For two decades, a 46-year-old Detroit woman named Dechiel endured physical abuse at the hands of her partner — violence that became so horrific that it resulted in her daughter’s death. After that loss, Dechiel sought refuge in a domestic violence shelter, where a local nonprofit helped her find a job designing specialized jackets. With newfound confidence, Dechiel began talking about going back to school, empowering other women, starting over. She was ready to move out of the shelter and into a new apartment, but one thing stood between her and independence: a $500 security deposit.
Dechiel’s scenario is one that plagues our systems of public assistance. Too often, a person who’s fallen on hard times stands to benefit from a government initiative or a charity’s work, but some seemingly minor obstacle stands in their way. A jobs program, for example, may connect the unemployed with work, but it doesn’t guarantee the willing worker any money to fix her broken down car so she can get to work, funds for childcare while she’s on the clock or pay for the clothing needed to blend in with the workplace’s informal dress code. For too many, help falls just beyond reach, a buoy thrown short of the drowning man’s grasp.
In two decades of social work in New York and Chicago, Megan Kashner had witnessed this problem time and again. Fed up with asking her director for money and being told that her agency didn’t provide that type of aid, she dreaded seeing the look on her clients’ faces as she forced herself to say, “I’m so sorry, we can’t.” It’s why Kashner founded Benevolent, an online philanthropic platform, to bridge the gap from where traditional services end and poverty truly begins.
The site is something like a Kickstarter for the underprivileged. Only with Benevolent, instead of backing your friend’s art-house indie movie idea, you can contribute to the essentials a person needs to function in society: the heat for a mother’s car in blustery Chicago, a laptop for an asylum seeker in San Diego or beds for a Detroit family sleeping on their floor while their father’s out of work (three examples of recently funded projects). To put it another way, government gives boots to the destitute, but this platform crowdfunds the actual straps by which they can pull themselves up.
“I have seen families fall through the cracks and away from their goals because they couldn’t get what they needed to take the next step forward, the things we take for granted,” says Kashner, Benevolent’s founder and CEO, a “ticked-off social worker” turned digital entrepreneur. In her opinion, “Today’s technology and the reality of crowdfunding is a total game-changer for that… Technological advancement, individual access and information will allow us to personalize how to help people get themselves out of poverty.”
In his or her own words, the individual seeking funding presents a pitch on Benevolent’s site. (A case manager provides a short verification as well.) The first-person narrative empowers users to talk about their circumstances and their aspirations, and in return, see that someone cares enough to listen (and hopefully, provide funding). The model is so important the Benevolent employees have even transcribed information phoned in from prison inmates that didn’t have access to computers.
Because the site is individualized, Benevolent can win over potential donors with compelling narratives, but it also leads to questions of whether handing over cash to each person is the most efficient use of funds. Could money be better spent buying goods in bulk, then distributing them? Kashner’s belief: A firm no. “Charity is not the answer to everything. The fact that people in low-income circumstances have trouble accessing equipment for work, let’s say, doesn’t mean that we need to have a new nonprofit that specializes in work gear,” she answers. Benevolent works, she says, because it focuses on targeted assistance. It gives a person concrete access to the next step, not a free handout they can repeat next week.
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“If we can help the woman who wants to be a phlebotomist [a medical assistant who draws blood], get subsidized childcare, secure housing and a quality education for the 18 months in school, then she might never need those services again,” Kashner argues.
Since Kashner came up with the idea of Benevolent in February 2011, the site has raised $270,000 (from 4,600 donors) for 578 people. Four benefactors fully funded Dechiel’s apartment deposit, and an update on the Benevolent website shows Dechiel smiling, proudly displaying her new keys, as she says she’s ready to move in and “move forward.”
In Kashner’s mind, the site is accomplishing something more important than funding a small number of the down-and-out. “Benevolent also exists to highlight and to bring to light the fact that these gaps exist. For example, right now, we see a lot of people moving into permanent housing. When they get there, they have no tables or chairs, no beds, no linens. It’s almost like they’re squatting,” she says. By documenting these trends in housing, transportation and employment, Benevolent may actually convince enough elected officials to create the systemic change that would fill these cracks.
“Our dream would be that this service would be unnecessary in the future,” Kashner says.
Charitable giving has transformed from a collection plate for the nameless poor to individual donations that go towards a hyper-specific need. For the first time, the platform empowers the recipient to speak about her situation and her future, not rely on what a donor says is best for her. With Benevolent, Kashner’s redefining philanthropy for the Internet age.
