A lot of the time community minded citizens as well as charitable organizations work for the good of society to no recognition or at worst, not even a thank you from those they provide assistance to. Despite that, most tread on and continue to “do good” just because the feeling of doing something for people who need it most is priceless.

The National Community Foundation (NCF) is one of those. The NCF as been around for six years and each year it seems as if their efforts outdo the previous one. NCF’s contributions include providing full secondary school scholarships as well as assessing students at tertiary level. The NCF is responsible for programs like Kidzart, a program intended to develop creative skills of students from six to twelve and is known for helping older persons, people with disabilities and helping fire victims restart their lives.

Their contributions are wide spread and their work is not expected to decrease but rather, improve and increase in years to come. So said the former executive director of the NCF Jacintha Lee in an interview with the STAR on Saturday when the NCF held a planning session at the Palm Haven hotel to determine PR/ fund raising strategies for the period October- September 2009.

“The NCF was developed in 2002 and we’ve done a whole lot of work over past six years,” said Jacintha Lee. “We’ve done well for six years but we need to do better and the only way to do this is to really plan and know what it is we want to achieve and by when.” Lee, who’s now a board member on the NCF revealed that following that in an evaluation of the NCF done last year by a US consultant, recommendations were made for the NCF to enhance its PR, publicity and fund raising efforts.

“Today what we’re doing is creating an action plan looking at these goals,” said Lee. “We got a number of individuals with the skills, experience and knowledge to put such a plan together. We’re hoping this plan will guide us for the next year.” Lee said the NCF had been “quiet for a while” and the action plan was expected to give the NCF a boost. “After five years it’s good to look at what you’ve done and see areas that can be improved,” said Lee. “I don’t think we had coordinated kind of plan in place and there’s always room for improvement.”

The whole day meeting was completely sponsored by the Poverty Reduction Fund. Throughout the day participants brainstormed and came up with plans that would be implemented. The least of those was the NCF’s website that would be redeveloped by the end of November. Participants suggested the NCF also get on facebook to become a more interactive medium.

A large part of the focus was on the NCF’s dollar-a-night initiative launched with the Bay Gardens Hotel. Bay Gardens Inn, Bay Gardens Beach Resort and Coco Resorts are all part of the initiative. Members and volunteers said a prime objective for the year was to get more hotels on board. One of the day’s objectives was to develop an annual fund raising plan to secure NCF’s 2008-2009 fundraising goal. There was talk of a new NCF hosted event, an exclusive charity event proposed for the next financial year but plans for that were kept under wraps. Participants highlighted the need to promote the visibility of the NCF and also of introducing a finance committee.

For undisclosed reasons the NCF’s annual telethon had not been held in 2008. The telethon was expected to be reintroduced in 2009. The 2009 telethon would be held on April 19 and would go hand in hand with a proposed mentor program (comparable to the big brother initiative) and kids resource center. Some of the money generated from the telethon was expected to fund the two new initiatives. “We’re looking at a live audience with attendance of 3000 persons, if we exceed good for us,” said Jackie Cherubin Weekes, one of the NCF volunteers. “The objective is to raise the profile of the telethon.”

At the end of the all day workshop, Lee said she was pleased with the outcome as the group had come up with tangible things that could be achieved. The group in turn congratulated the former director of the NCF for organizing the event. There was no executive director to thank as the most recent director, Jennifer Gaston, had resigned. Board members said the NCF was expecting a new executive director as well as a new board of directors this year. The board is changed every two years and new names are expected to be released by the National Insurance Corporation this week. A new executive director can be expected by November.