Summer’s almost here; time to start making those vacation plans. As you glance through guidebooks, you’ll be sure to see lists of “don’t miss” monuments, parks, and museums. But take a little time, and you’ll also find places where the local population strives to keep local cultural heritage and customs thriving Look for places where people are working together to save a remnant of history, turn an urban landscape into a swath of greenery, or keep a cherished craft alive. The places highlighted below are just a small sample of what awaits you on your travels – we’ve highlighted nonprofits promoting our cultural heritage in the Northeast, Southeast, South, Midwest and West.
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Amid Central Florida attractions such as Walt Disney World and SeaWorld lies Give Kids The World Village, a 70-acre nonprofit storybook resort that hosts children with life-threatening diseases, along with their families. Founded in 1986 by Henri Landwirth, a successful hotelier who survived five years as a child in Auschwitz, children come here from every state and 75 countries for complimentary vacations, intended as a respite from the weight of their illnesses. In addition to accommodations in one of the Village’s 144 villas, their vacation includes meals, entertainment and donated tickets to nearby attractions like SeaWorld, Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World. (more…)
Article written by Tom Ahern
I’ve found that most donors just browse – they don’t really read our materials. Considering the time and cost involved, why keep sending them?
I teach a workshop called “Writing for Results.” It’s about winning new donors and keeping existing donors. The first thing I tell the audience is this: donor communications are NOT about reading; donor communications are about getting people to ACT on your behalf — either now or later. What does a newsletter do for a charity? It helps retain donors. Not because they read the articles and decide they’ll stay, but because you show how you love and need them as they skim the photos and headlines. (more…)
Earth Day is coming up. Spring and spring fever are in the air. Kids are getting anxious for summer to come. Why not start planning outings that combine awareness of our fragile environment with the joys of the great outdoors? GreatNonprofits provides information about environmental organizations with great programs for kids. What captures the imagination of your kids? Is it caring for animals, learning about whales, looking at fossils? (more…)
Amid the woods and swamps of rural Citrus Country, Fla., Mission in Citrus—a small nonprofit offering homeless shelters and services—has garnered a whopping 178 reviews on GreatNonprofits. Despite the fact that it operates on a shoestring budget with two paid employees, Mission in Citrus also receives an average rating of five stars (the highest rating possible). We inquired with its founder, Pastor James Sleighter, to learn more about how Mission in Citrus earns such high marks from those it serves. (more…)
REDWOOD CITY, CA, April 2, 2014 – Foundant Technologies, provider of the most recommended online grants management system, Grant Lifecycle Manager (GLM), and GreatNonprofits, the largest social review site for charities, announced a partnership today to share data across their platforms.
“Foundant Technologies believes in transparency and listening. We practice this every day with our clients. Now we’re excited to bring a new level of transparency through third party feedback from GreatNonprofits,” says Daren Nordhagen, President of Foundant Technologies. “GreatNonprofits takes a uniquely social approach to how charities are evaluated, getting crowd sourced reviews similar to the ones used on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor to help their users choose nonprofits.” (more…)
Top Rated Awards: Coming April, 2014
The GreatNonprofits Top-Rated Awards has been running since 2009. Think of the program like a people’s choice awards where volunteers, donors and people served by the great work of each and every nonprofit can cast their vote in the form of a review to express their appreciation and potentially win nonprofits a spot on the List. Read about the previous Top-Rated winners.
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Four Ways Your Spring Cleaning Can Be Used For Social Good.
Housebound by bad weather? Why not do a little pre-emptive spring cleaning. Start small; maybe you have a linen closet or a bookshelf that could use some pruning. Don’t think of it as chore, but as a way to pass along items you no longer need to someone in need. Here are four things you can do: donate books, linens, clothing, or if you’re selling on eBay, donate a portion of the proceeds. You’ll be surprised how good you’ll feel and how much you can help. (more…)
In the business world, it’s the magic number that executives follow. It’s the metric that tells companies what products need to be improved, what products need to be revised and which ones are doing well. The Net Promoter Score is the one-step customer satisfaction survey that more and more businesses use to measure success. NPS has won over many of the world’s largest businesses – for instance, Apple, eBay, and LinkedIn use NPS to improve their services.
