It's a time when people who work in smaller nonprofts are welcome to tell their stories. It's a way of giving back through shining a light on lesser known organizations through the voices of the those who are passionate about their cause.
It's a hope that perhaps before the year ends you'll reach into the your heart for one last 2012 donation. Or as 2013 begins find a new organization to support.
This year life got in the way of life. As The Fates would have it, just as I was feeling sad that I didn't have a nonprofit to share with you, once again social media came to the rescue. This time it was a LinkedIn connect request from a young women .. Simon Bernstein.
Skipping around her profile and then her web presence I knew the story of VolunTEEN Nation would be the perfect way to close the year. I am humbled and honored to introduce you to Simon and her story.
The story is told by Simone Bernstein who is a junior at St. Bonaventure University. After three years of success with her local organization, Simone and her brother launched VolunTEEN Nation in March 2012.
Engaging youth in volunteer service heals divisions within communities. As an avid volunteer in both my hometown and college community, with a passion for engaging youth in volunteer service, I took the initiative to launch a national website for youth to easily find and connect with volunteer opportunities and resources at volunTEENnation.org. Utilizing social media tools to promote the website over 8,500 youth have found volunteer opportunities through the website, organized volunteer events, and our annual volunteer fairs.
My initial spark to volunteer in my community was ignited when my dad was deployed in the military. My siblings and I were overwhelmed with the support our family received and the outpouring of volunteers: bringing meals, helping my mom with childcare and daily errands.I wanted to volunteer, too.
I was fortunate through word-of-mouth to find youth volunteer opportunities. During high school, I took the initiative to create a regional website stlouisvolunteen.com out of my own frustration and difficulty in finding volunteer opportunities for youth on-line. Due to safety, security and liability issues and concerns, many non-profit organizations and agencies limit the minimum age for an on-site volunteer to 18. I wanted to make it easier for area youth to find volunteer opportunities.
Interest in our regional website from schools, non-profit agencies and students around the nation drove my brother and I to create a national tool or resource for youth interested in volunteering.
Note It's A Family Affair! Photo of Simon's sister Sophie, brother/co-founder Jake, their Dad who is a captain in the Navy and Simon.
Meeting with local and national government officials, I advocate for service learning in our nation’s schools. The challenge facing our nation’s school’s is the crisis of high school dropouts due to lack of support both in the school and home. Engaging youth in service learning provides a valuable link back to the community with a strong connection to the classroom.
I organized and created the first St Louis Youth and Family Volunteer Fair. The Fair is now an annual event hosted at The St Louis Magic House, Children’s Museum with over 35 family-friendly non-profit organizations recruiting student and families to volunteer.
Wanting to engage more youth, I organize flexible volunteer projects for youth. I coordinated a September 11, 2011 tenth anniversary volunteer service project to engage youth and families “Serve to Remember” park clean-up. Combining sports and youth, my brother and I recruited 25 youth volunteers to instruct tennis lessons at “Aces for All” a weekly tennis clinic for youth on the autism spectrum “Soccer for All” and “B-ball for All”. I also helped start Making Music Matters, a successful organization where teens volunteer to teach music lessons in the inner-city schools.
My goal is to inspire others to find ways for all youth improve their communities.
It is well within the reach of any student to get involved and make a difference.
Ideally, I would like to create an international volunteer site and combine my passion for volunteer service and my medical training to advocate for quality maternal.
It's amazing how days turn to weeks and weeks turn to months. Life gets in the way of life and before you know it the best of intentions slip through the proverbial cracks.
In this case the best of intentions, are of course, to write and share learnings about marketing and social media with you. And so, I must apologize for the long lag in posting. Here's why ..
I've often said that social media gives back more than it takes and this part of my story is another testimonial to that belief.
After 15-years of solopreneurship I was offered an exciting opportunity to join an organization that is focused on digital innovation. No, I'm not an on-air talent (at least not at the moment!). The work is to support almost 100 media properties and the enterprise at-large to more effectively incorporate the social web and leverage the social graphic.
