Volunteer Fairfax: Celebrating Inclusive Volunteerism

“Inclusive volunteerism is this kind of shift to meet you wherever you’re at,” Hollie Gordon, Manager of Communications and Public Engagements at Volunteer Fairfax, told the Catalogue for Philanthropy in a recent conversation. “Your time is also treasure — you don’t have to necessarily have the financial means to go out and make big purchases, but giving your time, knowledge, and energy to something is just as valuable.”

Volunteer making homemade dog treats from Homeward Trails Adoption Center, Fairfax Station

Volunteer Fairfax is the region’s central resource for community engagement for the last 48 years — pre-pandemic, they attracted close to 14,000 volunteers yearly serving more than 41,000 hours. “(We) emphasize the work nonprofits are doing and pair volunteers with nonprofits,” said Hollie. Though there is interest in engaging civically, with Virginia Service reporting 34% of Virginians volunteering in 2018, “sometimes we just need someone to make that extra connection,” especially since it can be challenging for people with families and jobs to find the time.

One of Volunteer Fairfax’s signature annual events is VolunteerFest, a yearly county-wide day of service event that engages people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. During the pandemic, they were able to create more inclusive volunteer opportunities by developing projects for volunteers to participate in at-home, such as putting together kits that address the donation needs of various nonprofit partners (i.e. toiletry kits to serve people experiencing homelessness and snack packs for kids in after-school programs). VolunteerFest allows members of the community to connect with each other while serving and learning about local nonprofits. “Through this at-home, virtual model,” Hollie noted, “we were able to bring volunteerism to people at home so they could define for themselves the specific place and budget they felt comfortable working with,” thereby allowing older residents, families with kids, teens, and busy professionals to get involved.

VolunteerFest will begin on September 11 with the launch of at-home projects and continues throughout the weekend with projects occurring in-person on Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18. This year’s opportunities range from baking and packing homemade treats for pets to litter clean-ups, storm drain labeling, and refreshing an outdoor classroom at a local elementary school!

Volunteers labeling storm drains for Northern VA Soil & Water Conservation District

Despite the challenges that COVID-19 presented, Volunteer Fairfax’s new model of embracing volunteers where they’re at is worth celebrating. “I think that people (often) feel like they don’t have the time to (make a long-term commitment),” Hollie continued. “But we try to lower the bar to let people know that you can show up and drive someone to an appointment, and even if you do it three times over the year, you helped.” For them, engaging the volunteer community is a yes/and. Yes, volunteers who can show up week after week are critical.?And volunteers who aren’t currently able to do so are also making an important contribution. “When volunteers show up, they learn about the needs in our community and all the ways (big and small) they can serve,” Hollie emphasized.

Something she’s excited about is seeing more engagement from younger people. “There has been a shift in political activism and civic engagement in younger people,” she added. “A lot of our growth in numbers (is because of) teenagers, who come on to do one or two projects and become really engaged with the organizations they touch.” This increased involvement mirrors her own personal experience and echoes the stories they’ve heard from the volunteers they celebrate through their annual Volunteer Services Awards, which recognize the people who do important work with their nonprofit partners.

“We heard from volunteers who’d been on the frontlines bringing vaccinations to people when we were doing mass vaccine clinics in Fairfax County,” she said. “We heard from volunteers who were at Dulles Airport (helping) Afghan refugees get settled, including someone who worked a full-time job and would set their alarm at midnight to go to Dulles.”

These inspiring stories and experiences get to the heart of why volunteerism matters and how much of an impact volunteering really makes. Volunteer Fairfax believes that we can only build a better community when we work together. This September, share your time and talent with nonprofits across Fairfax County and join them in meeting the needs of your community!

Clean-up project for VolunteerFest

Participate in VolunteerFest and learn more about the work of Volunteer Fairfax at http://www.volunteerfairfax.org. Make sure you follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and subscribe to their newsletter to stay in the know about their volunteer opportunities.

