In January of 2012, the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation hired Charles Lewis to create a new music school called the Youth Music Project. With job duties ranging from those required of an Executive Director to those required of a Program Officer, the position was the perfect match for the foundation’s interests and Charles’ demonstrated entrepreneurial abilities. The Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation’s investment and Charles’ leadership abilities yielded amazingly fast results. Within one year of Charles starting to work for the foundation, KATU profiled the Youth Music Project as an “Everyday Hero” on the cusp of even bigger things.
Using strategies Charles developed at Harvard and honed at Ethos, Charles hit the ground running in order to maximize the foundation’s investment in the community and to leverage external resources. Strategically, Charles established programs and policies following a timeline that helped the music school easily become the fastest growing music school in Oregon. By prioritizing a long list of duties and responsibilities, Charles was able to leverage the foundation’s investment to fully establish an outstanding, multi-faceted nonprofit music school complete with a 12,385 square foot building, twenty two classrooms, a music store, a performance hall, and a student body of over 500 students in less than 2 years.
At the foundation, Charles was responsible for not only program development and implementation, but for the search and acquisition of a new music school building. After acquiring four buildings for Ethos’ programs previously, Charles was able to identify the best possible building for sale in the area. Once the foundation purchased the $2,500,000 building, Charles served as the licensed General Contractor (CCB#198713) in order to coordinate $1,500,000 worth of interior renovations including a full seismic upgrade, new elevator, and a new fire sprinkler system, as well as HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and acoustical upgrades.
In order to establish the new music school as it’s own nonprofit organization, Charles was responsible for incorporating the nonprofit with the State of Oregon and for drafting the successful IRS 1023 application for recognition as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
On the technical side of things, Charles designed and programmed both the foundation’s website and the Youth Music Project’s website. Always interested in new technology, Charles also personally programmed and implemented the school’s open sourced VOIP (voice over IP) telephone system complete with video phones for all classrooms.
Notable Achievements Establishing the Youth Music Project
• Created music school for underserved youth for the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation
• Managed the successful $4,000,000 building search, acquisition and interior renovation
• Drafted and submitted successful IRS 1023 application for recognition as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
• Served as licensed General Contractor in order to coordinate over $1,500,000 worth of interior renovations including a full seismic upgrade, new elevator, new fire sprinkler system as well as HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and acoustical upgrades
• Recruited and managed 30+ staff members
• Coordinated the development of YMP’s logo and strong marketing materials
• Designed and programmed interactive website and registration system
• Installed and programmed computer network and Voice over IP (VOIP) telephone system
• Worked with attorneys to apply for two successful trademarks to protect YMP’s intellectual property
• Implemented strong financial policies and procedures
• Wrote YMP’s initial grant requests
• Established YMP’s “Music Store With A Mission” featuring Gibson, Epiphone, and Roland instruments in collaboration with YMP’s Marketing Director
• Represented YMP to funders, government agencies, and the media
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