Of course, all opinions are 100% mine and do not necessarily reflect that of anyone else, including my employer or even Max. I appreciate your understanding and ask for your patience as I adjust to the rythm of a full time corporate gig and ensuring that there is great content on Diva Marketing.
9-11 .. eleven years ago our world came tumbling to a halt.
As people, from every country, watched in horror then, eleven years later we tell the stories again so our children and their children and their children will not forget.
Within the story of giant flames we also take time to remember that this was not One Big story. 9-11 is a mosaic of a multitude of smaller stories all important and impactful.
Each story still burning brightly in some person's heart.
Some how it seems fitting that the last in Diva Marketing's 2011 Shining A Light on smaller nonprofits series should highlight an organization that helps courageous women find hope at the start of a new chapter in their lives. Somehow it seems fitting that this NPO goes by the name of AWE.
Molly Corbett is our story teller for this special post.
She is the founder and executive director of Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE). Molly has worked in the nonprofit sector for 20 years. She started as a community organizer and has worked with various social service and social justice organizations. Prior to AWE she was the Director of Programs and Grants at the Ventura County Community Foundation prior to moving to Baltimore. For the past ten years Molly has worked as a consultant to social justice organizations in the Baltimore area.
Molly Corbett - Most of us are very familiar with the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph. Mary was pregnant, they were far from home and no one would take them in. Well, last year I lived through a modern day Christmas story.
It was the week between Christmas and New Years, I received a call from the former board member of an organization that I was currently working with that serves people seeking asylum in the United States. She answered the Help Line at United Way and had received a call from a small nonprofit that was inquiring about homeless shelters.
A young, very pregnant, Afghani woman had appeared on their doorstep and they had no place for her to stay. The former board member said she had called several other nonprofits and they were closed for the week or working with a very small staff and were unable to help her.
She told me that Amina* had just arrived in the United States. She was forced to flee Afghanistan because she was a pregnant, unmarried woman and her life was in danger. We both knew that Amina would be re-traumatized by going to a shelter and that she was most likely very fearful of men. I said I would call the Benedictine Sisters of Baltimore, a small women’s religious community, which I had been working with for many years.
The Sisters agreed to take Amina and give her shelter. Little did we know that six days later she would give birth to a beautiful baby boy. Amina and her son continue to live with the Sisters.
What I realized when I saw the connection between Amina and the Sisters was that what many asylee (A non-citizen of a country who has been granted asylum in that country.) women need is a sense of community – a family. Mary had Joseph with her and now I saw how important it was for Amina to have a new family with her.
Women and men who come here seeking asylum are here legally but do not receive any government benefits until their asylum has been decided. They are not even eligible for a work permit until at least 180 days after their first asylum hearing. The asylum process for most people takes 2 years. During this time they are vulnerable, lonely and destitute. They flee their homeland with little more than the clothes off their back. They were nurses, teachers, business women and community activists back home – now they have nothing.
The Asylee Women Enterprise helps find safe and nurturing housing, provides a community of women to help them on their long journey to freedom here in the United States. They fled because they were persecuted back home for their religion, gender, ethnicity, political beliefs or sexual orientation. For Amina and for the thousands of other women like her, she did not come for a better life – she came to save her life.
My personal experience with Amina helped me to vision the possibility for AWE. We now house four women; there are 13 women currently on the waiting list for housing. In addition, we have 10-15 other women who join us regularly for a sense of community and family.
Social Media Lessons and Challenges
Since we are a new organization we are careful in planning our web presence and social media strategy. We hope to use social media to educate and engage others. Utilizing Facebook, VolunteerSpot and the website will allow me to maximize my time in spreading the word about Asylee women and AWE and attract others to our organization.
Backstory from Toby: When Molly and and I were planning this post I asked for a couple of photos. She was hesitant to show the women's faces. Not that it would necessarily intrude on privacy, but that it might put the women in danger. We decided that photos of "hands" might be the way to go.
