The kids were so excited.  With each volunteer armed with 10 free papers and smiles as bright as their vests, they were certain they would sell out long before our hour was up on the mall.  They were were especially encouraged that they sold 3 papers before we even got to the 16th Street Mall!  Once on the mall though, the learning opportunities started walking briskly by.  The 2 courageous girls in my group saw first hand how quickly they became invisible, and how unaproachable people become when you stand back and watch them passing by instead of walking alongside them.  A couple women bought a paper, and one more gave the girls 2 dollars without taking a paper as she'd already bought one earlier! These bright spots were exactly what the girls needed to keep their spirits up, though any passerby that cared to look would have still seen bright smiles.  Miss Lilly, the Ellis Para helping out, and I knew that the girls were struggling because they'd tell us, "this is so hard!"  We talked a little bit about their experience in between passersby, and what the money they had now - $2 - would get them if they were homeless.  Not much.  With 15 minutes left, they'd only sold 2 papers, and we set a goal - let's sell one more in the next 15 minutes!  Easier said than done, though that good samaritan that gave money without taking a paper came through for the girls at the very last second, ending their experience on a high note. 

Even though these kids had energy oozing out of every pore, contagious smiles, great attitudes and red vests you couldn't miss, the large majority of the people walking by acted like they weren't even there.

I was able to take full advantage of more learning opportunities as I walked back to the office with Dionne.  She had a lot of amazing insights and perspectives, but one of the things I found most amazing is her perspective on vending.  While the money she makes is necessary for her living, she said she actually prefers a smile or a greeting.  After watching the girls in action today, this sentiment really struck home.  We were out there for only an hour but I'm sure their confidence took a beating.  So many people made themselves very unapproachable, or didn't respond at all when asked, acting like these 5th grade girls were pests.  We could tell that those that at least said 'no thank you', or smiled at them had a much more positive effect than all the others that the kids classified as 'mean.' 

A smile or simple greeting doesn't cost anything, nor does it commit us to giving anything we don't want to.  It does, however, acknowledge the presence of another human being which is the simplest and easiest gift you can give to anyone. 

Congratulations to the amazing kids from Ellis Elementary, who not only gave Denver voice a check for $300 from their Penny Harvest money, but also turned over the $57 they earned selling papers on the Mall that day! 

For most of us, this is a full day of service, and with our good deeds done we head home for lunch.  Not these kids! They went right on over to the Denver Ronald McDonald House where Vicki Walker, Director of Development, accepted their Penny Harvest check for $300 and gave us a tour.  After the kids ate lunch, they helped out with some chores around the house.  What amazed me was that A: their energy hadn't waned a bit since 9:00 am that morning, and B: they were asking, "when do we get to clean?" How many times have you heard a kid ask to clean?

What an amazing and compassionate group of kids, with their positive role models, Stefani Sullivan, Miss Tavey and Miss Lilly! And thank you all for letting me be a part of your amazing day!

Once again, congratulations Holyoke on your very big hearts!

With their Penny Harvest grants, the kids purchased toiletry and laundry items for 46 sacks for the families in Denver's Educational Outreach Program. 

The bags were already brimming, but the kids weren't even close to finished!

Bromwell is one of 2 schools this year that applied for extra service funds for their project.  With the extra funds, the kids were able to add some fun and love to the care packages in the form of stickers, books, toys, candy and cards they'd personally made. 

Bromwell's Penny Harvest kids and coaches did an amazing job this year! They paired up their pennies with their hearts and it really shows. Well done team!

The project they planned for Global Youth Service Day on April 23rd was a big success!  The project came together in many steps:

First, they decided they wanted to focus on helping homeless kids and teens.  They held their own fundraisers and all together raised more than $600!

As a team, they determined that they wanted to put together care packages that would not only meet kids needs, but also show them love and encouragement.  We wanted blankets or sleeping bags, stuffed animals, age appropriate books, snacks and toiletries to go into these packages, and they said they wanted to do 150 of them.  Each of the kids held their own drive of sorts to collect all this stuff, and they did it! From school drives, to asking friends and neighbors, to asking family dentists and hair salons, the kids came up with more than we could fit into the packages!

We found an organization that we could partner with for the day - the Family Tree and their House of Hope shelter, but we ran into a small glitch.  They have a very different list of items for care packages, so all we'd be able to put in from what we collected would be the toiletries.  Not to be daunted, we decided to give the books to The Gathering Place for their birthday bags, the blankets and sleeping bags to Urban Peak, and the stuffed animals to West Metro Fire to give to kids in traumatic situations.  House of Hope only needed 40 care packages, so with the money the kids raised, we were able to buy the items from from their wish list to put into the care packages.

The kids wrote notes to stick into the care packages - wrapped up in towels and tied with pretty ribbon.  They also wrote notes for our last part of the project - sack lunches! These turned out to be the best sack lunches I've ever seen, stuffed full of all sorts of goodies, fruits and veggies, and sandwhiches too!  We bought the lunch items with the money the kids raised too.

The day of the project, we made the lunches, the care packages, and had time left over to help with a little organization in their toy and clothes donation closets. 

Every one of our Impact Factory members worked hard and had a lot of positive attitude to contribute to the day! One of our Committee member's husbands took great pictures of our day in motion, and when I have the final cuts I'll post those for you.

