The Sieves

Photo Credit to sharerlens.

Catch that Energy — Talented, Educated Young People

Every year, young people across the US choose to join AmeriCorps or other service opportunities.  They are driven by a desire to give of their time and talent – two of their vital years invested in service to worthy causes.  Every year, portions of this population end up in isolated, stressful living conditions.  Lacking community, safety, or affordability, these living conditions reduce the effectiveness of the workers.  In some instances, the living conditions discolor the entire experience of service, minimizing the desire to participate further in philanthropy after the tour of service is complete.  The service and philanthropic community only hurts itself by allowing the passion and drive of the young generation to be sapped by suboptimal conditions.  The gift of time freely given isn’t leveraged for its full potential during their tours of service or beyond.

 Catch that Wisdom — Hard-Earned Lessons

Efficiency and effectiveness are not just business buzz words.  In nonprofits they translate to excellent stewardship of donor dollars and better outcomes for target populations.  The wealth of knowledge developed through a lifetime of nonprofit management – at a staff or executive level – is a resource the community cannot afford to waste.  The same is true of business lessons learned outside the arena of nonprofits yet perfectly honed to meet the complex challenges with which nonprofit managers grapple today.  Working with best practices and institutional wisdom helps nonprofits vigorously pursue their deeply-held missions.  The more these lessons are captured, curated, and transferred among the community, the more efficient and effective nonprofits can be with their worker and financial resources.

Catch those Dollars — Well-leveraged Investments

Every philanthropist – of gifts large or small – wants her investment to do the most good for pressing real-world needs.  That good is represented in ROI.  Why invest in the development of the philanthropic community?  An investment dollar spent on an AmeriCorps volunteer, when he is nurtured in a community like Service House, is a dollar leveraged to produce quality work at a significant cost savings to the organization in which he serves.  An investment dollar spent towards educating nonprofit directors on best practices returns dividends of more efficient pursuit of the organization’s mission.  Philanthropists provide vital support to the great work pursued by nonprofits across Seattle, but they see only the trees and miss the forest if systematic inefficiencies in the philanthropic community are not addressed by investors as well.

Read now about The Kool-Aid: the future that motivates us to build Service House