(Homepage image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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Tag: crowdfunding
Gun Violence Devastated This Man’s Family. He’s Determined to Not Let It Happen to Others
Since his childhood, Ian Johnstone has been unwittingly close to the issue of gun violence in America.
When Ian Johnstone was just 10 years old, his father was shot during a random robbery attempt in San Francisco. The perpetrators were a group of teenagers who had been using drugs; the 16-year-old shooter fired once into the elder Johnstone’s back, instantly paralyzing him. A week later, his dad died in the hospital from complications.
It goes without saying that Johnstone can personally attest to how the improper use of a firearm can devastate a family. He and his sister had to grow up without a father and their mother without the man “she had planned on spending the rest of her life with.”
“You can’t help but feel frustrated and jaded and powerless about the issue,” says Johnstone.
Those feelings returned to the forefront of his mind in late 2013 after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. While living in the San Francisco bay area and working in the tech industry, the idea of crowdfunding gun buyback programs came up while he was speaking with a group of friends. Instead of relying on funds from cities or grants, money raised to finance buybacks could come from private online donations — often from people in the very communities most affected by gun violence.
From this conversation, Gun By Gun was born. In less than two years, the organization has crowdsourced more than $80,000, using the money to collect more than 750 guns in four cities over the course of five campaigns.
Criticisms of gun buybacks stretch back to the 1960s when the programs first started being widely used. One of the strongest arguments against them was that they often collected inoperable firearms (certainly not the guns making America’s streets dangerous). To ensure that it only pays for working firearms, Gun By Gun, like most modern buyback programs, has a range specialist on hand at all their events.
Another criticism of these initiatives is that they only collect a small percentage of the guns out there in America (a number, which experts estimate to be anywhere between 270 million to 310 million). Johnstone acknowledges that the impact of Gun By Gun “may not be a drop in the bucket,” but cites the importance of letting communities affected by violence do something concrete together to address the problem.
Ultimately, Johnstone hopes Gun By Gun can be a catalyst for inspiring further action aimed at reducing gun violence. He points to the diversity of the people that the program has already brought together, from mothers who lost their children, to police officers and former criminals.
“Gun By Gun has been a way that I feel I can add meaning to the death of my father,” says Johnstone. “I’ve met so many people who have lost loved ones to gun violence and they want to do something which is, frankly, its part of the healing process.”
The Tech Giant That’s Playing Fairy Godmother to Teachers Nationwide
Google is getting an A+ in generosity this month.
Teachers in Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Kansas City, Austin and Washington D.C. and more have been #FlashFunded (a social media campaign we can get behind) by the tech titan — meaning that educators in these cities recently saw every single item on their DonorsChoose.org (a crowdfunding site where teachers post items or materials they need for their classrooms) wishlists completely funded.
In Los Angeles, Google donated $1 million to 769 teachers, who will receive school materials such as paper, pencils, books, laptops, musical instruments and microscopes for their 75,108 students, the Santa Monica Mirror reports.
And in Massachusets, Google forked out $175,000 to 202 Boston and Cambridge teachers. (If you click on this DonorsChoose link, for example, you’ll see that every project that was listed on Boston’s page has been removed.)
Google’s move got a hearty pat on the back from native son, Ben Affleck.
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Austin received $87,803 for 133 projects, and teachers in Seattle had 341 back-to-school projects funded. Incredibly, a $240,000 donation to Washington D.C.’s teachers has impacted a total of 31,362 of the area’s students.
“We are so humbled and grateful to Google for their devotion to our teachers and students,” says Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org, after a $194,370 donation funded 175 projects in greater Kansas City. “This is a great day for Kansas City classrooms.”
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Google’s gesture not only ensures that teachers in high-need communities have the supplies and tools they need to help students succeed, but it also alleviates a very expensive burden many of them probably face. As we previously reported, the average educator spends $350 of his or her own money for classroom supplies and resources (and we already know that our country’s teachers don’t make a lot of money). By allowing our nation’s teachers spend less time worrying about money, they can devote more time educating students instead.
This isn’t the first time Google has made a generous donation to help our nation’s educators soar, and undoubtedly, their current nationwide blitz is getting teachers in other cities very excited.
We wait with baited breath to see which city’s deserving students and teachers get #FlashFunded next.
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This Coal Capital is Going Solar
West Virginia is one of top coal producers in the United States, but it’s a distinction that just cannot continue following last February’s devastating coal slurry leak — and especially if the country wants to solve its carbon crisis.
It’s clear that renewable energy is the way forward. In an incredible sign of promise, 100 residents in the small West Virginia town of Shepherdstown in Jefferson County decided to band together to spread some sunshine in a first-of-its-kind community-funded project.