Our contact at Family Tree said that the clients loved the lunches and care packages, that we really made their day. 

 I can't wait to see our project next year when we apply all we learned this year! Here's to an excellet Impact Factory project - impact accomplished!

Ah, the dreaded overhead issue.  This is an important question, but one that gets asked all to frequently and for the wrong reasons, I believe.  There are a few non-profit organizations out there for whom that question should - for all the right reasons - be directed.  How much of this grant is going to your exorbitant salary, to your private jet, to your board meetings in very swanky hotels?

“For years I was the poster child for low overhead. In my mind, I was saving money on overhead so that we could better serve our kids. What I realized a few years ago, however, was that my penny pinching had the potential to hurt the kids as much or more than it helped them.

- Amelia Johnson, executive director, Learning Goes On Network

For the majority of non-profits, overhead is a crucial piece of the puzzle that is rediculously underfunded.  What is overhead?  Salaries of the people providing the services, funding for technology - databases that collect the information that funders require, materials needed to run the programs, electricity to keep those databases going and the staff out of the dark, etc.  While overhead for most people has come to represent money being spent anywhere but where it's needed most - directly in the programs, we don't fully comprehend the meaning of overhead directly related to those programs.  Below is a table taken from a Bridgespan article about the 'viscious cyle' of our views about overhead in the non-profit world.  While the article is long, it is packed with great information about the cyle of non-profits pressured to under-report their overhead or just do without in order to get funding from funders and individuals that want the focus mostly on the programs and not the tools that make those programs possible.

It is important for us - and particularly our kids - to want to know where our money is going when we're giving to a non-profit.  It's an important investment.  In most cases, the only return we're hoping for is change for the better.  The programs side of a non-profit is indubitably more fun and interesting for an investment than the salary of the person running the program, and we feel we'll have a more direct impact by making sure our money goes to the program rather than overhead.  But perhaps the conversations we should be engaging our children and students in could use words like sustainability, rather than overhead, and what do you need to make your program work? Will my dollars go to materials for your program, or t-shirts and other shwag?  I could give my dollars to help one homeless person in particular, or I could give to the program - lights, salaries, and research included - and help the program stay around for years to help many, many more homeless people.  

Accountability is important, smart and knowledgeable investing in the betterment of our communities and our world is wonderful, and understanding what all the pieces of a program mean - programs and overhead - and how they are necessary, interedependent pieces is crucial.  A program cannot exist without a reasonable amount of overhead.  The trick is determining what is reasonable.

Today, I came across this post about Joseph Kony and what his army is doing in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and the areas in between.  At the bottom of the post is a YouTube video about the Kony 2012 movement to find Kony and have him arrested.  I got chills watching the video and am moved by the same inspiration as our Penny Harvest kids, to do something.  What will you do?

and then they got right into the dicussion around which organziations they want to help this year.  They used their grant making guidlines to discuss whether they wanted to give to a lot of different organizations, or just one or two.   They talked about helping organzations they granted to last year, or all new ones.  And they decided that they'd rather do service if possible instead of just handing over a check.  Coach Everett did such a great job getting the kids to participate and encouraged kids to give reasons for their opinions, occasionally swaying the others in the group with their great arguments. 

Once they had their criteria sorted, the kids hopped on computers and began searching for organizations that fit their guidelines.  I cannot wait to see what this great group of leaders and philanthropists decides to do for their grants and service this spring.  Great job Peoria Elementary!

5 Year Coaches

Callae Johancen - Skyline Vista Elementary

Clay Stewart - Centennial K-8

Heather Owen - Denison Montissori

Melissa Fogal - Lowry Elementary

Veva Casteel - Lowry Elementary

Anna Kluver-Fensler - Lowry Elementary

Cecilia Coats - Teller Elementary

Linda Katchen - Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy

Amy Feijoo - Meiklejohn Elementary

Deborah Tu-Tygrs - Columbian Elementary

4 Year Coaches

Kerri Stroupe - Denison Montessori

Lisa Kelly - JFK High School

Anne Witwer - Teller Elementary

Lisa Tait - Eagle Ridge Elementary

Liza Gallegos - Roxborough Intermediate School

Liana Finn - Sagewood Middle School

Kim Hughes - Sagewood Middle School

Melissa Houlihan - Meiklejohn Elementary

Kandy Timinski - Newton Middle School

We are really looking forward to our continuing to build on these relationships, and to adding many more names to these lists as the years go by.  We are so fortunate to have so many stellar coaches on our team. 

Congratulations and Thank You!

This year's kids have chosen homelessness as their issue, and thanks to guest speakers from different organizations serving different faces of homelessness, from teens, to women and children, to men and homelessness in general, our Impact Factory members have come up with some fantastic ideas for addressing the needs of the people they've been learning about all year.  In the following months, we'll be narrowing down those ideas and putting one or two into action as a team.  It has been my honor and privilege to get to work with such an outstanding group of young movers and shakers, who really will rock the world.

If you have a young passionate person that would like to join our team, please follow this link to the Impact Factory page and fill out an application.  We only have 5 spots available for next year and they'll go fast, so please get your application in as soon as possible!