On Saturday, February 5th, don’t be alarmed if you see superheroes roaming the streets of Capitol Hill, Seattle. They are battling a social villain, a nasty little one called homelessness. They are on a mission to collect food for homeless youth at YouthCare.
Recruited by Donor Squad, a new Seattle start-up, volunteers will be traveling door to door to collect food for those who are less fortunate. Donor Squad will be delivering a bag and an informational flyer on Thursday to homes that the volunteers will be visiting, providing fair warning that superheroes will be stopping by on Saturday afternoon. The goal is to avoid heart attacks at all costs.
Unfortunately, homelessness among youth in Seattle is rapidly growing. Since the collapse of the financial market, YouthCare has seen a 63% increase in youth asking for help. Last year, 3,337 street kids received services from YouthCare. Sadly, some were turned away. The demand outgrew the funding.
YouthCare does more than feed kids on the street. They strive to battle homelessness, not sustain it. Some of the other services they offer are case management, education, employment training, health and hygiene distribution, and drug and alcohol counseling. As you can see, YouthCare provides many tools to help get kids permanently off the streets and into stable lifestyles.
On Saturday, Donor Squad is doing their part to help. Every year, YouthCare receives heaps of food around the holidays from holiday food drives and such. Then, like many other charities, there is a lull in donations for most of the remainder of the year. The Donor Squad team is hitting the streets to help break this trend. There will be an after party for the volunteers at Piecora’s New York Pizza. Feeding hungry superheroes is important. To find out how you can help, please visit http://www.meetup.com/DonorSquad/events/16169930/.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Waking up to a tighter community with 501 Commons
The Intiman Theater at the Seattle Center awoke bright and early Wednesday morning to debut the new 501 Commons. Rocking the a.m. with a little hip hop from MCDK (a Seattle hip hop group), I couldn’t help but to strut with a little grove to my step. They even made me smile. I must say, that is pretty impressive for 7:30 a.m. Nice work 501 Commons.
501 Commons serves charities, philanthropy, schools, and faith organizations. Simply put, they serve the 501 sector. On Wednesday morning they hosted a launch party to unveil their new self, morphing from the former Executive Service Corps and into the new and sexy 501 Commons. Although their name and website underwent a massive makeover, their mission remains the same; to strengthen communities by empowering schools and nonprofits.
With over 200 volunteer consultants and coaches, 501 Commons provides roughly $750,000 worth of services to over 60 nonprofits every year. Now that’s impressive! Nancy Long, 501 Commons Executive Director, spoke on the panel during the launch and emphasized the organization's goal to build customizable services and programs for each unique client.
Before the presentation, I met a consultant who had been volunteering with 501 Commons for about ten years. Being surprised with the turnout for a 7:00 a.m. event, I asked the consultant how 501 Commons pulled it off since I didn’t see much prior advertising. He told me that Nancy Long’s roots run deep and that she has been an active in the Seattle community for many many years. “In my opinion,” he said, “Nancy walks on water.”
501 Commons serves charities, philanthropy, schools, and faith organizations. Simply put, they serve the 501 sector. On Wednesday morning they hosted a launch party to unveil their new self, morphing from the former Executive Service Corps and into the new and sexy 501 Commons. Although their name and website underwent a massive makeover, their mission remains the same; to strengthen communities by empowering schools and nonprofits.
With over 200 volunteer consultants and coaches, 501 Commons provides roughly $750,000 worth of services to over 60 nonprofits every year. Now that’s impressive! Nancy Long, 501 Commons Executive Director, spoke on the panel during the launch and emphasized the organization's goal to build customizable services and programs for each unique client.
Before the presentation, I met a consultant who had been volunteering with 501 Commons for about ten years. Being surprised with the turnout for a 7:00 a.m. event, I asked the consultant how 501 Commons pulled it off since I didn’t see much prior advertising. He told me that Nancy Long’s roots run deep and that she has been an active in the Seattle community for many many years. “In my opinion,” he said, “Nancy walks on water.”
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Gift of Giving
The debate on when to donate to charity happens to so many of us. All year long we say we want to give back to our community or support a cause we believe in but don’t because there are so many other things we need that money for. Then Christmas rolls around and we have to buy gifts for friends and family while trying not to break bank. Well why not kill two birds with one stone?