As Think Progress reports, a local church was able to install 60 solar panels on its roof for a single dollar instead of the $55,000 it would have cost.
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How did they do it? Well, it literally pays to be green. According to Think Progress, nearly 100 families and businesses installed demand response controllers (which act like a virtual power plant) from Mosaic Power on their water heaters. The Maryland-based company then sells the electricity created by the heaters back to the power grid. Mosaic also pays participants $100 a year for installing the controllers. Instead of keeping the $100, the Shepherdstown participants generously put that money toward solar panels for the church. The panels will reportedly generate half of the church’s annual energy needs.
This innovative idea was pioneered by nonprofit group Solar Holler, who aims to help “non-profits and municipalities can go solar with no cost — upfront or in the future.”
It appears that the Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church members had been interested in solar panels for several years, but didn’t know how to fund it until Solar Holler came along. “There’s certainly a common understanding that we’ve got to be good stewards of the environment — it’s a Christian value, but it’s really a human value,” Than Hitt, a member of the church who worked on the solar project, tells Think Progress. “It’s something that resonates with people, and it’s something that we know we need to do, especially in West Virginia.”
Encouragingly, the church project is only the first of many more crowd-funded solar installations at nonprofits in West Virginia. Solar Holler founder Dan Conant tells Think Progress that there are about seven more projects lined up with the goal of hitting each of the state’s 55 counties within five years.
If America’s coal heartland can go solar, so can the rest of the country.
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Can a Plush Toy Robot Get Young Kids Interested in STEM?
How many parents have spent countless hours playing Candy Land or Barbies with their kids?
Chris Harden and Jeremy Scheinberg are two dads from Alabama and Florida who grew tired of their children’s toys. The two felt their children weren’t getting much out of playing mindless games, which is why they decided to create a toy that helps kids get a head start on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning.
In less than a week, the pair will crowdfund a campaign on Kickstarter.com for their answer to more STEM-focused toys. TROBO, which connects to an iPad or iPhone app, is a plush toy robot that tells stories of STEM-focused topics to children ages 2 to 7, the Anniston Star reports.
TROBO features two characters: Curie, named for physicist and chemist Marie Curie and Edison, (a shout out to inventor Thomas Edison), both representing STEM heroes. TROBO plans to release more characters if the Kickstarter campaign is successful.
Harden previously served as a Development Director of EA Sports, overseeing the creation of user interface technologies for games like Madden NFL and NCAA Football. Scheinberg was the COO of media manufacturer Alcorn McBride and has worked extensively on rides and shows for NBC, Universal, Lego and Disney.
“It defines us as individuals, and we want to share that to our children as early as we can,” Harden says, referring to STEM education.
While the entry point at which children should begin STEM education remains a point of contention, some advocates argue the earlier the better. In fact, only 16 percent of American high school seniors are considering a career in the STEM fields and are proficient in math, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
“As a society, we have to celebrate outstanding work by young people in science at least as much as we do Super Bowl winners,” President Barack Obama said earlier this year at the White House Science Fair. “Because superstar biologists and engineers and rocket scientists and robot builders, they don’t always get the attention that they deserve, but they’re what’s going to transform our society.”
Beginning with something as simple as a stuffed robot regaling children with STEM stories sounds like a good place to start.
MORE: Ask the Experts: How Can We Fix Early Childhood Education?
It’s Not Potato Salad, But This Crowdfunding Effort Aims to Keep A Disabled Vet in His Home
Clearly, America is a generous country. Where else would an Ohio man launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund his dream of creating a savory batch of potato salad and find more than 5,000 souls willing to help him with his quest — to the tune of more than $47,000?
If we as a nation can do that, surely we can rally behind a cause that’s even more worthy: Helping a disabled veteran keep a roof over his head.
Ross Dahlberg is an 82-year-old Korean War veteran who lost the home he lived in for 17 years while in the hospital recovering from triple bypass surgery. Dahlberg told Amanda Whitesell of the Livingston Daily that he fell behind on his mortgage payments after a divorce and several surgeries. He applied for financial assistance through the Michigan Homeowner Assistance Nonprofit Housing Corporation’s Step Forward program, but was denied due to a clerical error.
Joshua Parish, a veterans’ benefits counselor at the Livingston County Veteran Affairs office in Michigan, thought that what happened to Dahlberg wasn’t right. “It’s not just this veteran in this county that it’s happening to, it’s everywhere,” Parish said.
