nonprofit – Page 2 – Christa Avampato

art, change, charity, nonprofit, photographs, poverty, relationships, social change, society

Beginning: Hear the Hungry Benefit with Featured Artist J.T. Liss Raises Funds to Provide A Supportive Community for New York City’s Homeless

May 27, 2011May 26, 2011 Christa Avampato

On Monday night I attended a fundraiser at Webster Hall for a start-up nonprofit called Hear the Hungry. The group’s mission is to bring “food, companionship, and other basic necessities to the homeless in New York and L.A.” I am especially moved by their holistic mission because of a recent experience I had with the homeless in my own neighborhood while I was taking a walk with my pup, Phineas. Yes, we need food, but we also need a compassionate ear to hear us and a generous heart to sit with us for a while. Hear the Hungry is providing this unique and badly needed service in our city, for a population that is largely stepped over, ignored, or just plain invisible to too many of us.

Events like this are powerful reminders of how much of an impact we can have at every turn if only we recognize our own power in every exchange we have. The day after the event I walked through my usual activities much more conscious of my interactions with others, particularly those who I didn’t know. It made me think about how important it is to be present with others, to give them our full attention, and to recognize their unique value.

Two Ways You Can Help:

Hear the Hungry
In its one year, Hear the Hungry has changed the lives of the homeless through compassion, trust, and the firm belief that all people deserve the opportunity to belong to a supportive and loving community. If you’d like to learn more about them and get involved in their mission, find them on Twitter, Facebook, and at their blog.

Photography For Social Change
Through his initiative Photography for Social Change, photographer J.T. Liss creates stunning, poignant images with the goals of “inspiring advocacy, helping others in need, and allowing art to spread positivity.” 25% of the proceeds from all photos sold will go to unique nonprofit organizations that are striving to help others in need. Current partner organizations include Hear The Hungry (NYC), Hug It Forward (CA), and Saint Joseph Music Program (NYC).

For more information on J.T. and Photography for Social Change, please visit and “Like” his Facebook Page.

health, healthcare, meditation, nonprofit, yoga

Beginning: By-donation Yoga Workshop on the 5 Elements of Chinese Medicine and Yin Yoga to Benefit the Nonprofit Blissful Bedrooms

April 19, 2011April 17, 2011 Christa Avampato

I put an ad up on Craig’s List last week looking for volunteer yoga teachers who would like to be matched to nonprofits to offer free yoga classes through the Compass Yoga program Karmi’s Angels. I received a lovely email in response to the add from Joyce Cobb, a Structural Yoga Therapist and committed civic activist. Joyce is on the board of a nonprofit called Blissful Bedrooms which provides bedroom makeovers for homebound, disabled, and economically challenged individuals. Isn’t that awesome? Design aiding service in the community. I love it.

On Monday evening, April 25th, Joyce is offering a by-donation workshop about the 5 elements of Chinese Medicine and Yin Yoga. Donations benefit Blissful Bedrooms. Workshop information below. All levels, from beginner to advanced are welcome.

By-donation Yin Yoga Workshop – Stress Points and the Water Element

In terms of Chinese medicine, Yoga is thought of as a self treatment. Stretching the meridians (pathways of energy in the body) promotes health and longevity, relieves stress and many ailments. The Chinese theory of Yin and Yang and the Five elements marries well with the theory and practice of Yoga. The duality of Yin and Yang is present in us and in all of nature. Yin Yoga can counterbalance the Yang practices on the mat and in our daily lives. At first this slow flowing, long held pose practice may seem boring to the “yangster” but even after the very first class one will experience the challenging nature of Yin Yoga and the quiet calm and overall peace it presents afterwards. The rewarding nature of a Yin practice is that brings with it the ability to be more accepting, more yielding. Facing the aversion that comes with holding a deep stretch longer than we are normally comfortable with helps us to let go of opinions we may have about our own limits and face the aversion in our daily lives, reducing our stress, enhancing our health, well being and peace of mind. It enhances breath work and meditation by preparing us more completely to be in the here and now.

Covered in this 1 ½ hour intensive workshop:

1.) Brief introduction to the theory and practice of the 5 elements in Chinese Medicine and Yin Yoga

2.) Warm up Practice – Pawanmuktasana – Joint freeing series

3.) Yin Yoga Flow for the Kidney Meridian (a powerful way to promote healing and rejuvenate energy)

4.) Pranayama (breath work)

5.) Relaxation and Meditation

6.) Closing

Learn how to add this challenging Yoga practice to your daily life. Join us for a workshop on the Water element and Yin Yoga with Joyce Cobb, Structural Yoga Therapist and Certified Yin Yoga Teacher. All levels, from beginner to advanced are welcome. Payment will be by donation.

