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Conference Notebook
January 2009
January 20, 2009
Inauguration 2009
Obama's Ascent Prompts New Desire Among Young People to Get Involved
Barack Obama has only been in office for a few hours, but he has already spurred teenagers to want to get involved in public service, according to a new study released by the Girl Scout Research Institute.
In the institute’s survey of 2,309 girls and 975 boys, aged 13 to 17, nearly half (49 percent) said the election had increased their interest in politics, and 44 percent reported that it had inspired an interest in social and political activism. The majority (71 percent) of those surveyed said they plan to vote when they are old enough.
The election also heightened young people’s awareness of gender and racial barriers, but at the same time appeared to lift their confidence in their ability to overcome such obstacles. While one- third of those polled believed that Barack Obama was held to a higher standard because of his race, 48 percent thought that race ultimately helped him in the election.
On the subject of gender, 43 percent of girls strongly agreed that “girls have to work harder than boys in order to gain positions of leadership,” as compared with 25 percent who did so a year ago.
Despite this, 59 percent of the girls said the election had increased their confidence in their ability to achieve their goals, and 41 percent said the election had increased their desire to be a leader.
Inauguration 2009
Inauguration Photos from Around the Nonprofit World
Nonprofit groups and Chronicle journalists have been sharing their photos from volunteer activities to mark the Martin Luther King holiday and today’s inauguration activities on the Chronicle‘s Flickr group.
Help us add to the slideshow by joining the group and uploading your own photos.
Inauguration 2009
Community Service Gets Big Play on White House Site
It didn’t take long for President Barack Obama’s staff to remake the official White House Web site.
The site, which debuted at 12:01 p.m. as Mr. Obama was preparing to take his oath of office, includes details of his administration’s agenda — including a page outlining his goals for promoting volunteer service.
Among Mr. Obama’s goals: doubling the size of the Peace Corps, requiring all middle and high school students to volunteer at least 50 hours per year and all college students to spend 100 hours per year volunteering, and to create a federal office that would oversee social entrepreneurship.
“During the election, people all across the country talked about feeling a new sense of civic engagement and got involved in politics for the first time,” the Web site says. “Now, President Obama and Vice President Biden are counting on Americans from all walks of life to serve the nation and help address the problems we face — and they’re committed to building the infrastructure and providing the resources that will make it possible.”
Inauguration 2009
Obama Calls for 'New Era of Responsiblity'
President Barack Obama, in his inaugural address, echoed a common theme from his transition — a call to serve. In addition, he urged Americans to join together to remake the country.
Mr. Obama said in his address that Americans can not sit idle through the recession and called upon them to take responsibility for the nation’s future.
“What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task,” he said.
What does this message mean for nonprofit groups? What should the Obama administration do to help charities? To help spur your thoughts, read what many experts on the nonprofit world told us were their priorities for Mr. Obama.
Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.
Inauguration 2009
Inauguration Inspires Call to Service
Several hundred people gathered Monday at Simon Elementary School in Washington to participate in a service project as part of pre-inauguration activities on Martin Luther King Day.
Participants reflect on the project —and talk about why they believe volunteerism is on the rise — in this video report.
Inauguration 2009
Nonprofit Leaders Raise a Glass to New Administration
About 300 nonprofit officials and members of the Washington elite rubbed shoulders last night at a swanky Washington nightclub to celebrate the start of the Obama administration — and enjoy free alcohol.
The aptly named party — “Cocktails we can believe in” — was an invitation-only event sponsored by TechnoServe, a international aid charity, and three nonprofit consulting and communications companies.
Leaders from Global Voices, the Association of Small Foundations, and other nonprofit groups mingled with art curators and members of the news media, like Matthew Bishop, co-author of Philanthrocapitalism.
Several party-goers were dressed in tuxedos and gowns, apparently ready to make a quick exit to even more-upscale gatherings: pre-inaugural galas.
Inauguration 2009
Volunteers Prepare Care Packages For U.S Soldiers
As part of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, more than 10,000 volunteers descended on Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington to make care packages for U.S. military personnel overseas.
At the event, which was the largest service effort in the city, hundreds of volunteer managers were needed to organize the crowds.
One of them, Alice McAlexander, from Abilene, Tx., motivated about 50 volunteers who were sitting in the stadium seats and waiting to get to work. Standing in front of them on the roof of a dugout, she gave the Obama campaign’s well-known cheer.
“Fired up?” she said through a megaphone.
