Find Out How You Can Change the News, Not the Channel
This post is by Tracy Hoover, Points of Light’s president.
Tracy Hoover
It’s been five years of what President Obama calls “the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes” – and it’s taken a toll.
According to an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, only 29 percent of those who identified as poor and working-class Americans say it’s likely they will move toward the middle class in the next five to seven years. With 15 percent of Americans living at or below the poverty line, it’s grim news – and a call to action.
In times like these, citizens coming together have always made the difference. When we volunteer, we provide more than help. We provide an antidote to cynicism and despair.
I’m proud to announce that Points of Light, Bank of America and the Corporation for National and Community Service have joined forces and launched a Financial Opportunity Corps.
This fall, 20 AmeriCorps VISTA members have started serving in 10 communities around the country – Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Bridgeport (Conn.), Detroit, Lauderhill (Fla.), New York, Philadelphia, Portland (Ore.) and San Jose – recruiting and training volunteer financial coaches to help residents develop skills and access the resources to become financially stable.
For some good news – and information about how you can help – read 22-year-old Financial Opportunity Corps member Nathalie Carril-King’s story here.
And join us in changing the news, not just the channel.
Three Pro Bono Trends Strengthening Communities
This post is by Jenny Lawson, is vice president of corporate strategy at Points of Light and Kate Ahern, vice president of social innovation at the Case Foundation.
Lawson
As we celebrate Pro Bono Week, it’s worth reflecting on the powerful trends that have recently emerged from businesses across the country as they continue to scale and deepen the impact of their community engagement programs.
In the 2013 Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy “Giving in Numbers” report, 50 percent of companies surveyed reported that they offer either a domestic or international
program. This is an increase from 32 percent in 2008, clearly showing a growing trend of companies embracing skills-based service to lead change in their communities.
Ahern
Over the past two years, we’ve also seen more than 500 companies pledge $2 billion in pro bono services to
. Pledge companies are inspiring others to lend their time and talent to nonprofits through the powerful business and social impact that pro bono offers.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so we created an infographic showcasing the broad social impact and business value that the pledge companies are generating. We know that more pro bono is happening, but what innovations have emerged? We’ve identified a few trends, in which we see companies working in creative collaborations that lead to larger-scale success:
1. Increasing cross-company collaboration
More and more, companies are coming together to form collaborative partnerships that pursue shared goals through pro bono service. Sigma-Aldrich, a life science and high technology company, has partnered with nine major employers in St. Louis, Mo., to create STEMpact, an industry collaborative to improve STEM teacher quality in the region.
The collaborative is also working with Washington University to develop an updated science curriculum. Improving education through pro bono is an increasing trend – 77 percent of Billion + Change pledges target education as their pro bono impact area. Through partnerships like STEMpact, companies are leveraging their collective resources to drive tomorrow’s innovators through the power of pro bono.
2. Partnerships with city government
A new generation of mayors is taking on the challenge of reinventing cities for the 21st century. Companies such as IBM, a leadership partner of A Billion + Change, are proving to be an ally through initiatives like the
grant program – a three-year, 100-city initiative.
Through this program, IBM is donating $50 million worth of its employees’ time to help cities execute ambitious projects. IBM dispatches five- or six-person, executive-level teams of experts with a range of backgrounds, skills, and experiences that bring fresh perspectives, and help cities formulate strategies for improving the quality of life and the prospects of their citizens. IBM teams have already completed projects in dynamic cities worldwide – including Philadelphia; Katowice, Poland; and Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Civic Consulting USA is also innovating in this space, and re-shaping how cities work by creating pro bono teams of business experts and government leaders.
in Chicago has a 30-year track record of success – thousands of professionals have achieved real impact, such as increased community college graduation and decreased youth violence. Civic Consulting USA has launched to replicate this model in New York City and nationally.
