Who’s hungry in Austin?

What does it mean to be poor in Central Texas? Often it means being hungry. Yes, there are a number of free meal providers for poor people in and around Austin, but just preparing and offering a meal is only part of the equation. Food pantries and other food providers can’t provide the transportation and [...]

1000+ Gather to Honor Austin Philanthropists

Senator Kirk Watson presided over the 2008 Austin Philanthropy Day Awards
Yesterday’s 2008 Philanthropy Day lunch event produced by the Austin chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals was huge, crowded, and more fun than it should have been. Almost every nonprofit in Central Texas was represented, and despite the large number of attendees, this [...]

And who knew THIS was Austin?

I’m working on a story for the first issue about the United Way Capital Area’s recent change to its funding model. David Balch, president of UWCA, was kind enough to spend some an hour getting me up to speed about the particulars of this change. It’s a complicated story and it makes me wish I were a better [...]

Who knew this was Austin?

Ignacio Cruz, Shannon Sandrea, and Kristin West at the MLK Day of Service
Who knew Austin looked like this? I’m specifically speaking about the attendees of this past weekend’s MLK Day of Service event, produced by the United Way. I’d heard about this event before, so I decided it was time to finally check it out. [...]

Blog to watch: Candid Communications

Sarah Michel, development associate at Caritas, has decided to take on the blog thing herself and focus on important socio-economic issues around the world. Her work at Caritas has exposed her to refugees from a number of countries going through “political unrest,” as they call it, and her blog is going to be an attempt [...]

Issue #1 Preview: Photos from Volunteers

One of the stories we’ll feature in the first issue will be about volunteering and what that experience is like. We want to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like to serve. First-person accounts are always interesting, but we wanted to tell the story from a few different points of view. So [...]

Day of Service – Tomorrow!

Tomorrow I’m going to the United Way’s MLK Day of Service, with the kick-off at Huston-Tillotson University on East 7th and Chicon. This will be my first time attending, and the plan is to take photos and see what all the fuss is about. People seem to love this event.
The United Way and Mando Rayo’s [...]

Veena, future microlending NPO leader

I had a couple of important appointments today – not to mention some day-job tasks – that kept me away from GoodCause. One of the things I did was have lunch with my friend Veena Vadgama, with whom I worked at Prodigy. Veena and her husband Jami now live in Minneapolis, where Veena runs a [...]

New header, so nice

It’s the little things. Like this new header. Nice, huh? Torquil made it. I love how something so simple can make such a big difference. Good designers know that, I think.

This Wednesday, if you’re going to happy hour anyway…

Abby Williamson of People’s Community Clinic suggests that if you’re going to have a drink on Wednesday night anyway, you should have it at Ninety Proof on East 2nd Street. Here’s why. (See if you can keep up with all these dang links….)
Last week, Abby was contacted by William Schroeder, the Austin representative for a group [...]