“Ready to go” responded the volunteers, who hailed from as far away as Florida and California.
She then taught the crowd the “Obama dance,” a Macarena-esque move to get people excited — and warmed up in the cold weather.
Ms. McAlexander, who worked for the Obama campaign in Virginia, said that President-elect Barack Obama wanted to harness the grass-roots energy from his campaign and turn it into volunteer spirit for his presidency.
After some last minute-instructions, the volunteers filed into huge white tent on the stadium field. Inside the “snake pit,” as Ms. McAlexander called it, volunteers were given plastic bags. They then walked past rows of tables. and other volunteers dropped toiletries into their bags. As one volunteer said, it was trick-or-treating for the troops.
Future first lady Michelle Obama filled some bags in the morning, and in the afternoon, Washington Mayor Adrian M. Fenty congratulated the volunteers for filling 85,000 bags, exceeding the goal by 10,000.
The event, which was sponsored by the mayor’s office, the Target Corporation, and Operation Gratitude, a California charity, attracted many people who had come to Washington for the inauguration of Mr. Obama.
Will Muskatt drove from Charlotte, N.C., to see the festivities and support the military at the stadium event.
He said as a black American, “I wanted to show my excitement for Obama and support Dr. King.”
Photos of the event will be online at The Chronicle’s Flickr group.
Inauguration 2009
Foundations Sponsor Pre-Inaugural Service Ball
Atlantic Philanthropies and the Musk Foundation for the first time sponsored a pre-inaugural ball last night to celebrate “change in Washington, the rise of new media, and a renewed commitment to service and the environment.”
The Huffington Post Pre-Inaugural Ball, held Monday night at the Newseum in Washington, had as its theme a “countdown to a new day.”
Gara LaMarche, president of Atlantic Philanthropies, says his group was encouraged to see the mass outpouring of citizen action that took place during the recent presidential campaigns, particularly in the Obama campaign, and the way it drew a connection between service and advocacy.
“The idea of celebrating that and lifting that up in all the inaugural events appealed to us,” he says. “I thought it would be a good thing to do.” Atlantic Philanthropies contributed $135,000 toward the event.
Mr. LaMarche says his organization, which supports groups working for immigration reform, national health and restoration of civil liberties, is very optimistic about some policy changes that could occur under the Obama administration.
“In many, many areas of concern to us there are opportunities for progressive policy action, as a foundation that is very engaged in advocacy, we are anxious to push the ball forward,” he says.
The evening had a strong focus on service. Attendees were encouraged to go to kiosks around the event and make a personal commitment to service.
The event also focused a great deal on new media and the impact it has had on how people get their information and interact with one another.
Large screens around the venue flashed facts about new news media, as well as a live blog from the event. Guests seemed to be texting on blackberries and iphones as much as they spoke to one another, as people were encouraged to Twitter about the event, update their Facebook statuses, upload photos from their phones, and blog through the Huffinton Post.
There was also plenty of celebrity watching. Ben Affleck, Larry David, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Guest, Sharon Stone, Ron Howard, and Richard Schiff were just a few of the well-known performers at the event.
The end of the evening featured performances by Cheryl Crow, Will-I-am and Sting, as Arriana Huffington led the filled-to-capacity crowd in a countdown to midnight.
— Sue Hoye
Inauguration 2009
Inauguration 2009: What it Means to Nonprofit Groups
What message will Barack Obama deliver to the nonprofit world today when he takes the oath of office?
We’ll be posting updates on this historic event throughout the day on this blog and on our Twitter feed.
But we want to hear from you: Tell us how you expect the new administration to affect your organization and what you would like to see accomplished in Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office.
Post your comments on this blog and contribute your photos to our Flickr group.
January 19, 2009
Inauguration 2009
Politicians, Celebrities, and Nonprofit Leaders Promote Obama’s Call for New Era of Community Service
Politicians, celebrities, and nonprofit leaders—speaking to more than 1,200 people in Washington—today urged Americans to take up President-elect Barack Obama’s call for a new era of community service.
Speakers at the breakfast gathering, which kicked off a national day of service in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., said Mr. Obama’s presidency would give new momentum to the effort to get more people involved in solving the country’s problems.
“We have a champion in the White House,” said Alan Khazei, chief executive of Be the Change, a civic-engagement group in Boston that helped start ServiceNation, a coalition of more than 120 organizations that organized the breakfast.
“We all must double down now and seize this moment,” he said. “Otherwise it may pass us by.”