Higher customer satisfaction is linked with higher product quality. For example, Apple’s NPS was 58 in 2007, when it began measuring, and by 2011 its stores had reached an average of 72. During the same time, their revenue skyrocketed from $20,000 million to nearly $115,000 million. Most companies average an NPS of around 20-30, while other high performing businesses like Charles Schwab, Amazon, and Costco reach 50-80. (more…)
Fifth-grader Oskar walks around his schoolyard with an overstuffed backpack and a big grin. He’s smitten with his new, white-as-snow sneakers and having a fine day… that is, until his friend Frank accidentally steps on his shoes. Instead of stopping to say how it makes him feel, Oskar reacts harshly and starts bullying Frank.
Thus enfolds the introductory scene to “Oskar and the Big Bully Battle,” an anti-bullying play for students in grade K-5. Produced by TheatreWorks, Silicon Valley’s professional theatre, this traveling show is set to visit at least 20 elementary schools in the Bay Area on its next tour, which runs through March 28. The play’s goal is straightforward: to build awareness of bullying in elementary schoolchildren so that when they reach middle school—when bullying behavior often peaks—they’ll be prepared. (more…)
The Social Impact Statement – piloted by GreatNonprofits and the Pittsburgh Foundation provides transparency to donors and a direct link between their gift and the positive change affected in the community.
It’s a fact we face daily in the nonprofit sector: philanthropy has been relatively stagnant for years. Giving has only been growing at two percent, year over year.
What’s the cause of this lack of real growth and more importantly, how can we change it? There is a definite lack of tools in the sector for connecting donors to their direct impact. Donors want to know the on-the-ground difference that their money is making. Foundations, and their grantees, face a difficult task in communicating this impact to donors. And while overall philanthropy is sluggish, community-based giving is growing. So we know that donors want that kind of local connection—they want to know how their dollars are changing their communities. (more…)
GreatNonprofits, in collaboration with America’s Charities, invites you to participate in the Snapshot 2014 survey. Your participation in this survey will provide valuable insights into how nonprofits work with companies and their employees to build strong partnerships, and how nonprofits demonstrate impact from the contributions they receive.
Your input is vital to Snapshot 2014. The findings will be published by America’s Charities and shared with corporate funders in April 2014. We will also provide you with a copy of the report. To participate in this short, 15-minute survey, click this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/0114GNP
Please complete the survey by February 7, 2014. Your responses will be kept anonymous and will only be used in an aggregated format. Thank you for your help and contribution to this important topic. (more…)
Guidestar – our partner – has declared February the month of February Nonprofit Love (we concur!). To help nonprofits, Guidestar is launching a series of webinars that are coming up in February. Both of these webinars are topics we at GreatNonprofits care about – transparency and feedback. And, we’re speaking at one of the events. So please, come one, come all. Register for the events below. Collectively, we can’t wait to have you.
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The World Of Corporate Giving Has Changed
Did you know that:
- Less than 6% of the $320 Billion that is donated annually to North American charities is done online.
- Less than 5% of that amount comes from corporations.
- 70% of employees are not engaged in their jobs – and 25% are actively disengaged.
These are all statistics that Benevity, a software social enterprise that helps companies engage their customers and employees through giving back, hopes to change. And they highlight issues that corporate social good efforts, like employee giving and volunteering programs, are evolving to address. “Doing well by doing” good is more than just a tagline; it’s a business imperative. The good news is that an increasing number of companies are doing more – they’re part of a significant shift towards integrating support for causes into their operations. (more…)
What’s the most common mistake organizations make when recruiting board members?