3. Small businesses stepping up through service
Small companies are stepping up to the plate to contribute more than their fair share. Fifty percent of A Billion + Change pledges, in fact, are small businesses. Through innovative new business models, companies such as
, a global design studio, are giving 50 percent of their work away for free through pro bono. And, recognizing that partnerships are critical to scale, they are growing the movement by teaching other social entrepreneurs about their model. As verynice founder Matt Manos puts it:
“Through our unique business model, all of us at verynice have worked tirelessly to alleviate some of the expenses for nonprofit organizations so that they may re-invest their resources directly into their cause. However, here is the harsh reality: It has taken us 5 years to alleviate only .01 percent of the expenses that organizations are spending each and every year. Clearly, we can’t do this alone anymore.”
On the Ground with the Financial Opportunity Corps
Nathalie Carril-King had been on the job less than a week when a young student walked into the College and Career Pathways Center at Flushing High School in Queens, N.Y., with a look of anxiety and frustration on her face.
“She told me she wanted to go to college, but had no idea how to pay for it or where to start,” Carril-King recalls.
Carril-King is an AmeriCorps VISTA member serving with Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) in New York City. She is part of Points of Light’s Financial Opportunity Corps, an innovative partnership between Points of Light, the Corporation for National and Community Service and Bank of America.
This fall, Carril-King and 19 other Financial Opportunity Corps members began their service with local nonprofit organizations in 10 communities around the country. Financial Opportunity Corps members will train volunteers to be financial “coaches” in their communities, helping residents learn strategies for reducing debt, improving credit, building assets, saving for emergencies and planning for the future. Like going to college.
“This program could not come at a better time,” says Christopher Kui, executive director at AAFE. “While many think that all of New York City has recovered from the recent recession, the reality is that almost half of New Yorkers are making less than 150 percent of the poverty threshold.”
Carril-King knows problems like these aren’t solved quickly – and won’t be solved before her term of service is over. But that’s part of what attracted her to the Financial Opportunity Corps in the first place. Its innovative peer-to-peer training model is designed to equip community residents and volunteers to keep it going over the years she knows it will take to effect lasting change.
It’s also one of the key reasons Bank of America partnered with Points of Light and the Corporation for National and Community Service to make the Financial Opportunity Corps a reality.
Carril-King
“Financial wellness is core to our company’s purpose,” said Kerry Sullivan, president of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. “Through this partnership with Points of Light, we are supporting financial education efforts that can be scaled and sustained at the local level, leveraging the service of AmeriCorps VISTA members and our own employees to create positive change. That means customized solutions that put low and moderate income people – and their communities – on the pathway to long-term economic success.”
Volunteers from the community and Bank of America employees will serve as coaches. Through its partnerships with Points of Light and other nonprofit organizations, Bank of America employees donated more than 1.5 million hours of volunteer service last year alone.
Carril-King is already seeing the potential one-on-one coaching can have.
“As we talked, I could see her face change,” she says of the student she spoke with those first days on the job. “She was excited and more confident. I’m looking forward to more students being empowered to say, ‘I can change this.’”
How you can get involved
The Points of Light Financial Opportunity Corps is looking for volunteer financial coaches. If you live in one of the following locations and would like more information on volunteering as a Financial Opportunity Corps coach with one of our nonprofit partners, please click a link below and send us a note!
Where Should Nonprofits Use Volunteers? Everywhere.
This post is by Tricia Thompson, vice president of training and consulting at Points of Light.
For every dollar nonprofits invest in effective volunteer engagement, they can expect up to $6 in return – a six-fold return on investment. Organizations that effectively engage volunteers are more adaptable, sustainable and capable of expanding. And they operate at almost half the median budget as nonprofits that don’t make full use of what volunteers have to offer.
Nonprofits that use their volunteers effectively are more efficient and nimble.
Points of Light calls these effective nonprofits “service enterprises” – organizations that leverage volunteers across all leadership levels, in all departments, to address community needs. Research tells us fewer than 15 percent of nonprofits nationwide operate as service enterprises.
Want to become one of them?
To help more nonprofits become service enterprises, Points of Light, in collaboration with CaliforniaVolunteers, is launching the Service Enterprise Initiative in select locations in 11 states (California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia and Wisconsin). Through a comprehensive, research-backed assessment, training, consulting and certification model, nonprofits are equipped to better engage volunteers.
Rosario Di Prima, programs vice president at Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters in Los Angeles County, Calif., said the program made staff at her organization realize the different and powerful ways to incorporate volunteers.