The gift of giving is becoming a huge online trend along with online donations, which have greatly increased in the past few years. Now there are many website that offer online platforms that focus on different kinds of giving - i.e. teachers and classrooms, small business start-ups in different countries, artists trying to get started, all varieties of charities or individual causes. All you have to do is buy a gift card on a giving website and the person you gift it to can then make a contribution to any cause they want. It’s a win-win situation because you want to get gifts for family and friends, but also want your money to benefit good causes.
If you’re not convinced, here are a few things worth thinking about. Shopping during the holiday’s means dealing with huge crowds, traffic and sold-out items because it’s the busiest time of the year. Wouldn’t you rather order all of your gifts from home, on the Internet, in one transaction? You won’t have to worry about websites running out of gift card either. The other thing about Re-giving is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money. More online donations are made each year and the average donation amount is becoming smaller. The idea of Micro donations is that everyone can make a difference and every little bit helps. You can buy everyone a gift that you need to with the same small amount. Whether you’re giving to your friends, family, co-workers or teachers, they will be pleased and excited to receive any size gift that they can turn around and give to something they support.
This Gift idea was one of my favorite before it was one of Oprah’s “favorite things”. If you would like to receive something like this, chances are your friends would like it too. Choosing this gift route means you can actually relax and enjoy the holidays like we’re supposed to instead of worrying about presents for 12 different people.
Friday, November 26, 2010
The Nonprofit Popularity Contest
How social media will make you the cool kid on the block
Many people at charities argue that social media is difficult to measure. True, social media won’t give you hard detailed numbers on your ROI, but what it will do is make you known. How can something that is free, easy to manage, and so accessible be pushed to the back burner? The thing is, it’s really only easy when initially set up correctly. The problem is that people don’t understand how to properly execute Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. The key isn’t about sending out the perfect message, or even having the magic number of friends, fans, or followers. The key is about getting the message of your charity into the hands of the right people. The following is a detailed argument of why this is so vital.
My father once gave me some important advice. Advice that I didn’t buy at the time he said it, but as I have gotten older and have had time to experience and observe the social realm that humans partake in day in and day out, his words of wisdom began to align. It all started when I began my first job as a hostess at the age of sixteen. I was working at this dingy little hole-in-the wall Mexican restaurant and as time passed I took on more and more responsibility. Eventually I was in charge of making the schedule for the hostesses and bussers, what a nightmare. I was shocked at how petty grown adults could be. The gossip and complaining, the favoritism among management and the ease at which some poor new employee was shunned if not immediately accepted by the “cool” employees. They were a though crowd. Frustrated one evening I was venting to my father and I asked, “When will people grow out of living life in a popularity contest?” I told him that I thought that I would escape that shallow cycle when high school ended. Smiling and letting out a slow chuckle, he replied that people never grow out of it. “You will feel like you are in high school for the rest of your life,” he said.
High school. For some it is the great era of awkwardness. Some go day in and day out, trying to figure out just how to be cool. For others, it is the era of opportunity. They are likable. They fall into the popular click easily. And for all the others, well, they are just kind of there. They dress and act in a way that is defined as acceptable, defined by the popular group. They are not overly “cool,” but they do not stand out as a nerd or freak either. They don’t break the invisible code of what is acceptable within that specific high school’s culture.
Think back to your high school year book. Sure, it includes everyone’s name and picture. Everyone is there, but who is in the spotlight? Superlatives anyone? Best hair, best dressed, cutest couple, greatest athlete. These are the hot spots. For these, the entire school gets to vote and everyone decides who is most deserving. More often than not, the biggest nerd is not going to be the prize winner. No, it is going to be one of the trendsetters, one of the popular kids. Sure, the kids in the middle might be worthy, but with any election why waste your vote on someone that is not going to have enough of a following to matter? There are a select few people in every subculture who are the leaders. The system begins this way at grade school, and goes on for all of time.
I quickly realized that the Mexican restaurant wasn’t an outlier to my imaginary hopeful world where people would grow out of the high school mentality, and that my father was right. With each new job I took on, the same environment persisted. I worked at other restaurants, daycares, advertising agencies, and retail. All of them were the same, the popularity contest lives on forever. The success of employee happy hours and overall morale of a business are on the shoulders of the trendsetters, the “popular” people.
