hi everyone i'm barry silver with common good for mont and it is giving tuesday today i am here with a number of local nonprofits and we're here to celebrate world wide or it's a worldwide  takes place today on giving tuesday the tuesday after thanksgiving every year and we are as i said were in the channel seven hundred studios today doing this live show to learn more about some local  nonprofits and how we can help support them today and also throughout the rest of the year so i will briefly introduce my guests and then we'll get into the program and you'll learn more about them and more about the organizations that they represent so i to the right of me is sarah wool and she's the director of development and communications with age well and then next to her is erika nichols fraser communications manager for cliff which is the children's so so steps ten domestic violence and then damn the clear over at the end of the table who's the director of development for one percent for the planet thank you all welcome and thank you all for being here thank you for having us so we are a small group but we are a really great example of how diverse for months nonprofit sector is and i was really excited when we when we pulled together this group that we would have representation from for months aging community and early childcare literally literacy violence prevention and the environmental sector i don't want to talk too much because i want to make sure that you all have time to talk about  campaigns but i do want to talk about giving tuesday and share a little bit more about what giving today is in case there are people out there watching who aren't familiar with it it's been around i think the first giving tuesday was in tw the sixth year it's been growing exponentially in terms of its reach and impact for the nonprofit community not just in vermont not just in the united states but all throughout the world it's really it's a glue fund raising and awareness raising effort for the work that nonprofits and the social good sector does around the world and it's been called i think it's really it's it's a way to kick off the charitable season so even though we're celebrating today and giving tuesday it's really an opportunity for people to think about their year and their holiday and i'm you're giving and it's been called the antidote to black friday and  cyber monday which we just experienced yesterday and hopefully today instead of spending money on stuff you'll be encouraged to do good and give back to those that really give so much to your community and then one other thing that is mind boggling was last year over one hundred seventy seven million dollars was raised online so i think that's a global figure and that's pretty staggering and just amazing in terms of the amount of generosity that there is out there in the world so we want to tap into that generosity today and and really start with you sara and talking about a little bit about your organization age well you're giving tuesday plans and you know what you want people to know about how they can support you today and i guess every day thank you so much for having us i'm sara will from age well formerly the champlain valley agency on aging and we are the largest agency on aging in vermont so we serve all of northwestern vermont basically all the way down from brandon up to the canadian border and we are basically the kind of network for the aging population and so we coordinate services we provide meals on wheels we're the largest provider of meals on wheels in the state as well and we really connect the aging population with all the resources and all the so ports they need to hopefully stay at home where they typically want to be and remain healthy vibrant and engaged which those are typically the three biggest threats to aging would be hunger isolation and loss of independence so if it's a call to our helpline that's typically kind of where everything is funneled through people will call in say they're in need of meal deliveries they're in need of access to transportation so the helpline really kind of diverts people to the proper resource and then meals on wheels is probably our most recognized brand and that is truly enabling people to access nutrition which is also really key to keeping people vibrant and healthy and that sometimes may be the only person that somebody sees in a day is that one meal delivery and so for giving tuesday this is kind of our way of you know skipping off the end of year giving and we're fortunate to have a twenty five hundred dollar matching gift on the table from lee lane roxbury and we are i just got an update that we are almost to the twenty five hundred already so where we're hoping to get there and raise at least five thousand dollars we do have a goal of ten thousand but that may be a little bit lofty but ok i can do our aging population particularly in vermont is growing exponentially and the resources as with i'm sure you'll hear many nonprofits are decreasing so we are really relying on the community to help support the we are one of the few remaining  meals on wheels delivery services that do not have a wait list so really community support is is helping us to kind of bridge that gap in the increase in demand and the need for services so please visit age well v t dot org  to learn more about all of our services and to hopefully help us meet our goal today great thank you for having us all thank you thanks for telling us about your work that's i didn't know how comprehensive it was i guess in terms of the amount of services i was aware of meals on wheels but all the other things very much anything the aging population needs we will connect them with those resources and or provide them and the hotline as well people can get on that number on the website it's all and i said have you done a giving tuesday campaign before we have and this is are really i think our first i think really complete campaign we are we are on facebook all of our staff members have their own page and we have this matching gift which we have not had before so we're feeling really confident that this year will be our kind of in buster year right well we'd like to help make that happen anything else so it's great you've grown your you campaign so obviously you've learned some stuff from participating and getting to see in the past and recognized that there's some real opportunity to spread the word about your your mission and your organization i think everybody likes a kick off celebration so i think we really  