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3 minute read
Our southern nonprofits are some of the most resilient organizations – bouncing back from hurricanes, tornadoes, and humidity like nowhere else. But none of that stops them from doing good work and helping their communities. Volunteers help nonprofits push forward their missions, and have generously donated over one million volunteer hours, $193 million in nonprofit savings, and close to 50,000 project matches on Catchafire. But who are the people behind the numbers, and what is the direct impact nonprofits and communities experience by partnering with Catchafire?
Below we’ve highlighted a few of these impact stories. Thanks to our partners like Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, The Meadows Foundation, and all of those in our One Texas funder collaborative, collective change throughout the South is made possible.
Ladies Empowerment and Action Program (LEAP)
Miami, FL
Cause: Justice & Legal Services
Sponsored by Catchafire
LEAP empowers incarcerated women to transcend their past and successfully re-enter society by providing transformational education, entrepreneurial training, and mentorship. They serve as a model, voice, and advocate for the power of rehabilitation over retribution. Since posting their first project in July 2021, LEAP has saved $86,057 on 22 projects thanks to the work of volunteers on Catchafire.
“Catchafire has been such a helpful asset to our team. Volunteers from Catchafire have helped us with so many needs such as digital assets, website updates, and more. They have saved us so much time and allowed our team to focus on the important work of supporting formerly incarcerated women.”
Jenneva C., Director of Community Engagement
LEAP worked with Lamine on setting up Facebook Ads, saving over $3,000 that they allocated toward providing education, housing, and employment to formerly incarcerated women.
Zoe P., the Director of Communications and Marketing, says, “I can't put into words how incredible my experience working with Lamine was. Not only does he TRULY know his stuff, but he was so committed to helping us reach our goals. He went above and beyond to make sure every ad was executed perfectly. In fact, he met with me four times a week and sometimes stayed up until 3 am because he was so dedicated to the project. He also took the time to teach me how to set up and run ads myself going forward--I learned so much. I cannot recommend him highly enough! I could see the impact of his work firsthand and am planning on working with him on other related projects going forward.”
Global Village Project
Decatur, Georgia
Causes: Education, Youth Development
Foundation Partner: Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
Global Village Project is a middle school that aims to develop a strong educational foundation for each student within a caring community using a strengths-based approach and intensive instruction in English language and literacy, academic subjects, and the arts. Global Village Project has saved $23,977 on 10 projects, allowing them to focus on their mission and support refugee girls through education.
“Our last two projects with Catchafire were to update our marketing materials. One volunteer created a new PowerPoint template for us and another created our theory of change document. We were so excited to have both as they are critical components of how we tell our story.”
Elizabeth E., CEO and Head of School
New Friends New Life
Dallas, Texas
Causes: Human Services, Gender Equity & Justice
Foundation Partner: The Meadows Foundation
New Friends New Life (NFNL) restores and empowers formerly trafficked and sexually exploited women, teen girls, and their children. By providing education, job training, interim financial assistance, mental healthcare and spiritual support, New Friends New Life helps women and girls overcome backgrounds of trauma, addiction, poverty, and limited opportunities. NFNL has saved $27,666 in video editing and website expenses by working with volunteers on Catchafire.
NFNL and Kevin collaborated on a video editing project, creating a thank you video for Volunteer Appreciation Week in lieu of an in-person Volunteer Appreciation event.
“Volunteers are a critical part of New Friends New Life’s mission to restore and empower trafficked women, teen girls, and children. When in-person services paused during the pandemic, our volunteers rose to the challenge, emailing weekly encouragement messages, facilitating more donation drives for critical daily resources, and providing socially distanced holiday support like to-go Thanksgiving meal kits. Since we were not able to host an in-person Volunteer Appreciation event, Kevin’s video editing skills helped us produce a beautiful thank you video we sent to our volunteers.”
Annalise P., Grants Manager
Volunteer spotlight
Our top contributing volunteer from the South is Robert, an ICF-ACC accredited coach and consultant from Fort Myers, Florida with over two decades of experience in the nonprofit sector. Robert’s first project in July 2017 was on fundraising; since then, he’s worked on an additional 116 projects with an estimated $498,486 total impact and savings for nonprofits!
There’s many ways to get involved with Catchafire:
- Sign up to volunteer and support critical programming for nonprofits.
- If you’re a grantmaker and would like to learn more about equipping nonprofits in your community with responsive, high-quality operational support, let’s connect. Email us here.
