Photo: Troy Holden
Blog post by Reed S., a Kindness Investor from Washington, DC
Greetings from the foggy city by the bay, San Francisco. This is the first time I have been on the West Coast since I lost my job in 2009. It’s good to be back! This city has been the incubator of some very cool philanthropic ventures. The One Percent Foundation, with their bold approach to engaging young people in philanthropy, held their first event here. Kiva calls San Francisco home. They’re the guys who made a seismic makeover of how we look at lending and alleviating poverty through the Internet. Sparked, headquartered here too, is changing the way we look at volunteering by connecting organizations with volunteers on the Internet through micro-volunteering opportunities. You get the idea.
Anyway, I am here for a special celebration of World Wildlife Fund’s 50th anniversary and their Spring Council meetings. It should be an exciting few days celebrating the past and focusing on the future, especially looking at the intersection between technology and conservation.
Like all of these organizations, nonprofits across the country are driven by the desire to create social good rather than dollars. These organizations work tirelessly to improve the world in which we live. Whether it be protecting the biodiversity of our planet, reducing homelessness, or improving the education that our children receive, these organizations humbly push ahead toward their mission – often in spite of financial conditions that would be considered unacceptable in the private sector.
How do these cash-strapped organizations attract and retain top talent? How do they use lessons learned from others in their field to solve their own problems efficiently? How do they build partnerships with other organizations with aligned missions to progress their work? Well, one of the ways is to take some of the sector’s brightest and most energetic leaders and bring them together in a dynamic exchange of experiences, ideas and contacts. Few do this better than the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network.
I was invited to attend their national conference in Grand Rapids, MI and speak to their members about the Year of Giving. I donated my time and services as a speaker and photographer for the conference at the end of March.
Grand Rapids, MI at sunset (Photo: Eli Potter)
I touched down at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids just after seven, the glimmer of the late winter sunlight over the flat terrain quickly slipped into the night. It’s a nice place to visit, possibly to live if you don’t mind winters that have overgrown their three month calendar season. “You’re right here,” a woman sitting next to me on the plane explained while pointing to the palm of her right hand, just below where the little finger connects to the palm. “You see Michigan is shaped like a mitt….we’re right here.” I nodded and smiled at the novel way of showing someone where you lived and thought how I would shape my hand into the places I have lived. No such luck for Brazil or Mexico, but maybe Pennsylvania works if I place my hand horizontally.
I was part of their speakers track titled Innovation. I’m not sure how innovating the Year of Giving is, after all it was Pierre on Day 359 who reminded me that certainly others had thought of this idea before. “The difference,” he told me, “is that you did something.” There is a tremendous difference between having an idea and implementing it. Only one of the two really exists. This conference was packed full of doers; my kind of people.
The conference went well, people even laughed at some of my attempts at humor which always makes me feel good. That evening I put to work my photography “skills” to capture the nonprofit smackdown: a wild debate of sorts where nonprofit professionals from all different sectors defended their causes. It was an interesting evening which was highlighted by an impromptu cash collection which I was told raised over a thousand dollars for the final two surviving nonprofits in the bout.
Impromptu cash donations totaled more than $1,000 for some of the terrific nonprofits represented at the smackdown!
There are 47 YNPN chapters across the US representing over 20,000 young nonprofit professionals working in a variety of capacities. Check their website to see if there is a chapter near you!
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Year of Giving 