Somehow it seems especially fitting that a photo of "hands holding hands" end our special holiday series that brought some wonderful smaller nonprofits to your attention.
Our hope is that one NPO may have touched your heart and that led to you opening your purse (or wallet) to help make other's 2012 travels just a little gentler.
At this holiday season we are encouraged to look beyond face value to the heart of the people who may touch our lives .. directly or indirectly. "Looks" of nonprofits may also be deceiving at first glance.
For the first time we are opening Diva Marketing's Holiday For Small Nonprofits Series to a couple of special programs offered by larger nonprofits. These initiatives often have unique budgets and dedicated staff .. much the same as smaller nonprofits.
This story is told by John Pollock who manages this unique program. As Jennifer Pelton, Director of Development, proudly told me, "John brings strong leadership -- and helpful tools -- to the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (NCCRC.)"
John Pollock - This Coalition seeks to address a severe justice gap in this country. People who can afford private counsel will hire a lawyer when something critically important to them – such as their home or the custody of their children – is at stake. Too many people do not have that choice. In what is a surprise to many, the right to a lawyer (in civil cases) is not guaranteed.
Private counsel is unaffordable and civil legal services (or other “free”) counsel meets only 20 percent of the need. Further compounding the problem, all too often,indigent litigants face an opponent who does have a lawyer. This justice gap especially hurts families of color, families headed by women, children and the elderly.
In 2004, attorneys and advocates from around the nation created the NCCRC to expand recognition and implementation of a right to counsel in civil cases. The Coalition is led by the Public Justice Center, a legal advocacy organization based in Maryland. As the coordinator, I oversee services to coalition participants by providing advice, information, testimony and other support. I also managed a vast amount of information through a newly created wiki and bibliography.
Judge Annette Marie Rizzo talks about civil rights to counsel in foreclosure cases.
One of the major problems faced by the Coalition was its lack of an easy way to share its massive research and case-related resources with all 200+ participants in an organized fashion, particularly given the wide levels of familiarity with technology within the Coalition.
Additionally, because of the lack of organization and the fact that few knew the full extent of documents in existence, key resources would go unutilized and reinvention of the wheel (with respect to repeating existing research) was not uncommon.
Social Media Lessons and Challenges
The Coalition chose a product called PBWorks which was obtained at a very steep discount thanks to the generosity of the PBWorks company. I established the wiki and stored the documents in an organized system, then used web-conferencing software to train coalition participants on how to access and navigate the wiki.
In addition to ensuring that Coalition participants could remain aware of all of the Coalition's resources, the wiki has solved other problems as well. In the past, when documents to be shared were emailed, Coalition participants that joined the Coalition later on would not have access to such documents without combing through the email archives.
Now, both new and old participants need only visit the wiki to see a complete picture of the Coalition's resources. Also, the wiki provides a weekly summary to all Coalition participants about all documents on the wiki that have changed, thus allowing them to know if Coalition staff upload newer versions of memos, case briefs, or other important documents. Finally, the wiki provides one centralized location for the entire memory store of the Coalition. For all of these reasons, the wiki has empowered advocates in the various states to benefit from the collective wisdom and work of the Coalition.
Welcome to Diva Marketing's Holiday For Small Nonprofits Series. Seems we have a tradition going on. This is the third year that Diva Marketing has given the virtual stage to smaller nonprofits to tell their story .. their way. It's our way of giving back by honoring the people and the organizations who make a difference in the lives of so many others.
It is my special wish, through your kindness in passing along the posts to your networks, together we can give the present of increased awareness, a new volunteer and a extra donation or two.
Throughout December you'll be meeting some amazing people and NPOs.
Story told by Mike Craycraft who is a survivor and founder of the Testicular Cancer Society. He also has helped treat hospitalized patients for over 16 years as a clinical pharmacist.
The Testicular Cancer Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to raise awareness about the most common form of cancer in men ages 15-35. We are dedicated to increasing awareness and education about testicular cancer and providing support to fighters, survivors and caregivers.