As a result of the Service Enterprise program, Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters has increased its network of junior partners (a diverse group of skills-based volunteers, primarily young professionals) by about 20 percent, and plans to continue expanding the network.
Now, Di Prima said, “volunteers are throughout the organization.”
Since 2012, seven California volunteer centers piloted this model and have worked with more than 60 organizations. By June 2014 Points of Light will have worked with 12 other leading nonprofits to transform more than 180 nonprofit organizations into certified service enterprises.
Thanks to the leadership of CaliforniaVolunteers and the Corporation for National and Community Service for their investment and support, and thanks to TCC Group, Deloitte and University of Texas Austin for investing in the research, building the assessment tools and providing the data and analysis that built the foundation for this endeavor.
Points of Light and CaliforniaVolunteers are working with the organizations below to expand this work. If your nonprofit is in the same area as one of those linked below, you may contact the relevant organization directly to express interest in participating in the Service Enterprise Initiative. Otherwise, to learn more about the program, please email me, Tricia Thompson, at [email protected].
Need a Grant for Your 2014 Martin Luther King Day of Service Project?
From mucking out homes devastated by Hurricane Sandy to transforming veterans’ homes in Phoenix, last year Points of Light’s nonprofit partners and HandsOn Network affiliates across the country engaged more than 250,000 people in Martin Luther King Day of Service projects.
Points of Light is currently accepting grant applications for 2014 MLK Day of Service projects. Grants are available with support from the Corporation for National and Community Service. There is still time to apply!
Applications are being accepted through Friday, Oct. 25
.
Join the nation in honoring Dr. King’s legacy through service on MLK Day 2014!
Win up to $15,000 for Your Favorite Cause
What do pro bono and pro football have in common?
Advisory Board Company employees advise
Girls on the Run staff about fundraising.
They’re both playing a part in the Super Service Challenge. The story contest will award $1 million – in prizes ranging from $100 to $15,000 – to deserving nonprofit organizations nominated by their volunteers. A panel of judges will help select this year’s winning volunteer teams, some of whom will receive tickets to the Super Bowl.
To participate, volunteer teams must submit service stories between now and Nov. 30.
Here’s how:
Get a group of three to eight people and do a skills-based volunteer activity between now and Nov. 30, 2013. Projects completed since June 1, 2013, are also eligible.
Take photos or a short video discussing your service and the impact it had on your nonprofit partner. Answer three questions in your video – click here for the questions.
Here’s an email template to help you share the news with your pro bono teams.
Benefits:
Nonprofit partners are eligible to win part of the $1 million prize money. (Hundreds will win gifts of $100 to $15,000.)
Submitting teams are eligible for eight Super Bowl tickets and national media recognition with prizes going to the teams with the top four stories. The Super Bowl will be played Feb. 2, 2014 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Super Service Challenge winners will be announced just before the big game.
Employees from The Advisory Board Company, a health care and research consulting firm, are entering the contest, telling the stories of pro bono work they completed this month. For instance, staff members recently advised Girls on the Run (a nonprofit started by Daily Point of Light Award winner Molly Barker) on a fundraising strategy.
The Super Service Challenge is “a great way for staff to further their impact with an organization they care deeply about by trying to win funds for their organization, and also honors their work with an amazing prize of Super Bowl tickets,” said Graham McLaughlin, senior director, community impact, at The Advisory Board Company.
For more information on the Super Service Challenge and how to get involved, visit www.superservicechallenge.com or follow the #cChange movement on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Look for more opportunities to engage with the Super Service Challenge with additional announcements from Points of Light and One America coming soon as we seek to bring volunteers and powerful voices together around vital issues of our time – education, the environment and hunger. Find out more about One America at www.facebook.com/joinoneamerica.
It Was a Thrill to Celebrate Action in the Nation’s Capital… Volunteer Action!
This post is by Tracy Hoover, Points of Light’s president.
The second annual Points of Light Awards – held at the Italian Embassy, with Greta Van Susteren and Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis as emcees – brought a bipartisan crowd together to honor extraordinary people and organizations that bring leadership, innovation and the passion of the volunteer spirit to bear on some of the toughest challenges we face today. (See photos from the evening here.)
