See How an Act of Kindness Has Served Thousands of Foster Kids
Meet Danny Mendoza, an advocate for foster care and youth involvement. As a 19-year-old college student, Mendoza founded Together We Rise, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the way youth navigate the foster care system.
Danny Mendoza pauses for a photo during Together We Rise’s annual Disneyland trip – when the organization takes a group of foster children to the amusement park.
As World Kindness Week (Nov. 10 – 14) approaches, I think about how one small act of kindness can have a tremendous impact on countless people. I’d like to share my small act with you, in hopes it will inspire your own.
When I found out my 9-year-old cousin was living in a car after his parents lost their home, I knew I had to act. I tried to get him into foster care, thinking it would offer him a safe home. After researching the realities of the system, I was shocked to learn it was potentially a worse situation for him.
The statistics that face foster children, both inside and outside of the system, are staggering. Only two to three percent of foster children will ever graduate from college, and approximately 80 percent of the prison population is composed of former foster youth. This predicament is largely attributable to a lack of strong, steady resources and support.
Seeing my cousin’s plight, I sold my car and used those funds to start Together We Rise in 2008. Our principal focus is on improving the lives of foster children in the most compassionate and influential ways possible.
We want them to have a normal childhood and bring them experiences that kids typically have, like visiting Disneyland or having a bike to ride. These may seem like small acts, but to them it provides a sense of normalcy and belonging. For instance, most people don’t realize how common it is for children to enter foster care with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
On average, a foster child will move two to three times a year with their few belongings stuffed in black trash bags. We started our Sweet Cases program to provide children with duffel bags filled with basic necessities, including hygiene kits, stuffed animals, blankets, coloring books and crayons.
This nationwide initiative is made possible through the hard work of volunteers and partnerships with companies that recognize the role of the private sector in driving positive social change.
One such company we’ve encountered is KIND Snacks, whose mission is – naturally – to spread kindness. Earlier this year, we discovered their KIND Causes program, which provides $10,000 monthly grants to individuals and organization working to make the world a little kinder.
With the help of our community, Together We Rise entered KIND Causes and subsequently secured the funding, which we were able to put to good use immediately. That grant allowed us to distribute 200 Sweet Cases throughout Los Angeles and New York – two states with the highest number of children in foster care.
To date, our Sweet Case program has provided more than 7,000 children with cases so they do not have travel from home to home with trash bags. Trash bags are for trash, not children.
You, too, can help us change the way children navigate the foster care system in America. To learn how to get involved, visit our website. And remember, sometimes the smallest actions make the biggest difference.
Which One of These Inspiring Women Will You Vote For?
From a 19-year-old college student who created a computer program that teaches the cloud how to diagnose breast cancer, to a 62-year-old quadriplegic woman addressing childhood hunger in her city, the 2014Women of Worth honorees are creating change in their communities and beyond.
Stephanie Decker
Meet these 10 inspiring women below and vote for your favorite. The National Honoree chosen by the public’s votes will get an additional $25,000 for her cause, on top of the $10,000 each honoree receives.
To vote, visit L’Oréal Paris’ WomenofWorth.com, where you can also explore more about the honorees. There is also an opportunity to engage through social media, voting with a “Like” on a post about a favorite honoree on the L’Oréal Paris Facebook page, or by retweeting a mention about one of the Women of Worth made by L’Oréal Paris on Twitter.
You have until Nov. 21 to vote. This year’s National Honoree will be announced during a celebration of all of the 2014 Women of Worth on Dec. 2 in New York.
L’Oréal Paris announced the honorees this week alongside its nonprofit partner, Points of Light. The 2014 Women of Worth are:
Corinne Cannon – Washington, D.C.; founder and executive director, DC Diaper Bank, a nonprofit organization which has distributed over 1 million diapers to mothers in poverty to help reduce maternal stress, founded after Cannon’s own experience as a new mother showed her that even with a strong network of support, stress can affect parents in many ways.
Stephanie Decker – Sellersburg, Ind.; founder, The Stephanie Decker Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps children with prosthetics engage in sports and provides access to leading-edge prosthetics to those who need them, created after Decker lost both of her legs protecting her young children from the destructive forces of a tornado.
Shaaron Funderburk – Gastonia, N.C.; founder, Off the Streets Program (OTSP) and OTSP Transitional House, a nonprofit organization providing a home and support for women recovering from drug addiction and homelessness, created following Funderburk’s own recovery.
