Watching the fighter jets scream across the sky during practice runs for the Chicago Air and Water show reminded me of September 11th. I was standing on the beach watching smoke billow from the Twin Towers and could see fighter jets—the only planes in the sky—cruising along as they patrolled the air. I also remember having a sense of anger, and wanting to have someone to blame for the atrocities. I think that most people shared that feeling, at least initially, but some were far less rational about how they dealt with it. September 11th was obviously a terrible day for every American, but it was also the day when life got much harder for people in American of Arab, Muslim, South Asian and other backgrounds. That’s why Seattle, WA based OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone) was founded immediately after September 11th. Their mission is “to advance the fundamental principles of democracy and justice through building power in immigrant communities, in collaboration with key allies.”
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Today we’re going to start with a mind boggling fact. Half of human deaths since the stone age can be attributed to malaria. Half. Starvation, war, cancer, AIDS, and natural disasters have nothing on a tiny little parasite. Chances are that you grew up in a place without malaria. You may have used insect repellent, but was to avoid having an annoying buzz in your ear and a few itchy bumps on your arms or legs. It wasn’t a life or death situation. Unfortunately, in much of the world—especially Africa—a little bug bite can lead to your ultimate demise. Malaria remains one of the biggest problems that the human species faces with 250 million annual cases and 850,000 annual deaths. This costs African nations $12 billion in lost productivity ever year, while consuming 40% of all hospital expenditures. Malaria No More is a New York City based non-profit organization that believes that fighting malaria is “the best humanitarian investment” that can be made right now. They’ve only been around since 2006, but they’ve already done some great work to curb the damage done by malaria.
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Growing up is tough no matter where you come from. As you reach your teenage years, you have to start taking responsibility for yourself—your grades, your ambitions, and your diet. Now imagine growing up in a situation where your parents aren’t all that helpful and your community and its schools don’t have the resources to give you the help that you need to get on the right track. This is often the case in inner-city neighborhoods across America, and this includes many communities in the greater Los Angeles area. That’s why Calabasas, CA based SOSMentor was formed in 2000. They’re a non-profit organization that provides “academic mentoring, resources, and educational support to underserved students and their families.” They also put a huge emphasis on diet and fitness, which are really important things to learn about as you enter adulthood.
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Ever get off to a bad start? Maybe it was a class, a sports season, or a new social situation. It’s hard to dig yourself out of the funk, right? Or maybe it was something far more important like life. Millions of people are born into poverty in our country, and that makes it likely that they’ll eventually have children who are born into poverty. It’s a vicious cycle that is nearly impossible to get out of, which means that more and more kids will be born into a very difficult situation. A Wider Circle is a Silver Spring, MD non-profit organization that empowers “children and adults to break the cycles of poverty and poor health.” By providing basic need items to struggling families, A Wider Circle puts people in a situation where success is attainable.
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Now that we’re done celebrating a hockey victory here in Chicago, it’s time for World Cup fever. I’ve never been a huge fan of soccer—probably because it’s not the most suitable sport for someone who was both chubby and asthmatic growing up—but even I can get into the World Cup. If there’s any sport that bridges all cultures, it has to be soccer. And that means that it’s particularly well suited to international non-profit work. That explains Grassroot Soccer, a Norwich, VT based non-profit that was started by former professional soccer players to help fight HIV in Africa. They do this by training “African soccer stars, coaches, teachers, and peer educators in the world’s most HIV-affected countries to deliver an interactive HIV prevention and life skills curriculum to youth.” They’re especially focused on using the excitement surrounding the 2010 World Cup to increase engagement with their programs.
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Happy Mother’s Day! Whether you’re sending your Mom flowers or taking her out to brunch, you should know there’s only one gift that she really wants: you to get a job. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to do that. Our course, Found Your Career, will help, but most of it is up to you. If you really want to honor your mother with your new job, you could consider working for a non-profit that is focused on helping new mothers like Baby’s First Home. They are a New York City based organization that is building and running “a supportive housing unit for 5 mothers (17-21) and their children.” They’re in the extremely early stages at this point, but they seem to be well on their way to achieving their mission of helping “mothers build independent lives and stable futures for themselves and their children.”