A little over five years ago I received a membership into a group that I never asked to join but I would now never trade for anything in the world. I was given a membership into the world of young adult cancer. Being young and feeling completely healthy, minus a small lump on my left testicle, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
I had spent the previous 7 months knowing that I had a lump, but not going to the doctor or telling a soul about it. Instead, I made peace with the fact that I was going to die young from cancer and went about enjoying what little time I “thought” I had left.
As a healthcare professional and now a cancer survivor, I felt I had the unique ability to help make the world of testicular cancer and young cancer in general a better place than it was when I joined it. I wanted to make sure that other guys didn’t make the same mistakes I did when I was diagnosed and delay going to the doctor.
During my ordeal, I also realized there weren’t many resources out there about testicular cancer and it took a long time to find the resources that were available. From the moment you tell your doctor about a lump, to having surgery and then facing decisions about further treatments it can be just a few days, so I wanted to make sure other guys had those resources quickly.
With the Testicular Cancer Society we focus on being the hub of a wheel that brings all the spokes together.
On our web site young men have access to a lot more than just information about the disease. We point them in the right directions to find one-on-one support, survivor forums, information on fertility issues, tools for fundraising as well as their individual treatment options and access to expert physicians in the field.
Social Media
Early detection is key. With early detection, testicular cancer survival rates are close to 100%. Our message needs to reach young men all across the country so we use social media because of its reach and cost effectiveness.
However, our challenge remains getting the people we reach to become engaged in our cause. While our followers might be listening to the message they aren’t active in promoting it. Even when we do get social interactions we find that many times it is the same handful of people interacting and our message is not expanding past this small group.
Not just expanding the reach of our message, but making those reached engage is going to be our challenge in the upcoming year.
TCS needs your help to set a Guinness World Record™ .. collecting the largest donation of sports balls in 24-hours! Decemeber 9th at 5p - December 10 5p, 2011. The balls will be given to the Marines Toys For Tots. Details are on the TCS site.
Inspiration can come in many forms and in many ways. From a dance troupe, as Yvonne DiVita
describes, to a simple stone washed by the ocean.
As the tides came into the shore, I watched as gray sands began to cover the little stone-heart. I was tempted to pick it up and carefully place it in the purple straw purse I was carrying. Somehow it seemed wrong to do that. Instead I snapped a photo with my iPhone.
I continued my beach walk wondering if someone else would notice the stone shaped like a heart. Or perhaps it was just my imagination that a heart was hiding in a small, smooth stone. Maybe the next person would see something different.
We each see the world through our own unique lens. Often people think they see something in a similar way. However, the illusion is it's never quite the same .. it's always a little different.
In the world of social media we are learning that our customers can see our brands differently than what we might have imagined. In the world of social media we are learning that diverse views can help create better products. In the world of social media we are learning that there are many shapes hidden in a smooth stone.
This post is dedicated to Susan Ellen -- Jessica's & Scott's mummy, my sister, Polli's friend, Kaye's & Mal's cousin and Barbara's niece -- who saw the hearts in little smooth stones. Sending virtual happy birthday xxoo. We miss you Sus.
Today Max and took a walk in the rain. Max hates to get wet and while I might like to fantasy about dancing in the rain with Gene Kelly, being out doors in a cold winter rain with winds blowing is not my ideal of fun. But we were safe. I knew we were going back to a warm house where I could relax by the fire with a hot cup of tea or even a snifter of brandy and Max, of course, could chew on a doggy treat.
There are millions of people today in a small island in the Caribbean who are not safe. The people of Haiti will not be safe for many weeks or more likely many, many months.
Diva Marketing is a wee voice within the billions of web pages on the Internet; however, I couldn't let the opportunity of using the space on this site go by without an acknowledgment, of what my friend Geoff Livingston says, goes beyond the damage of a hurricane to the devastation of poverty.
If there is anything social media has taught me .. it is to believe in the miracles that people can make one-by-one-by-one. Just in case you wandered in and needed one more bit of encouragement to help here are a few sites that provide information.