Mary K. Hoodhood – Grand Rapids, Mich.; founder, director, Kids’ Food Basket, the largest childhood anti-hunger organization in Michigan which helps underserved children. Despite being quadriplegic, Hoodhood was determined not to let her disability hold her back from helping others and has thus dedicated her time to giving back.
Rachel Jackson-Bramwell – St. Clair County, Ill.; founder and executive director, Project Compassion and Compassionate Resources Center, a nonprofit that provides support for the St. Clair County and Greater St. Louis-areas homeless and low-income women and children, often overlooked by government services.
Deborah Snyder – Alexandria, Va.; president and CEO, Operation Renewed Hope Foundation, a nonprofit that helps to eliminate homelessness among veterans, created after Snyder’s retirement from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel and helicopter pilot.
Phyllis Sudman – Plymouth Meeting, Pa.; co-founder, Simon’s Fund, which raises awareness of the warning signs and conditions that lead to sudden cardiac arrest and death in children, founded after Sudman tragically lost her 3-month-old son, Simon.
Brittany Wenger – Bradenton, Fla.; Duke University student and aspiring pediatric oncologist who invented Cloud4Cancer, a computer program that uses artificial intelligence and test results to diagnose breast cancer with 99 percent accuracy, driven by a young family member’s battle with the disease.
Audra DiPadova Wilford – Santa Ana, Calif.; founder, MaxLove Project, a nonprofit organization that empowers families fighting childhood cancers and life-threatening conditions with whole-body wellness resources, education and research, founded after Wilford’s son Max was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 4.
Jenny Williamson – Granite Bay, Calif.; founder and CEO, Courage Worldwide, an international nonprofit volunteer organization building homes for children rescued out of sex trafficking.
What Are the 10 the Most Innovative Citizen Engagement Programs in the Country?
ServiceWorks is a groundbreaking national program that uses community engagement and volunteer service as the primary strategies to help 25,000 underserved young adults in 10 cities develop the skills they need to prepare for college and careers.
National Journal correspondent Fawn Johnson writes:
Citi Foundation COO Brandee McHale calls ServiceWorks a jobs program in disguise. A joint project with AmeriCorps and Points of Light, the program uses volunteer service as a way to transition low-income young adults into jobs. “How do we really help prepare young people for the 21st-century workforce? The road map to success looks very different from prior generations,” she said. “In civic-engagement projects, you build leadership skills, you build workplace skills.”
ServiceWorks, which launched in September, has partnered with local civic organizations in 10 cities. Those organizations are recruiting high-school-age kids who will develop their own community projects, present those ideas to community leaders, and implement them. Sticking with a project from start to finish will help participants develop entrepreneurial leadership skills that employers often seek in job candidates, McHale says. Moreover, the kids will realize they actually have the power to make a tangible change in their own communities.
ServiceWorks is up and running in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. To find out more about local nonprofit partners, click here.
To find out more about how young adults, ages 18-24, can enroll and how adults can volunteer as “success coaches,” contact LaRhonda Jackson, [email protected].
When it Sounds Like a Baseball Team Is Pitching Balls Against Your House, Will You Be Ready?
Read about how folks in Milwaukee are preparing for disaster. To help your family take action, visit Good & Ready, where you’ll learn how to create various disaster plans, build a preparedness kit and more.
Julie Brown of Eagle, Wis., could barely see as she drove home one June evening four years ago – hail and rain pounded on her car relentlessly. She tried to phone her husband, Jason, who was home with their two children, Jillian and Joseph, ages 8 and 4 at the time.
The Brown family of Milwaukee share their story about surviving a tornado. (Click photo to play video.)
But Jason Brown and the kids were huddled underneath a basement staircase, bracing for a tornado.
Above them, the house shook. Jason recalls feeling air pressure so strong, “It felt as if the top of my head was going to explode.” In addition to a deafening roar, the father and children heard what sounded “like an entire baseball team pitching balls against the house.”
Minutes later, the noise stopped. When Jason ventured upstairs, he found the inside walls of the home plastered with garden mulch and mud, blown inside through windows that now bowed outward. The garage door was gone, as was the kids’ heavy, wooden backyard climbing gym and slide.