Mr. Obama asked people to volunteer on the King holiday, but also to make a commitment to work regularly to improve their communities.
Martin Luther King III, the slain civil-rights leader’s son, endorsed that idea at the breakfast. “The goal is to keep that service going through the year,” said Mr. King, chief executive of Realizing the Dream, a community- and youth-development group in Atlanta. He said his father often said that anybody could serve their country—“you don’t have to have a Ph.D. to serve.”
Indeed, Mr. Obama’s endorsement of the national day of service fueled immense interest. The Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal national-service agency, reported that people organized a record number of more than 12,000 projects across the country — double last year’s number.
Arne Duncan, Mr. Obama’s choice for education secretary, represented the incoming administration at the breakfast. He said it was “crucial” that Congress adopt legislation to expand national service programs this year, which Mr. Obama has already pledged to sign.
Mr. Khazei, Mr. King, and others also urged Congress to adopt the Serve America Act—which has been introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah and Sen Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts—within the next 100 days.
The legislation would more than triple participation in year-long national-service programs like AmeriCorps, to 250,000, by 2013.
It would also create several new service programs and provide money to help nonprofit groups charities recruit volunteers and spread innovative projects.
ServiceNation and other nonprofit leaders were hoping that legislation would become part of the economic-stimulus plan Congress and the Obama administration will work on over the next few weeks to help pull the nation out of recession. House Democrats proposed a stimulus plan last week that did not include the measure, although it did call for $200-million in new spending on AmeriCorps.
Speakers at the event included Maria Shriver, wife of California’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger (who urged other states to follow California’s lead and create a cabinet-level post for volunteerism); and three Democratic members of Congress—John Lewis of Georgia and Doris Matsui and George Miller of California.
Celebrity endorsements came from Demi Moore and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, film actors who showed a Web video they created featuring entertainers pledging to take action to improve the world—for example, by buying a hybrid car, using less plastic, smiling more, or helping to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
Another film actor, Tobey Maguire, said he had started a ServiceNation “ambassador’s council” to recruit Hollywood starts to promote community service.
After the breakfast, several hundred people, including Mr. Maguire, headed to a project to paint and beautify nearby Simon Elementary School. The results will be unveiled on Tuesday night at a live broadcast by MTV, the cable television network, at an official inaugural ball for young people.
So many people wanted to volunteer at the school that organizers had to cut off applications and send people elsewhere. Cathy Cronen, 63, a nurse from suburban Portland, was among those who made it in. In town to visit her daughter during the inauguration festivities, she said she volunteered specifically because she wanted to honor Mr. Obama’s request.
“This is part of what Barack Obama is calling us to do,” she said. And, as the President-elect suggested, she plans to follow up by committing to a regular community-service project—volunteering to tutor or mentor school children.
Inauguration 2009
Web Site for Volunteers Gets Upgrade for National Day of Service
Many charities are using today’s Martin Luther King holiday as an opportunity to publicize efforts to increase volunteerism.
The Web site VolunteerMatch, for example, used the National Day of Service to unveil a new online service that allows people to find volunteer opportunities using Google Earth.
Potential volunteers can use the service to find pportunities at more than 62,000 nonprofit organizations.
The Google Earth mapping service is an online tool that allows prospective volunteers to enter in the name of a city, street, or zip code and see the closest available opportunities on an interactive map.
To show how the Google Earth tool works, VolunteerMatch has produced a video demonstration, which is available on YouTube.
Is your organization using the King holiday to promote a new program or to raise awareness about your activities? Click on the comments link below this post to tell us what you have done.
Inauguration 2009
Marking the King Holiday: Obamas Paint Shelter Walls and Pack Care Packages for the Troops
Barack Obama painted walls an emergency shelter in Washington this morning as part of his effort to urge Americans to devote more time to community service.
In an event designed to mark the holiday commemorating the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Obama volunteered at Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a charity that provides shelter to homeless teenagers and other services.
“Given the crisis that we’re in and the hardships that so many people are going through, we can’t allow any idle hands,” President-elect Obama told the assembled volunteers, reports Bloomberg news service. “Everybody is going to have to pitch in, and I think the American people are ready to do that.”
Michelle Obama and her daughters spent the morning at Washington’s Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to help prepare care packages for military troops serving overseas.
Both Mr. and Ms. Obama have a long history in promoting volunteer work. Mr. Obama worked in Chicago as a community organizer, while Ms. Obama started the Chicago office of Public Allies, an organization that promotes community service. (Read The Chronicle’s article about how Ms. Obama’s early experience at Public Allies influenced her husband’s views on community service.)
