You could almost stop worrying about the future of Austin philanthropy thanks to Linda Brucker and the team that created A Legacy of Giving.

Since 2007, the program has exposed almost 6,000 students in the Austin, Eanes, and Round Rock school districts, plus a couple of private schools, to the concept of philanthropy. The program is more than a video or a field trip to the food bank; the lessons in giving are actually weaved into the curriculum.

“What we do is engage the students – from financially secure to low-income – to make sure they realize that being a philanthropist isn’t just about money,” says Brucker, “We tell them that every single one of them has time and talent to share.”

For example, one of the program’s early projects introduced students to the problems of hunger and poverty, first describing it at the global level, then describing the problems closer to home. “When we told them that 41,000 children in Travis County have food insecurity, there was this pause,” says Brucker. For the next lesson, a representative from Capital Area Food Bank came in and introduced them to idea of the food bank … and what a nonprofit is. And then for the next lesson, a storage unit arrived on campus. Students got inside, walked around, used math to figure the dimensions, and decided it would be a great place to store food. Fourteen schools and 3,600 students participated in the project they called ‘pack the pod,” raising 32,000 pounds of food in two weeks.

Program administrators train more than 125 teachers on how to use a Web-based platform hosting downloadable lessons and how to bring in resources from the community to make the lessons come to life. Aside from the poverty project, teachers could also choose a project based on Earth Day, which was coordinated with Keep Austin Beautiful. Another project revolved around financial literacy.

“It’s remarkable how these projects are having such an immediate impact on their lives,” says Brucker. One of the schools that took on the Earth Day project started recycling plastic and aluminum – at the students’ request. And students who participated in the financial literacy project reported talking to their parents about the family’s debt.

“We think we’re changing the conversation so that students feel like they’re part of the solution.”

LINDA BRUCKER’S FAVORITE MOMENT

“I was at Paredes Middle School, in the middle of the courtyard, and we were using meat scales to weigh some of the food that the students had collected. One of the students came up to me and said, ‘Are you Mrs. Brucker? Would that be okay if I talked to you?’

So I said, ‘Absolutely!’ Then she got very quiet and very close and said, ‘This is the coolest program we’ve ever had at my school.’

She took two steps back and said, ‘Mrs. Brucker, I’ve always been the one who had to get the food, and this is the first time I got to be the giver.’”

A $4000 donation to Heart House via GiveRealty.

This is genius.

We’re obviously fans of GiveRealty’s business model; the real estate broker donates 25 percent of its commission to the charity of the seller/buyer’s choice, in their name. But using the new website RecognizeGood- also born and raised in Austin – GiveRealty was able to double that donation.

A recent home sale through GiveRealty resulted in a $4000 donation to Heart House, a free afterschool program that provides over 200 low-income and at-risk children in Austin with access to caring adult mentors, homework assistance, art enrichment, computer learning, health and safety education, and literacy programs.
 
Because the gift to Heart House was channeled through RecognizeGood, an Austin-based philanthropic website, and doubled through a matching gift program generously supported by RecognizeGood’s corporate sponsors TyRex Group and ABC Home and Commercial Services.
 
“The generosity of TyRex Group and ABC Home and Commercial Services significantly increased the impact of our donation to Heart House”, said Loew. “By providing a forum where Central Texans can recognize and reward acts of kindness, RecognizeGood is encouraging philanthropy in a very innovative way.”

All this from a home sale. Think about how many home sales there are in Austin. Think about a25 percent of all that real estate commission, double it, and picture that going to a local charity.

Our mission for GivingCity (when we can finally get back to it after all this ridiculous for-pay work) is to make it easier for donors and volunteers to connect with the best-fit opportunity for them. We want to help you navigate the nonprofit world.

But folks, I mean this in the nicest way when I say it … you still might have to do a little bit of work.

Take this recent conversation I had on Twitter with a person who was looking for a very particular nonprofit to donate to. I was happy to help point her in the right direction, as were many of her followers, I’m sure. But I think she was looking for the easy click. I mean, I think she’s become so used to communicating, connecting, creating, and in general, executing everything online that she’d forgotten about other useful means of communication, like the phone.

It can happen to anyone. The fact is, it should be much easier for donors to connect with nonprofits. If only you could Google the type of organization you want to donate to, and the exact match would pop up every time!

Unfortunately, the same people who deliver services to the people in need are the same people SEO-ing their homemade websites. Which of those two tasks do you want them to do better?

For three years, Shelley Seale would travel to the orphanages of India, bags loaded with treats and toys to share with the children who had made such an enormous impact on her. After all, these were the same children who inspired the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Each time she got to know the children’s stories a little more, which compelled this Austin writer to compose a new book called, “The Weight of Silence: The Invisible Children of India.”

