Gas Prices + non-profits

Volunteers in Richmond, Virginia are struggling to cover their transportation costs (isn't everyone?). A local businessman, Peter Kaufman, decided to help: he challenged "every ad agency, public relations firm, Web developer and freelancer in Virginia to donate $100 to a nonprofit needing help."
coverage of the success can be found at www.hooplegroup.com/blog

Minnesota nice -- it's official

Congratulations, Minneapolis-St. Paul!

For the second year in a row, my place of residence (how long do I have to live here before it's my hometown?) ranked No. 1 in the country for its rate of volunteerism--39.3 percent! In the annual report from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Minnesota won the No. 3 state spot, and the Midwest topped the region contest.

OK, enough bragging. Here are some other highlights:

• 6o.8 million people (26.2 percent of people over age 16) volunteered
  
• 8.1 billion hours of service
• Worth $158 billion
• 35.6 percent of volunteers gave more than 100 hours last year
• The highest volunteer rate goes to...working mothers!

Though the national volunteer rate fell slightly, to just over a quarter of Americans, it's still pretty impressive.

What do you do to give back?



Photo: Minneapolis, by Shiny Things

no butts

Big news in the non-profit world: two of the richest men in the US are teaming up to fight nicotine.

I haven't been able to find many details yet, but it was all over the morning news. Here is a snippet I found online.

During lunch, I ran out to find some butts on campus in order to provide you all with a little photo fun. Even on a property that went completely smoke-free on July 4, I found four butts in about three minutes of walking--around the Duke Chapel!

Proof that philanthropy is alive and well--and committed to making others stay alive and well!

Yet another smart and simple nonprofit

Unfortunately kids witness a lot of scary stuff -- but fortunately, the right tools of distraction might make a bad situation a little more positive.

That's the thought behind With Wings and A Halo, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that puts packages of children's books in the back of police squad cars so kids have something to do if their family is dealing with tough stuff.

The program has been a hit; all 72 Wisconsin counties and 12 police departments in Illinois have stocked their squad cars with books.

Photo by kennymatic.

Power to the pooches

Meet Waldo!

My new little addition has obviously put the wellbeing of dogs on my mind--and unfortunately many aren't as lucky as my little man here (waaay too many toys and treats, too much attention).

People aren't the only victims of a crappy economy: When people need to make cuts, pets can often an obvious choice. As the rate of foreclosures climbs, so does the number of dogs and other furry friends being abandoned by their owners.

This obviously overwhelms already busy animal shelters and humane societies, where supplying animals with adequate food is always a challenge.



Good thing Mimi, a young Oregon girl who started volunteering at her local humane society at age 9, is doing something about it. Thinking about the ever-popular FreeRice.com, Mimi launched FreeKibble.com, a site that, with the help of a corporate dog food sponsor, donates 20 pieces of kibble a day to dogs in need. And of course, there's some canine trivia involved.

Online Giving

Yesterday, The Non-Profit Times published the findings of their study concerning charitable giving.

According to their research, when a person is solicited for a donation to an organization through an email, the rate of respondents who sought out more info online has more than doubled in the last three years! (from 35% to 79%) Most of the respondents searched the organization's website (37%), but some respondents even looked through blogs for more information (8%)

I'm impressed both that emails are being used so effectively in advertising non-profits AND that so many people are looking to blogs like this one for answers!

wearing many hats

As is typical of the non-profit world, I will be adding another set of skills to my resume this week: working the front desk of an Institute. The strength (and weakness) of non-profits is that as an employee, you have the opportunity to try a lot of different jobs without actually applying for them--that way, when you eventually *do* move on (like Kate!) you have much more experience in a wider variety of occupations than your for-profit counterparts! Of course, this means that even if you were trained in French literature, you may be called upon to write up an advertisement (or review! of) for Latin dance classes at the community center.
I'm eager to share with you the in's and out's of running a front desk, wish me luck!

Finding a Job

In trying to find a job, I was taught how important networking is. Lots of people are hesitant to "network" because for some reason, it has the mistaken impression of just "using" people. The difference is this: "networking" is to the advantage of both people involved. The pair may not benefit from the relationship in the exact same way, but they both get something they want and need out of the interaction--if I babysit for a professor, they get to go out and not worry about their children, and I get personal currency to trade in for an academic favor later. Of course, one should not enter into such a relationship solely for personal benefit (I happen to love babysitting), but eventually, the networking gods will come back and smile on you.

I was startled by the statistic, as a first-semester senior, that only 30% of jobs are advertised. The other 70%, the large majority, were come upon by who you knew and who you asked, not through eRecruiting or a college career center (this is where internships can come in handy). My boyfriend's job was one of the 30%; I kept telling myself that it would pan out for me too, that I would get one of those 30% jobs, I wouldn't have to pull strings or--as I saw it--"cheat" by massaging my network and working my way into a position by the grace of the network-gods.
And yet, here I am, in a job that was practically created for me, given to me by one of my powerful networkers--the dean of the school for which I work.

