Collaborative Consulting Partners with The Home for Little Wanderers

BOSTON — Collaborative Consulting, a company that specializes in optimizing its clients' business and technology capabilities, has partnered with the nation's oldest child and family services agency — The Home for Little Wanderers — to help make holiday wishes come true for at-risk children this holiday season. By donating staff time and services, Collaborative Consulting has created a new functionality for The Home's Big Wishes for Little Wanderers Gift Drive online "wish list" database that will allow donors to fulfill more than 3,600 wishes.

According to Christine Robertson, The Home's Graphic Design and Web Manager, "The Collaborative Consulting Team that has been working on this project has improved the capabilities of our system to make it user-friendly for staff and donors. Their work on the wish list website will not only benefit The Home's donors and program staff, but ultimately the children and families we serve."

The site's new functionalities also allow donors to easily choose between "Adopt a Family" and "Children's Wishlists" links and provide an option to narrow searches by a child or family member's age, gender, and type of gift request.

"Last year we were able to help more than 100 families and nearly 500 family members through our Adopt a Family program," explained Scott Inman senior corporate relations manager. "In tough economic times, many of our families are in desperate need of necessities such as clothing and household items, so the enhancements to the site come at an important time as the need for our services continues to grow."

The Home for Little Wanderers' annual Big Wishes for Little Wanderers Gift Drive is one of the oldest toy drives in the Boston area. The event runs December 1 - 22, 2009. Donations may be delivered to the Toy Room at 161 South Huntington Ave., Jamaica Plain, MA or at a community drop-off location. To learn more, visit the website.

With the increased need this holiday season making a fundraiser more accessible is only going to increase a non-profit's reach to potential donors. By creating an online website to host The Home for Little Wanderers' holiday toy drive, it not only makes it easier for locals to participate, but it creates an opportunity for non-local donors to get involved. Collaborative Consulting Partners is giving this non-profit a gift that will continue to positively affect the community for a long time to come. The best part is, it didn't take loads of money, it just took a company to recognize its strengths and use them for good.

Southwest Airlines Employees Give Turkeys to Feed Thousands

DENVER — In response to a call for help feeding Denver's poor and homeless population during the holidays and beyond, Southwest Airlines today announced a $50,000 donation to the Denver Rescue Mission, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing food, shelter, clothing, and rehabilitation services to the estimated 11,000 homeless people in Denver.

The donation is the largest turkey donation in the Denver Rescue Mission's history, and the food will be distributed to families at this year's Thanksgiving Banquet-in-a-Box and be served at this year's Great Thanksgiving Banquet. Additional turkeys will be distributed to families in need through churches and other non-profits across the Denver Metro area.

"Southwest Airlines is committed to Denver, and our commitment includes helping the less fortunate. In these challenging economic times, we're grateful for the opportunity to step forward to support the Denver Rescue Mission," said Dave LaPorte, Southwest's Station Manager in Denver. "By supporting something so close to the hearts and minds of our Denver Customers and local Employees, we're making an investment to help strengthen our community."

The Denver Rescue Mission will serve the turkeys purchased by Southwest and other donors beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 25, during the Great Thanksgiving Banquet, an annual event hosted by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter. Additional items needed for the Thanksgiving food boxes include canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned pumpkin, boxed stuffing, canned cranberries, and canned yams. Donations can be dropped off at the Denver Rescue Mission's Lawrence Street Shelter at the corner of Park Avenue and Lawrence Street.

"By stepping up to the plate with the largest turkey donation in the Denver Rescue Mission's history, at a time when other local companies have been forced to cut back, Southwest Airlines has demonstrated a strong commitment to the Denver community," said Brad Meuli, president and CEO of the Denver Rescue Mission.

Southwest Airlines Employees from Denver also will volunteer at the Denver Rescue Mission to help prepare for this year's Great Thanksgiving Banquet. Southwest encourages its employees to get involved in the communities they serve through its Share the Spirit program, which helps the airline's Employees make a difference in cities across the U.S.

This is a great example of a national corporation making a big difference in a small community. Southwest's giving model encourages employees to give locally. It would be easy for a corporation of its size to only give to the high profile national nonprofits, but instead they take a much more grassroots approach. It's encouraging to see a company take such pride in the individual communities it serves.

You Decide What Matters

For the first time ever, Facebook® users will be able to choose from more than 500,000 small and local charities to decide which community organizations they want to receive donations totaling millions of dollars from a corporate philanthropy fund. Chase and Facebook launching Chase Community Giving: You Decide What Matters, a grassroots campaign to inspire a new way of corporate philanthropy.

“Every year, our company donates more than $100 million to non-profit organizations in local communities, nationally and abroad, and our employees dedicate countless hours of their own time to helping those in need,” says Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. “The grassroots nature of Facebook will allow us to hear directly which local charities matter most to our communities, hopefully creating an even bigger impact.”

Chase is enlisting Facebook users, now totaling more than 300 million, to vote for which small and local non profits will receive donations totaling $5 million. The eligible charity receiving the most votes will be awarded $1 million, the top five runners-up will receive $100,000 each and the 100 finalists, including the top winners, will be awarded $25,000 each. Additionally, a special Advisory Board featuring members who are active in philanthropy, including actress Eva Longoria, Do Something founder Nancy Lublin and NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson, will allocate a total of $1 million to the nominated charities of its choice.

“Facebook has become a global platform people use for all types of philanthropic causes from medical research and human rights, to disaster assistance and children’s rights,” says Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. “Chase's creative approach -- crowdsourcing for charity -- puts the power of corporate giving directly in the hands of Facebook users. Thanks to the Chase Community Giving program, millions of Americans will be able to join together to have an unprecedented philanthropic impact on communities across the nation.”

Online tools are making it increasingly easy to reach a large consumer base in order to affect change. Much to some's dismay the online world gives the consumer infinite choice, so much so that consumers have come to both expect and relish it. Chase's community giving campaign exemplifies their ability to adapt in order to make the greatest impact — a positive thing, both in for and non profit.