What Can Blossoming Look Like? On Youth Entrepreneurship with City Blossoms

“I have watched seedlings transform into healthy food that sustains my community and provides much needed nourishment to many people who would not otherwise have access to affordable, healthy food,” Eden Amare, Mighty Greens Youth Staff Member, wrote in the foreword to City Blossoms‘ latest publication, Cultivating Youth Leaders: A Workbook for Growing a Youth-Led Cooperative Garden Business.

Created in collaboration with the U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG), this free resource offers almost a decade’s worth of City Blossoms’ experience working with young people in DC to develop creative and kid-driven green spaces. Through the Youth Entrepreneurship Cooperative (YEC), one of their five interwoven programs, they provide a safe space for high school-aged youth to cultivate skills, take chances, and receive coaching on how to start, manage, and grow their own environmentally-driven business. Their first group of youths formed the Mighty Greens business in 2014 — youth staff grow seedlings and produce, as well as create value-added products (such as herb salts, teas, and more) to sell to the community at farmers markets and holiday pop-ups. Profits from their sales are paid out to youth staff and a portion is reinvested back into Mighty Greens, allowing participants to continue growing their business. On average, they donate over one-third of their produce and seedlings annually to churches, community members, and food banks.

“Mighty Greens teaches people how to cook and make profitable products, such as dried herb salts, teas, and body lotions,” wrote Amare. “These trade skills help to prepare people for careers in the gardening and farming industries.” Beyond skill-building, Mighty Greens Youth Staff members have also received invitations to present at regional conferences, sit on panels, and advise policy makers. But perhaps most importantly, such garden-based entrepreneurship “(allows) us to interact with the community that we are serving.” This summer, for instance, City Blossoms’ programming included special visits and workshops with professional entrepreneurs and local activists. The Mighty Greens team also sold their delicious produce and products at the Petworth Farmers Market.

Now, with the Cultivating Youth Leaders workbook, City Blossoms has combined years of stories from their team and from the Mighty Greens’ Youth Staff with their strategies and lessons learned, as well as useful tools and templates to guide others who want to develop their own unique adaptation of this program. “This resource offers an accessible model that prioritizes centering youth voices, as they are the ultimate change makers,” said Rafael Woldeab, executive director of City Blossoms. “We encourage users to be creative and utilize components of the YEC to meet the unique needs of their own communities.”

From thoughtful questions on building a safe and joyous space for youth to grounding the history of cooperatives in communities of color, this workbook exemplifies their approach to healthy living and community building by seeing youth as the inspiring changemakers they are. “City Blossoms and the USBG recognize the need for equitable and community-led resources that can inform and inspire opportunities nationwide for youth to engage in garden-based entrepreneurship,” said Saharah Moon Chapotin, USBG’s executive director.

Green spaces can be places of opportunity to build stronger relationships with the natural environment and connect with each other as creators and stewards. The seed for City Blossoms was first planted back in 1997 when 18-year-old Rebecca Lemos-Otero and the kids she was leading a summer camp for transformed an abandoned plot into a lush garden with food, flowers, and art installations. With attention and care, this radical project became a nonprofit organization that has touched hundreds of green spaces throughout DC and nationwide, all through the lens of investing in the holistic wellbeing of kids and their communities.

So, what can it look like to “blossom”? We’ll end with a youth-led vision for the future. In the words of Eden Amare, “Knowing that my community is being educated, getting jobs, and staying healthy drives me to serve them even more.”

Learn more about and support City Blossoms! You can also stay updated on their work by following them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Making An Impact in Prince William County

The Prince William County Community Foundation (PWCCF) has made a significant impact in the county since it was founded in 2018, particularly when the pandemic prompted a sudden spike in the need for emergency assistance. This September, you can support them in making an even bigger difference by participating in PWC Gives!, a 24-hour campaign supporting nonprofit organizations from across the county. Between 9 AM on September 1 and 9 AM on September 2, join this community effort to connect with, and help raise funds for, dozens of local nonprofits serving the residents of Prince William County (PWC), Virginia!

