Vision Grows While Dollars Drag at the Coaches Care Project

The Coaches Care Project came complete with a sweeping vision: to deliver the “transformational gift of coaching to those individuals, communities and organizations most in need.”

The mission—of uniting coaches and bringing coaching to the world—caught the attention of Lynne Gilliland.

“It hit a chord with quite a lot of folks,” said Gilliland, a coach who spent fifteen years working overseas assignments with Catholic Relief Services.

Gilliland agreed to be one of the speakers at the Coaches Care Success Summit, a five day event that began on June 22, 2009.

James Komosinski, who created The Coaches Care Project, says he wanted to build a “legacy to my career in terms of giving back to the coaching profession.”

The idea was to unite people into a powerful force to do good work. Komosinski says he realized last Spring that “there was potentially a movement around service around the world, and could be organized through Coaches Care.”

The initiative’s debut would be the kickoff Success Summit in June, complete with a roster of all star speakers from the world of coaching, including Sir John Whitmore, Michael Port and C.J. Hayden.

“We had some of the premier thought leaders in the profession show up, and to a person, they said ‘James, we’ve waited a long time for this kind of event.’”

“From that perspective, it was a home run,” said Komosinski, president of Practice Pay Solutions, the Long Island based company that provides payment processing to coaches and other professionals. “It was absolutely a smashing success.”

But Komosinski admits the ambitious effort wasn’t quite the financial success he’d hoped for.

“That was the area where we fell short,” he said.

125 people attended the Success Summit, according to Komosinski–significantly lower than anticipated–and only 25 of those people were paid attendees. Komosinski said paid attendance brought in “roughly” $10,000. “Where we failed was, we couldn’t muster enough of an audience to raise the funds we had hoped.”

Organizing and publicizing the event, Komosinski said, cost $75,000–money spent on “web coders, designers, copywriters and consultants” to “build out” the Coaches Care website.

The Coaches Care Project, designated a “charitable giving program” of the for-profit Practice Pay Solutions–but not a registered nonprofit–had committed 90 percent of the net proceeds from the Success Summit to a list of coaching-related charities.

Dr. Patrick Williams’ project, Coaching the Global Village, is on the beneficiary list, but like the other selected charities, the Summit wasn’t the financial boost they’d hoped for in a tough year.

“Truthfully, the attendance for the event was less than expected,” said Williams, who hasn’t given up on the Coaches Care concept.

“We continue to sponsor monthly forums and the website is still active,” said Williams, whose effort to bring coaching to the developing world began in Colorado in 2006.

“This was probably the worst time to start a nonprofit, but I so believe in the purpose of Coaching the Global Village,” said Williams. “We are persevering for some funds.”

Komosinski made a donation to the group of $1,000 when hoped for profits from the Success Summit didn’t come through, and he has offered his home in the Hamptons to Coaching the Global Village for use to host a board retreat.

“If coaches can’t get their act together now,” in terms of public service, Komosinski reasons, “then when can they?”

The Coaches Care Project continues with monthly online offerings and a continued appeal for donations to its chosen charitable groups. Coaches Care has no governing board, Komosinski said, but instead has guidance from a “working group of coaching thought leaders from around the world.”

“A lot of coaches get frustrated,” said Nancy Gerber, who is working with Coaches Care to help coaches find a way to do service. “Whatever tools that we can provide for coaches to do some good in the world.”

Gerber and fellow coach Nancy Spivey host the Coaches Care “Monthly Mastermind” call, a free telesession aimed at offering guidance to coaches and business owners, and another venture supported by the Coaches Care Project.

“Part of what James has asked us to do and what we’re doing with the Mastermind calls is to really say, ‘how can we support you in expanding your vision and also take coaching into the world in a bigger way’” said Nancy Spivey.

Komosinski believes the lessons learned from the Success Summit—combined with the ongoing work of projects like Mastermind—mean his Coaches Care Project will ultimately succeed, and may even expand into something far larger than he originally dreamed.

“I’m still going to do the initial mission: getting our community aware of these organizations, giving them seed money, creating a Mastermind for these nonprofit executives,” said Komosinski, who promised a big new addition to his vision this Fall. “The world needs coaching. We’ll have some really exciting news in the next thirty days.”