of the the starting gate where we hopefully by end of year will make it to our final goal but this is for every i think nonprofit out there this is really created some pomp and circumstance around giving and you know on the on the trail of black friday and cyber monday i think i think this makes people feel good about about where their dollars are going in it it's exciting you know it's a really exciting time of year for nonprofit so and we're all hoping to close that gap that i think we all have in our budget so this is where we do it in and i think that's an important message to the the day to day is giving tuesday but the giving doesn't end today so you know think all right well let's move on to talk about class chores so i'm erica nichols fraser with the children's literacy foundation or cliff it's you'll hear us refer to it throughout the throughout the conversation so the children's literacy foundation's mission is to nurture a writing is really essential to what we do that it's not just giving kids the resources the books and the ability to read but that it's really encouraging them to view reading and writing and literacy as a whole as really valuable worth their time enjoyable and positive experience and we know that as early literacy is one of the strongest indicators of a child's academic and then future professional and personal and social success as well the ability to communicate the ability to connect with others to empathize with others through reading that their stories are really important and unfortunately so many families and in the state do you have very limited access limited resources and the idea of having a lot of books at home this really isn't something that is doable for a lot of families and so while we are a lot more than books we do bring literacy programs all over the state so we have six basic programs they all involve an element of storytelling and they all involve our we have currently sixty one or sixty  two authors children's authors illustrators poets graphic novelists and storytellers that we work with including i'm going to promote a couple on jason chin who is a a fabulous burlington author and illustrator he'll be coming to one of our programs at the and all of these folks these books we have here katherine patterson is one more that folks will will recognize remember a lot of her books of him author and so she is still one of the authors that we send out to schools childcare centers to afterschool programs to libraries just about anywhere that young children are including homeless shelters food kitchens food pantries and affordable housing units to try to engage these kids with stories with storytelling there to actually meet authors and illustrators and see the people who make some of their favorite books and then we also all of our programs also involve an element of a book giveaway so the kids actually getting to choose their own books to take home and keep and for many of the kids we serve this is the first time they've had the opportunity to be able to look at you know pile of hundreds of books and pick one that is really meaningful to them and to have that as their own and one thing that we rely a lot on our volunteers to put these beautiful child in need just ten dollars just a ten dollars donation can give one of these beautiful high quality books to a child who may not otherwise have access to their books in their home and of course it is is more than books it is something i want to emphasize that we also involve  involved in developing literacy experiences positive experiences so i mention the sustainability academy is one of the programs working with right now in burlington that's through our year of the book program which is our biggest a twenty five thousand dollars grant for literacy programming in elementary schools that have a high percentage of low income children as well as a high percentage of children under performing in recent reading and writing assessments so that school we currently are supporting five different schools in vermont through that year long twenty five thousand dollars grant that's the sustainability academy here in burlington that is in schools and the alberg community education center up in the northern part of the state it's a stark elementary school in bennington which is the second year in a having family at literacy events and parent discussions to emphasize the importance of reading with young children and to give to sort of break down that barrier of intimidation that some families may have especially if they have low literacy skills themselves to be really you know emphasize how important it is to be telling stories with kids in gauging them with language with books and with the authors you know vermont actually has so many others like katherine patterson and and you know absolutely and comes out there and does drawings with the kids so engages with them and he likes to talk about how he was inspired to become an illustrator by a visit who author who visited his school when he was a child and how he likes to be able to share that inspiration with kids too and yes it's just certainly the inspiration to see and meet authors who can do this is a living but also there's a feeling of that we're really really paying attention to these kids you know that they get to meet the author of their favorite book that these people are here to that we give everybody enough time to talk about their organizations and hopefully you know we can circle back so kelly tell us about yes ten days to carry for having us today this is wonderful so my name is kelly i'm the executive director of steps to end domestic violence we are a domestic violence organization that serves chicken and county we're the largest domestic violence organization in the state and we're also the only organization engine in county that focuses exclusively on domestic violence so we are sort of the go to organization for anyone who may be finding themselves in an abusive relationship or maybe just has questions about what a healthy relationship is and what a healthy relationship is all about we do provide a lot of crisis services and i'll talk a little bit about that but we also think of ourselves as an education and prevention organization so our our goal just like in our name is to end domestic violence some folks may remember us by our former name which was women helping battered women we changed our name about a year and a half ago in order to be more inclusive to everyone we serve so we serve not just women we're not just an