Parish began to fight for Dahlberg to keep his home, submitting a motion to prevent the house from auctioned off at the sheriff’s sale, while at the same time working to raise the $4,000 Dahlberg owed in back mortgage payments. The judge denied the motion, however, and the house sold to Day Glo LLC for $132,000 in March. Dahlberg has until September 26 to match that amount, or he’ll lose his home for good.
Parish has not given up, researching all the sources for veterans’ assistance he can find and setting up a GoFundMe account in June that so far has raised more than $8,000 — but remains well short of the funds needed. “It’s an incredible amount of money,” Dahlberg, who is wheelchair bound and suffers from diabetes, told Whitesell. “I would be astounded if we raised that much.”
It sounds like the time for Americans to unite behind this veteran. If we can put a man on the moon and finance an epic batch of potato salad, what’s to stop us from keeping this veteran in his home?
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Help Your Favorite Spot Go Solar With Just One Click
In recent years, solar power has seen tremendous growth in the United States. Once a niche product for the rich and famous, prices for solar have dropped 80 percent since 2008.
Now, it’s easier and more affordable than ever to put planet-friendly sun-soakers on roofs that are near and dear to you.
Thanks to solar-investment financing company Mosaic, you can now nominate any one of 300,000 schools, churches, libraries and other public places across the country to go solar on its new Mosaic Places platform. And all you have to do is click a button.
MORE: How to Crowdfund Solar Power
Once a spot attracts 50 supporters, the Oakland-based start-up will offer $100 toward installing a solar rooftop, with donations maxing out at $14,000. There’s a total of $2 million or more up for grabs. If you don’t see a link for your favorite place, you can create its own page.
Brad Heavner, policy director for the California Solar Energy Industries Assn, told the Los Angeles Times, “the site could be a valuable way to see what spaces the public wants solar.”
Granted, even if a site gets a lot of funding, the building will still need to seek all the proper city permits to install the panels. But as Billy Parish, Mosaic’s chief executive told TakePart, “every building can go solar if the community is behind it.”
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We previously reported that Mosaic works similarly to micro-loan site Kiva. The company collects online investments, some as small as $25, to fund solar panels for buildings that otherwise couldn’t afford them. The solar array makes money by selling electricity to the building and to the local utility; Mosaic takes a small cut and pays the rest to its online investors, typically yielding returns of 4 to 7 percent.
With the EPA’s Clean Power Plan setting carbon limits on electricity production by power plants, it makes a lot of sense to invest in renewable alternatives such as solar, especially if we want a cleaner, greener America.
Mosaic now lets you spread the sunshine and make a difference.
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How This Nonprofit is Helping Harlem Students Eat Healthy
As summer kicks off students and teachers are escaping the classroom for some much-needed time soaking up the sun. But a nonprofit and its partnering school are instead using summer vacation to expand its organic garden program — and they need your help.
The Edible Schoolyard NYC (ESYNYC) works with public schools to build organic gardens and teach cooking and healthy eating to some of the city’s underserved areas. Kicking off this month is its crowdfunding campaign, “Rooting for Harlem,” to maintain the program in East Harlem at P.S./M.S. 7 and Global Tech Middle School.
The campaign has raised $7,700 so far, but is looking for a total of $50,000 to add new components to its 4,000-square-foot raised bed courtyard garden and rooftop garden, perched atop one of the city’s building-lined blocks. The money will be used to plant fruit trees and build a willow arbor, as well as update infrastructure like installing new wooden and metal planters for the lower and upper terraces, an irrigation system and benches. The other half of the funds will go towards supporting the teaching staff, who teach growing in and out of the classroom as well as preparing and cooking garden-fresh meals. The students also run a neighborhood farm stand as a part of an after school program that will reopen in September, bringing the same fresh fruits and veggies to their community.
This is not the first city garden ESYNYC has built. The group launched a half-acre, organic experiential garden at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood. Transforming a former parking lot into a leafy refuge, the garden also houses a greenhouse and a stand-alone building that now serves as a kitchen classroom where students learn about preparing and cooking fresh feasts from their own garden.
“Every dollar we raise brings one more edible education lesson to our kids, one more plant, one more positive, healthful, joyful experience,” said Executive Director Kate Brashares. “Every dollar makes a difference in improving a child’s health.”
P.S./M.S. 7 receives federal funding as a title I school, and 100 percent of the students receive free and reduced-price school lunches, according to Edible Schoolyard. More than one in five kids live in temporary housing or are homeless, one of the highest percentages in New York City. The diverse neighobrhood of East Harlem faces challenges similar to other urban communities, including 37 percent living below the poverty line and 30 percent in low-income public housing. The community also faces major health issues. One-third of adults are overweight, one-third are obese (the highest in the city) and 13 percent are diabetic.