Canalis and Van Susteren
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – an honoree for his support of tens of thousands of volunteers who came to help in the wake of Superstorm Sandy – accepted his award by expressing gratitude to all volunteers. (Watch video.)
“Thank you all for what you do every day,” he said. “People around this entire country never know when we’re going to need you. But when we do, it’s an extraordinary relief to know that you’ll be there to help people in need.”
The evening’s Tribute Award winners included Amy Paterson, a young mom and cancer survivor who co-founded the nation’s first drop-in hospital child care center, in Portland, Ore. (watch video); AmpleHarvest.org, a nonprofit that connects people with excess food in their gardens to local food pantries that serve the hungry (watch video); and Citi, which mobilizes its corporate resources and human capital to strengthen communities, expand financial inclusion and advance environmental sustainability (watch video).
After another disappointing week in Washington, it was profoundly inspiring to be among patriots and changemakers who cross aisles, overcome obstacles and work hard every day to tackle tough community problems and lift up their neighbors. They are points of light – and we’re all better for their service. May they never have a shutdown!
P.S. To help volunteers change the world, check out the Points of Light online auction. You could win a 2014 Fiat 500L, four one-day Park Hopper Passes to Disney Parks and Resorts, designer accessories, a football signed by Joe Theismann, a private Skype session with American Idol finalist Pia Toscano, and much more!
Having Trouble Expanding Your Startup? Try Using Volunteers
Are you an entrepreneur working to solve community problems? Volunteers can help. Check out this post by Jay Cranman, vice president with thePoints of Light Civic Incubator.
Civic Accelerator participants brainstorm.
What do you think of when I say the word “volunteer”? If you are like any of the hundreds of people within the startup community that I’ve spoken with over the last 18 months, this probably doesn’t bring up an image of high-growth, scalable startups. Volunteering isn’t sexy in the modern world of big data, the cloud, the sharing economy and other more notable themes impacting our startup community today. But maybe it should be.
Consider this. Could you be more effective if you had access to the same marketing, technology, financial and legal talent as more established organizations do, and it was free? Not everyone can quit their day jobs to change the world, but they might volunteer their talents to help you create extraordinary change. Volunteers can also help with the most basic tasks – serving meals, sorting donations and answering phones.
Volunteers can be convincing advocates for your startup. Their personal commitment to your mission makes them tremendously effective at sales and fundraising. They can help you stay connected to the community – they know its assets, important players and underlying challenges.
People have always been at the center of change – and people want to help more than ever. It is intrinsic to human beings. We see this every day at Points of Light in the 250 communities where we have HandsOn Network Volunteer Action Centers – from neighbors helping neighbors to corporate employees lending their talents to nonprofits.
People are using their purchasing power and voice, in addition to their talent and time, and thinking more holistically about how to engage with their communities. All together, Points of Light mobilizes 4 million people annually in 30 million hours of service, across 270,000 projects in 25 countries. Not bad, right?
But there’s a flip side. In 2012 alone, people across the U.S. spent more time watching a single episode of “American Idol” than they spent volunteering at one of our action centers.
I don’t say this to discount in any way the hard work and accomplishments of our organization, but rather to make a point. There is a tremendous underutilized asset pool in communities across the globe – people’s good intentions. Therefore, anyone who can turn those good intentions into real action will have an abundance of inexpensive, scalable and renewable resources at their disposal.
As any great entrepreneur can tell you, where there are vastly underutilized assets, there is an opportunity for value and wealth creation.
Two years ago, we launched a program at Points of Light called the Civic Accelerator (@PointsofLight #CivicX for anyone who wants to follow us on Twitter). Our goal was to drive innovation in the civic sector. What can we do to get more people using their time, talent, voice or money in new and different ways? How can we update – and possibly upend – what it means to volunteer, and in the process solve some of the pressing social and environmental problems facing our communities? Or more simply, how can we get people to “do something” more than text to vote for the next Kelly Clarkson?
After 18 months on this journey, I’m excited to say that I’m optimistic about the 19 investments we have made in civic ventures. There exist today a number of innovative and disruptive ways for people to get engaged.