“I hope that people will see that even though this topic is serious and the stories often heartbreaking, it is not a depressing book or subject!” says Seale. “The kids’ hope and resilience amazed me time and time again; the ability of their spirits to overcome crippling challenges inspired me. The issues are tough, what has happened to a lot of these kids makes you want to cry – but the bottom line of their stories is a very strong, hopeful voice.“

I interviewed Shlley to find out what compelled her to travel, return, and make the children of India such a big part of her life.

What prompted you to travel in India and get to know these children?

In early 2004, I read an article in Tribeza magazine about Caroline Boudreaux, who had visited India three years earlier. She had happened upon an orphanage full of children living in incomprehensible conditions and had returned  home and started The Miracle Foundation, a nonprofit which raises money and recruits sponsors to help support the home. I began volunteering for the organization and sponsored a child, and Caroline invited me to go to India with a volunteer group. My first visit was in March 2005.

Was the situation what you expected?

Yes and no. When I arrived that first time, I assumed all the kids there were orphans in the true sense of the word – their parents had died. Instead I was shocked by how many of them had been “orphaned” by poverty; their parents had left them at the Miracle Foundation home because they were too poor to feed them, which in some ways seemed an even greater tragedy. I wondered when each of them had stopped wanting to go back home, or if they ever had. Afterward, there was simply no way to go on with my life afterwards as if they did not exist.

I had gone expecting it to be a sad place, an emotionally wrenching experience with these parentless young people. But those expectations had been turned on their head. Yes, there were stories behind each one of these children – many of them painful and tragic. Yet the man who ran the orphanage, and the house mothers, had made the kids their own in a community of sharing and acceptance. They were poor in wealth but not in spirit; limited in resources but not in joy and laughter. They gave me a complete unconditional love, for nothing more than showing up.

This kind of journey isn’t for everybody… is it?

Probably not. The specific type of trip I took with The Miracle Foundation, the volunteer trip to the children’s homes, is not the same as a sight-seeing vacation.

India is definitely a complete culture shock for someone who’s never been there, especially if you haven’t traveled in a developing country before. The poverty and hardship is stark and in your face. At times, quite honestly, I just wanted to look away and say I’d had enough. But the suffering remains whether we choose to look or not. They do not go away simply because we decide that to be a witness to them, to say I care about your story, is too difficult for us.

But still, like I said before, the moment you meet these kids, that all goes away. I have been on four different trips with all kinds of different people, some of whom love India and some who barely tolerate it, yet every single one of them fell in love with these kids and had the time of their life.  It’s amazing how this experience hooks you – I sometimes tease Caroline Boudreaux about putting something in the water. But the truth is, we go thinking about giving something back, and in the end it’s us who end up getting something amazing out of it. We are the ones who get rescued.

I guess sometimes it seems hopeless. There are so many children who need help. What do you think?

The truth is, each person can create incredible impact with even small actions. It’s a ripple effect, and I have seen it happen over and over, so many times I can’t even count them. Most of us could never sell all our belongings and go work in the trenches in India, but that doesn’t mean we should think, then, that we can’t do anything at all.

If you can change the course of the life of ONE person – still, that one person’s life is different and better because you impacted it.  I think that’s worth it. Don’t focus on the big picture, just focus on what you are passionate about, what you want to do. For me, I can’t constantly think about the 25 million kids in India who live in orphanages or on the streets – I can only think about the one who is in front of me at that moment.

What do you hope to accomplish with the book?

My sole purpose in writing the book was to give these millions of children a voice that could be heard by others in the world who, I was convinced, would be as moved by their plights as I was. And so, the main thing I hope to accomplish is awareness – followed by action. Some kind of action. I think the key is to discover what you are passionate about, what you have genuine feelings and caring about – and then do something about that issue. But just do something.

To learn more about the book, go to Seale’s website or purchase one from The Miracle Foundation. Note that for all books purchased through The Miracle Foundation, all proceeds are donated to them.

I grew up in the shadow of that big American Indian chief statue on NW Loop 410 in San Antonio, the one that sits on the Red McCombs car dealership, so I’ve known the name Red McCombs all my life. For a while, I thought he was an Indian chief.

I was able to meet him this past weekend (he is not, BTW, and Indian chief) and the emotional and inspiring YMBL Sunshine Camps grand opening celebration. McCombs donated about $1 million toward that project, which opens next week to about 70 at-risk Austin kids with high leadership potential.

(There’s a concert tonight to benefit the camp tonight at Umlauf Sculpture Gardens. Tickets $10 for teens, and $25-$75 for adults. Kids under 12 are FREE. It’s from 6 -9 pm. Great place to take kids, see sculpture, have some wine/beer/appetizers… consider.)

