The Giving Game
Late last year, we held our first Brighton Jones community-wide Giving Game, and it was a hit! A handful of our clients and colleagues took the (virtual) stage to make lightning round pitches for the non-profit organizations they love. All audience members were given tokens representing dollars to be donated by Brighton Jones to dole out to the organizations best aligned with their passions and values. Altogether, we gave away $10,000!
We want to share our immense gratitude for everyone who participated and helped make this event such a success. For those who missed it, read on to learn about the wonderful organizations we got to hear about.
Black Farmers Collective/Yes Farm
The Black Farmers Collective is a mutual aid network of Black-led, regenerative farms in partnership with other BIPOC farmers, organizers, and leaders creating a food system for healthier communities. They believe the key to a more sustainable, equitable future for communities of color requires addressing food insecurity and fighting for food sovereignty. Yes Farm is an urban farm in the Yesler neighborhood of Seattle, plus four acres located in Woodinville, WA. As a part of the Black Farmers Collective, Yes Farm provides opportunities to improve the health of the local community by creating space for people of color to bring an urban food system to their neighborhood.
Humble Design
Humble Design serves individuals, families, and veterans emerging from homelessness by transforming empty houses into warm, welcoming homes using donated furniture and household goods. The design team creates personalized homes based on their clients’ needs and preferences, to turn moving in into moving forward. Humble Design believes in providing living spaces that foster joy, safety, warmth, and comfort, and the impact of the work they do is compelling. Up to 50 percent of families return to homelessness within a year of securing housing, but less than 1 percent return to homelessness with Humble Design’s help.
Generation Justice
The American foster care system provides temporary homes for approximately 500,000 children every year, and that system is broken. Thirty-seven percent of abused children who enter state care are sexually assaulted while in the system. Generation Justice was created to serve as a voice for children who suffer harm and mistreatment by advocating for their justice and safety. In the two years since its founding, Generation Justice has created and passed 13 laws that help children stay safe in foster care and leave the system faster. To date, they have provided pro bono law services to over 700 children. Generation Justice is committed to being the lifeline that will pull this generation up and bring an end to the violence.
Shielding Our Defenders
Launched by a group of teens in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shielding Our Defenders aims to provide safety to America’s health care workers. The multicultural group has utilized its strategic leadership partnerships and international connections to secure personal protection equipment supply chains. Shielding Our Defenders has helped bridge shortages to medical centers in over 30 cities, distributing over 21,500 surgical-grade masks and respirators. The group is now launching an initiative to provide schools with the resources needed to open to students—sooner, safer, and sustainably.
SR3 SeaLife Response, Rehabilitation, and Research
SR3 is committed to advancing the health and welfare of marine life in the Pacific Northwest. Their response team assists animals in crisis, whether they’ve become entangled in marine debris, are victims of ship strikes, or otherwise found injured on or near the shores of the Salish Sea. Their rehabilitation crew and veterinarians help monitor and restore environments and individual animals. SR3 has just opened the Pacific Northwest’s first and only marine wildlife hospital dedicated to rehabilitating vulnerable animals, including seals, turtles, sea lions, and more.
The Seattle Children’s Journey Program
Experiencing the loss of a child is unfathomably traumatic for families. When it happens, parents, siblings, and extended family members go through the many stages of grief. The Journey Program at Seattle Children’s Hospital provides personalized care, counseling, and support at this critical time, free of charge. The Journey Program’s approach is proactive, culturally responsive, includes intentional outreach to marginalized grieving populations, and assigns clinicians that are linguistically and ethically congruent to amplify their ability to meet families where they are at.
Website | Donate (designate your gift to “The Journey Program”)
The Feels/Art Together
Beginning in 2017, The Feels launched community-based art events that feature select, local artists from around the Greater Pacific Northwest region. Growing in size and demand year after year, these art events celebrate artists of color and of the LGBTQ+ community while providing a platform to extend the reach of their work. Harnessing the fundraising power of these art events, The Feels developed and funds an ongoing program for Seattle youth to connect with local, professional artists called Art Together.
The Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance
The Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance (SVM) provides social and emotional support for youth in need or those facing barriers to success. Since 1996, SVM has helped school children by pairing them with a caring adult who makes a big difference in their lives through one-on-one school-based mentoring. SVM’s approach is unique because they address the social and emotional needs of mentees by providing dedicated, in-school mentorship. Mentors make a long-term commitment to their volunteering, ensuring that they’ll be a constant source of guidance throughout the child’s formative years. For the past five years, SVM has celebrated a 100 percent high school graduation rate with their mentees having a developed a plan for what’s next: career, trade school, college, or beyond.
Adeso
With footprints in Somalia and Kenya, Adeso focuses on community-led change to improve farming practices in desert regions. With the vision of capacity and capability-building, the team has provided education and training opportunities to more than 500,000 people. Adeso’s programs include solar-powered technology support, which helps families earn a living while reducing the burden of fuel expenses. The social enterprise programs provide innovative solutions to aid communities’ infrastructures. Adeso believes in the importance of shifting power and transforming the current humanitarian and development ecosystem to meet the demands of our rapidly changing world.
The Holocaust Center for Humanity
Since 1989, the Holocaust Center for Humanity has taught the history of the Holocaust so that our local survivors, their families, and millions of other victims will not be forgotten, and their stories would inspire positive action. Through education, events, field trips, museum visits, and community programs, the Holocaust Center for Humanity remains dedicated to its responsibility to fight hate by educating students, teachers, and the general public about the dangers of intolerance and the difference each one of us can make.
Mona Foundation
Founded in 1999, Mona Foundation supports grassroots initiatives around the world that educate children, empower women and girls, and enable them to transform their own communities. Mona Foundation supports schools and programs that serve economically disadvantaged communities. These initiatives focus on academic excellence, fine arts, character development, and service to train capable, ethical, and altruistic students who contribute to the betterment of their families, communities, and ultimately their nation.
Stay tuned for an announcement about the 2021 edition of the Giving Game!