By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
The Seattle Medium Newspaper Group in collaboration with Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle have launched their Support Black Orgs Initiative to help build awareness and support for local Black non-profit organizations by encouraging community members to support their efforts by volunteering their time and/or making donations.
Due to lack of resources and COVID related lags in human resources, volunteerism has waned over the past few years, and many small non-profits lack the staffing and resources to adequately meet the growing need for their services.
A key component of the initiative is the creation of an online volunteer mobilization platform – supportblackorgs.com – which will serve as a hub for local non-profits to list and promote their upcoming volunteer opportunities, programming and events.
In addition, the platform will allow community members to search for local volunteer opportunities with non-profits serving the African American and other under-served communities, donate to individual organizations, keep track of their volunteer activities with participating organizations, and receive updates on opportunities that they’ve volunteered for.
By establishing a dedicated resource for people to learn about local organizations and their volunteer opportunities through the Support Black Orgs Initiative, the Seattle Medium and its partners have created a pathway for community members to provide local non-profits with the resources that they need to grow, flourish and continue to impact our community in positive ways.
“Black people have a legacy of giving back. Whether it is to our churches, supporting loved ones, or helping our neighbors. We are often our own first responders,” says Michelle Merriweather, President and CEO of The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. “The Urban League is honored to partner in creating a pathway for our community to find avenues to support our organization, and other organizations doing great work in our community through your time, talent, and treasure. I am grateful for the Medium for leading the charge!”
“During this time of awareness and support, which is way overdue for the African American community, it is important that while we have this moment, that we put systems and initiatives, like the Seattle Medium’s Support Black Orgs Initiative, in place so that it becomes more than just a moment, it is something that is lasting,” says Teresa Everett, Public Resource and Development Director for the Atlantic Street Organization, a local non-profit that helps families and communities raise healthy and successful children and youth through direct services and advocacy in Seattle.
“This [initiative] will continue to help benefit organizations like the Atlantic Street Center and help us continue to thrive and do the much-needed work in the community,” added Everett.
According to Chris B. Bennett, Publisher/CEO of The Seattle Medium newspaper, the goal of the initiative is to not only provide financial and human resources to help our local non-profit organizations, but also to provide them with the infrastructure to recruit and manage volunteers more effectively, and to publicize their efforts to make our community better.
“We know that many small non-profits do not have the resources to properly market and promote what they do, request donations/financial support, and solicit volunteers that can ultimately help them expand their reach and impact on the community,” said Bennett. “This initiative will allow local non-profits to promote themselves to a larger audience, recruit and manage volunteers more efficiently, create and manage a volunteer database, and receive donations all in one place.”
“Let me be very clear when I say this,” continued Bennett. “This is not something that we are doing because we applied for and received some type of grant, this is something that we want to do and have to do in order to make sure that these organizations that mean so much to our community are in the best position possible to continue serving our community as they have done for so many years. To that end, we are putting our own resources behind this initiative and are asking for members of our community to answer this call to action.”
Brigette Hempstead, founder and president of Cierra Sisters, a breast cancer awareness and support organization in Seattle, says that collaborations like the Support Black Orgs Initiative are important to the collective advancement and unification of our local, Black non-profit community.
“The importance of collaboration with other Black organizations is one, although our causes may be different, because we deal with racism in many different ways our collaborative voice will be even stronger for each of our causes,” says Hempstead. “We have to be united and not siloed the way the system is set up, because it is set up to divided the Black community. We have to see past that and come together as a united voice and support one another’s causes because the causes are bigger than us or the individual.”
Community members are encouraged to visit supportblackorgs.com to learn about the work of local non-profits, and how they can support their efforts through volunteerism and donations.
“We encourage everyone to visit supportblackorgs.com and find out how they can support organizations that have a proven track record when it comes to supporting our community,” says Bennett. “We will continue to add more organizations and their volunteer efforts to the portal throughout the course of this initiative, so we encourage people to comeback to the site frequently in order to learn about new opportunities as they become available.”