organization comprised of women and so we wanted to be sure that the message was out there that you know regardless of your gender gender identity if you need we're here for you so our getting t campaign i'm really excited about we have an active facebook campaign we've got e mail blasts we've got things going out on twitter and probably instagram and our handle is at step to bt dot org and you can see on your screen one of our images from our facebook campaign so our goal today is to raise ten thousand dollars and as of the time we arrived here at the studio i think we were out about two thousand so far which is great and really just like sarah said earlier you know the nonprofit sector really relies on individual  contributions and relies on donations really to keep our doors open and to continue to be able to provide services and i think that sometimes people might think you know well you get federal money and you get state money and maybe you're a united way agency and all of those things are great and sort of help form maybe like a backbone but it's really not enough to to keep providing services and all of our services are free all of our services are confidential and in this climate of declining you know government resources we find ourselves even more reliant on the generosity of of all of you to to help us continue to provide services so like i said our goal today is ten thousand dollars that goes toward you know like we were talking about earlier today is really the kickoff for our annual campaign which is underway and by the end of the year we're hoping to raise at least fifty thousand dollars including what we get today so anything that we get today will be counted toward our giving tuesday goal and people can get online through our way our web site is steps v if people feel that they're not in a position to make a financial gift although any gift of any amount makes a huge difference sometimes people want to feel like they're giving something other than money or in addition to money so we're also always looking for certain items for our emergency shelter or for people who come into our office who are looking for basic needs we're always looking for toiletries for diaper for feminine products for a whole host of of just sort of daily living activities or daily living supplies like toothpaste and toothbrushes and those types and i see and i think that's something that if if people follow you on social media those lists are often posted there and another way that people can help is is to share your messages right with any of these organizations exactly everyone has a very vibrant social media presence and that is a great way  like the organizations that you care about and you can help spread spread the word about the work that they're doing and support them that way as well it's not just about financial donations and you know those are certainly very important at and lots of other ways to get and those those current needs are in kind items or on our website as well may also have an amazon wish list so as folks are maybe on amazon doing their holiday shopping there is a wish list where we continuously post items that people might need but just to briefly mention sort of what we do because i don't think i've even said that for those people who may not be familiar with us we we provide a host of different services for people who may be experiencing abuse and their intimate partner relationships so we operate an emergency shelter here in burlington for people who are fleeing violence and maybe have nowhere else to go and we also provide emergency housing outside of our shelter and through motels are our biggest program is really our twenty four seven hotline so we have a hotline that is eight zero to six five eight one nine nine six it operates twenty four hours a day seven days a week so and that folks who are answering our hotline field a wide variety of calls from the crisis call to the person who just needs some emotional support and wants to talk about what's happening in their relationship or people who may just want to be connected to other resources in the community so you know you don't need to be in crisis to call the hotline it really is the gateway to accessing our services as well as becoming connected and sometimes we're just providing education over the phone we provide legal advocacy services so people who are seeking legal legal process for their domestic violence may be getting relief from abuse order we have legal advocates who will help walk people through that process can be very intimidating you're facing your abuser in court potentially can be a really scary situation so our legal advocates will accompany people to court and they will help walk them through those intimidating legal processes like divorce and parenting custody we also provide some economic stability programming often domestic violence comes with financial implications whether overt economic abuse where a partner will control all of the finances in the relationship or jeopardize employment or schooling for their partner it's a way to maintain power and control so we kind of help people disentangle that and and get some good economic footing and then we also provide services to children and youth and we offer a support group and we do a lot of education in the community were in every public high school into and county every year doing workshops on healthy relationships and dating and bystander intervention and so that we can help educate youth as they're starting to form their first relationships about what's healthy and what's not so that hopefully we can break the cycle and all of those all of those services like i said are free and we really rely on you to to help keep those services going great thank you i mean it's i love having the opportunity to have these conversations because it's a really great way for people to understand the breadth and depth of the services that are being offered by so many of the nonprofit organizations throughout for money i think they're almost four thousand nonprofit organizations that are doing amazing work throughout the state like twenty percent of the workforce so i'm glad that you are all here again thank you again for being here and we're going to move on to dam like claire from one giving and so we definitely have a global footprint but we're actually headquarters right here in vermont and do all of that work from the basement of a building on maple street here in burlington itself so it's sounds like a lofty name and there's  a mighty