ANYWAY, doing what it is that I do, I interviewed him. He’s got such a great voice and presence (he was one of the best car salesman in the country, remember?) that video was the best medium.

And he did not disappoint:

BTW: Along the lines of this article, consider giving $5 to a charity this month. Every bit helps, or as the badass Pamela Benson-Owens puts it: “Even a donation that jingles is a donation.”

I spent yesterday afternoon with seven volunteer leaders from the Capital Area State Employee Charitable Campaign (SECC), learning about how the campaign works and some of their challenges. These are remarkable people who’ve taken on the job – in addition to their full-time job – of inspiring and encouraging their co-workers – tens of thousands of them – to take advantage of the payroll deduction opportunity for charitable donations.

What’s so amazing about their energy is that they wholeheartedly believe, as do we at GivingCity, that all people want to give, and that they just need to be asked or given an easy opportunity to give. The positive vibes in that room made me want to sign up for paycheck deductions, too. And I don’t even work for the state. Or have a paycheck! (My temporary unemployment, though, is a whole ‘nother story.)

One thing they said toward the end, though, has stuck with me. In this sour economy, it’s inevitable that some donors would make smaller or less frequent donations. But there’s a inspiring phenomenon that happens as well.

At a time when everyone is rethinking their spending, more people of less income tend to donate a higher percentage of their income more often.

“People criticize us because we invite state employees who don’t make that much money to participate,” said Tammy Vega, chair of the Capital Area committee.

“Some people assume that they wouldn’t want to give,” said Holly Chacona of Hospice Austin, an active supporter of SECC. “But why would we assume they don’t want to give?

“It’s not about tell people they should, it’s about givine people the opportunity,” says Chacona. ”What we’ve seen at Hospice Austin in the past is that donations from individuals from low incomes homes actually increase. They also tend to give a higher percentage of their income that high-income donors do.

“And I don’t know if it’s because maybe they finally feel secure and now they want to help the people below them feel secure. Or that they’ve been recipients of services in the past, and realize that more people are getting those services and so they should help… we just don’t know.”

Vega, who works at Texas Youth Commission, concurs. “We repeatedly see the correctional officers, who don’t make a lot of money in the first place, give the highest percentage of their wages and give on a more consistent basis than a lot of other TYC employees.”

The other part of this, they say, is that a lot of these people wind up giving more later, when the economy improves.

“People don’t mind being asked when you present it as an opportunity,” says Chacona. “This just gives them a chance to shine.”

More about Laurie Loew and her real estate agency that gives 25% of its commission to the charity of your choice in your name (still blows me away) in our next issue. In the meantime, enjoy this short interview by Christine Cox.

Check out more GivingCity videos on our YouTube channel.

The My Little Flower cupcake, available through May.

I don’t want to get into the endorsement business, but I have to share a story about a great experience I had with a local small business: Hill Country Cupcake.

In early February, my son Sam, 5,  volunteered with me at Marathon Kids. He woke up way too early for a Saturday morning so that we could get to the Burger Center, and in the strong winds and light drizzle, he helped me hand out medals and cheer the bigger kids on.  Afterwards, I had to hustle him to a playdate, but before that, as a treat, we walked to the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market in the Burger Center parking lot, and I bought him four of the loveliest cupcakes we’d ever seen. A couple were vegetarian and vegan (Hill Country Cupcakes make plain old regular non-veg cupcakes, too), which worked out great because the little brother of his playdate was allergic to eggs. So that was our volunteering/cupcake story for the week…

But then…

The next week, I wanted to celebrate my daughter’s  1-year-old birthday at her daycare with her friends. So my first thought is, of course, cupcakes. But the teachers in her class informed me that morning that one of the babies is a vegan. “Is this his personal choice?” I ask. “I mean, has the infant been given the opportunity to taste butter?”

Who am I to judge? Except now I need six vegan cupcakes by that afternoon. I like baking and all, but I don’t even know where to begin with a vegan cupcake. Then I remember: Those cupcakes in the parking lot…

After a little Googling, I find her: Hill Country Cupcake. She delivers the cupcakes just in time for the baby girl’s party, babies are stuffing their tiny little mouths with frosting and strawberries and cake… everyone’s happy.

I go ahead and gush to this woman, Katie Bycura, that she is a cupcake angel. I come to find out that, of course, she actually is an angel, having donated cupcakes or proceeds from cupcakes to a few really great causes.

“I know I’m a young business, and donating my time and cupcakes at this point is often a much larger cost than most in my position would take on, but Austin’s women, animal rescue, education, and health care causes are very much important to me,” she says. ”I am truly a blessed person and I am passionate about trying to do good for others not so fortunate.  Do what you love, love what you do.”

Here’s what Katie told me about the causes and projects she’s supported through her cupcakes.

