Each year, about 64 million Americans - one-fourth of the adult population - are invited to volunteer. For many, volunteerism is a source of great joy and satisfaction. In fact, the National Institutes of Health has found improved mental and physical health in folks who volunteer. April is National Volunteer Month, and nonprofit organizations across the US are celebrating their volunteers and asking more people to get involved with their causes. If you’ve found volunteering less joyful than you’d hoped, or even just an obligation, I’d like to have a word with you this month.
Four years ago, I could never have predicted that we’d have 65 deserving nonprofits growing today in sustainability and innovation through our incubator. Three years ago, I wouldn’t have guessed we’d have awarded $375,000 to deserving nonprofits by mid-2021. Two years ago, I couldn’t have known that our volunteer ranks would continue to swell, helping so many altruistic people contribute to world-changing nonprofit movements. And one year ago, as the pandemic raged, I would never have guessed that the forced migration to virtual competition pitch and incubation would push us to unimaginable tenfold growth in our first four years.
In Part 2 of blog contributor Ian Harvey’s three-part series, Charting a Course toward Impact, Ian walks us through quantifying the costs of achieving our goals and then prioritizing them.
At this point, you have given some thought to your Values and started formulating your Goals. The next piece requires you understand how much the goals will cost, and in which order they should be completed.
As one of the most driven up-and-coming financial planner professionals in the profession today, TGS blog contributor Ian Harvey helps clients change their perspective on what is financially possible. Having a deep understanding in behavioral finance and investment management, Ian couples the two to create a strategic approach that is catered to the unique needs of every client and their financial goals. In this three-part blog series, Ian applies this approach to nonprofit management. We’re excited to hear from Ian, and hope this series will help you align your goals and financial planning with your vision for organizational impact.
When FuelEd founder Megan Marcus created a 10 person pilot program to test her theory that elements of therapist training would help teachers to build positive relationships at school, she could not have foreseen that seven short years later the program would have expanded to reach over 10,000 educators. Listen to our first “Founder Story” audio interview to learn more about how she and the FuelEd team are helping to put relationships at the center of schools across the country.
The West Virginia Alternative Wastewater Treatment Coalition (AWTC) is one of the grantees from The Greater Sum’s 2018 cohort.
Blog contributor Mindy Ong caught up with Professor Katherine Garvey, co-founder of the AWTC and Director of the Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic at the West Virginia University College of Law, to understand what motivated her to start the AWTC, and what’s next in store for the Coalition.
If you’re reading this article, it’s a safe bet that you’ve been planning or doing good work in your community and you’re trying to figure out the best way to organize or formalize that work. Starting a nonprofit is a big commitment. If government forms are not your jam you may be open to other avenues.
Have you ever stumbled into the most perfect conversation, with someone who’s figured out the very puzzle that has you stumped? Our recent workshop at the Center for Art in Medicine at the University of Florida felt like that. We brought together arts and public health folks from the Greater Sum network to learn about what’s called the Fifth Wave of Public Health — the focus on culture’s role in health.
Key takeaways from the visit include:
Health communications are more effective when they are targeted and feature narratives.
Art is a powerful means of communication, and can be harnessed to cultivate empathy and facilitate understanding of important health messages.
The impact of the arts in healthcare is well established in the US. Many organizations are also using the arts to achieve public health outcomes, but there’s less organized study of those outcomes and methods.
Center Director Jill Sonke and her team have been convening practitioners in both the arts and public health for a series of planning sessions across the country. Now they’re hosting a conference to connect people working at the intersect of art, public health, and community development. Learn more here. Join their Facebook community here.
