YOU CAN DO MORE

Why does Ina Pinkney keep opening her restaurant, Ina’s, to the AFP Peer Mentoring committee? Because finding the right mentor has changed her life and she wants the same for you! Ina learned first hand that access to a mentor can have a tremendous affect on business, and she believes in the AFP Peer Mentoring Program.

Just over a year ago, CNN chose Ina’s for “The Turnaround,” a program that matched entrepreneurs with industry leaders. Pinkney’s mentors were Lettuce Entertain You founder Rich Melman and his consulting team, who were slated to turn around Ina’s in three days. Today the cameras and crew are long gone, but their partnership continues. In January, Ina and Mike Ginsburg, Project Director for the Lettuce Consulting Group, talked to current AFP mentors about their experience.

Ina opened her first restaurant in 1991, and has been in business just west of the Loop since 2001. She considered herself a success: she was feeding people, inducing happiness, and making people want to come back to her restaurant. But Ina couldn’t understand why her restaurant wasn’t profitable.

Imagine her surprise when Ginsburg and his team proposed changes she’d never considered: eradicating inefficiencies and organizing her basement inventory.

And that was just the beginning. With fresh eyes, Ina’s mentors scrutinized her business practices and helped her implement changes. After being in business more than 20 years, Ina remarked that she’d, “never worked in another kitchen.” What’s more, Ina says she didn’t know what she didn’t know. . .but Mike Ginsburg and his colleagues did.

They knew restaurants, and Ina knew Ina’s, and together they’re invigorating the restaurant. Ina has reduced inventory, become more efficient, and is working to strengthen the Ina’s brand. Ina knows more about business processes and systems, and she’s cognizant of her bottom line, but she still treats every customer very well: Ina is still Ina.

Ina said she felt like the luckiest human being on earth to have help from mentors, but her mentors were learning too. Ginsburg noted that he’s always learning from his clients. He was impressed that she still connects with people and endeavors to make them happy every day. “Ina sees the good in people.”

Ina also does good for people. When CNN approached Lettuce Entertain You about this match, they pored over the restaurant’s financial details. Ina recalls Melman’s evaluation of her charity work; she says, “he knew, if with so little we did so much, then if we made more, we ’d do more.”

As fundraisers, our experiences enable us to do more. The AFP Peer Mentoring Committee matches seasoned fundraising professionals with those seeking advice to chart their career paths, and those new in the field or new to the area. Protégés amass information and guidance from their mentors, but it’s a two-way street: mentors learn new methodologies in fundraising, and benefit from strengthening our profession.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, or if a mentor is just the boost your career needs, contact Bernadette O’Shea (bernadette_o'shea@rush.edu or 312.942.8710 ) or Susan Hacker (shacker@ptda.org or 312.876.9461) for more information or obtain an application at www.afpchicago.org.

And try Ina’s for your initial meeting; the banana brûlée French toast is exquisite.Submitted by Michele L. Patterson for the AFP Chicago Peer Mentoring Committee
Ina’s is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner at 1235 W. Randolph St. 312.226.8227
Parking is free..

Sarah Bilissis, AFP Chicago Bernadette O'Shea, Rush University Medical Center Heidi Waltner-Pepper, The Big Shoulders Fund Marilyn Foster Kirk, CFRE, University of Illinois at Chicago	Mike Ginsburg, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Ina Pinkney, Ina's Restaurant