www.seattleworks.org

Usher Gets It

Usher goes to Washington! The singer and Shawn Wilson, president of Usher's nonprofit New Look Foundation, hold court with politicians including Rep. George Miller (left) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (right) before a hearing about the importance of community service and volunteerism at the House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20261409_20586605,00.html

The Millennials Are Coming!

Alison (Seattle Works executive director) and I had the opportunity to meet with Alex Steed, a millennial activist and freelance journalist who is traveling the country to uncover what motivates the millennial generation—those born between 1980 and 1992 and defined by their digital connectivity. The project, called MILLENNIALS CHANGING AMERICA, aims to paint a comprehensive and diverse picture of what these young activists think, look like, and how they function.

While in Seattle over the Halloween weekend, we met-up with Alex at the Greenlake Starbucks and engaged in a fascinating discussion about “Millennials” versus and “X’ers” with an aim to find out how different we really are… or aren't. Though it is probably still too early to define this generation, Alex shared some interesting learnings with us including that this generation of activists is content to work within the system to better it, something that almost directly opposes the very essence of what I’ve always considered the definition of activism. Another interesting idea he shared with us was an opportunity he sees for X’ers to ease the cultural shifts happening in the workplace by leveraging Millennial’s eagerness to be mentored.

For me, the most compelling part of our discussion focused around how this generation has been impacted by technology and a radically altered media landscape. Is the rise in citizen journalism and increased corporate transparency account for this generation’s lack of cynicism?  Did the narrow media landscape of earlier generations create a radical and sometimes violent opposition culture because there was no other way for our voices to be heard?

What do you think? Have you noticed any of these trends among your Millennial or X’er friends, family and colleagues? We’d love to hear from you.

Sarah Haeger

Why we don't give?

This great blog post is courtesy of my friend Jessice--a great take on Gen X donors. Are you guilty of how it looks to be socially conscious? Or do you do the right thing, even if no one is looking?

Enjoy! http://www.jewcy.com/daily_shvitz/why_we_don_t_give

The Fourth Sector

An interesting article in this weekends NY Times on the emerging "fourth sector" - better known as the grey area of for-profit businesses investing in what are traditionally non-profit sector outcomes.

Business Try to Make Money and Save the World: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/business/yourmoney/06fourth.html

-- Tara

A little feel-good inspiration

A nice article in yesterday's Seattle Times on stories of people giving quietly and effectively: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=philintro30&date=20070430&source=st

Dining for How Much?

A big old bravo to the organizers of this Tuesday's "dine for darfur" event. Participating restaurants will be donating 25% of their proceeds from the entire day to Mercy Corps.

I'm giving this one a smiley thumbs up and not just because the crisis in Darfur requires our attention. So often when companies support a cause through promotions like this they share that "a portion" of proceeds are benefiting the cause. Doesn't that always make it feel like it's likely something like 2%? Thumbs up to this event for being transparent about the level of support participating restaurants are providing. And 25% sounds pretty good to me.

Dining for Darfur info can be found at http://www.chowfoods.com/

-- Tara

Microcredit as Philanthropy

Article in Slate from a donor who is choosing to direct his giving to financing microcredit (small loans that help people start up small businesses, usually women in developing countries, but there are all sorts of programs). He looks at several online services that facilitate microcredit lending and evaluates them.

http://www.slate.com/id/2161797

Of note, the article asserts "Numerous experts agree: It's most effective to give consistently to a few organizations than to spread your dough too thin—that way, you make more of a dent in the cause." Interestingly, this is contrary to the anecdotal feedback we've gathered. Sounds like many of you prefer to give smaller gifts to lots of different organizations, a way to spread the risk because you're not entirely trusting that organizations will put your dollars to good use. My take - make a bunch of small gifts if that's where you're at, then utilize your experiences in how those organiations treat your small gifts to figure out a smaller set of orgs to make medium or larger gifts to.

Thanks to Seattle Works fav Gary for sending this article our way.

-- Tara

GQ and GIVING

John Legend and GQ are teaming up to kick off  GQ's first efforts in philanthropy. How cool. I'm curious, does this make you want to give more? Would you give to a for profit organization's foundation?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/business/media/23adco.html?ex=132988

Darfur Wall

Here's an update on something I included in the Weekly Email a few weeks back. Jonah Burke's Darfur Wall project has raised $30,000 so far!

We know Jonah because he's a former Team Works and Seattle Works Day team captain. He's taking some time off from work right now and during this time he's created a pretty amazing project designed to raise money and awarness for the crisis in Darfur. Check it out:

Normally I am not a big fan of "everyone donates a dollar" type scenarios. This idea really grabbed me however, because not only is it going to raise a LOT of money, I felt like a part of something when I picked up my squares. This project is about dollars, and it's about getting people to really think about what the loss of 400,000 lives means.

Here's an article from earlier this week in The Seattle Times:
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=darfurwall240&date=20070124

Go Jonah Go.

- Tara

Our donors rock

We had out first donor thank you event this past Sunday at Alison's house (aka the White House), bringing together our most generous annual supporters. So cool! Not a shock to anyone, it was a group of friendly, caring and interesting people. And it was a great start to what will become an annual tradition.

When I started at Seattle Works three years ago, it was a big step for our organization to hire someone specifically to focus on fundraising. At that point, we'd stayed afloat for 15 years mostly thanks to corporate sponsors, foundation grants and special events. But the truth of the matter is that the strongest and most financially stable nonprofits have  that kind of support PLUS a solid base of individuals who make personal contributions. And guess what, we're getting there!

- Tara