team of about twelve of us that are doing that work so you know we do the work that we do by assembling a network of businesses and individuals around the world really who are committing to give back one percent in either in their business or in their lives as individuals to a network of environmental nonprofit partners that we've assembled and that's a couple of thousand in about sixty countries at this point so so it's really quite a big organization in some ways and the impact that we have touches down in really local is at the same time so here in the burlington area for example you know on the business side we have skinny pancake as a number you know they give back one percent of their sales to the environment and on the nonprofit side we have great non profits like the interview all center that's receiving some of the funds from the businesses and individuals that are participating in our network model so because of the way that we work we're able to sort of leverage dollars they come in to grow the network and get even more dollars out to the pressing environmental issues that are confronting us and i think this year in particular we've seen so many of those environmental extremes whether hurricanes  network which is fantastic and we hope to do even more right now in the united states only about three percent of all philanthropy is going to environmental issues environmental non profits and we think that you know that number is not where it needs to be to you know to tackle the significant issues we confront nation nationally and globally so you know giving tuesday is a good day to be here and talk about the work that we're doing and also as with several others you know we are we do you know as giving tuesday and you know promoted as a way to kick off the giving season it is a really important day in the nonprofit sector for all of us so we do have a goal of raising five thousand dollars today  and that money that is given the will help us to grow the network to strengthen those nonprofit relationships that we have in alternately accelerate the dollars that are getting into the hands of these environmental nonprofits  so we definitely hope that people will consider today but but also throughout the giving season you know every day is an important day for our environment and you know i would encourage folks at home and listening and everyone here to check o website at one person for the planet dot org you can donate there were also running a facebook campaign and there's lots of different ways to learn about what we're doing our our handle is at one percent f c p but i wanted to do one more plug and i think this will be a helpful one if you go to common good v t dot org that will you'll be able to find all of the organizations and also there are i think almost seventy organizations that contacted us that common good firm on so organizations throughout from on that contacted us to let us know that they were participating in giving tuesday so they have some kind of giving tuesday campaign and you'll be able to find all of their names and their you know e mail but their website information there so there you go go to a common good bt dot org to learn more and you mentioned facebook does anybody else have a facebook campaign that's happening right now because and you want to talk a little bit more about what's happening with that before we we're going to wrap up soon but let's just put a plug in i guess for facebook  and the support that they're providing to bill and melinda gates foundation is matching dollar for dollar today so today is a great way to leverage your your donations we have a facebook campaign going on  and you know there's no charge right now on facebook there's no they're not taking any sort of fee today so all day today you're dollars are being matched and there's no fee to process the gift online so it's a very secure way to give back and have your your dollars matched and we're doing that as well so if you if folks want to steps bt or just search for steps and domestic violence on facebook we also are doing that same campaign so where people can create their own vermont and new hampshire that are running book drives for the children's literacy foundation during the holiday season places that you can purchase a children's book in some cases at a discount give that to a child in need and then we will distribute out through our literacy programs to low those businesses are jason right by the bridge and in waterbury there will be jazz music performed by paranoia well drinks snacks and books donated for children so i understand they're trying to donate at least four hundred this year to raise we also locally have phoenix books i'm here in burlington as well as six rutland and chester that are also hosting book drives for us and offering i believe twenty percent off children's books throughout the holiday season donated to the children's literacy foundation and he also support local b that you know folks can get online and they can be a part of this effort because they can set up a little they can say i you know i want to raise two hundred dollars to help you get one percent of their five thousand or gold into and they can activate that campaign and get it out to their social media  we rely heavily on our volunteers as well so that's certainly another way that we have you know dedicated group that comes in every week and helps us sort in distribute thousands of children's books i had so that certainly another way that you can give back as well if you're not able to make a donation  yeah same we rely on volunteers as well and we're actually currently recruiting volunteers in particular who are interested in working on our hotline so if anyone out there might be interested in learning more volunteers nor does our senior companion we have a thousand plus volunteers throughout northwestern vermont and none of our programs would exist if it weren't for that group of thousand plus people so we're always looking for meals on wheels deliver would say there's lots of ways to give and there are many days to give today just happens to be a giving tuesday state is a great day to give you've heard about some organizations great organizations that you can give to either financially or w gift of time but i think speaking of time our time it's pretty much up we could have spent i think i'd love to have you all back to talk more and learn more about your organizations but for today thank you so much for being here and thank you all for watching happy giving tuesday