Newsletters

Common Connection

Volume 5, Number 2: October 1, 2004

This archived newsletter is from Harbinger Partners, before it
joined forces with the Corporate Volunteer Network to become Common Impact.

The volunteer team was really interested in helping us out--they never really made me feel like anything I said would be stupid, and always took the time to make sure we knew what was going on. And they were fun. They weren't so techie that we couldn't communicate and laugh -- just nice, down-to-earth people.

-- Ron Bersani, Executive Director of Talking Information Center (TIC), a nonprofit participant in the Technology Pioneers Program

The program is fun, it works, and it's a great way to bring us together…Becoming aware of what TIC is and what they do opens your mind to something you weren't aware of at all before.

-- A volunteer team from BEA Systems, reflecting on their introduction to TIC through the Technology Pioneers Program

Our Technology Pioneers: An Update on Progress to Date

Congratulations to the 2004 Fall and Winter Technology Pioneers!

As summer gives way to crisp fall weather, and Presidential candidates enter the last laps of their marathon campaigns, we've been busy selecting our newest group of Technology Pioneers -- five intrepid organizations ready to partner with us and tackle their toughest technology issues! We continue to be impressed with the caliber of the many applications we receive, making our choices tougher than ever. We are proud to be affiliated with nonprofits doing such important work in our community.

This fall also marks a new first for us -- working with a Technology Pioneers Program alumni organization! On the Rise, which participated in the program's pilot year, again joins us to do an in-depth network technology plan and volunteer project. By working with alumni organizations, we are able to offer more continuity in our support to nonprofits. We'll keep you posted as we continue to work with alumni nonprofits in the future!

Please join us in congratulating the five nonprofits starting this fall and the five nonprofits selected to start this winter! (Read their full profiles at http://www.harbingerpartners.org/go/tpp/profiles/.) Keep an eye out for our spring application, which will be due January 15th, 2005!

Fall Technology Pioneers

Cape Verdean Community UNIDO
Cape Verdean Community UNIDO performs outreach to, informs, and organizes the Cape Verdean community around self-empowerment and social and economic development, while advocating for and accessing resources that meet the needs of the community.
Hattie B. Cooper Community Center (http://www.cooperctr.org/)
The Hattie B. Cooper Community Center provides children and youth with the strongest developmental foundation to inspire a lifelong excitement for learning and the skills to become caring and responsible citizens.
Families First Parenting Programs (http://www.families-first.org/)
Families First strengthens families of all backgrounds and life circumstances by providing parenting education and support through seminars, workshops, and consultations.
On the Rise (http://www.ontherise.org/)
On the Rise helps women who are homeless or in crisis find safety and discover new possibilities.
YouthBuild USA (http://www.youthbuild.org/)
YouthBuild USA, a national nonprofit organization, supports a nationwide network of 200 local YouthBuild programs. YouthBuild programs help unemployed and undereducated young people aged 16-24 work toward their GED or high school diploma while learning construction skills by building affordable housing for homeless and low-income people.

Winter Technology Pioneers

The Global Habitat Project (http://www.greenscreen.org/)
The Global Habitat inspires urban youth by providing them with opportunities to engage as curious and successful students while becoming conscientious environmental leaders, active community role models, and responsible citizens.
The Network/La Red (http://www.thenetworklared.org/)
The Network/La Red works to end domestic violence in lesbian, bisexual women's and transgender (LBT) communities. Through the formation of a multicultural organization in which battered LBT folks hold leadership roles, community organizing, education and the provision of support services, and coalition-building with other movements for social change and social justice, The Network/La Red seeks to create a culture in which domination, coercion and control are no longer accepted social norms.
National Alliance for Mental Illness -Massachusetts (http://www.namimass.org/)
NAMI, a grassroots organization of individuals with brain disorders and their family members, aims to eradicate brain disorders and improve the quality of life of persons of all ages who are affected by them.
St. Mary's Women and Children's Center (http://www.smwcc.org/)
St. Mary's Women and Children's Center helps young families grapple with persistent social problems of our time, including teenage pregnancy and parenting, family homelessness, partner and community violence, mental illness, addiction, poverty, and child abuse and neglect.
Summerbridge Cambridge (http://www.summerbridgecambridge.org/)
Summerbridge Cambridge, a year-round, tuition-free education program committed to educational equality, provides middle school students with challenging and enriching activities while training talented high school and college students for careers in education.