Meanwhile, Julie had to abandon her car, as all roads leading to her subdivision were blocked with fallen trees and power lines. Julie had no flashlight, no rain gear and no sturdy shoes or boots for wading through deep water or climbing over limbs.
Volunteer Tammy Lockhart helps Delilah Haggerty fill her family’s emergency kit at Mayfair Mall.
Hundreds of shoppers who lined up Oct. 18 at Mayfair Mall in suburban Milwaukee to assemble starter emergency kits admitted they also would be unprepared for a sudden disaster, even though Wisconsin gets hit by deadly tornadoes each summer and howling blizzards each winter.
“Thank you, because I just never even think about it,” said Merline Levers of Milwaukee, who uses an electric scooter for mobility, after receiving her emergency kit.
The Allstate Foundation teamed up with Points of Light in Milwaukee to raise awareness about preparing for disasters as the final stop on a 14-city nationwide tour that began in May. Similar events were held in Los Angeles, Houston, Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, New York, Indianapolis and other cities.
As the tour wrapped up, more than 10,000 emergency kits had been distributed nationwide. In Milwaukee, event participants and volunteers put together 500 kits in a little over two hours.
Volunteers from local Allstate agencies, The Allstate Foundation and Allstate’s national catastrophe team teamed up with local volunteers from the American Red Cross and the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee – part of Points of Light’s HandsOn Network – to explain the purpose of each item in the kit, from hand-cranked flashlights to rain ponchos to dust masks to loud whistles for attracting the attention of rescue workers.
Ryan Bagley and his sons Jack, 4, and twins Luke and Max, 2, put together an emergency kit.
For the Wisconsin event, waterproof mylar “blankets,” designed to retain 90 percent of a person’s body heat, and lists of winter safety tips were added to the kits.
Bilingual agent Alex Ferreira of Milwaukee explained the kits and conducted surveys in Spanish when needed. Yong Yang, an agent in Brookfield, Wis., who helped distribute emergency kits, said many people appreciated the opportunity to learn how to prepare.
Andre Walls of Milwaukee, one of the attendees, said he once shivered for nearly an hour awaiting help after one of his tires went flat on a bitter winter night. Walls said that from now on he plans to stock his vehicle with a blanket, flashlight and battery jumper cables.
Event participants with young children seemed especially interested in getting prepared.
“Usually, you figure, `I’ll be OK,’ but now that I have other people to care for, I’m making sure they’re OK and they’re all set,” said Jessica Olbrot, who attended the event with her husband, Kris, and toddler, Olivia.
Ryan Bagley – who turned heads as he expertly managed a double stroller shuttling identical twin sons Luke and Max, 2, while his 4-year-old son, Jack, held his hand – vowed to create a home emergency kit that would contain safety essentials as well as toys to keep the boys occupied and calm in the event of a disaster.
Children at the event were given small teddy bears – just as they are during real disasters by the Allstate “Cat” team, which often finds families bereft of all possessions, including their children’s stuffed toys.
“They’re devastated and they don’t have anything,” said Mark Smith of Traverse City, Mich., who works with Allstate’s flood disaster team based in Mobile, Ala.
Tanya Joeng of Allstate Foundation’s Northbrook, Ill., office, said it’s been gratifying to help prepare the public for emergencies. “People really listen,” she said. “They really take in the information, which I think it is really great.”
A Child of War, Now a Woman of Peace, Serves Veterans by Writing With Them
Meet Maxine Hong Kingston, recently named a Purpose Prize fellow by the nonprofit Encore.org, which promotes serving the greater good in the second half of life. Read about all the Purpose Prize winners and fellows at Encore.org/prize.
Maxine Hong Kingston
I am Maxine Hong Kingston, 73 years of age. I began taking war personally as a child during World War II. My mother was a refugee from China, where she was a medic during the bombing of Canton. Years later, two of my brothers were in the Vietnam War, and one of them returned with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Over time, I became a professor at U.C. Berkeley and authored nine books, including “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Amongst Ghosts,” but the problem of war stayed with me. I wanted peace for my loved ones, and for the world.
In my birthday month, October of 1991, I lost my father, then my house and neighborhood, and my novel-in-progress, in the Berkeley/Oakland firestorm. My trauma was such that I lost my ability to read. I needed a shout-out, “Encore!” – or “Hana hou!” as we say in Hawai’i. A phoenix of an idea came to me: Gather around me veterans, who have been through fire, and let’s write together. Write our way home. Write Peace.
