Bombshell Letter

Last week, Terry got a bombshell letter from the unemployment office. She learned her unemployment benefits will expire for good before New Year’s Day. Do you know someone like Terry?

For millions of “99ers” losing their unemployment benefits after nearly two years, no new extended benefits are coming their way. Although this issue has received little local media coverage, state officials are wracking their brains, anticipating a coming tidal wave. As public coffers shrink, agencies are looking to community-based nonprofit agencies to help cushion the blow.

Right now, Community Voice Mail is mounting a response. To learn more you can read our project proposal.

Will you help us? If you are able, I hope you will. Please be as generous as you can so we can be there for our friends and neighbors who need us.

Thank you for caring, and for showing you care.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Brandon

Executive Director

P.S. Community Voice Mail works. Click to hear how.

Community Voice Mail a Finalist for Collaboration Prize

Great news! The Community Voice Mail National Office has been selected as a semifinalist for the 2011 Collaboration Prize, created by The Lodestar Foundation to recognize successful collaborations between nonprofit organizations.

The 20 semifinalists were chosen from over 800 submissions. The collaboration must involve two or more nonprofit organizations. Each collaboration will be judged on the extent to which it demonstrates improved effectiveness in achieving social good; more effectively uses human and financial resources; represents an innovative response to a specific challenge or opportunity; and exhibits characteristics that would demonstrate that the collaboration is a model for the field, sector, or community.

Out of these 20 semifinalists, the Selection Panel – a group chaired by Sterling Speirn, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and comprised of philanthropists and leaders of major philanthropic foundations – will choose eight finalists who will receive $12,500 and the grand prize winner, to be chosen from among the eight, will receive an additional $150,000. The finalists will be announced in early February 2011 and the grand prize winner will be announced in April 2011.

In announcing the semi-finalists, here's what the Lodestar chairman had to say:

“The pool of applicants for the 2011 Prize exceeded our expectations and provided an array of impressive and innovative collaborations from which to choose,” said Jerry Hirsch, The Lodestar Foundation Chairman. “The semifinalists, who successfully leveraged human and financial resources to achieve greater impact, will now serve as models of collaboration for others in the nonprofit sector – showcasing how working together can bring about extraordinary results.”

We're really excited about this, and honored to have been chosen as a semi-finalist. It is a tribute to the good work that our 43 program partners and 2,000 agency partners are doing every day around the U.S. (and in Vancouver, Canada). If you'd like to talk with someone here at the CVM National Office about the Collaboration Prize, please email Andrea John-Smith at ajohn-smith@cvm.org or call us in Seattle at (206)441-7872. You can read our press release about this here.

Photo: Collaboration Prize (www.thecollaborationprize.org)