January 16, 2009
Inauguration 2009
Record Numbers of Americans Poised to Volunteer on King Holiday
Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been an official day of service since 1994, but organizers are hopeful that Americans will turn out in record numbers this year, thanks to a push by President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, to encourage volunteering on that day.
USAService.org, a Web site created by Mr. Obama’s inaugural committee, has registered more than 11,000 volunteering events to be held this Monday. HandsOn Network, which organizes volunteers, will be managing 2,600 projects nationwide.
Among those pledging to make Monday “a day on, not a day off”:
- More than 5,000 employees with Kaiser Permanente, who will deliver coats to homeless shelters in Washington, clean up a Boys & Girls Club facility in Georgia, and participate in dozens of other projects across the country.
- The musicians Herbie Hancock and Josh Groban, who will be helping Feeding America, the national network of food charities, hold a rally against hunger in Washington.
- Staff members of Planned Parenthood, who will be assisting other charities nationwide. Employees in Georgia, for example, will paint an Atlanta school for the day, while employees in Washington State will be picking up trash in their cities.
- Approximately 16,000 college students from 130 campuses in 28 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service. They plan to clean up neighborhoods, serve meals to hospice patients, and help with many other tasks.
- Roughly 65,000 Philadelphia residents, who plan to volunteer through the 14th Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service. Todd Bernstein, the event’s organizer, says that represents 5,000 more people than last year, according to a press release on the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Web site.
Some companies are trying to capitalize on the spirit of Monday’s Day of Service by asking people to make longer-term commitments to volunteerism. For four days starting January 21, Starbucks is giving a free coffee to customers who pledge five hours or more of volunteer time to a local cause.
Are you participating in a volunteer project on Monday? What can be done to promote volunteerism the rest of the year? Click on the comments box below to let us know.
Inauguration 2009
Boys and Girls Choruses Come East to Sing-in Obama
Before dawn on Inauguration Day, a military vehicle will leave the Pentagon. Its mission: escort a busload of California schoolgirls deep into the nation’s capital.
Who are these special young ladies? They’re members of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, who together with the San Francisco Boys Chorus, are the only charitable ensembles performing during the inauguration ceremony. The choruses, invited in November, will jointly perform a 20-minute medley of patriotic songs.
“We have friends in high places,” says Melanie Smith, executive director of the girls chorus, of their opportunity to sing-in the new president. (The chief “friend” would be Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who chaired the committee arranging the ceremonies.)
The Girls Chorus, whose members range in age from 9 to 17, has raised 70 percent of the $70,000 the trip will cost. The boys ensemble, meanwhile, has already raised the around $100,000 it needs to send 43 boys aged 9 to 14 to Washington. (The boys—largely younger than their female counterparts because of the whole voice-changing thing—require additional chaperones, and thus additional money.)
Ms. Smith’s singers will be hosted at a boarding school in Middleburg, Va., about an hour west of Washington. While happy to have a place to stay in a metropolitan area inundated with visitors, the logistics will give the girls a long day.
“I think we have to leave the boarding school by 3:30 in the morning to meet our escort at the Pentagon,” Ms. Smith says.
The boys will be bunking down at a Marine Corps barracks in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Va.
“The boys are so excited,” says Elaine Robertson, program manager at the boys chorus.
But are the Californians all that excited about performing in Washington’s chilly wintry weather?
“Oh yeah,” Ms Robertson says. “We got long underwear donated for all the boys.”
Inauguration 2009
Foundation Helps Chicago Students Travel To Washington
Thanks to a $24,000 from the McCormick Foundation, 24 elementary students from one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods are traveling to Washington to see the historical inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama and take in the sights.
The so-called DC 24 are 5th and 6th graders from Frazier Preparatory Academy and they will spend four days in the nation’s capital, visiting museums, Arlington National Cemetery, and even attending an inaugural ball.
The students, who were selected last summer for their good grades and other criteria, have been taking special classes on civics and government to prepare for the trip. (They even made flashcards to memorize the positions and names of members of the incoming administration).
In addition to helping pay for the trip, the McCormick Foundation, whose headquarters are in Chicago, is providing the kids with laptop computers and digital camcorders to document their trip on a Web site, www.sharemyinauguration.com.
McCormick isn’t the only grant maker helping someone get to the Washington festivities.