This popularity construct can be used to a charity’s advantage. Think about it, people want to know what is new and hot. We want to be part of a group and accepted for who we are. Humans are pack animals and most of them are willing to conform to what is socially defined as “normal” in order to fit in. We want to feel welcomed and loved; it is simply in our nature. Now here is the beauty of it all.
As we established earlier, there are a handful of people who define the rules. In high school they were called the popular kids, as adults they are the trendsetters, and in social media they are the seeds.
If charities sell their idea to the seeds, the organization will grow to become incredibly successful. So while you may not be able to measure exactly how much revenue was brought in from Facebook, Twitter, and other social media avenues, what they will do is make you known. Once you are known, people will pay attention and they will give. They will follow the leader. Now you just need to find the seeds.
Over 500 million people around the world are active on Facebook. Think of the potential.
Many people at charities argue that social media is difficult to measure. True, social media won’t give you hard detailed numbers on your ROI, but what it will do is make you known. How can something that is free, easy to manage, and so accessible be pushed to the back burner? The thing is, it’s really only easy when initially set up correctly. The problem is that people don’t understand how to properly execute Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. The key isn’t about sending out the perfect message, or even having the magic number of friends, fans, or followers. The key is about getting the message of your charity into the hands of the right people. The following is a detailed argument of why this is so vital.
My father once gave me some important advice. Advice that I didn’t buy at the time he said it, but as I have gotten older and have had time to experience and observe the social realm that humans partake in day in and day out, his words of wisdom began to align. It all started when I began my first job as a hostess at the age of sixteen. I was working at this dingy little hole-in-the wall Mexican restaurant and as time passed I took on more and more responsibility. Eventually I was in charge of making the schedule for the hostesses and bussers, what a nightmare. I was shocked at how petty grown adults could be. The gossip and complaining, the favoritism among management and the ease at which some poor new employee was shunned if not immediately accepted by the “cool” employees. They were a though crowd. Frustrated one evening I was venting to my father and I asked, “When will people grow out of living life in a popularity contest?” I told him that I thought that I would escape that shallow cycle when high school ended. Smiling and letting out a slow chuckle, he replied that people never grow out of it. “You will feel like you are in high school for the rest of your life,” he said.
High school. For some it is the great era of awkwardness. Some go day in and day out, trying to figure out just how to be cool. For others, it is the era of opportunity. They are likable. They fall into the popular click easily. And for all the others, well, they are just kind of there. They dress and act in a way that is defined as acceptable, defined by the popular group. They are not overly “cool,” but they do not stand out as a nerd or freak either. They don’t break the invisible code of what is acceptable within that specific high school’s culture.
Think back to your high school year book. Sure, it includes everyone’s name and picture. Everyone is there, but who is in the spotlight? Superlatives anyone? Best hair, best dressed, cutest couple, greatest athlete. These are the hot spots. For these, the entire school gets to vote and everyone decides who is most deserving. More often than not, the biggest nerd is not going to be the prize winner. No, it is going to be one of the trendsetters, one of the popular kids. Sure, the kids in the middle might be worthy, but with any election why waste your vote on someone that is not going to have enough of a following to matter? There are a select few people in every subculture who are the leaders. The system begins this way at grade school, and goes on for all of time.
I quickly realized that the Mexican restaurant wasn’t an outlier to my imaginary hopeful world where people would grow out of the high school mentality, and that my father was right. With each new job I took on, the same environment persisted. I worked at other restaurants, daycares, advertising agencies, and retail. All of them were the same, the popularity contest lives on forever. The success of employee happy hours and overall morale of a business are on the shoulders of the trendsetters, the “popular” people.
This popularity construct can be used to a charity’s advantage. Think about it, people want to know what is new and hot. We want to be part of a group and accepted for who we are. Humans are pack animals and most of them are willing to conform to what is socially defined as “normal” in order to fit in. We want to feel welcomed and loved; it is simply in our nature. Now here is the beauty of it all.
As we established earlier, there are a handful of people who define the rules. In high school they were called the popular kids, as adults they are the trendsetters, and in social media they are the seeds.
If charities sell their idea to the seeds, the organization will grow to become incredibly successful. So while you may not be able to measure exactly how much revenue was brought in from Facebook, Twitter, and other social media avenues, what they will do is make you known. Once you are known, people will pay attention and they will give. They will follow the leader. Now you just need to find the seeds.
Over 500 million people around the world are active on Facebook. Think of the potential.
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