Do you want to be a “citizen scientist”? No worries, Public Lab is here for you. Do you want to help raise money for a community park? Great, Neighbor.ly is here for you. Want to make a film for good? Check out Jubilee Project. Want to spend a week volunteering in Ghana? Then sign up with UBELONG. All of these organizations didn’t exist a mere five years ago, and they are all poised to scale rapidly over the next five years as they solve social problems by turning people’s good intentions into real action.
Startups that don’t put people at the center of their product or service could be missing a tremendous opportunity. As we know, people are the only renewable resource in the world. We also know that managing (lots of) people can be hard. How might you and your team effectively engage more people in achieving your company’s mission?
We’d love to hear your stories and offer our own insights and advice around getting more people to “do something.” Please send your thoughts to [email protected] or comment below.
Four one-day Park Hopper Passes to Disney Parks and Resorts
Michael Kors handbags, women’s watches and shoes
Football and photograph signed by NFL legend and MVP Joe Theismann
Private Skype session with acclaimed singer/songwriter Pia Toscano
Two $100 gift certificates at il Canale in Georgetown
Two $100 gift certificates at Assaggi Osteria in McLean, Va.
Dinner for four to Zaytinya with wine pairings
Limited edition biography signed by legendary race car driver Mario Andretti
Linkin Park VIP fan experience, which includes two tickets to a 2014 tour stop and a meet-and-greet with the band
A variety of PBS documentaries and original series on DVD
Place a bid today! You have until Oct. 31. Proceeds support Points of Light’s mission to mobilize millions of people to take on society’s greatest challenges.
Gov. Chris Christie and Fellow Honorees Shine at Points of Light Tribute Awards
Under the glass ceiling of the Italian Embassy, with strings of light shimmering overhead, about 300 people came together Friday night to celebrate the winners of the 2013 Points of Light Tribute Awards.
Guests at the Washington, D.C., gala included elected officials from the Democratic and Republican parties, athletes, entertainers, corporate and nonprofit leaders and media figures.
From left, Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi, Gov. Chris
Christie, Gary Oppenheimer and Amy Paterson
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of the four honorees, accepted his award by expressing gratitude to volunteers.
“Thank you all for what you do every day,” said Christie, who was recognized for his role as a tireless advocate for New Jersey citizens dealing with Hurricane Sandy’s devastation. “People around this entire country never know when we’re going to need you. But when we do, it’s an extraordinary relief to know that you’ll be there to help people in need.”
The other Tribute Award winners included a cancer survivor serving cancer patients with children, a nonprofit fighting hunger and a corporation helping communities:
Amy Paterson, as a young mom fighting breast cancer, found it tough to get sitters for her toddler son during her medical appointments. She’s making it easier for others with My Little Waiting Room, the nation’s first drop-in hospital child care center, in Portland, Ore.
AmpleHarvest.org connects 40 million Americans who have excess food in their gardens to local food pantries that serve the hungry in all 50 states. (The nonprofit’s founder Gary Oppenheimer accepted the award.)
Citi, the leading global bank recognized by The Civic 50 as one of the nation’s most community-minded corporations, mobilizes its business resources and human capital to expand financial inclusion, strengthen communities and advance environmental sustainability. (Francesco Vanni d’Archirafi, CEO of Citi Holdings, accepted the award.)
Canalis and Van Susteren
Greta Van Susteren of Fox News and Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis emceed the Oct. 11 event, hosted by the ambassador of Italy, Claudio Bisogniero and his wife, Laura Denise Bisogniero. Acclaimed singer Pia Toscano, best known for her impressive debut on “American Idol,” serenaded the guests with her signature hit, “I’ll Stand by You.”
A live auction raised money to help Points of Light fulfill its mission of helping volunteers serve their communities. (Through Oct. 31, you can participate in an online auction at www.biddingforgood.com/pointsoflight/tribute.)
Points of Light Tribute Awards are presented annually to shine a national spotlight on the best of those who represent what it means to be a “point of light.”
Neil Bush, Points of Light’s board chairman, praised the awardees for exemplifying what his father, President George H. W. Bush, sees as the nation’s strengths – people who serve others and a “respect for the goodness that makes this country great.”
