March 19, 2015
For more than 40 years, the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (AAMA)’s mission has been to inspire and empower at-risk Latinos to pursue their potential and achieve success. Located in Houston, Texas, AMMA’s services include adult education, counseling and prevention services as well as a charter school.
The name of AAMA’s adult literacy program is Adelante, which means “to move forward” in Spanish. The free ESL, GED preparation and computer courses provided by this program helped 1,400 adults move forward in their education in 2013. Pre-kindergarten and childcare options offered by AAMA allow parents to attend these courses too.
AAMA’s Dinosaur Project, better known as DiNo, provides elementary students with tools to avoid drugs, gangs and violence. Their prevention and counseling services also include residential treatment centers, a communicable infection outreach program and pharmacological treatment. Most of these services are based in Houston, however selected services are also available in Laredo and San Antonio.
The Sanchez Charter School serves pre-kindergarten and sixth through 12th grade students. Through AAMA’s partnership with the Houston Community College, older students can complete dual-credit college as well as workforce readiness courses. In 2013, AAMA earned its National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) certification for their Early Childhood Center.
Since 2005, AAMA has saved more than $500,000 by opting out of paying State Unemployment Taxes (SUTA) and enrolling with First Nonprofit. AAMA has been a member of both of our unemployment programs and is currently a member of our Unemployment Savings Program. “We’ve valued the flexibility of two options to further enhance cost savings,” says Lisa Schott, AAMA’s Human Resources Director.
“We highly recommend considering moving to one of FNG’s programs to lower costs, completely eliminate SUTA and have more evenness in budget,” Schott says. Under the SUTA method, employers often submit their largest tax payments during the first half of the calendar year. Budget certainty is a benefit provided by both of our programs. “Knowing what our quarterly costs will be, has given us budget certainty to allow for better cash flow and expense accrual. This has been enormously helpful during several times we’ve had to lay off staff,” Schott continues.
Like all members of our programs, AAMA is partnered with one of our unemployment claims administration partners. Schott works with her claims team on a regular basis. “Having a dedicated claims team to respond to and monitor claims is a huge plus, as we don’t have the resources to devote to this.”
We look forward to many more years of success with AAMA! For more information about their services, please visit their website, www.aama.org.
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We’ve been a member of First Nonprofit’s Unemployment Savings Program since 2011 and highly recommend joining. The program is terrific and allows us to earn interest on our own funds while still meeting the state’s requirements on unemployment payments. In addition, the staff are great and always helpful sorting out any questions we may have. Thank you all!
CCSCT was approached by First NonProfit to discuss its Unemployment Savings Program and ways the program could significantly reduce the amount of unemployment taxes we were paying. At the time, our agency was paying approximately $80,000 per year. First NonProfit conducted an analysis to determine if making the switch would be in our best interest, and it clearly was based on our circumstances. The first year on the program, CCSCT saw a 70% reduction in its unemployment costs and each year, continues to experience further reductions as a result of having minimal claims. Some additional benefits of the program including having a fixed annual cost, an interest-baring reserve account, professional unemployment claims management and representation at all unemployment hearings. This has been one of the best decisions we have made.
We first started using First Nonprofit’s Unemployment Savings Program when we were a small startup nonprofit. We didn’t have an HR department and needed expertise in the event that an unemployment claim was made. We knew we were eligible to be a reimbursing employer, but weren’t sure how to navigate that process. They made it easy to set things up, plan for, and then manage claims when they came at a very reasonable cost. The amount of time and stress they’ve saved us dealing with all this has been worth way more than the cost. We’ve now grown to a large nonprofit and do have an HR department but have no plans to stop using their services. I highly recommend them to every nonprofit I come into contact with!
Throughout our membership in the Unemployment Savings Program, First Nonprofit understood our demands, community dynamics, and the importance of seamless services; that allowed us to serve our constituents better.
Because INCS advocates for the operating conditions that allow charter public schools to provide high quality public education, partnering with First Nonprofit was an easy decision. First Nonprofit’s unemployment programs provide our member schools two operating elements crucial to their ability to provide high quality public education: savings and budget certainty. Capable, committed teachers are the key to student success. By participating in the unemployment insurance savings plan, charter public schools gain peace of mind and are able to invest more money in their teachers.
It has been our sincere pleasure to maintain a strong, vibrant business partnership with First Nonprofit. We greatly admire their strong industry knowledge, technical expertise, constant professionalism, knowledgeable and dedicated staff. They are always extremely responsive, personable and provide us with the necessary guidance and recommendations on a numerous variety of employment scenarios.
NYCON members who use First Nonprofit’s programs enjoy enduring savings and improved efficiency. Our association knows that success, because from the beginning, we achieved the same great benefits. Great savings, seamless technology, and responsive service. NYCON highly recommends First Nonprofit’s remarkable unemployment solutions.
Visually Impaired Preschool Services has been a client of First Non-Profit since it was first offered as a benefit of VisionServe Alliance. We completed a thorough evaluation of cash savings to our agency before taking advantage of this wonderful benefit and it has been a very wise decision. Our experience with the processes from accounting to claims have been professional, expeditious and easy.