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It’s tax time, which means that I’ve spent some time looking over my records from last year. This year is already looking better than last year thanks to our sponsor mentioned above. Hopefully it will mean that when I do my taxes in 2011, I won’t consider myself a “low-income entrepreneur.” But if I still do, I’ll at least have the option of getting some support from the Corporation for Enterprise Development. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit that is “dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities.” The program that I’m alluding to is the CFED’s Self-Employment Tax Initiative, which helps to provide free tax preparation services for people like me (though I haven’t actually taken advantage of any of these resources). That’s just a small slice of what CFED does, though. Their broader goal is “working at the local, state and federal levels to create economic opportunity that alleviates poverty.”
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I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not, but I’ve spent the last week in Florida. It’s been a partial vacation, but I’ve spent most of the time working (since it’s been cold and rainy here). One thing that I’ve noticed down here besides the terrible weather and bad driving is that immigration is still a major issue. With Florida’s proximity to Cuba and Haiti, the state runs into a lot of immigration issues. It may be refugees arriving by boat or raft, or it could be immigrants flocking to the state to work in agriculture. Whoever they are and wherever they’re from, they are eligible for support from Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, a non-profit “legal assistance organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the basic human rights of immigrants.” The organization is based in Miami, and they’ve been around since 1996.
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It’s Super Bowl Sunday, which means that it’s time to talk about jobs in football (we’ve featured NFL jobs in addition to a few other cool opportunities). Since it’s our practice to feature non-profits on the weekend, I started browsing around the NFL’s Join the Team site, which features all of the league’s charitable work. One of the things that I came across was the Play It Smart program, which partners “academic coaches with student-athletes in order to, ‘take a student-athlete’s passion for sports and intense dedication to their team and transform it into a force for greater good in their lives.’” It’s a partnership between the NFL Youth Football Fund and the National Football Foundation. I decided to focus on the latter, as they’re exactly what I was looking for—a football related non-profit. The organization’s full name is The National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame. The Foundation is located in Irving, TX, while the Hall of Fame is located in South Bend Indiana. The organization’s mission is “to promote and develop the power of amateur football in developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the drive for academic excellence in America’s young people.”
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Some of the most effective non-profits are the ones that work at a local level; however, the non-profits that operate at the national level usually have a much easier time raising money. Feeding America is a non-profit that is able to take advantage of both these facts by using a network model. Based in Chicago, they are “the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity.” They’re able to do this by operating “a nationwide network of member food banks.” This network of more than 200 food banks across every state distributes “more than 2.5 billion pounds of food and grocery products annually.” Those are numbers that are hard to get your mind around.
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Yesterday we took a look at one of the most familiar names associated with the Haiti Relief effort—the American Red Cross. This morning I came across a couple lists that shine a light on other organizations that are also putting a focus on Haiti. One is from U.S. News & World Report that discusses 10 Ways You Can Donate to Haitian Earthquake Victims, and the other is Haiti Earthquake—Best Ways to Assist in Providing Emergency Relief from the American Institute of Philanthropy, which rates charities involved with Haiti Relief. One of the organizations on both of those lists is Oxfam America, a Boston, MA based “international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice.” They already have teams delivering aid in Haiti, and you can find out all about what they’re doing their on their Haiti Earthquake page.
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By now I’m sure that you’ve all heard about the earthquake in Haiti. It’s the kind of tragedy that most of us will never be able to understand no matter how much we see about it on television or read about it in the newspaper. It is a worst case scenario for millions of people. The one positive thing to come out of this disaster is the response from the rest of the world—it shows that compassion is an overwhelmingly human trait. One of the organizations that is most associated with disaster response is the American Red Cross; in fact, “compassionate services” is what they do. In addition to disaster relief, they also work on: “community services that help the needy; support and comfort for military members and their families; the collection, processing and distribution of lifesaving blood and blood products; educational programs that promote health and safety; and international relief and development programs.” While headquartered in Washington, DC, the American Red Cross has hundreds of local chapters across the country—it’s almost a certainty that there is one near you.