“In PWC, between 14,000 and 26,000 children alone experience food insecurity daily, especially when food assistance programs are not in place,” Dominique McIndoe wrote in Prince William Living. “Efforts of nonprofit organizations like (PWCCF) are motivated by these unfortunate statistics to improve the quality of life of everyone in the community.”

PWCCF builds philanthropic resources to sustain healthy and vital communities now and into the future, with a focus on improving the social, environmental, and economic health of residents by championing solutions that advance the common good. As Dr. Vanessa Gattis, President and CEO of PWCCF, stated in an interview with No Kid Hungry Virginia, “(We) prioritize serving residents in Prince William County’s Economically Distressed Areas because they are most affected by poverty and subsequent health-related issues, such as food deserts and food insecurity.”

Their largest program, the Combating Hunger on Wheels (C.H.O.W.) Wagon, transports meals to neighborhood children in need and has served over 750,000 meals since its inception. They also collaborate with other community entities through their Health Initiative to collectively promote strategies to improve residents’ health, in addition to granting scholarships to students and micro-grants to public school teachers.

PWC Gives! is their latest initiative fueling collaboration and generosity throughout the county. Their easy-to-use platform maximizes the ease of online giving, uniting nonprofits in raising the funds and resources they need to sustain their critical programs while allowing local supporters to invest in making the place where they live a better one.

Mark your calendar now to participate in PWC Gives! starting at 9 AM on Thursday, September 1! You can also learn more about the work of the Prince William County Community Foundation on their website and stay updated through Facebook.

Supporting Small, Local Nonprofit Leaders and Staff in 2022

Since March 2020, the Catalogue has been surveying Executive Directors in our network of 400+ nonprofits to gain a better understanding of the state of the sector in the Greater Washington region. The goal is to understand how the pandemic is impacting their programming, finances, organizations, and staff.

Over two years into the pandemic, as many of us are re-familiarizing ourselves with gathering in-person, it can feel increasingly easy to forget its cumulative effects, which have weighed more heavily on people with disabilities, people caring for children, and people working jobs with low pay or working multiple jobs. These challenges can be compounded in the nonprofit sector where staff are often on the frontlines of offering urgent and critical services to the community, but who are expected to run on “passion” with little support for overhead and administrative costs.

We have seen this lead to burnout and high turnover within the sector. While the last six months, specifically, have shown overall improvement in staff and leadership engagement, we are also hearing growing worries about forecasts for an economic downturn, challenges with hiring, and resetting funding expectations given a decrease in COVID-19 relief money.

How might we as a sector prioritize the well-being of small nonprofit staff, especially nonprofit leaders, over the next year? Here are three action steps the Catalogue would like to share based on our survey findings.

1. Fund mental health support and coaching for Executive Directors.

“It is impossible to convey how stressful the last two years have been as the leader of a small nonprofit,” an Executive Director shared with us anonymously. “I feel like I have been running a sprint since March 2020.”

37.9% of Executive Directors we surveyed this summer were either feeling burnout or were on the way to burnout. Though this is an improvement over results from our last survey in December 2021, when 42.5% of Executive Directors surveyed this sentiment, it still means that nearly two out of every five small nonprofit leaders in our network are struggling.

Within the same period, the percentage of staff who are feeling burnout or close to feeling burnout (as reported by Executive Directors) decreased from 29% to 19%. This trend, while positive, reflects what we have seen Executive Directors doing — prioritizing their team and the people around them. Staff engagement is a critical component of successful nonprofit management but leaders, too, need to be adequately supported to ensure the overall health, sustainability, and impact of the organization.