Not fully describing what’s expected in terms of their role and responsibilities. Too often we understate expectations because we want people to serve. That’s self-defeating. Full disclosure from the beginning will bring you amazingly dedicated and committed board members. By the same token, understating the requirements (“You only have to come to meetings – the staff does everything else”) will backfire and create resentment. (more…)
Here at GreatNonprofits, we believe in allowing people to find, review and openly share information as the best way to find the right nonprofits to support. Our goal is to make it easy for people to share knowledge so that other people can benefit from it. With this in mind, we recently entered into a data sharing agreement with Truist, a leading provider of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy services. Truist helps companies manage their employee giving, matching, and volunteering programs. Over the coming months, Truist will be incorporating our user reviews into their various products so their users can leverage this information to make decisions about their charitable giving. (more…)
As the Hollywood awards season begins to rev up, all eyes are front and center on the celebrities who will be strutting their stuff at the Golden Globes. Celebrities receive much critical acclaim for their work on the silver screen, but beyond the glitz and the glamour of showbiz, many of these household names are quietly serving on the sidelines as active philanthropists. Many celebrities are doing far more than just writing a check or turning up at a gala or cocktail party – some of the headlining nominees at this year’s Golden Globes are passionate volunteers, advocates, or founders of their own nonprofit organizations. Here are some of the 2014 Golden Globe nominees who are dedicated to causes far away from the lights of Hollywood.
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Think about the last time you bought something online. Did you look at Amazon or Google reviews first? Did you use Yelp to find a great local restaurant? Did you use TripAdvisor to help coordinate your last adventure? Or go to CitySearch to find a hotel?
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For many of us, ushering in a new year means a chance to transform aspects of our lives. We do that by resolving to do things – lose weight, quit a bad habit, increase physical activity, call our moms more frequently and so on. While they are all great aspirations, all of which are on my list, there is something else that makes for a great resolution – doing good and helping others. (more…)
It’s that time of the year! There is just a couple of days remaining in the year to make your charitable donation. The stock market’s been good to many of you this year – so celebrate and give. As they say, “Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have.”
This year you have so many great choices among organizations to give to. How do you choose?
Here’s a checklist –
1. What issues do you care about? You can make a difference on a wide array of issues. There are many ways in which you can give and make an impact. Your donations could…
- Provide dental care in communities where no doctors took children under 7 or accepted Medicare: PRASAD
- Build camp, latrines, provide food and water for families fleeing violence in the Central Condo Republic: International Rescue Committee
- Bridge the gap between science and policy, provide interesting briefings to Congress, open to the public, about complex energy and environmental issues: Environmental and Energy Study Institute
- Provide counseling, homework and SAT help: A Place Called Home
- Match volunteers with people with HIV/AIDS to ensure that men and women do not have to face their illnesses alone: Shanti Project
- Pay for fees for kids’ activities such as tutoring, summer camp, ballet lessons or ice hockey lessons while their parents are deployed overseas: Our Military Kids.
- Provide creative writing classes at community libraries for the low-income: LOFT
- Rescue and rehabilitate ill and injured seals and sea lions: Marine Mammal Center
- Help low-income people get medical care that they can afford: Access Partnership
These are just a few examples from the GreatNonprofits 2013 Top-Rated Nonprofit List.
2. Go with your heart – are you interested in having a local impact or national? National organizations tend to have more impact in raising awareness and policy-making, and therefore can have broader impacts. The advantage of local giving is that you can get more involved with an organization in addition to donating. There are thousands of nonprofits in each major city providing services ranging from meals for the elderly to legal aid for the low-income. Find your city’s list of nonprofits: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland,Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Honolulu, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Portland,San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington DC and more.
3. Go visit the nonprofit and experience it for yourself. Many nonprofits have community outreach events – and you can drop by and talk to them at their table at the community fair, or at their open house. Walk around and see if you can meet some of the people they serve – talk to them and get a sense of what services they value and their experience with the organization. Sign up to volunteer and see first hand the work of the nonprofit. By volunteering, you will meet other volunteers, even some board members or clients and get to witness their program first-hand.
Just remember, you have just a couple of more days to make your 2013 tax-deductible donation count. Giving unleashes endorphins – so give to a worthy cause, and enjoy the true season of giving!
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