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Check out this week’s sponsor, New York City Teaching Fellows. They’re seeking new grads with no prior teaching experience or background in education to help make a difference in NYC’s public schools.
We all know that poverty is a huge problem, even here in an extremely wealthy country like the United States. We have thousands and thousands of non-profits working to eradicate poverty, while the government always seems to be creating new programs to help those in need. Still, poverty continues to exist despite the billions of dollars allocated to fighting it. Part of the reason for this is that many of those billions go unclaimed. Too many people don’t know what services and programs are available to them, so they never take advantage of potentially life changing help. It’s kind of like how you never stepped foot in the career services office, and now you are struggling to find a job. SingleStop USA is a New York City based non-profit that is trying to change this problem by closing the information gap. They’re fighting poverty by informing people about the services that are already available to them.
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I was traveling yesterday, so I scheduled yesterday’s post and hopped on a plane. Little did I know that my server would somehow forget to do what I told it. Sorry! If you’re looking for yesterday’s post, you can find it here. (Or if you’re reading by e-mail, just scroll down.)
There are a lot of people who aren’t very thrilled with healthcare in the United States. Yes, it can be atrociously expensive, but at least we have access to pretty much any medical procedure out there. Whether it’s something very basic or something that has never been tried before, the US certainly has the medical infrastructure to get the job done. There are plenty of countries in the world where even the most basic medical care is out of reach, and there are other countries where basic medical care becomes out of reach due to a crisis. That’s where New York City based Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) comes in. They provide “aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters.” Doctors Without Borders does this by recruiting both medical and non-medical personnel to travel abroad to offer a level of medical assistance that is well beyond what is typically available.
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It’s pretty common for non-profit organizations to go through name changes as they expand their scope. While it’s often a sign of failure to change your name for a restaurant, I think it’s usually a sign of success with non-profits. It means that they’ve been so effective at achieving their goals that they’ve taken on an expanded mission. It’s not always the case, but it seems to be the case with Washington, DC based Thrive DC, which was originally founded in 1979 as Dinner Program for Homeless Women. I’d imagine that they found having gender specificity in their name became too limiting, as Thrive DC aims to provide “the last available safety net for people facing economic crisis and housing instability while also providing the first step towards independence for people experiencing extended periods of homelessness.”
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I guess it makes sense that people are more giving during the holidays. When you’re filling up on delicious food and getting lots of gifts, you can’t help but want to spread around the good fortune. Unfortunately for many food banks that spirit of giving isn’t distributed evenly throughout the year, while hunger is. Food banks and soup kitchens need food and volunteers year round, and sometimes they even have employment opportunities. One of those organizations that does is Food Bank for New York City. Their mission is to “end hunger by organizing food, information and support for community survival and dignity” throughout New York City’s five borough. While you’re still in that Thanksgiving mindset, you should take a look at Food Bank for New York City and see if you can help them out year round.
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Did you know that how wealthy your family is has a lot to do with which sports you play growing up? Sometimes it’s a demographic thing, but a lot of times it just has to do with whether or not your family can afford to pay for the equipment. Take hockey for example. There’s a ton of stuff you need, and it’s all expensive; whereas, basketball can be played with just a ball and a hoop in a park. There are no hard and fast rules about this, but it’s very clear that many kids don’t get the opportunity to try some sports because of the costs involved. Good Sports is a Boston based non-profit that “provides sports equipment to disadvantaged youth in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, and Chicago.” They may have pictures of Boston athletes plastered all over their website (yuck!), but they’re doing a really good thing.
