Home > Charity Chat > Archives > Get to know this nonprofit category
Get to know this nonprofit
July 27, 2010
Food bank for pets?
Here’s something a little different.
A North Carolina pet food salesman has started a food bank for pets, according to this Winston Salem Journal article.
The man, Scott Morgan, has created a nonprofit called Share the Love Pet Food Bank, which distributes 1,000-3,000 pounds of pet food each month to 22 organizations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. And apparently, the program is a real help to those receiving the food. According to the article:
“The Yadkin County Humane Society has been working with Share the Love from the beginning. Through its Chuckwaggin’ Pet Food Assistance Program, Yadkin Humane distributes the food it gets to people receiving Meals on Wheels and to others who need it.
” ‘As a small, 100-percent volunteer organization, Share the Love is really a godsend to us,’ said Michele Laskus, who coordinates the Chuckwaggin’ program. ‘I think Scott is onto something. He has found a way to meet a need.’ “
Meals on Wheels and More in Austin does something similar for seniors through its PALS program. But I don’t know of anything else around here that is available to the general public. Do you?
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment Categories: Get to know this nonprofit
July 20, 2010
St. Louise House helping homeless women and kids
I recently paid a visit to the folks from St. Louise House, a nonprofit that provides affordable housing to homeless women and children.
Although the nonprofit has been around for about 10 years, St. Louise House is one of those groups that kind of flies under the radar. They don’t publish their address in order to protect their clients, about half of whom are victims of domestic violence. Getting residents to share their story with the media is also difficult, for the same reason.
It’s not easy to make people truly understand what you do when you can’t put a face on it.
But take a trip to one of St. Louise House’s properties and you’ll get a sense of the work they do. During my visit, I saw a mom using the community laundry machine and boxes of food from the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas ready to be distributed to clients. I noticed beautiful furniture donated by local supporters, learned that volunteers routinely decorate the families’ apartments and heard how residents are allowed to take all those furnishings when they move into other housing.
Also, the nonprofit has a great need for storage space. Apparently people want to donate furniture, but the charity needs a place to keep it until it can be distributed.
St. Louise House also provides case management, counseling, financial assistance and workshops for its residents.
So while you may not have heard about St. Louise House, this nonprofit is certainly worth checking out. And the group could always use more volunteers. To explore volunteer opportunities, go here.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Get to know this nonprofit
July 6, 2010
Challenges of small nonprofits
This weekend, I ran a column featuring a Q and A on Blackland Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit that provides affordable housing in East Austin.
Sadly, due to space constraints, I had to edit some of the column. One portion I had to cut addressed the challenges of running a small nonprofit. Obviously a group with a $250,000 budget isn’t exactly tiny. There are charities in this town that run on less than $100k a year, some as little as $25k.
But $250,000 certainly isn’t big. I asked Blackland CDC executive director Isabelle Headrick about the challenges facing small nonprofits. Here’s what she said:
“There is enormous diversity among small non-profits. That said, being small has many joys as well as its challenges. One challenge of being in a small non-profit in general is that you are highly dependent on each person involved in the organization. Fortunately, BCDC has an incredibly active, dedicated, knowledgeable and ethical board and a staff with a lot of expertise in our respective areas.
The biggest challenge for us is having the organizational capacity to do a range of tasks from seeking new funding sources to keeping our website up-to-date. As E.D. I do everything from talking to tenants to meeting with city council members to crawling in the dust under the desks to hook up our computers. The urgent issues tend to displace the important, larger -picture and longer term plans. Additionally, you don’t have the name recognition that larger non-profits have, so it’s much harder to get in the door with larger or more established funders.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Get to know this nonprofit
December 29, 2009
Latest discovery: El Buen Pastor
How can I have been in Austin 10 years and not known about El Buen Pastor Early Childhood Development Center?
I guess it’s because I generally don’t focus on childcare operations. But judging by what I saw at El Buen today, maybe I should.
The East Austin nonprofit has been around for more than 30 years and provides low-cost daycare to more than 100 children. It’s got a great building on Willow Street — and a waiting list of more than 300 people, said executive director Linda M. Ruiz-Campos.
If you haven’t checked out this nonprofit, you might want to. It could certainly use some attention. Fundraising efforts for scholarships have faltered this year, as the nonprofit only raised about $50,000 of the $93,000 it needed.
The nonprofit also has a wishlist that you can check out.
Ruiz-Campos gave me a tour of the facility today. The two-story building has lots of classrooms with sinks and toys, a full kitchen and a courtyard playground. The bustling classrooms were full of kids playing quietly, learning grammar or listening to stories. I need their teachers to come to my house and teach me how to make my kids act like that…
For more info on El Buen Pastor, call 476-4505.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Get to know this nonprofit
January 29, 2008
Claire and For the Love of Christi
It’s been decades since I last saw her, but every once in a while I think of a little girl named Claire.
She was 13. I was 14. We went to middle school together and — thanks to the rigid rules of cliques and coolness — we didn’t hang out much.
It was a shame, really. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Claire was stunning. She was a true Irish girl with sable black hair and sky blue eyes. She had freckles. She was funny and quirky and flat out nice.
So, of course, Claire wasn’t popular. We went to a small Catholic school where cattiness was as common as crosses. Claire didn’t make the grade (Neither did I, for that matter, but I was was solidly entrenched in my own dork group).
Then one day, Claire’s mother died. A car accident.
Nobody knew what to say. So we didn’t say anything. At least, I didn’t.
I don’t know how Claire got through that horrible time. I don’t know if her family took her to therapy or if she just sucked it up and suffered in silence. Sometimes, I wonder what ever happened to her.
In Austin, we’re lucky. We have For the Love of Christi, a nonprofit that helps children and adults suffering the loss of a loved one. Some organizations that serve children focus solely on kids whose parents are struggling with a terminal illness.
For the Love of Christi helps kids who lose loved ones suddenly. People like Claire.
For more information on For the Love of Christi, call 467-2600 or go to For the Love of Christi.org/
Permalink | | Categories: Get to know this nonprofit
