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Save the date! #GivingTuesday: December 2nd, 2014

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With exactly 5 months to go, the countdown is officially “on” for #GivingTuesday on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014. The Catalogue is excited to be a partner once again to raise money for our charities on the heels of the biggest shopping days of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

From a press release, distributed today by United Nations Foundation:
Last year #GivingTuesday again proved the power of social media and the generosity of people around the world to bring about real change in their communities when they give back. In 2013, statistics showed an increase in online giving and a surge in the number of partners who rallied to make the day a success. This year, as partners from around the world support the global movement, #GivingTuesday is transforming the way that people think about the giving season with a global call to “get out the give.” Online tools, social media toolkits, webinars and a new interactive website make it easy for people to get involved, share their stories and tips, and highlight a global call to action for partners everywhere.

In September, the Catalogue will announce this year’s #GivingTuesday campaign plan and begin working with our nonprofits to ensure a successful event. We’ll continue posting updates on the blog — stay tuned!

Do More 24

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There’s still time! Nonprofit organizations across the region are participating in DoMore24 (until midnight tonight!) a day of giving towards community causes. So many of “the best” charities featured in the Catalogue are raising funds today — for soccer uniforms, to publish teen authored books, to provide legal services to homeless individuals and low-income refugees and so much more.

Need some inspiration? Check out our listing of great nonprofits here!

And as a bonus, several of our charities have matching funds to double the impact of your gift today. Take a look at these Catalogue charities, listed by category:

ARTS

ENVIRONMENT & COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

EDUCATION

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

Spring2ACTion in Alexandria on April 9th

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On April 9th, the City of Alexandria will Spring2ACTion with 24 hours of giving to support the powerful work of community charities. Hosted by ACT for Alexandria, this year’s goal is raise $1,000,000 (last year, Spring2ACTion raised more than $600,000 for 97 charities)!

Currently, 13 charities in the Catalogue for Philanthropy network are Alexandria-based. Spring2ACTion is your chance to support these organizations in a big way: each donation provides a chance for them to win up to $40,000 in grants and prizes.

Each charity has a campaign page on Razoo that details how you can make a difference at various giving levels, from $10 (which can provide fresh coffee for 80 residents at Carpenter’s Shelter, for example), all the way up to $1,000 (which can pay for an educational field trip for 105 students in Community Lodging’s summer program).

See below for the Spring2ACTion campaign pages for participating Catalogue for Philanthropy charities:

ALIVE!

The Art League

Carpenter’s Shelter

Center for Alexandria’s Children

Community Lodgings

Computer CORE

Empowered Woman International Inc

Friends of Guest House, Inc

Liberty’s Promise

SCAN of Northern Virginia

Senior Services of Alexandria

The Child and Family Network Centers

The Joey Pizzano Memorial Fund Inc

Don’t forget to tweet us @CatalogueDC to tell us how you’re participating in Spring2ACTion 2014!

Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena Makes Skating Accessible to All

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At the Catalogue for Philanthropy we’re always so excited when one of our charities’ programs is in the media, especially when that media is the front page of the Washington Post! Today, Post writer Jacqueline Kantor covered the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club, a program which is housed in the Fort Dupont Ice Arena (the Catalogue is proud to have the Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena as one of our Human Services charities).

Described as a “little-known secret” in Southeast D.C., the 36-year-old Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club (also known as the Fort Dupont Cannons) is the oldest club in a National Hockey League program that was designed to promote the sport in urban neighborhoods. Each week, children ages 8-18 hit the ice to not only practice the sport of hockey, but also to gain new experiences through travel, and learn important lessons such as the value of hard work and gratitude. While participation comes at no financial cost to players and their families, coaches do expect students to share their report cards with coaches and attend practice regularly. All of this seems to pay off, as the program boasts an impressive 95 percent high school graduation rate. To read the full article about the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club in the Washington Post, click here.

Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena

In 1996 the goal was simple: prevent the National Park Service’s scheduled closing of the only public indoor ice arena in DC. Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena succeeded, not only in saving the rink, but also in creating a vibrant community resource in Ward 7. Today, the Fort Dupont Ice Arena — an America’s Promise “Safe Place” for young people with structured activities during non-school hours — offers number of programs for young people to stay fit and learn valuable lessons about life.