It started innocently enough--I went to him to talk about where I could look for jobs. I knew his network was much larger than mine, and would probably know of more resources. He had met me 6 years before when I came to the school for a summer program as a junior in high school. I had run in to him a few times while needing permission papers signed for classes and delivering speeches over the years. He was eager to meet with me and share his resources. Eventually, he decided that perhaps my skills would be well-used at the divinity school. And here I am! I never expected him to offer me a job, my motives for meeting were pure, but once you allow yourself to be open to the opportunities around you, things start falling from the sky (maybe not until after you graduate--like me), but eventually, they do. All because of being desperate enough to call upon my network!

The new nonprofit news

I work (for eight more days!) in nonprofit public relations/communications, so trust me, I know how hard it is to get a newspaper or TV station or radio show or news website to pick up a story about your organization. Really, really hard.

The media has constraints of its own, so it's hard to blame them. But some people are taking matters into their own hands--and opening their own wallets--to ensure that the issues that are important to them get coverage.

We're not talking little nonprofits here; we're talking foundations dedicated to specific topics: health, education, the environment. This article from the American Journalism Review gives some great examples, such as the Kaiser Family Foundation (one of the oldies) which gives a good chunk of change toward quality health reporting and other programs sprouting up to provide reporting on specific topics.

Conflict of interest? Maybe. But these foundations are trying for good, "objective" reporting on the issues that brings them to the forefront of people's minds. Best case scenario, as the article says:

Done right, the journalism-funder relationship benefits both parties as well as
the public they aim to serve. It supplies important news resources, and it
satisfies a grantmaker's mission — maybe even bringing a touch of prestige.

what to do when there's nothing to do:

Kate's post made me laugh, because I'm sitting here in my office with absolutely NOTHING to do. My boss has been gone on vacation for a week, and while she brought her blackberry with her (more than I would do in her situation), it's not as if she's approving my reports & giving me permission to move on without her while she's on the other side of the country.

I finished my boss-invented "to do" list last week and spent Thursday & Monday making documents *extra* pretty and thinking up ways to get ahead of the game (and maybe win a few brownie points--like starting a new grant proposal). But it's not even noon, and here I am blogging instead of trying to focus on anything work-related. I can't even force myself to edit the excel mailing lists.

While this won't help Kate, it might help me, and others who find themselves without enough tasks to fill their inboxes:

(1) Make a list of mindless tasks that aren't urgent and might never get done unless there's downtime--when you find yourself 2 weeks from your last day or boss-less, attack the list. I always feel a significant sense of accomplishment when I complete menial tasks with a visual pay off (stamping 500 letters).

(2) Read. I have 3 books on my desk that I'm supposed to absorb (by osmosis?), and one can never have too much of current world events. Double points if you take notes/write up a report (for yourself) while reading. You could even create a reading list of books, authors and articles that helped you get where you are--not a bad thing to pass on to your successor.

(3) Look around your office--are there filing cabinets that could stand to be organized? Maybe the printer needs more paper. You could deliver the mail. Do your coworkers need help putting together packets or proofreading? Your time can help the work get done faster & help you gain some currency with your coworkers--you never know when one will be called upon to report on your work to a new employer!

Winding down...in style?

The first year out of college was great for that feeling-your-way-into-the-professional-world thing where you have no idea what's appropriate and what's not in a workplace and/or career -- so you base all your professional (or not-so-professional) moves on a) what you observe, b) advice you hear or c) total and complete guesses.

I have two more weeks left in my job (before focusing solely on relaxing and a part-time research assistantship until grad school starts in the fall), and options A-C aren't helping me figure out how to gracefully exit.

I'm not going to start anything new in the bottom of the ninth here. I have to wrap some stuff up, compile stuff that will be helpful for my successor (poor soul) and pack up my belongings. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm well on my way on most of that. So here's my question:

What do I do for the next two weeks? I don't want to look like I've mentally checked out, but let's face it, recycling papers and taking down tacked-up things aren't exactly thrilling tasks. And I can only do so much of that. But can't really do anything new. And can't quite start online shoe shopping in broad daylight.

Any suggestions? Personal experiences? Anyone want to write The Goodbye Email to my coworkers for me? (I'm really dreading that one...)

Social Entrepreneurship

My boss, a Harvard MBA who has worked @ AOL & USA Today, recently changed her end game. For years, she worked in the for-profit world, spending her days with people whose highest value was the bottom line. Now, as she describes it, working for the div school, the end game is "save the world."
You've probably heard that non-profits can be as profitable as for-profits (though that's not commonly the case).
Recently, business schools have been picking up on the value of letting their graduate students use their skills for "save the world" values instead of "more money" values...

• Duke's Fuqua School of Business has CASE--the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship,

• The Kennedy School of Government @ Harvard has a "rapidly developing" Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, and

• the Stanford-wide cooperative, Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program.

My viewpoint might be biased, as I've come of age in this turning-eco-friendly world, but it seems as if the socially-acceptable end game is changing as well; there is little pride or respect invested in big corporations or illustrious law firms--the "cool" thing to do these days is worrying about the environment & the "little guy." Non-profits are really coming in to their own--let's ride the wave!