Proceeds go to benefit Blissful Bedrooms, whose mission is to transform the bedrooms of homebound and economically challenged young individuals challenged with a variety of disabilities. Find out more about blissful bedrooms here: http://www.blissfulbedrooms.org

Workshop Date:
Monday, April 25th

Location:
TRS Studios – 44 E 32nd Street – 11th Floor – Between Park and Madison Avenues

Time:
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Cost:
This is a by-donation workshop. Proceeds will go to benefit blissfulbedrooms.org

business, education, leadership, nonprofit

Beginning: Cathie Black, Donald Trump, and the Difficulty of Building Consensus

April 10, 2011April 9, 2011 Christa Avampato

On the New York Times blog Room for Debate several experts batted around Cathie Black’s quick appointment and quick dismissal as the Chancellor of New York City public schools. Most of them recapped what I thought were less-than-insightful points-of-view. One response, by the Cato Institute’s Neal P. McCluskey, brought up a very intriguing idea that I’ve been unable to get out of my mind for the last 5 days since I read his article. “In business, you don’t need public consensus to get things done. In something run by democratic government, you do.”

Cathie Black’s short tenure
Cathie Black was an abundantly successful giant in the publishing industry. She’s smart, savvy, and courageous. Taking the position as the NYC Public Schools Chancellor took a tremendous amount of guts. I don’t think she was fully-prepared for the complexities of the job. And while I was disappointed and shocked by some of her very public and distasteful mishaps (i.e., joking that birth control could help the overcrowding problems in schools), I was also sorry that she seemed to get very little guidance from former Chancellors. After a number of years working in the corporate world and after spending an equal number of years in the nonprofit world (some of that time in a government role), I whole-heartedly support Mr McCluskey’s opinion that making it in business is far easier than making it in the nonprofit / public sectors because of the consensus factor. The difference is public scrutiny and approval. I would go so far as to say that if you name any of today’s Fortune 500 CEO as the Chancellor of NYC Public Schools, they would likely follow in Black’s footsteps.

I’ve never bought into this idea that a good business person would naturally be a good fit as the head of a public organization. Business experience and the skills that come along with it, are not the be all end all of leadership. If anything, they’re only one small piece of the leadership pie. A leader also needs charisma, ethics, public speaking ability, creative acumen, and passion for the cause. Most importantly they need to have empathy and compassion for the people working alongside them. It’s entirely possible to cross the chasm, and the skills of business and nonprofit management can certainly support one another. That has absolutely been the case in my career. It just isn’t a given, which brings me to my latest political heartache – the potential candidacy of Donald Trump for President of the United States. Heaven help us – he may be the only Republican candidate who I fear more than Sarah Palin.

The Donald
On the Today Show last week, Meredith Viera asked The Donald why he thought he was qualified to be President. The first words out of his mouth? “Well, I hate to even say this, Meredith, but I did build the #1 rated show on NBC.” Given NBC’s recent track record of shows, I wouldn’t consider this a difficult feat. (That’s changed a bit in the past few years with the brilliant 30 Rock, and others like Parks & Recreation. For a while, The Office seemed to be their only saving grace.) The Donald’s second comment was that he’s an excellent businessman and therefore qualified to run the United States. And he topped it all off with his now-infamous rant about how President Obama is not a real U.S. citizen. I started having flashbacks to the ignorant dark ages of GWB. I have two words for you, Donald – “Cathie Black”.

What business people can learn from the public sector
For too long, business skills have been considered the silver bullet. “If you can run a corporation, you can do anything.” Bologna. As a business person myself, I think that view is elitist and short-sighted. We have to stop thinking of the public sector as the second sector. It’s much more complex than business, more difficult to lead, and to be honest, has much further-reaching, long-lasting effects on our society. The Chancellor of NYC public schools is responsible for educating the future adults of New York City. The President of the United States is the leader of the free world as it stands today. Think about that for a moment. These are incredibly awesome scales of responsibility, and need to be treated with the reverence that they deserve. Consensus, my dear business colleagues, is a much more lofty and difficult goal than driving stock prices and the bottom line. Approach these types of jobs with humility – we are beginners in this space. We have a lot to learn.

business, community, community service, nonprofit, philanthropy

Step 337: Get Involved with Taproot Foundation

December 3, 2010December 2, 2010 Christa Avampato

Today I went to an orientation for new Taproot Foundation consultants. Taproot Foundation matches professionals with nonprofit organizations to create functional and sustainable products, services, and programs in human resources, strategy, marketing and technology. Taproot consultants donate 100 hours of their time over 6 months, an equivalent of $12,000 of services per consultant. To-date Taproot consultants have completed over 1,300 projects in 5 major markets across the country.