Our qualitative results include stories from Executive Directors who have not taken a vacation (or even much parental leave) since the pandemic started and who are seriously considering leaving the nonprofit space due to burnout. Given that strong leadership is a big contributor to building strong teams, we need to collectively attend to the well-being of Executive Directors through providing opportunities for one-to-one and small group consultations and coaching, as well as funding more capacity building support to make the work of Executive Directors more sustainable.

2. Stop thinking of overhead and administrative costs as separate from, or less worthy of funding than, program costs.

As public health guidelines loosen and we ease out of an “emergency” state, our sector is seeing less relief funding being made available. At the same time, the needs of our communities have stayed the same, if not increased. The pandemic impacts people’s health and economic security over the long-term, and its negative impacts will be disproportionately difficult for already underserved communities to mitigate.

Instead of designating funds solely for nonprofit programs that address these issues and more, it is time to rethink the overhead myth altogether. We agree with Curtis Klotz, who wrote in Nonprofit Quarterly that “Strategic financial functions, good governance, and the development of key funding partnerships are vital to strong organizations.” To this, we add equitable salaries with clear professional development and promotion pathways, as well as holistic support that views nonprofit staff as people — because ultimately, programming does not happen without the people who work to implement them.

“The “nonprofit starvation cycle” caused by unrealistic donor expectations of grantees’ administrative and operating costs has been a known problem in the grantmaking world for years,” John Summers and Rodney Christopher recently wrote in PEAK Grantmaking. Analyzing data from nearly 150,000 nonprofits nationwide, they found that “smaller organizations tend to have higher indirect cost rates than larger organizations” because “indirect” functions like accounting and human resource administration “benefit from economies of scale.” Project-based funding that doesn’t cover these costs actually disproportionately burden small organizations and, consequently, nonprofits led by people of color, which often have smaller budgets than white-led organizations.

One immediate way donors and funders can support nonprofit staff and leaders is to ensure their financial contributions are unrestricted, so that nonprofit leaders can decide where best to use that money, be it to hire more staff, pay for interns, upgrade the organization’s technology, or more.

3. Commit to recurring giving.

A report published by the National Council of Nonprofits in December 2021 revealed that 42% of nonprofits had 20% or more of their positions open. A separate survey by the Advisory Board for the Arts showed that more than one-third of respondents were taking three-to-six months to fill jobs. These two results reflect the hiring concerns we have heard from small nonprofit leaders in our own network.

While there are myriad current and systemic challenges that have created such an acute workforce shortage in the nonprofit sector — including inflation and increased volumes of work — one of the biggest reasons is that nonprofits are unable to offer competitive compensation compared to their for-profit and government counterparts. 79% of nonprofits surveyed by the National Council of Nonprofits last fall reported that salary competition impacted their ability to hire, and this can be particularly true for small nonprofits with small budgets and teams. Yet, as the report stated, “While job vacancies in the government and business sectors may cause disappointment and lost profits, the lack of adequate nonprofit staffing means delayed or complete loss of needed services.”

One strong way to help ensure nonprofits can increase salaries for their staff is to fund them on a recurring basis. When donors and funders commit to monthly or multi-year giving, not only do they pledge to continually support an organization, but they also acknowledge that it is through sustaining the organization in the long-term that they can help it create the greatest impact. Being able to make projections for their budgets beyond the year allows nonprofit leaders to develop better plans with less uncertainty, which helps to cultivate a work environment where nonprofit staff feel they can grow with the organization.

Free Tax Clinics for Families by the Mother’s Outreach Network

“Middle class, educated and White parents have been more likely to claim the Child Tax Credit (CTC) in the past than Hispanic families and those who did not graduate high school,” according to results from a national survey conducted by Ipsos last year as reported in the Washington Post. Through a temporary expansion of the CTC, eligible families can receive up to $3,600 for children under 6 and up to $3,000 for children ages 6-17. Yet, in DC, an analysis by the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis shows that only 50.4% of eligible DC families received these payments.

