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.
Ready to chat? Get in touch today to request a no-obligation savings evaluation.
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.
The Ensight Skills Center has enjoyed working with First Nonprofit for several years. We are enrolled in their Unemployment Savings Program and although we have not required a lot of intervention, there have been a few times. I know others have dealt with the same problem of unemployment fraud over the last year and in our case, a call to First Nonprofit (they actually answer their phones) cleared up the issue. They also sent us a letter to send to all our employees telling them what they needed to do to prevent this in the future and protect themselves. What a relief! Over the years if I have questions or concerns, they are happy to listen, advise and help if they can. Another BIG advantage of using First Nonprofit is that all the money that is paid into the Unemployment Savings Program lives on my balance sheet as an asset. The money continues to be Ensight’s not the governments. First Nonprofit has certainly given me peace of mind.
In addition to their money-saving purpose on behalf of nonprofit organizations like AHS, First Nonprofit’s Nonprofit Unemployment Fund streamlines the information we need to efficiently manage unemployment claims. Our relationship with NU Fund gave us access to such things as advice on planning for what’s ahead and how to analyze cost scenarios when unexpected events occurred. Both experiences were very helpful.
We have had a great experience with FNP. During Covid, when there was the chance that reimbursable nonprofits would have to pay 50% of the unemployment costs, FNP went to bat for us. We would receive weekly information on the Unemployment claim and how they were working to reduce the costs to reimbursable nonprofits. They have a great service also working with [our claims administrator] to make sure all the paperwork is completed correctly for any unemployment claim.
PORT Health Services has had a great experience with the Unemployment Savings Program offered through First Nonprofit. Throughout the years we have been involved in the program, we have increased our reserve account significantly through this program and find the reporting we receive both timely and useful. We look forward to our continued involvement with this program and our connection with First Nonprofit for many years to come.
Job One was spending a lot of money on unemployment. Our insurance broker, Mark Simcosky, recommended that we switch over to First Nonprofit. We did just that! This switch has been a huge savings for us! This switch saved us over $10,000 in the first year. Their customer service is Superior! Any time we have a question, we get a response very quickly. Any time we send them a report and they have a question; they call rather than just assuming. They were very responsive during COVID, even when they were in crisis mode their selves. They also were always there when we needed during COVID and very helpful! We would 1,000% recommend First Nonprofit to anybody that could benefit from it!
My experience with FNP has always been positive. Every time I have had to contact them, I’m always put in contact with a friendly and knowledgeable person. If something is missing from our account, they reach out to us to request it. It’s nice to work with a company that makes sure our account is current. I would recommend them to any nonprofit looking to reduce their unemployment insurance costs.
We’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars PER YEAR by changing to become a reimbursing employer, freeing funds for much needed capital investment. FNP has been a valued partner in this process, providing assurance that we have stopgap coverage for extraordinary claims and keeping claims response painless and simple. It’s a huge Win/Win!