What impresses me most about Taproot is their commitment to create meaning, structured work in which effort and talent is so respected. They are filling the gap between professionals who want to help in tangible high-impact ways and nonprofits who want the expertise outside professionals can bring to their missions and stakeholders. They are professionals of the highest order and expect the same from all of their partners. To keep pace with all the requests they receive from vetted nonprofits, they need to add 250 consultants every quarter. Here are 3 more reasons to get involved:

1.) Have a positive impact on your community. Taproot consultants work with nonprofits based in the cities where they live so their work directly affects their communities.

2.) Explore new career paths. Many professionals have aspirations of making a professional move into the nonprofit sector. Doing a pro-bono consulting project can help provide professionals with a clearer picture of what a career with a nonprofit can look like.

3.) Networking. Taproot has created an active online community and provides consultants with the opportunity to work in close-knit teams toward a common goal with very reputable, vetted organizations. It’s an opportunity to meet passionate, talented people who care about making this world a better place.

Apply here.

community, hunger, nonprofit

Step 145: MercyCorp’s Action Center to End World Hunger

May 25, 2010 Christa Avampato

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” ~ Mother Theresa

My company sponsors MercyCorp’s Action Center to End World Hunger, a small interactive museum in Manhattan’s Financial District that helps individuals contribute to the cause to end hunger by giving whatever time they can – a minute, an hour, a day, a lifetime. The center makes it easy to get involved, recognizing and celebrating the power of many small collective actions by a community. Hunger, sadly, lives in every community around the world so we can take action locally and globally.

On a lunch break last week, I walked across the street to the center. One of the staff members greeted me, showed me the 8 minute promo video featuring Tina Fey, and took me around to the different interactive stations that begin to outline the complexity of hunger issues. I was overwhelmed by all of the small ways we can help, and how easy the center makes it participate in a solution.

I picked up a postcard that promotes the website tenthingsyoucando.com, an easy-to-navigate site that segments by category immediate actions we can take to end hunger. From eating locally grown food in season to taking up utilities companies’ offers to switch part of our energy bill to renewable energy sources to adopting an orangutan, our existing interests can be tweaked to work towards the fight against hunger.

For more information and to learn about ways to get involved, visit the center’s website: http://www.actioncenter.org.

children, health, healthcare, nonprofit, philanthropy

My Year of Hopefulness – Children’s Health Fund

October 14, 2009December 7, 2009 Christa Avampato

Tonight my friend and colleague, Wayne, took me to the annual meeting for Children’s Health Fund (CHF). Knowing my interest in and past experience with nonprofit organizations, he knew I would be interested. What he didn’t know, and frankly what I didn’t know, is that CHF would be a perfect match for my interests on a variety of levels.

Personally and professionally, the mission of CHF to provide and advocate for quality medical care for every child resonates with me. Due to a drastic change in my family situation when I was a young child, my family lived below the poverty line and without health care for a good number of years. As an undergraduate, I did my senior economics thesis on the quality of healthcare for children below the poverty line living in West Philadelphia; the paper was based on my work-study job assisting one of the lead pediatricians at Children’s Seashore House (now a part of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). Additionally, I am considering the Public and Urban Policy PhD program at The New School because of my growing interest in inner-city education, and inner-city education requires caring for the whole child, healthcare included. There are certain points in our lives when the stars perfectly align, and tonight felt like one of those nights.

I had the great honor of hearing Karen Redlener, the Executive Director, and her talented staff speak about the 2008 accomplishments of CHF. 70,000 children received medical care through 210,000 patient visits and 613 medical professional received training through CHF’s programs in 25 cities across the country. In a time when so many organizations, for-profit and non-profit, are pulling back and remaining cautious, CHF is stepping up their game.

Jane Pauley, one of CHF’s dedicated board members and someone I greatly admire, explained why CHF is continuing to push forward and grow their goals as opposed to cutting back. In this recession, fear is everywhere. And while it might at first seem inconceivable that any organization could maintain their funding during this recession much less grow it, CHF keeps looking up and reaching higher.

Why, you ask? The sound barrier. Jane Pauley told the story of the first pilot to break the sound barrier. Previously, when pilots came up against the intense shaking caused by approaching speeds close to the sound barrier, they would pull the throttle back. A fatal mistake. Chuck Yeager did something different – when his plane approached the sound barrier, shaking badly, he pushed the throttle forward, went faster, and broke the sound barrier altogether. He is literal proof that if we press on, despite adversity, there are great rewards to be had when we come out the other side. CHF and Chuck Yeager are of the same mind.