One of those programs, Kids On Ice, is a community ice skating program for children ages 5 to 18 years old, offering free lessons with all equipment provided. Kids on Ice programs include basic skating skills, speed and figure skating, ice hockey (see above), and more. Since all of these programs are at no cost to participants, Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena relies on the community to help through volunteer work, material and financial contributions.

Volunteer opportunities: Are you a medium-advanced level skater willing to lend a hand for a few hours each week? Channel your inner Dorothy Hamill or Apollo Ohno as an instructor for a Kids on Ice class! All Kids on Ice classes are taught by volunteer instructors. Each of the five programs — Basic Skills, Advanced Figure Skating, Synchronized Skating, Ice Hockey, and Speed Skating — are managed by a qualified instructor who instructs volunteers how to teach each specific class.

In addition to helping on the rink, volunteers are also needed off the rink to help with general office assistance during the week, and concessions and skate shop assistance on Saturdays. Click the “volunteer” link on the Catalogue page for details.

To donate: You can also support the Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena by donating equipment, offering scholarship support, or directly supporting the Kids on Ice Program through a donation to Friends of Fort Dupont Ice Arena. For $50, you can provide helmets and gloves for new ice skaters; $250: 8 weeks of Learn to Skate; $500: two skating lessons for a school group of 30 children.

#GivingTuesday is here! How will you make an impact in your community today?

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Since Thanksgiving, retailers have been promoting incredible steals and deals to help you complete your holiday shopping. What if you could turn the pennies you saved from those deals into pennies given to our Catalogue for Philanthropy charities?

The Catalogue’s #APennySaved campaign, in partnership with #GivingTuesday, combines the thrill of saving with the thrill of giving. We encourage you to turn your holiday savings into tangible good in the community through your support of our 350+ vetted charities.

After you give, don’t forget to tell us about it on social media! Use the hashtags #GivingTuesday and #APennySaved to tell us about how you’re supporting our community with the money you saved. Together we can make this a season of getting AND a season of giving.

Looking for ideas on ways to give? Think about how you saved, and use the wish lists below to guide your giving! Remember, this is only a small sample of our network of 350+ charities. Go to cfp-dc.org/nonprofits to learn more about them.

Saved $10 on a gift for your sibling? Use that $10 for:

Saved $25 on a gift for mom or dad? Use that $25 for:

And for the really savvy shoppers out there…Did you save $50 on a holiday gift?Use that $50 for:

Happy Giving!!

Congratulations to Barbara Harman!

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On November 1, the Catalogue’s President and Editor, Barbara Harman, was named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of DC’s “Most Powerful Women.” Selected biannually by the magazine’s editors, the list includes 117 of the area’s most influential women in government, business, health, media, law, education, nonprofits, and the arts. Barbara is recognized for her work in “shaping the dialogue about which small Washington charities are best.” And she is in good company! This year’s list includes First Lady Michelle Obama, Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, as well as Catalogue supporters and partners such as Rose Ann Cleveland (Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation), Terri Lee Freeman (Community Foundation for the National Capital Region), Nicky Goren (The Women’s Foundation), and Julie Rogers (Meyer Foundation).

The list of the “Most Powerful Women” is featured in the November 2013 issue of Washingtonian magazine. A reception recognizing the honorees will be held at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13.

From all of us here at the Catalogue: Congratulations, Barbara!

Do More 24

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by Madeline Josef, Catalogue Intern

Giving. We do it every day; some of us give our time, some of us give our money (and some do both!). Some pick larger multi-focused or international organizations, others pick smaller charities with a more local scope. At the Catalogue, we are especially supportive of these local giving efforts. “Give Where You Live,” our guiding mantra, kind of sums this idea up; we are proud to partner with local charities so that giving has a real and marked effect on different DC communities. Part of this partnership includes working with the United Way, and we are excited to be a community sponsor of their current campaign, Do More 24!