During two decades, veterans of many wars answered my call – mostly veterans of Vietnam, but also of World War II, Israel, the Persian Gulf, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and now Iraq and Afghanistan. There are “veterans” of Tiananmen Square and Philadelphia’s MOVE raid and bombing, and an uprising in Malaysia. Survivors of gang violence also came, identifying themselves as veterans, as did widows and children of soldiers, as well as peace activists. More than 800 people have participated.
For wont of a name, the veterans call our community The Veteran Writers Group. We have no formal organization; veterans prefer being underground. My hope is that with a calming practice and artistic expression, veterans can find peace and relief.
Unlike hour-long classes or therapy sessions, our group stays together all day, and sometimes through the night. A volunteer will teach a theme, lead meditations, establish silence for writing, hold space for everyone to read, chair discussions and host the breaking of bread.
The most important goal of this project is to build community, what Martin Luther King, Jr., called “the beloved community,” and Buddhists call “sangha.” The veterans come out of the isolation of PTSD – out of lonely apartments, out of the bush, off of the homeless streets.
I retired from U.C. Berkeley at the age of 65, but there is no retiring from the social good that it behooves each of us to do in this world. I am Buddhist, and take this vow seriously: “However innumerable the sentient beings, I vow to save them all.” So I have made a comeback – an encore. I am doing my life’s work.
Would Your Organization Know What to Do With an Influx of Volunteers?
Amy Chapman is responsible for supporting 12,000 Capital One employees in volunteering, but she faced a problem. Though she had thousands of potential volunteers ready to use their skills for good in their communities, nonprofits weren’t necessarily able to receive them.
Amy Chapman of Capital One
“We are passionate about pro bono work, but we know that it requires capacity,” said Chapman, Capital One’s community affairs manager for central Virginia. “Organizations need to be ready to receive that kind of support.”
The volume of meaningful volunteer projects Capital One needed led Chapman to a conversation with HandsOn Greater Richmond, a local affiliate of Points of Light’s HandsOn Network that supports effective volunteer engagement. Both the company and the nonprofit had a commitment to engaging volunteers in better ways and to working across sectors to make that vision possible.
So they crafted a partnership around the Service Enterprise Initiative that enabled each sector to play to its strengths. The Service Enterprise Initiative is a comprehensive training and coaching model that strengthens nonprofits by helping them better leverage volunteers strategically throughout the organization.
Capital One provided the financial support and invited a select group of its grantees to participate. HandsOn Greater Richmond delivered the training, coaching and technical assistance.
“We saw the Service Enterprise Initiative as a way to help organizations build capacity,” Chapman said.
HandsOn Greater Richmond Director Vanessa Diamond appreciated Capital One’s thoughtful approach: “They wanted to understand how a large-scale company could engage its volunteers responsibly and in helpful ways that were not overwhelming to nonprofits.”
Chapman added, “The Service Enterprise Initiative gives nonprofits tools for transforming their approach to service. It is a way for them to think differently about how they leverage volunteers. It helps them talk differently about the value of time and resources invested into volunteerism. It’s not a ‘nice to have’, it is fundamentally a part of their organizations and how they measure success.”
Chapman credits a comprehensive and collaborative approach to volunteer capacity to the Service Enterprise Initiative’s local success. It also helped that Capital One determined in advance what level of commitment, involvement and investment it wanted to have, a strategy Chapman would recommend to other funders interested in this work.
“We knew that financial capacity and volunteer expertise were important to making an impact in our community,” Chapman said. “We funded a two-day volunteer management training to enhance participants’ skills in the basics. We also gave grants so that organizations could invest in the areas of need they identified in their action plans.”
The strategy is working in Richmond and shows great potential for other communities. Chapman encourages organizations seeking support for volunteer engagement to make a business case for it.
“It’s not only about hearts and hands, you need to have data to show how volunteer work will impact the community and the organization,” Chapman said. “Do your homework to understand a company’s strategy for volunteerism and show how your work aligns with that.”
Diamond agreed. “Approach funders as partners and ask for ideas and input, not just dollars. It helps that this is a national model that is bigger than any one partner. It was an asset for our region. It felt like we were all part of the same team.”
Chapman is pleased with the results. “One of our participants summed it up best. They thought the Service Enterprise process would transform volunteerism at the organization. They discovered that it would transform the organization through volunteerism.”
