for people to connect to CHOICES. Both are on Facebook, which is readily accessible by both teens and adults; our Facebook Group, “Friends of CHOICES,” a community building platform for CHOICES Presenters and Program Managers (please join if you qualify!) and our Facebook Cause, “Save Teens From Dropping Out,” which is open to the general public and allows people to invite others and donate to the cause (all are welcome to join!); both are active and growing

As a result of these activities and more, we offer clients, funders, donors and volunteers a rare combination of experience, leverage, scope, agility and efficiency that is all focused on one thing – keeping more teens “into” school:

• A time-tested workshop built on interactive exercises led by positive adult role models right in middle and high school classrooms during the school day, which has reached more than 6 million teens and receives approval ratings of 88% from teens and 97% from teachers

• A national distribution model partnering with businesses, chambers of commerce, service clubs, schools in 45 states and three Canadian provinces to serve almost 1,000 teens every school day and build stronger communities in the process

• An extremely lean and efficient cost structure, with a budget of $500,000 that allows us to serve 150,000 teens annually at delivery cost of less than $3.50 per student

• A staff of three with a combined 42 years of CHOICES experience (that’s an average of 14 years per employee) and a board representing both business and education, with professional backgrounds in at-risk youth research, sales & marketing, finance & accounting, legal affairs, public relations and entrepreneurship

This is how we are managing hope! If you wish to get involved with this compelling mission and organization, consider the following, and contact us with your choice!

There are four ways you or your organization can help us reach more teens:

• Purchase: Your organization can purchase a site license to deliver CHOICES in your local middle schools. Your organization would pay an annual program fee (less than $5 per student served) and would assign the program management role to one of your staff or volunteers. Your employees (or other community members) would become trained as volunteer CHOICES Presenters to deliver the workshop directly in school classrooms (see volunteer information below). Please contact us at info@choices.org or 1-888-CHOICES to learn more about becoming a CHOICES Client.

• Volunteer: You and your community members can personally become CHOICES Presenters by attending a CHOICES training class (2-3 hours) offered by a nearby CHOICES program site that welcomes community partners. We have more than 250 program sites in 46 states, and will attempt to match you up with a location near you. The training class is typically 2-3 hours, and you would be expected to volunteer about 6 hours in the classroom each year, plus prep and travel time. Please contact us at info@choices.org or 1-888-CHOICES to learn more about becoming a volunteer CHOICES Presenter.

• Donate: You or your organization can make a donation directly to CHOICES Education Group that will help us reach more teens with our CHOICES message. Donations of any amount can help. CHOICES costs less than $5 per student, so $50 can serve 10 students, $150 can serve a whole classroom, and $1,500 can serve 10 classrooms. Donations can be made via check (see physical address below) or online at www.choices.org (click on the DONATE NOW button at the top of the page) or our new Facebook Cause, “Save Teens From Dropping Out.” If your organization has a donations program or foundation, or an employee-matched donations program, we would be happy to submit an application, proposal or form per your guidelines.

• Sponsor: You or your organization can help us build awareness and financial support for CHOICES by participating as a sponsor in our partnership with Seattle Seahawk Cornerback Marcus Trufant through Tru’s Tackles For Teens Challenge. The Challenge invites individuals and businesses to make a pledge for every tackle Marcus makes during the NFL regular season and playoffs. Autographed Marcus Trufant Thank-You Gifts are offered for various pledge levels, and organization sponsorships with increasing levels of publicity and other benefits are offered at $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000. To learn more visit www.TacklesForTeens.org or contact Leo Muller at 206-283-9331 or lmuller@choices.org . Proceeds of the Challenge are shared equally between CHOICES Education Group and the Trufant Family Foundation.

Leo Muller
Executive Director
CHOICES Education Group 
2 Nickerson Street, Suite 306 
Seattle, WA 98109

Tel: 206-CHOICES (246-4237)
Email: info@choices.org
Web: www.choices.org

CHOICES: Students get it. Communities want it.
CHOICES keeps teens "into" school!

CHOICES is an interactive decision-making workshop that empowers teens to achieve academic success in pursuit of their career and life aspirations. In two hour-long sessions, business and community volunteers take students through real-world exercises on academic self-discipline, time and money management and goal setting. CHOICES has been delivered to more than 5 million teens in three countries since 1985. For more information call 1-888-CHOICES (246-4237) or visit www.choices.org. CHOICES Education Group is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit social enterprise.

“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” —Richard Hollis