Grow the Good: A Charities Review Council 'First!'

It's hard to believe that with over 69 years of history, hundreds of thousands of donors and nonprofits served, Charities Review Council had never before hosted a fundraising event. Well, on Tuesday, May 12, 2015, dedicated donors, nonprofit leaders, and Council friends joined together to support Charities Review Council's first-ever fundraising event, Grow the Good.

Grow the Good was a short and lively breakfast featuring both a donor and a nonprofit perspective on the value of partnership with Charities Review Council. To fulfill our mission of mobilizing informed donors and accountable nonprofits for the greater good, Charities Review Council works with donors and nonprofits to create spaces, places and tools to foster stronger, more meaningful donor-nonprofit relationships.

Grow the Good featured two speakers: Nausheena Hussain, Deputy Director at CAIR-Minnesota (CAIR-MN) and Julie Cohen, Director of Communications & Engagement at Pollen Midwest, who shared how partnership with Charities Review Council helped them build stronger donor-nonprofit relationships at their organizations and with the organizations they support.

We're Nonprofit Partners. 
It's possible you know us by our List of Trustworthy Organizations, or maybe you've seen the Meets Standards® Seal on a nonprofit brochure. There's more to our nonprofit partnerships than just obtaining the seal, or being included on our list, although those perks aren't bad...

As nonprofit partners, we meet organizations where they are. With a combination of cloud-based technical assistance, non-judgmental support, and robust resources, we provide a risk-free learning environment where organizations can strengthen their internal policies, practices, and procedures in order to align with widely-accepted standards of nonprofit accountability.

At Grow the Good, Nausheena shared her experience with our online capacity building tool, the Accountability Wizard®, and the positive impact it had on her organization. CAIR-MN needed support in completing the Governance Accountability Standards®, which help nonprofits build and maintain strong governance structures, good management practices and important policies. Nausheen sheepishly shared, "we noticed that our policies needed work, as in, we didn't have some of them."

That's where we come in! Charities Review Council provides sample policies and guidance so that nonprofit professionals, like Nausheena, don't have to start from scratch or re-create the wheel. "Charities Review Council was like nonprofit therapy, they helped us help ourselves," shared Nausheena.

We're Donor Partners. 
Remember, our mission is two-fold. We also support donors by partnering to ensure every precious dollar they give goes to a strong and trustworthy organization. We provide resources and education so donors can feel confident in making informed giving choices.

Julie shared how Charities Review Council resources, information and opportunities for giving helped her build stronger relationships with the organizations she supports. More specifically, with YouthLink, a Charities Review Council Meets Standards® organization, that works with homeless youth, ages 16-23.

Julie was first introduced to Youthlink at the Council's Annual Forum 2014: Disruptive Philanthropy. YouthLink was one of five nonprofits that participated in the Council's first-ever Live-Giving Party, where organizations pitched their big ideas in hopes that attendees would show their support by donating on the spot, that same day! Julie chose YouthLink.

A few months later, Julie had the opportunity to expand on her partnership with YouthLink when she received an award that included a financial gift from her employer. When considering where to direct it, she said,

"It can feel overwhelming knowing there are so many worthy causes out there to give to." 

Julie thought back to the relationship she had formed with YouthLink and knew where she would award her gift. Julie's story reiterates the importance of continually building new and authentic relationships with donors.

After hearing from both Nausheena and Julie, we asked attendees to stand with us in our efforts to build strong, accountable nonprofits, and engaged, informed donors, and they did! We raised more than $8,000 to help grow Council programs, which strengthen our philanthropic community as a whole.

You can help grow greater good in partnership with Charities Review Council too. Click here to financially support programs that strengthen both donors and nonprofits.