For more information about the Service Enterprise Initiative, visit the program’s website.
A Lesson in How Service Works on Make A Difference Day
Just five miles from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Covenant House helps homeless, disconnected and exploited young adults by providing meals, emergency housing, job training, education programs and child care.
Volunteers clean up in the library at Covenant House on Make A Difference Day. (Photo by Max Taylor)
On Saturday, a team of new AmeriCorps VISTA members – assigned to
, a program that uses volunteer service as the primary strategy to help underserved young adults develop the skills they need to prepare for college and careers – showed they know a thing or two about
how
service works.
The five AmeriCorps members organized a
event that brought 130 volunteers to Covenant House to help make life a bit easier for the hundreds of at-risk youth who often turn to the organization for help.
Volunteers organized libraries for young children and adults. They packed hundreds of toiletry kits for distribution to the homeless. They sorted, ironed and folded tens of thousands of clothing items. They cleaned up the grounds and the neighborhood.
“A lot of people say you can’t make a difference in a day,” said Vernell Payton, coordinator of outreach and intake at Covenant House for 18 years. “But you can. You’d be surprised at how many young people who come here talk about basic stuff. Toiletry kits, for example. If you have one, you can dip into the bathroom at the Exxon station and be ready for that job or that appointment.”
Jasmine Hortberg, an AmeriCorps VISTA member, gives volunteers instructions just before a Make A Difference Day project at Covenant House. (Photo by Max Taylor)
and the nation’s largest corporate-funded AmeriCorps VISTA program, for showing young people “a pathway forward through service.”
That point wasn’t lost on Jasmine Hortberg, 25, an AmeriCorps VISTA member from Birmingham, Ala. “My mother is an addict and has been my whole life,” Jasmine said. “She taught me to be a wonderful, compassionate human being, that everyone needs help sometimes. She taught me not to judge.”
After graduating from Auburn University, Hortberg joined AmeriCorps VISTA to help other young people who have had a tough time. “A lot of people think they [underserved young adults] don’t have passion and goals, but they do. They just don’t have the means to pursue them. That’s what I want to give them,” she said.
“Finding that inner motivation is something these kids can definitely have,” Hortberg added. “It’s just about somebody believing in them, and that’s something they haven’t had a lot of.”
is now operating in 10 cities – Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. If you live in one of these cities and would like to volunteer as a mentor or trainer, please send an email to LaRhonda Jackson,
We Got the Billion +, Now It’s Time to Count the Change
This post is by Jenny Lawson, vice president of corporate strategy at Points of Light.
When Points of Light and its partners in the nonprofit world gathered for the launch of A Billion + Change in 2011, there were inspiring speeches and stories of a few corporate programs already doing great pro bono work.
Jenny Lawson
For me, there was a slightly frightening admonition by a U.S. Senator not to fail in our effort to encourage hundreds of companies to take a pledge to do more pro bono service.
Along the way, there have been amazing milestones. We secured more than $2 billion in pledges. We met and then surpassed our pledge goal of 500 companies. Today, we can count more than 2,100 engaged companies who have looked to Billion + Change to start, sustain and grow their pro bono programs. And we regularly field questions from social entrepreneurs around the world who want to start A Billion + Change in their countries.
But did it count for anything? We’re about to find out.
Points of Light and its Pro Bono Collaborative have launched the first ever Pro Bono Benchmarking Survey to standardize reporting and measurement of pro bono and skills-based service. Multiple-choice questions will explore the various methods companies use to monitor the impact of their service programs on human capital, talent recruitment, and communication across the company.
To assess whether pro bono service is really making a difference in tackling our communities’ most pressing problems, the survey will also ask companies to think critically about systems and strategies for measuring social impact. We hope the process will help companies better understand pro bono service and the possibilities and promise of skills-based service for more productive employees, more effective service programs. The 30-question survey is designed to take no more than 20-30 minutes to complete.
One difference is clear: The energy and momentum of A Billion + Change has strengthened the network of professional pro bono experts that serve as intermediaries between companies wanting to serve and the needs of nonprofits, governments and communities.
Together with key partners and reviewers from the business community, the Pro Bono Collaborative – as the group calls itself – worked to share their existing surveys, strategies and best practices to build the basis for the Benchmarking survey. This level of collaboration and a common benchmarking tool weren’t even on the wish list when we started.