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Some of the most fun that I had during college was playing in a charity dodgeball tournament. My team was doing really well until we ran into a team of future NHL players, pitchers from the baseball team, and some former softball players (they threw underhand, and they threw hard) in the semifinals. That match was pretty ugly, but even when you lose at dodgeball, you have fun. We’ve seen dodgeball gaining more and more popularity, and with that trend we’ve seen more and more non-profits using dodgeball to raise funds. Best Shot Foundation is a Washington, DC based non-profit that is doing just this. They’re an organization that is focused on bringing attention to the fact “that pneumonia kills more young children than any other disease,” and then doing something about it.
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Often people don’t realize what services are available to them. I see this all the time with college students and Career Services offices—the students complain about a lack of help even though they’ve never stepped foot in the office. Another example is students who are having trouble paying for college yet have never applied for the thousands of dollars of scholarships that are available to them. This same thing happens all the time in the world of government programs—people endure hardship because they don’t know that there are programs intended just for them. We often hear that there’s a need for more programs to help the poor, yet programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit are significantly underutilized. Ladder Up is a Chicago based non-profit organization that has “returned $183 million to 100,000 hardworking families” by providing “free, real world financial solutions that maximize earnings and savings.” Whether it’s helping their clients claim a tax credit that they didn’t know about or walking a future college student through the financial aid process, Ladder Up helps people make the most of what’s available to them.
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Homelessness is pretty terrible, but the problems that it leads to can be even worse. One of those problems is often AIDS. Housing Works is a New York City based non-profit that “provides homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and their families with housing, meals, medical care, drug treatment, social support, employment opportunities and other lifesaving services.” The cool thing is the scale that they’re doing this on—they are “the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the United States.” That means that since 1990 they’ve served more than 20,000 New Yorkers.
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What was the first book that you ever read? Mine wasn’t actually a book—it was a Super Mario Bros. comic book. My parents had decided that it would be fun to take Amtrak to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa instead of flying. And it actually was. I spent a lot of the time struggling through the comic book, and then I was suddenly reading. That wouldn’t have happened on a 3 hour flight. Do you have as vivid of a memory of reading your first book as I do? First Book hopes so. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit that “provides new books to children in need addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books.” In 16 years they’ve provided more than 65 million books, so you have to call First Book a huge success.
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For nearly as long as humans have been around, we’ve been building shelters—places to sleep, eat, work, and play. And nearly as long as we’ve been building shelters, we’ve been doing it artistically. Function is still our primary goal—it’s the reason that we build things, but it’s amazing how development, architecture, construction and engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, and urban planning come together as an essential part of human culture. The National Building Museum in Washington, DC was started to “advance the quality of the built environment by educating the public about its impact on people’s lives.” Yes, it’s a museum filled with artifacts and objects related to the history of buildings, but it’s more than that. It’s really about “fostering lively discussion about a wide range of topics.”
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I love it when I get great recommendations for companies/organizations to feature from readers (if you have one, let me know at willy@onedayonejob.com). That’s how I found out about Gloucester, MA based Action Inc. I was sent a link to this article about how the non-profit agency will be getting “$8.5 million in federal stimulus money over the next three years to improve energy efficiency in low-income households from Gloucester to Haverhill to Lynn.” The cool thing about the project is that it not only focuses on reducing energy consumption, but it also focuses on helping low-income people save money that they’re literally burning away. Action Inc. is all about economic security, so their work goes well beyond energy efficiency. It also includes Advocay, Youth Outreach, In Home Care, Housing Loans, Job Training, Emergency Shelters, and Toy Drives.
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Three months ago when I featured the American Lung Association’s Jobs, I mentioned a good friend who is battling lung cancer. From what I’ve heard, he continues to be doing well and fighting for his life. Unfortunately, I recently learned that my grandmother is also facing a battle with lung cancer despite the fact that she stopped smoking before I was born. It’s obviously very upsetting for my family, and we’re going to do our best to get her through this. I don’t usually like getting too personal with these posts, but there’s no better way for me to introduce the American Legacy Foundation. They are a Washington, DC based non-profit organization that “is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit.” I’ve seen what tobacco can do to people, and it absolutely amazes me that anyone chooses to smoke these days, but many do. It may be their right to do what they want with their bodies but I’m glad that the American Legacy Foundation is working hard to push them towards a smarter, healthier decision.
