Essential Services for Non Profit Associations [A Guide]

You’ve most likely heard the terms “charity”, “non-profit”, and even “not-for-profit” used for associations and organizations that support social, environmental, and sometimes, political causes. But all three terms refer to different kinds of entities.

However, the focus of this article is to explain what non-profit associations do, their essential services and how they differ from charities.

What is a Non-Profit Organisation?

A non-profit or not-for-profit organization is a tax-exempt entity that is organized to achieve mutual or public benefits that do not include generating profits for members of the board, owners, or investors.Continue reading

Introducing Siren Song California … for a Sound Life

Founders Captain Charles Buckner and his very scrappy First Mate, Dr Diane Pennica (inventor of Genentech’s Heart Attack and Stroke drug t-PA, have together launched Siren Song California, a Community Outreach Program in Southern California. Visit their website at http://sirensongca.org/.

Siren Song California’s mission is to leverage the extensive boating network in Southern California to provide a free day of sailing on the ocean (Sound Life Event) to health-challenged individuals, their families and caregivers, and youth development organizations (Siren Song’s VIPs).  Sponsors help provide the boats and meals needed for the VIP Sound Life events.

Captain Charles & First Mate Diane

VIP organizations include Southern California hospitals, veterans groups, human services and local youth development groups.  Sound Life Events are scheduled to start in April, 2017, and support VIPs from Olive Crest olivecrest.org and the Marine Corps League – Southcoast Detachment.

The First Annual Siren Song Regatta will be held off Dana Point Harbor, with four VIP Sound Life Boats included in the race, followed by a VIP awards/recognition ceremony and dinner for all racers and Siren Song sponsors at the Dana Point Yacht Club.

Additional Sound Life events are being scheduled throughout the year.  These events will culminate with a Year-In-Review Banquet to share VIPs’ experiences and highlight planned events for the coming year.  The banquet will include the Founder’s Award presentation to recognize Siren Song’s most active and generous contributor(s).

Siren Song California … for a Sound Life

An Inspiring Story of a Woman Who Founded Fund-A-Need

semaMy name is Sema Tosun and I’m the president & founder of Fund-A-Need, a non-profit that focuses on helping low income seniors in San Mateo County. Fund-A-Need provides resources, education, money, goods, and items to low income seniors. I founded Fund-A-Need in February of 2014. I am also the owner of Trapeze restaurant in Burlingame, California, for over 12 years. Recently I gave up my banking & finance career of over 22 years to devote 100% of my time to  the growth of Fund-A-Need.

I was born in Turkey and came to the United States with my family at the age of seven. As a child, adjusting to America was very difficult. I was often bullied by my peers, and it was challenging, but I was fortunate to have such supportive family and friends. I am proud to be both a US Citizen as well as a Turkish Citizen. Continue reading

Simply Dream Your Own Dream by Madalina Bucheru

madalina_bucheru_blog  KWBeing from Eastern Europe (Romania) always gave me a special view of the world, and pushed me to move forward. Eastern Europe is a wonderful place for vacation trips, river cruises and short 15 seconds bits in the news… For me, as a journalist fresh out of college, it was way more: it was my battle ground, the place where I would become someone, make a difference, have my voice heard. Well, it turned out that was not the case, as getting a decent job in any kind of media would actually be reduced to just two simple basic skills: copy and paste! So there I was, after 4 years in college and working at small newspapers, completely lost and confused on whether journalism has actually a voice in Romania. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a job posting within a nonprofit. And that was the beginning of my own dream.

Continue reading

A For-Profit for Nonprofits: Can It Work? By Evelyn Horng

Evelyn Horng picI have always been interested in social causes.  In college, I majored in public policy, and I interned one summer for a nonprofit that organizes done-in-a-day projects for busy people who can’t commit to long term volunteer opportunities.  I also volunteered quite a bit myself – helping to build homes for low income people, pulling out non-native vegetation (aka weeding!), sorting food at a food bank.….

My senior year in college, the obvious set in.  You just don’t make as much money working in nonprofit as you do in the for-profit world.  I envisioned the kind of life I wanted for myself, and the type of funds that would be needed to support it.  And while I never imagined a lavish lifestyle, I just didn’t want to struggle to buy a home in Silicon Valley, or worry about covering all my expenses.

So I entered the corporate world, doing a two-year stint in strategy consulting and then moving on to high tech product management, and climbing the professional ladder.  By the time the kids came around, I started re-thinking how I wanted to spend my time.  I wasn’t quite satisfied in my last job, and I was looking for more….

More personal fulfillment,
More flexible work situation,
More control over what I was doing….

So a co-worker and I started a company called Roonga (www.roonga.com).  Its original goal was to encourage people to share things with their friends and trusted groups.  In doing so, we’d encourage reuse, reduce waste, and help our communities be more sustainable.  But smaller trusted circles made it harder to get rid of things you no longer need, and people didn’t always have the things that you need in these tighter networks.  So recently, we’ve redirected Roonga to work with nonprofits, providing a platform for nonprofits to communicate in-kind needs and building an audience of followers specifically interested in hearing about these.

With the latest turn that Roonga has taken, I feel like I’ve come full circle back to where I started.  We are working with nonprofits to improve the efficiency of their in-kind donations, and to support their causes by opening up their audience.  In the process, I am learning a lot about the local causes in Silicon Valley, and I am having a great time doing this!

However, it remains to be seen whether we can build a successful for-profit company working with nonprofits.  Roonga is a for-profit company – we like the potential of allowing employees to benefit from the company’s success, and we feel it is important to reward talent at competitive for-profit rates.  And for me, I like the self-fulfillment of working for a nonprofit cause, while also still retaining the for-profit mindset.  I’d like to think that we can take the best of both worlds and meld them into Roonga – but we are only at the beginning of our journey and still have a long way to go…..  The future is ahead of us, and we’ll have to see where we end up.

In the meantime, take a look at our nonprofit beta, follow one of our local nonprofits (http://www.roonga.com/nonprofit/#california), and let me know what you think!  Email me at ehorng@roonga.com with any thoughts, suggestions, or feedback.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Evelyn Horng is the co-founder of Roonga, a Silicon Valley startup.  She was previously VP, Product Management, at MLSListings, Inc., and held other product management positions in various high tech companies.  She has a B.A. in Public Policy from Stanford University.  She spends most of her spare time trying to keep up with her two young sons.