Healthcare has been front page news every day this week; it’s been at the top of the Obama agenda for months; it was a major issue in the 2008 Presidential campaign. This is healthcare’s moment; this is CHF’s moment. For over 20 years, Irwin Redlener and Paul Simon, the co-founders, along with their dedicated, passionate team have been working tirelessly on behalf of children and their right to quality healthcare. The debates are raging on Capitol Hill and across this country. The plane is shaking, and we cannot pull the throttle back. We are so close to breaking through, so close to having quality, affordable care for every American. CHF is continuing to stand its ground with dignity and grace, fortified by the simple belief that all children everywhere have a right to be healthy.

We need them to succeed in this mission. By the end of 2009, 1:5 children in the U.S. will be below the poverty line. 1:5. Of all the facts and figures we review every day, that might be the scariest I’ve heard. We can’t afford to have 20% of our nation’s children grow up poor and unhealthy. Think the healthcare of others isn’t your problem? Think again. Their future is our future. And they need us. All of us. Someone has to stand up for them if we are to have any hope at all in the future of our nation. CHF is giving it everything they’ve got, and they need more. They need us. To find out how you can help, visit the Children’s Heath Fund website.

animals, environment, hope, nonprofit, philanthropy

My Year of Hopefulness – Jane Goodall

September 2, 2009December 7, 2009 Christa Avampato

Tonight I went to 92Y to hear Jane Goodall, one of the people I admire most. Today she released a new book, Hope for Animals and Their Endangered World. It’s been 49 years since Jane began her landmark study about chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park. She was a 26 year old woman, had never attended university, grew up in a family with very few financial resources, and attempted to document the intimate details of the lives of these animals when she had no formal training on how to do this work. I read one of her many previous book, Reason for Hope, about 10 years ago. Tonight she seemed even more hopeful about the fate of the world and our ability to reverse so much of the damage we’ve done.

Jane writes, speaks, and works for hope. “Without hope, there’s no action,” she said. “My job is to give people hope.” And in the next breathe she talked about the rapid melting of the ice caps and the immense negative impact we’ve had on our planet in a few short decades. Some times, like all of us, she loses heart and becomes overwhelmed with all that we have to do to improve the world.

“So in the face of all that’s negative in the world,” Howard Gardner, the moderator asked, “how can you remain so hopeful?”

“Well, there are several simple reasons,” Jane said:

1.) We have amazing brains that are very good at problem-solving, and they get even sharper when we have our backs against the wall and we need to solve a seemingly impossible problem. Individuals take action. In England, just today, there is a program that started called 10 10. It’s aim is for individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by 10% in 2010. I’d like to see that spread and become a worldwide effort.

2.) Nature is resilient. If we give it time, it grows back.

3.) Young people have so much courage. Take the Roots & Shoots program we have. It is about young people getting together and taking action to do amazing things in the world.

4.) The human spirit is indomitable. Look at Nelson Mandela. 17 years in hard labor prisons, and he comes out still able to forgive.

I found her hope contagious. She has spent her entire life planting seeds within people she meets, encouraging them to action, and setting an example for the extraordinary things we can all do with our lives. Most of all, I was touched an inspired by her approach to her work and her life. She always approaches everything from a place of love. Her one dream in her life was to work with animals. A very simple cause that live in the heart, not the head. She spent so much time with the chimps in Gombe National Park because she loved them, not because they were some scientific experiment. She cared deeply about their welfare, and wanted to share their story with others.

I’ve always looked to Jane as an activist, as someone with a lot of courage and confidence, who braved the world of science for our benefit. What I did not realize until tonight is what a strong example she is for young women. When she was 11, she dreamed of traveling to Africa and working with animals there. Her school friends laughed at her, and yet the strong women who comprised her household encouraged her to dream as big as she good and then go after those dreams. In her work with animals, she’s made all of us more human. She’s connected us to create a global community of deeply committed, concerned participants.

After an extensive Q&A session, Howard Gardner took one more audience question: “Jane, how do you reconcile science and religion?” She sighed slightly and closed with a brilliant line that will ring in my head for days to come. “I wish we would stop worrying about how we came to and come together to figure out how we’re going to get our of this mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.” Jane’s been trying to figure this out for a long time – she’s dedicated her life to this cause – and it’s about time we all join her.

To learn more about the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), click here. In 2010, a new movie, Jane’s Journey, will be released. It chronicles Jane’s remarkable life and career.