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I never thought that I’d hear the words “city” and “harvest” used together as often as I do these days, but now it seems that every city has a farmers market, urban vegetable gardens, and restaurants with hyper-local cuisine. Oddly enough, City Harvest means something slightly different when they talk about harvesting food. They are “a non-profit organization founded in 1982″ and “the world’s first and New York City’s only food rescue program.” What does that mean? It means that this year they will “collect 26 million pounds of excess food from all segments of the food industry, including restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms.” They’re harvesting anything and everything that they can (as long as it’s up to their food safety standards) to feed New York City’s hungry. It’s a brilliant idea, and the organizations longevity proves that it’s working.
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Last night I enjoyed one of my favorite Summer treats—a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Now, this wasn’t just any Blizzard. This was a Tagalong Blizzard. If you’re not familiar with Tagalongs, then you’re missing out. They are my favorite Girl Scout cookie. And that brings me to the Girl Scouts of the USA, which is a New York City non-profit organization that you probably know best for pushing cookies. Obviously, the cookies have little to do with what the Girl Scouts of the USA are all about, but the funds raised from selling the cookies enable the organization to continue to pursue its mission of being “the world’s preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls—all girls—where, in an accepting and nurturing environment, girls build character and skills for success in the real world.”
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I’ve mentioned before that I’m on the board of advisors for a startup non-profit called National Coaching Fellows. During my time on the board, I’ve learned how challenging the non-profit world can be. Luckily, NCF has had the support of a “student-driven consulting corps for non-profits” to get through some of its growing pains. That consulting group is Chicago’s campusCATALYST, an organization that “seeks to direct the innovation, ingenuity, and problem solving skills of America’s future leaders towards community development by cultivating a rich academic and social entrepreneurship experience for college students and tangible solutions for nonprofits.” In other words, they take students from the University of Chicago and Northwestern and put them on consulting teams that help non-profits achieve their missions.
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Father’s Day is almost always a little bittersweet for me, as it marks the end of a week long fly fishing trip with my Dad to Northern Michigan. I hate for the trip to be over, but there’s no better way to celebrate the holiday than having spent a week with my Dad doing what we love—catching fish. Last year I searched high and low to bring you a post about the National Fatherhood Initiative, and this year it wasn’t easy to find another Dad related non-profit. Lucky for you, I came across the Fatherhood Educational Institute, which is based in Chicago. I know that I couldn’t have done half the things that I’ve done in my life without my Dad (like start this business), so it makes a lot of sense that the Fatherhood Educational Institute aims “to promote positive fatherhood involvement in povery stricken communities.” Great fathers are so important to the success of their children.
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You know all those rights that you learned about in school? All that stuff in the Constitution. I’m sure it’s important to you now, but how important was it to you as a kid? Unless you were a unique kid, you just wanted to play. That’s why Right To Play is such an interesting non-profit. They’re “an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world.” Play may seem trivial to many, but Right To Play has found that it’s often the key to opening up those other rights that many of us take for granted. They’re a Toronto based organization with a New York City presence, and they’re currently working in 23 countries: Azerbaijan, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Peru, occupied Palestinian territory, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Zambia.
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Have you ever heard of animal-assisted therapy? Wikipedia defines it as “a type of therapy that involves an animal with specific characteristics becoming a fundamental part of a person’s treatment.” This type of therapy can have all kinds of beneficial effects for a wide array of ailments, and it can be done with animals ranging from dogs to horses to elephants to lizards. Green Chimneys is a Brewster, NY based non-profit organization that “operates residential treatment for children and a special education school” with a large focus on animal-assisted therapy. They’re located on a 200-acre farm, and they’re constantly working towards “restoring possibilities and creating futures for children with emotional, behavioral, social and learning challenges.”
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