Congratulations and Farewell!

A couple of nonprofits will be proud owners of new databases at the end of this month, as a result of their participation in the Technology Pioneers Program. Thanks to volunteer teams from Fidelity Investments, Generations Incorporated's after-school program will get a new student-tracking database. A second database will help Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services track its volunteers, donors, and general constituents.

The Holden School has also recently completed their volunteer project to facilitate moving student records to an electronic format. They'll save hours every month by no longer manually calculating attendance information.

Congratulations to all, and thanks to Marisa Carnevale, Susan Johnson, Patty Kausel, Dan Lepow, Ken Oasis, Ken Palmer, Al Toby, and the other volunteers who have made these projects possible!

Strategic Teams for Technology: Our Newest Program

Welcome, After-School Programs!

Our new program for after-school organizations, Strategic Teams for Technology, has been launched! With the help of Boston's After-School for All Partnership, we have a great group of new organizations and are excited to help them build their technology capacities. So, welcome to:

Bowdoin After-School Program at St. Peter's
Greenwood Shalom After-School Program
Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion (IBA)
La Alianza Hispana
Mason School
Showdown Youth Development Organization
Sportsmen's Tennis Club
Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry

We will select the final two after-school programs in mid-October. Look for them in our December newsletter!

Many Thanks

We get by with a little help from our friends -- what an understatement! This month, we would especially like to recognize:

The creative folks lending their brains to our Marketing and Communications Working Group: Judy Axten, Eric Bedell, Mary Conway, Jim Matheson, and Charlotte Wagner.

Harvard Business School Community Action Partners (CAP), who will connect Harbinger Partners to a team of Harvard Business School alumni to help us develop a marketing plan.

The Germeshausen Foundation for a generous $10,000 grant in support of Strategic Teams for Technology.

Fleet National Bank, a Bank of America Company and Trustee of the Charles H. Pearson Trust, for a $30,000 multi-year grant in support of Strategic Teams for Technology.

The Surdna Foundation for a $25,000 grant to help us build a web-based system that will help us more effectively manage our programs.

What's News...

Eat and Earn

What could be better than having your lunch catered while earning some cold, hard cash for Harbinger Partners? Very little, we think. To that end, Harbinger Partners has formed a relationship with vMeals, an online catering service that brings tasty fare from some of Boston's best restaurants to your company for an all-inclusive charge. When you order your company's next lunch through vMeals (http://www.vmeals.com/) and enter "Harbinger" as your promotional code, vMeals will contribute 10% of your total order to Harbinger Partners. What could be better?

Harbinger Partners Named a Finalist for Social Innovation Forum!

Harbinger Partners was recently selected as a finalist to participate in the Social Innovation Forum! The Social Innovation Forum strengthens the nonprofit sector by promoting, connecting, and supporting social entrepreneurs and social investors. Along with five other nonprofits -- the Boston Children's Chorus, the Boston Health Care Research & Training Institute, Close to Home, Rediscovery House, and Viet-AID -- Harbinger Partners will have to opportunity to present our work to a crowd of social investors on November 30th. We're thrilled to have this opportunity!

A New Look for Harbinger Partners!

With the help of Willy Wong, a volunteer graphic designer, and a $23,000 grant from Sappi Fine Paper North America, Harbinger Partners will receive a new communications campaign. Keep your eyes peeled for the results, to be unveiled this spring!

BEA Foundation Highlights Harbinger Partners

The BEA Foundation recently featured our work with BEA Systems employees in their internal newsletter. Check out the article here: http://www.harbingerpartners.org/news.asp?news=20040917.

Best of the Web

As we were wandering the web this month, we stumbled across Mission Minded (http://www.mission-minded.com/) a company that provides marketing and communications for nonprofits. They have a useful resource called "10 Mistakes Nonprofits Make When Creating Communications Materials" that outlines some simple tips to keep in mind when communicating your work. We highly recommend you take a look here: http://www.mission-minded.com/images/pdf/mm-10Mistakes.pdf.

The Small Print

Thank you for reading the quarterly newsletter of Common Impact! We welcome your comments and contributions. Please send all inquiries to:

Common Impact
The Athenaeum Building
215 First Street, Suite 25
Cambridge, MA 02142-1236
Phone: (617) 492-3105
E-Mail: info@commonimpact.org