Do More 24 is an effort by the United Way of the National Capital Area to encourage giving to a huge array of local charities in one single day. The UWNCA has created a searchable platform to match up potential donors with charities that appeal to their interests and passions, organized into different areas of impact (education, health, arts and culture, etc.). Each registered charity can create their own page with descriptions, links, videos, and a wish list of what different amounts of monetary gifts could tangibly give to their organization. The donation portal is now open, and charities can update their pages with real-time donation counts.

While the focus on Do More 24 is on how much charities can give in one day, donors can give right now, continuing until 10 days after the actual event on June 6th. The idea of the “one day” concept is to illustrate the positive influence we have on others in our community and how together in one day we can create real, local change. Do More 24 will show the power of our collective giving, using philanthropy to bring people together and show even the minimum donation of $10 makes a difference.

At the Catalogue, we are proud to announce that many of our charities, current and alums, are participating in Do More 24, which is only a week away! Carpenter’s Shelter, a Catalogue nonprofit from 2009-2010 and recent runner-up, has a detailed and interactive page on the Do More 24 website explaining their goals and mission. The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, another member of the Catalogue family, also has a fascinating page full of information about their organization- and they have already raised over $150 dollars! Joy of Motion Dance Center, another 2009-2010 charity, has a great page and unique mission: to use the joy of dance to appeal to the youngest and oldest members of our community (as well as everyone in between) with their specially-tailored programs. Again, these are just a few of our nonprofits who are participating- be sure to check out the pages of Five Talents, Rachael’s Women Center, Shelter House, and the pages of our NEW CLASS of amazing nonprofits 2013-2014, including Reach, Inc, and the DC Diaper Bank, among many others!

On the day of giving itself – June 6, one week from today – there will also be a multitude of fundraising events, many from Catalogue-vetted charities. Stop by the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts on U Street to complete work on their Healing Retreat Nook. Safe Shores will be hosting a happy hour with free refreshments and live jazz at 1776. Turning the Page will be throwing a wine and cheese-filled artwork exhibition at GWU, and Encore will have a free performance at froyo haven Tutti Frutti in Arlington. Hospice Caring will also be hosting a day-long “Coffee for a Cause” event, featuring free java and live music, at the Music Cafe in Damascus. Go to any of these events to support your local charities and to see in real time the power of group giving.

Together, we can make a difference, even in just one day; every dollar counts. Don’t forget, June 6th will be a great day to give where you live!

Request for Proposals

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Happy New Year, friends!

And on this second day of the year, the application for the the 2013 Catalogue for Philanthropy is live and online:

The mission of the Catalogue is to create strong and vibrant communities by connecting caring citizens with worthy community causes. We do this by raising visibility and resources for the best small community-based nonprofits, and engaging donors in a more meaningful giving experience. To that end we publish an annual print Catalogue that is distributed to 25,000 high net worth individuals, encouraging them to give to vetted, community-based nonprofits. The past few years have seen new channels of distribution open for the Catalogue and its featured nonprofits — through corporate portals and our workplace giving program, a budding school portal program, and partnerships with local media.

Applications are due on February 25, 2013, at midnight. As we did last year, we’ll feature some FAQs a bit later in the month. So if you have any questions about the process, feel free to leave them in the comments and we will be sure to tackle them.

Looking forward to reading your application!

Please Stand With Us

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As 2012 turns into 2013, we are particularly grateful to all of you who have helped us raise over $19mm (and counting) for some of the best small charities in the greater Washington DC region.

Your support means:

* 47,639 people served in outdoor education programs each year
* 3,486,841 hours of tutoring/mentoring annually
* 957,570 people served in arts outreach programs
* 99,578 medical exams and referrals
* 1,474,415 meals served to hungry people each year

If you haven’t contributed this year, please take a moment to make your tax-deductible contribution before the year ends Choose the charities that mean the most to you, and please give generously. You can do so with confidence, knowing that Catalogue nonprofits have been vetted in a rigorous review process that takes months to complete.

And consider making a contribution to the Catalogue itself, and helping us help the 330 nonprofits in our network to do what they do best. The Catalogue is a tremendous community resource and we charge no fees for the work we do: generous donors like you make the Catalogue possible.

So stand with us as we work together to make this community a better place to live. And if you’ve already given, please accept our thanks — on behalf of all the great nonprofits that are proud to say they are part of the Catalogue family.