As students head home for the summer, it’s important they’re taking their knowledge of cooking and healthy eating with them, and even more important that the Edible Schoolyard may continue its mission in the area. The Crowdrise fundraiser will last through July 17 and interested donors who offer $10 or up will be invited to the official opening ceremony in September.
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When a Tragic Accident Injures a Chef, His Generous Community Steps In
This man always took care of his community, and how his community is looking after him.
Mamadou “Sav” Savanè, the owner and head chef of Sav’s Grill & West African Cuisine in Lexington, Kentucky is known for being one of the nicest people in town. Case in point: Yelp reviewers consistently pile praise on Savanè’s food and how he takes the time to thank new and returning customers alike.
So when the beloved restauranteur suffered a horrific fall, his town was there to pick him right back up.
According to reports, Savanè was hospitalized after he accidentally slipped and pulled 20 gallons of boiling peanut sauce onto his body. He sustained second-degree burns on 50 percent of his body, including his face, neck, arms and torso.
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The spill could have been devastating on Savanè’s family — his absence and medical bills could have forced the restaurant to close. However, in stroke of luck, Savanè had taught his son, Bangaly, all his recipes just one month before the accident. As Savanè recovers in the ICU, Bangaly, his mom and sister, and a few volunteers and employees have been holding down the fort.
“By the time I am well, the restaurant would have been bankrupt,” Savané told the Today Show. “I’m so proud of [Bangaly]. In the last two weeks, he grew up very, very, very fast.”
Even more incredibly, as word got out about the accident, the community responded with overwhelming support, raising enough money to keep the restaurant open and to help Sav with his medical bills.
A family friend, Chuck Creacy, set up a GiveFoward account, which collected more than $60,000 since the accident.
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“Sav’s just the nicest fella in the whole world. You want to help him because he works really hard — he works seven days a week — he has this huge, contagious smile, his food is wonderful and everyone loves him,” Creacy told Today. “And we have an amazing community — very generous people.”
There was even a fundraising party to help the Lexington restaurant owner get back on his feet. As ABC36 reports, only about 600 people were expected to attend, but about 1,300 showed up in just the first 45 minutes.
Savane knows that despite his nasty fall, his community has his back.
“We’re infinitely indebted,” he told WKYT. “It’s unbelievable the support, the love, and the caring that we’re getting from everybody. It really shows that Kentucky has a true sense of commonwealth. That word hasn’t meant much to me until this incident has happened.”
DON’T MISS: When One Man Lost His Home to a Fire, This Community Did Something Remarkable
An Inventor to Help Other Inventors
If you’ve ever been struck with a million-dollar idea, you’re probably not alone. Most of us have likely had that burst of thought—but pushed it aside given the difficulty of transforming an idea into an actual product or service. After all, where would you begin?
Enter Inventalator, a new online web platform dedicated to helping inventors turn their ideas into physical products. The Milwaukee-based company was developed by Cody Skonard, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Skonard started the company with the intention to combine all phases of the invention process into one website, as well as enable inventors to form connections and receive feedback from the consumers to improve their idea.
The process is simple: Inventors first submit their ideas onto the website. From there, site users vote on the inventions based on whether they would buy the product or not. If a product receives 50 votes within a month, it is moved to the Inventalator “engine.” In this area, the site users and inventors are able to interact with one another. Users also offer suggestions and improvements on the product so it can be more appealing to the general public. Finally, when the product is ready to be developed, Inventalator connects the inventor with manufacturers, product licensors and distributors, getting them contracts as well.
Inventalator is not the only site for inventors but it has two distinguishing characteristics. First, it’s a “market intelligence platform,” meaning that instead of producing the product itself, it supplies inventors with all of the resources to develop the product. It is a one-stop site for the inventor’s needs. Second, the inventor keeps the property rights.
Although the inventor keeps the property rights, the service is not free. There’s a $10 initial fee to submit an idea as well as a 1-2% fee for site transactions and a 3-5% commission fee for crowdfunding campaigns.
In addition, Skonard is currently working on developing a production software tool. The program would work like a fake stock market where site users can invest fake money in answers to inventors’ questions. Like the stock market, the user can cash out when it wants and earn rewards for the site.
So far, Inventalator has been active for three months and has amassed 275 users. By connecting inventors with consumers, Inventalator has streamlined the process and made the inventions more accessible to both parties. With little to lose, it might be time to submit that idea—after all, it could be the next great American invention.
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