1) Girls on the Run, an organization that caters to encouraging healthy behaviors (like exercise and smart food choices) and self esteem in elementary and middle school girls.  It is a cause especially close to my heart, as my older sister is on the board and an assistant running coach.  The girls are wonderful and I’ve served as a substitute assistant coach several times.  The program runs for the length of the semester and culminates in a 5K race the girls complete.  The girls last ran the Jingle Bell 5K – and I donated low fat cupcakes as a special treat after all participants successfully finished the course!  It was wonderful, and I’ll continue to donate cupcakes and volunteer as a sub when I can.
 
2) Zooma Womens Race Series, a womens-only half marathan and 5K scheduled for April 9, 2009. I will be donating 2500 cupcakes to this event – quite a challenge for my small, one-woman and volunteer help only business! I look forward to it, however, because, like Girls on the Run, it encourages women (young and old) to pursue a confident and healthy lifestyle.
 
3) Austin Pets Alive, a no-kill rescue group that takes animals off the euthanasia list at local shelters. I helped them with their Sweet Barks Honky Tonk fundraiser this past Valentine’s Day. It was a day-long event at Jo’s on S. Congress – I sold my cupcakes, and all proceeds went directly back to the cause.  The event raised a total of over $1,200 that day! 

4) Eanes Education Foundation, which helps fund additional educational opportunities for Eanes schools. As I grew up in Westlake, I know a lot of who I am today stems from the great education I received. I donated cupcakes to their annual silent auction and gala event this past February – it was a great success. Last year the EEF granted $995,000 to various causes, like more teacher positions and foreign language opportunities in grade schools throughout the district.
 
5) The Seton Fund, aimed at helping fund medical care at the area’s Seton hospitals. I’ve donated cupcakes to their silent auction fundraiser scheduled for this spring. As someone with a nursing and health care background, I realize the inadequacies of our national health care system. Our local health care system is no different. I became a volunteer at Sweet Charity, Seton’s volunteer-run gift shop at 26 Doors shopping center.  All proceeds from the shop go the Seton Fund.  Ever since learning about this cause, I have wanted to contribute however I can.
 
See? Isn’t she an angel? Sure, you could buy your cupcakes at HEB and call it good. But when you buy cupcakes from Hill Country Cupcakes, you’re not just supporting a local businesswoman, you’re helping her support our community.

One of the best, most informative parts of Turk Pipkin’s new film, “One Peace at a Time,” is his interview with U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett, who represents part of Austin and seven counties southeast of Austin.

After traveling the world to see the true impact of organizations like Austin-based charities, The Miracle Foundation and A Glimmer of Hope, Pipkin sat down with Congressman Doggett to ask about the often-heard call-to-action, “Contact your congressman.” He wanted to know if that was actually effective.

I don’t remember Doggett’s exact words, but the impression I got was that Doggett finds these absolutely effective – but only if your communication is sincere and meaningful.  Doggett said the reality of those “Contact your congressman” mass emails he receives from auto-generating forms don’t have the impact of well-written email or letter from an individual. And even then, it takes a large number of those more sincere emails for the message to get through.

I liked that he was honest. We can all guess that our congressmen receive a lot of emails, letters, and phone calls from people wanting them to vote a certain way or support a certain bill, and that it’s impossible to heed each of their requests. I also liked that Doggett seemed to put the responsibility on us to make that meaningful connection with our representatives.

Because it is our responsibility. Nonprofits cannot do it all. I’ve heard that a lot lately, from the nonprofit and the government agency communities. Both say that our efforts to change the world have to come through both channels. And it’s important to note that both communities have said this – not in critical ways – but in empowering ways.

I met with the leaders of the Texas  State Employee Charitable Campaign last week about their communication needs for the fall 2009 campaign. The campaign consists of 10,000+ state employees from 10 agencies (like Texas Youth Commission, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Workforce Commission, and others) from all over Texas who gave almost $10 million to charity in 2007. (The Capital Area employees alone gave more than $2 million.) What’s remarkable is that these are people who have chosen civil service to work for the people of Texas and who also choose to support the people of Texas through regular deductions from their paychecks.

I think it was Reuben Leslie of Texas Health and Human Services Commission, who’s been part of the campaign since 2005, who told me, “Nonprofits can’t do it alone. Government can’t do it alone. We have to work together. And we need the people of Texas to support that work.”

We ask a lot from our state agencies and our nonprofit charities and our foundations, and we expect them to read our minds and/or do the caring for us. Whether we write an email to our representative, make a donation, or learn about an important issue in our community, we can show our support for their efforts. Remember, we have the easy part.

Please feel free to send this link to a friend of colleague. Also, thanks for adding us to your media list – we’d love to hear more about your organization and cause.

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