What other differences between then and now will become clear? In the end, that’s up to you. We need 500 companies to take the survey. Has your company used its skills and talents in service to your community? If yes, take the short survey and tell us about it! Every company and every service project counts. If not, get started at www.abillionpluschange.org. Your community needs you.
I’m eager to get back to you with the results, so take the survey today. Together, we can make it count!
Celebrating Volunteer Service at Home and Around the World at the 2014 Tribute Awards
Under the glow of crimson Chinese lanterns, a retired NBA star-turned philanthropist, a young environmentalist, a nonprofit addressing hunger and a company with a strong history of employee volunteerism received Points of Light Tribute Awards last night at the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C.
Tribute Award winner Charles Orgbon III and event emcee Greta Van Susteren share a lighthearted moment.
“We celebrate the expansion of the global service movement and recognize individuals, companies and organizations who empower others, strengthen families and lift communities,” said Points of Light Chair Neil Bush, who co-hosted the event with Ambassador H.E. Cui Tiankai of the People’s Republic of China.
Retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, a key U.S. security adviser to a succession of presidents and winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Yue-Sai Kan, an Emmy-winning television host and producer whom People magazine called “the most famous woman in China,” were honorary co-chairs. (See photos of the event here.)
Yue-Sai, presenting Yao Ming’s Tribute Award, shared something the former NBA player told her: “Being good is commendable, but doing good is more important.”
That sentiment resonated throughout the evening, particularly as the Tribute awardees – recognized for their volunteer and philanthropic work – were named. This year’s honorees are:
Retired professional basketball player Yao Ming, formerly with the Houston Rockets. The Yao Ming Foundation seeks to improve the lives of children in China and the U.S., with an emphasis on providing educational opportunities. Fellow NBA basketball great Dikembe Mutombo accepted the award on Yao’s behalf.
Hewett-Packard – In 2013 alone, 40,000 HP employees in 82 countries logged more than 1.6 million volunteer hours and, with the help of matching donations from HP, gave more than $13.3 million to nonprofits and schools through cash and product donations. Gregg Melinson, senior vice president of corporate affairs at HP, accepted the award.
Environmentalist Charles Orgbon III, of Atlanta, who started a club at age 12 to keep his school clean, then turned it into Greening Forward, a nonprofit dedicated to creating a diverse global environmental movement powered by young people.
World Central Kitchen, a humanitarian organization founded by international chef José Andrés that feeds and empowers vulnerable people in humanitarian crises around the world. Executive Director Brian MacNair accepted the award.
Music prodigy Justin Yu, an 8-year-old cellist, performs for the guests.
Celebrating the awardees at the Chinese embassy was a tribute to the life and legacy of President George H. W. Bush, Points of Light’s founder, who cares deeply about the promotion of volunteer service and closer ties to China.
Points of Light’s global network includes more than 60 cities 30 countries, including affiliates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shanghai. Together they mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers who contribute their time to help meet community needs.
As the evening wound down, the focus was on the future. Accepting his award, 18-year-old Orgbon appealed to the gathering for guidance.
“Consider young people as your allies, partners and stakeholders,” he said. “Help us find and project our voices.”
Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Giving Tuesday – Start the Conversation Around Giving Back This Holiday Season
With Giving Tuesday coming up on Dec. 2, now’s a great time to make it easy to collect pledges of time and money for your cause this holiday season.
The #GivingTuesday movement started three years ago as an initiative to promote charitable giving during the holidays. This year, Points of Light is partnering with Giving Tuesday to make it easy for volunteers to pledge their time in addition to giving money to support a nonprofit – via the All for Good Volunteer Facebook App.
If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, the All for Good Volunteer Facebook App allows any organization currently posting projects to either All for Good or a local Points of Light Affiliate to showcase their projects right on their Facebook pages. It’s free. It’s simple. And it takes less than five minutes to install. Click here to get started.
Once you sign up, the new Giving Tuesday Pledge banner will appear automatically on your Volunteer app on Oct. 28, making it easy for volunteers to pledge to serve with an organization of their choice and search for volunteer projects – all in the same place. You always have the option to manage the app and view stats via your admin settings panel.
Facebook and Points of Light will be conducting a webinar at 2 p.m. EST on Oct. 28 to talk about ways nonprofits can maximize the value of Giving Tuesday with social media tools like the All for Good Volunteer App. Click here to register.
