Carrington Fox of the Nashville Scene gives the details of this upcoming event on Bites:

On April 7, Second Harvest Food Bank invites you to leave your brown bag at home, cancel your lunch date and count the money you save by skipping the midday the meal. Then, while you’re griping about the nuisance of being a little peckish, take that cash and give it to Skip Lunch Feed a Bunch. The Second Harvest fundraiser will get your money to people who are far too familiar with the feeling of being hungry.

Let’s say you cut out your regular Chicago dog and fries, the fiver you save will purchase 25 pounds of food and provide 20 meals to hungry children, seniors and families. Skip your $10 kabob platter, and you’re feeding 50. A $15 scallop salad will provide food for 75.

Second Harvest will provide a desk clock to remind you when not to eat and a sticker to wear as a badge of honor as you fast. For more information and a fasting kit, call Jenny Vazquez at Second Harvest at 627-1571 or email jenny.vazquez (at) secondharvestmidtn (dot) org.

From NewsChannel 5:

NewsChannel 5 reports:

In honor of their birthday, volunteers read, and handed out books to children at local shelters.

Books from Birth of Middle Tennessee allows children to receive a free age-appropriate, book once a month from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, up to the age of 5.

Since March 2005, the program has registered more than 30,000 children in Davidson, Williamson, and Sumner Counties, and has distributed more than 770,000 books.

Hands On Nashville has announced their nominees for the Mary Catherine Strobel Awards. The annual event has been honoring area volunteers for the past 23 years. Click here to read the list of nominations as reported in the Tennessean.

The Tennessean reports today on Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center  and United Neighborhood Health Services receiving stimulus funds to save jobs, and extend service hours:

Earlier this month, United Neighborhood Health Services, a Nashville-based nonprofit, received nearly $1 million to expand affordable health care. The provider received an additional $452,000 in this batch of stimulus payouts.

Among the biggest winner this time was Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, which will receive $711,000.

Jeff McKissack, CEO of Matthew Walker, said the amount was determined by a formula used by the federal government that takes into account the number of uninsured individuals treated by the clinics. Last year, 80 percent of the 26,000 patients served by Matthew Walker were uninsured.

This post is part of a continuing weekly series  previewing the topics that will be discussed at CNM’s May 12th Nonprofit Conference: Bridge to Excellence. Click here to register for this exciting day long learning event featuring keynote speaker Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children’s Zone.

Nancy Reece is a highly requested speaker with several national and international conferences under her belt. She is a certified instructor that currently serves on the adjunct faculty at Belmont University where she teaches “The Dichotomy of Power.” Nancy is conducting the conference breakout session, “The Art of Appreciation: Inspiring Your Team in Challenging Times” at CNM’s Conference.

Road to the Conference: Featured Presenter, Nancy Reece

“Hunker down and survive the economic crisis” blared the headline.  Survive?  Is that really what we want to do?  Or do we want to thrive in the midst of an economic storm?  There’s a huge difference between surviving and thriving, and not-for-profits that understand that difference, particularly as it relates to staff, will find themselves thriving. 

Staff make the difference.  Catlette and Hadden studied companies that were known to be great to work for and compared them to companies in the same industries that didn’t have the same reputation around staff.  Over a 10 year period, which included a 3 year recession, the good to work for companies:

• Outgrew the other companies by a 4:1 margin
• Out earned the other companies by $40 billion or $348,000 per employee
• Generated a net difference of better than 800,000 jobs

The result of the study – if you want to build your bottom line, take care of the front line by understanding the key components of inspiring staff. 

Continue reading ‘Road to the Conference: Featured Presenter, Nancy Reece’

The Boys and Girls Club of Murfreesboro’s main building was damaged during Saturday evening’s storm, reports the Tennessean:

High winds ripped part of the roof off the main club building and damaged a nearby gymnasium Saturday night. The building was empty at the time.

For the next few months, while repairs are under way, the club’s activities will be temporarily relocated to the McFadden Community Center at 211 Bridge Ave. Activities were already going on there on Sunday.

“We aren’t going to miss a beat,” said Boys & Girls Club Chief Professional Officer Dan Jernigan. “Our children and parents expect it. Our first priority is the kids.”

NewsChannel 5 has a report on the damage:

Continue reading ‘Local Nonprofit Begins Storm Cleanup’

For those of you that are regular WPLN listeners, you recognize the spring membership campaign has kicked off today. WPLN’s General Manager Rob Gordon takes to ‘PLN Post to explain why this method is a part of their fundraising efforts (to summarize, it works!). Here is another interesting tidbit from his explanation (emphasis is mine):

Furthermore, it takes time, as long as four years, for someone to come to believe public radio is important enough to deserve their personal support. Along with time, they need reminders. On-air drives supply the idea (to join) and the suggestion (do it now.)

Over the last two decades, the Mary Catherine Strobel Volunteer Awards have grown to become Middle Tennessee’s largest, annual luncheon that recognizes individuals and groups who have selflessly given their time and talent to improve their community.

This luncheon provides an excellent opportunity for you to show appreciation to your volunteers without having to do all the planning. Tickets to the luncheon are just $35 per person and a table of 10 is $350. Consider treating your star volunteers to a memorable and inspiring luncheon given in their honor. You may view the invitation and the registration card from these links, or contact Amy Maloney at 615.298.1108 ext. 110 or amy@hon.org.

The Tennessean ran a story today on an organization that has sprung up in the Nashville community to serve as a positive influence on Kurdish teens:

“We want to get our youth away from the mess that is going on,” (Mwafaq) Mohammed said as he watched his son play soccer at John Overton High School on Sunday morning.

Mohammed is one of the organizers of Kurdish Achievers, a program aimed at keeping Kurdish kids 6 to 18 away from gangs. Organizers hope that a combination of faith, study and sports will keep their kids out of trouble.

Barat Hama, an 18-year-old member of the group, believes that the 10,000-member Kurdish community has gotten a bad rap over episodes like the Overton (High School) scare. Hama says that very few Kurdish teens get in trouble.

“Someone does something wrong, and people think it represents all of us,” he said. “It doesn’t.”