Because tax season typically runs from January to April, it can be difficult for individuals and families who want assistance with their taxes to find free tax preparation services off-season. Mother’s Outreach Network, who launched tax workshops back in October of last year, is continuing to run tax clinics in partnership with the DC Public Library through September. Every Wednesday between 11 AM and 1 PM, they answer questions and give 1-on-1 advice at the Southwest Branch Library about the CTC, Earned Income Tax Credit, Stimulus Payment, and more — at completely no cost.

Melody Webb, Executive Director and Founder of the Mother’s Outreach Network, told Axios DC that “she often works with vulnerable mothers who may have misconceptions about the credit or be unaware of it altogether.” Research shows that while such government programs play a large role in lowering poverty, disparities in economic security persist.

As an organization that supports the economic empowerment of Black mothers fighting for their families’ economic stability, the efforts of the Mother’s Outreach Network to increase access to legal services like free tax preparation are critical to reducing these disparities. Because the process can be difficult or complicated, and because many are unfamiliar with the process of claiming these credits, their goal is to ensure that families feel supported and assisted in claiming the government money they’re eligible for.

“The biggest myth we’ve had to dispel,” Webb said, “is that people who are currently receiving safety net benefits aren’t actually eligible.” In fact, the vast majority of US families with children are eligible for the CTC, including people who don’t regularly file taxes. In addition to their Wednesday clinics, the Mother’s Outreach Network has also compiled a list of frequently asked questions about the CTC, available on their website.

Find more information about these weekly Parents’ Tax Clinics and help spread the word! The Mother’s Outreach Network is a racial justice and antipoverty nonprofit organization that supports Black family wellness, economic security, and racial justice by transforming government income and child welfare laws, policies, and practices from punitive to empowering. Learn more and support their work!

Suited for Change’s Recipe for Success: Nonprofits Banding Together

What has been driving nonprofit organizations to continue through what seems like an endless pandemic? Leaning on each other.

When everything came to a rushing halt back in March of 2020, many organizations turned off their lights, locked their doors, and never returned. With nonprofit organizations being the backbone of our community, the ripple effect of these closures was felt almost immediately.

After some initial adjustment, Suited for Change (SFC), a nonprofit organization focused on empowering women through providing professional attire, skills development, and coaching, had the realization: the only way to survive is to band together.

Over the past two years, SFC has completely revamped their services, finding new approaches to meet the needs of their clients right where they are.

SFC began calling all their referral partners in the DC Metro area, asking them, “What do your clients need right now?” Beginning with virtual suitings, and then expanding to virtual and in-person workshops, SFC started collaborating with nonprofits within the Catalogue for Philanthropy network, including Friendship Place, Calvary Women’s Services, Britepaths, and La Cocina VA, to best serve their clients as they continue to strive for economic independence.

With a talented variety of volunteers who have expertise in fashion, interview preparation, resume writing, and financial literacy, SFC has been able to equip their clients with a well-rounded education on the tools they need to embark on their professional journey.

Through these growing partnerships, both SFC and the affiliated referral partners participating in these new workshops have already begun to see the effects of their collaboration. From increased motivation and confidence to achieve participation and eagerness to learn, the clients have been exhibiting their drive to succeed in all avenues of their life.

Prior to these workshops, many clients would arrive at the SFC boutique hesitant and unsure of what to expect. However, after having a clear introduction to SFC, clients have been jumping at the chance to schedule an appointment to get the finishing touches they need to launch their careers.

Thanks to the continuing collaboration between these Catalogue for Philanthropy nonprofit partners, clients are more equipped than ever to tackle the professional world and get the jumpstart they need to thrive.

Suited for Change equips women in need in our community on their path to financial independence by providing them with professional attire, coaching, and skills training. Join Suited for Change and support the local women in your community as they secure and sustain professional employment. You can donate both funds and clothing, volunteer with them, shop at their boutique, and stay updated through email, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!