The photo above depicts Jane Goodall and is taken her the JGI website.

dreams, environment, nonprofit, success

My Year of Hopefulness – Freedom to Think Bigger

August 9, 2009 Christa Avampato

“If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, then you aren’t thinking big enough.”
~ Wes Jackson

My errands today took longer to accomplish than I had planned. By the time I finished them all, without having had coffee, breakfast, or lunch, I was ready to eat just about anything edible that came into my line of vision. I popped in to Chipotle, wolfed down my burrito bowl, and saw on my drink cup that the restaurant is running a multi-part series entitled “People We’re Pleased to Know”. Part 5 features Wes Jackson, the founder and President of The Land Institute and a leader in the sustainable agriculture movement.

Wes’s quote above lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. I’ve been thinking a lot about accomplishment lately. In my writing, at work, with my multiple side projects that I’ve been working on. Secretly I’ve been a little frustrated with myself – why are these things taking so long? Why am I not checking them off the list in rapid succession? His quote reminded me that ideas with passion and heart take time to develop and even more time to execute. The bigger the dream, the longer the time horizon.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t smaller dreams embedded into the larger vision we have for our lives. There are triumphs, and inevitably defeats, along the way that contribute to a lifetime of work. His life’s work was not to start The Land Institute. The Land Institute is a vehicle to help him realize a vision of our world developing a robust, healthy system to feed itself in perpetuity without destroying our planet.

Think of how Wes’s perspective frees up our creative energy and encourages us to include others in the process of building our dreams. He is shaping his vision and bringing it to life alongside many others who share his same aspirations, and those aspirations take constant care, concern, and commitment. His vision is bigger than the span of his own lifetime – it actually continues on indefinitely. Failure and success are taken out of the equation with a mission that big – all it requires is that we contribute to steady, forward progress.

business, career, family, finance, friendship, nonprofit, Seth Godin

My Year of Hopefulness – A Matter of Compromise

June 3, 2009 Christa Avampato

Seth Godin wrote a great post this morning about compromise. In his usual style he started with the caveat, “If you sell crack to kindergarten students, no need to read this. Same thing if you donate all your belongings and income to the poorest and sickest in the slums and ghettos. The rest of us have compromised. We’re not profit-maximizing sociopaths, nor are we saints. We’re somewhere in between.”

The trouble is that the great majority of us are somewhere in between, though we haven’t thought much about where exactly our in between is, how we got there, and whether or not our in between is the right in between for us. To assess where we are and how we got there, we need to consider what our priorities are. That step will best inform our trade-off decisions, and those trade-off decisions set the stage for our optimal place in between.

My priorities:
1.) Time and energy for my friends and family
2.) Enough free time to write and have hobbies
3.) Financial independence that allows me to contribute to my savings, pay off my school loans, start a small side business, and live a good quality life in New York City

These priorities lead me to the following trade-offs:
1.) There are certain companies and careers that are all-consuming. Those are not the best places for me at this time in my life. I have to work at a place that appreciates balance.
2.) Because I have chosen to live in an expensive city and have a considerable amount of school loans, I have a certain minimum salary that I need to make. This salary requirements excludes certain careers and requires that I work full-time while I get my small side business started.

Where is my in between?
1.) When I first went to business school, I had the idea that I would immediately return to the nonprofit sector after graduation. As my school loans piled up and it became clear that I wanted to move to New York City for personal reasons, a return to the nonprofit sector grew very unlikely.
2.) Because I want to be part of a mission-based organization, I’ve found other ways to have a positive impact on my community: I volunteer regularly, went through a United Way training for future nonprofit board members, and donate to nonprofit organizations.

For my in between, I have certainly made trade-offs. While it might be my preference to work for a nonprofit full-time, there are a lot of benefits I’ve received in the for-profit sector that would not be possible at my level within a nonprofit. I have good balance between my personal and professional time. I have a generous vacation allowance, am getting good professional training, and great benefits. I’m also well-compensated which allows me to enjoy my life and help my family, two things that are very important to me.

One thing I didn’t count on while in graduate school is that many people are interested in doing well by doing good. The field of social entrepreneurship that combines the best of both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors has grown by leaps and bounds. So many people have made the trade-offs I’ve made, and a whole industry is springing up as a direct result of our common in between.

Considering these trade-offs that I’ve made brought a happy, unexpected consequence: it made me appreciate the choices I’ve made and it made me feel more empowered. In a time when we feel like so many facets of our lives are out of our control, this exercise can bring a sense of calm and purpose. The best part is that it can be done with a holistic approach to our lives, or we can focus on one specific area like career or relationships.

If we find that we aren’t happy with the result, it gives us a basis for an action plan to begin making some changes. While Seth Godin may have meant this exercise to be about compromise, it is also about happiness and accomplishment.

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