The Case Foundation is paying the travel expenses for the winner of its “Change Begins with Me” contest, in which contestants committed to do some type of volunteer work.
The winner, who was picked at random from 10,000 entries, was Gerald Jimenez, of Boston, according to Case’s Web site. Mr. Jimenez is a mentor for Citizen Schools, a Boston group that operates afterschool programs.
He pledged “[t]o empower. To change. To motivate. Giving all the heart, all the creativity, the resources and the lifelong education invested in me towards the development of inner-city youth through the arts.”
Inauguration 2009
Charity that Serves Homeless Women Invited to Inaugural Ball
Eight clients and two staff members from N Street Village, a Washington charity that serves homeless and low-income women, are among 1,000 people invited to attend the People’s Inaugural Ball on January 20 to celebrate Barack Obama’s swearing in.
The ball is one of several People’s Inaugural Project events held by the Stafford Foundation, a private foundation headed by the Virginia businessman Earl W. Stafford, the founder of a Centreville technology company, who paid $1-million to purchase an inauguration hotel package offered by the JW Marriott, in Washington, to ensure that Americans who are poor or disabled will have an opportunity to participate in the inauguration festivities. The foundation is also reaching out to wounded veterans and people who have suffered domestic abuse or face other troubles.
After seeing a news article about the People’s Inaugural Project, N Street Village contacted the Stafford Foundation by e-mail and received a follow-up invitation to send eight clients and two staff members to the ball. Upon receiving the invitation, the charity’s staff members selected eight women who have excelled in the charity’s programs and made great strides toward their personal goals.
Elaine Webber, who came to N Street Village a little over two years ago, volunteers as a receptionist for the the charity’s dental clinic and couldn’t believe that she was one of the women chosen to attend the ball.
“I cried,” says Ms. Webber. “Because two years ago I was homeless and helpless and in that black hole of despair and living on the streets. To think that I would be picked to go the ball was something that I never thought would happen to me.”
“It’s the Cinderella event of the year,” says Evelene Duhart, the charity’s transitional housing case manager. “People are excited for us, they’re calling us the Cinderellas.”
Ms. Duhart will accompany the selected women to the JW Marriott on Sunday to chose from donated ball gowns and to get their nails done. They will return on Tuesday for hair appointments before attending the ball that evening.
Mr. Stafford, 60, and his foundation have spent more than $1.6-million to host the People’s Inaugural Project. A third of tickets for all events have been distributed to needy people from across the country, as well as organizations that serve poor people across the nation.
January 15, 2009
Inauguration 2009
AmeriCorps to Strut Its Stuff at Inaugural Parade
President-elect Barack Obama has made a point of promoting national service—and he will give it another boost at next week’s Inaugural parade.
AmeriCorps Alums, a group in Atlanta that connects former participants in the service program, has been selected to march in the parade that follows the swearing-in ceremony on January 20. It is one of the few groups that aren’t a marching band or a military or law-enforcement group.
Amity Tripp, the group’s executive director, says 150 AmeriCorps alumni from around the country will march, along with a few VIPs, including David Eisner, the former chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service. So many alumni wanted to participate that the group had to hold a lottery, she says.
Marchers won’t be decked in fancy uniforms like many of the other participants, but they will l carry state flags and wear jackets with the AmeriCorps Alums logo, Ms. Tripp says.
A Peace Corps group will also march in the parade, as will Special Olympics, the charity that sponsors athletic contests for people with intellectual disabilities.
Inauguration 2009
How to Make a Video and Discuss It with Michelle Obama
Want to get a phone call from Michelle Obama? If so, get to work making a YouTube video explaining how you plan to participate in the national day of service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Renew America Together, President-elect Barack Obama’s new community-service program, is sponsoring a video contest to promote the volunteer activities that will take place across the country on the January 19 holiday.
The winner will receive a call from Ms. Obama and the top three videos will be posted on USAService.org, a new Web site that allows people to post and find volunteer opportunities.
You will need to move fast. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow (January 15). Other details are available on the USAService.org site.
The Obamas plan to volunteer in the Washington metropolitan area on the King holiday, which takes place one day before the Inauguration, although the locations have not yet been announced.
The USAService.org blog has also invited guest bloggers to discuss their views on service through January 19, and several nonprofit leaders have weighed in, including representatives from Ashoka’s Youth Venture, New Global Citizenship, and YouthBuild USA.
Copyright © 2009 The Chronicle of Philanthropy