Georgia Focus - Giving Tues

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
and Use Network. Tuesday, December the second is Giving Tuesday.
Everyone goes to a website called Georgiagives dot org and
gives their favorite nonprofit. Georgia Center for Nonprofits creates thriving
communities by helping nonprofit succeed. Karen Bieber is a president
and CEO of Georgia Center for Nonprofits and talks with
us about Giving Tuesday. Well, Karen, it's time for Giving

(00:32):
Tuesday coming up this Tuesday. What's Giving Tuesday?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Giving Tuesday, Georgia Gibbs on.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Giving Tuesday is the state's day of generosity. It's a
day when everyone can pitch in and give a little
or a lot to a cause that they care about.
All they have to do is go to gagives dot org.
It is our states Giving Tuesday. So a lot of
people get the mixed up. It's gagibs dot org and

(00:58):
they can look for a cause right in their backyard
by zip code or keyword, pull it up and give
to that organization within a couple of clicks. And what
we're trying to do is get everyone involved, especially in
this year when the needs.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Are so great, right, and it's Giving Tuesday. Why is
it this Tuesday after Thanksgiving?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
It was really put.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
That way because we have, you know, a couple of
days of spending, right, we have Black Friday and Cyber
Monday and all of that, and we thought that the
state in the country really needed a day to also
give back, and so that is Giving Tuesday. It's the
first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and that this year is December second,

(01:40):
and so on December second, folks can just log into
ga gifts dot Org. Like I said, find a cause
that they care about. If they care about dogs and
they don't know where to give, just put the word
dog in the keyword search bar and it'll pull back
everything from Guide Dogs for the Blind to the Humane
Society and they give to that, and certainly give to

(02:01):
the things that are high on everybody's mind this year
around food and security and rent and emergency assistance and
childcare and all of those kinds of things.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
And don't spend all your money on shopping. Just holds
the back to give, right, I'm Giving Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think that is so important. It is something that
you can engage your kids in. You maybe give them
a few dollars and have them talk about what they
are thankful for a cause that they really touches their heart.
Where there's a need, there's a nonprofit. You can find
a nonprofit that does a lot, you know, almost anything
really in the state and give right in your backyard

(02:39):
and teach a great lesson to your kids, but also
for you adults out there that may not have.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Kids or just may want to give.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
It is just a really great time of year to
think about the things that you're thankful for, the blessings
that have been given to you in your life, and
choose a cause and choose to support it.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Now. Georgia Center for Nonprofits, What did what did you do? Exactly? You?
You cover nonprofits? But how are you? Who owns you? Who,
who's who pays for you? Who makes you possible for
you to do what you do?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
We are a nonprofit organization ourselves, and our whole reason
for existing is to help nonprofit succeed through management, better management, leadership,
and governance.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
And that's what we do.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
So we think when communities thrive, uh, there are nonprofits
behind that, just as there are you know, great businesses
and great you know, well functioning government, there has to
be a really well functioning nonprofit sector. And so what
we do is is work to strengthen the capacity of
nonprofits across the state. And we're working with you know,

(03:45):
all the nonprofits in every community, uh to do that
with all the things that aren't.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
The front facing mission.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
It's how to how to manage your staff and how
to you know, uh, you know, be accountable for your funds,
how to have a great board, how to manage volunteers.
All of those things we work with nonprofits to do,
and nonprofits themselves support us. We certainly get support from
a lot of area foundations and corporations and we really

(04:13):
appreciate that, but the bulk of our support comes from
nonprofits themselves.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
You know.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
And I've working with nonprofits before. I can tell you
you need somebody like you, you really do, because you'll
do this and this and you'll be uh, oh I
didn't do that, and get to do it right? You know,
what do I do? You handle everything? As far as
nonprofits right.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
We really do have a lot of services that help
nonprofits manage and govern and lead well in community. And
that's everything from having the right data to understand the
need and community to helping them understand how to manage
a board, how to manage their finances, how to manage
their staff, how to manage volunteers. It's all of the
back office things that you need to do. Just like

(04:54):
you might own a pizza restaurant, Well, it's not all
about just pizza. You have to manage your finances and
your staff and your supply chain and all the things
to make that business great. And nonprofits are no different.
We just make community profits. We don't make profits for people.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Right. How many members do you have? Roughly change.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
We serve about five thousand organizations a year across the
entire state. And so they're coming to something that we do,
whether that's training or consulting or grabbing a resource or
participating in Georgia Gives Day on Giving Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Right, right, And that's mainly what you want you to do.
You go to Georgia Gibs and give a give give
because it is not just your your clients, but it's
every nonprofit.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
When people give to Georgia Gibs, I'm Giving Tuesday, they're
literally giving to the cause that they care about, and
the money goes straight out to that cause and so
it's not going to Georgia Gives Day. Georgia Gives Day
is just the mechanism through which money is routed to
that nonprofit. And we have a platform, it's ga gives
dot org and that's really just a search platform. It

(05:59):
has all of the charities in the state of Georgia
and folks can find the one that they or cause
that they particularly care about, or a single group. If
you really want to give the Salvation Army, you can
look up Salvation Army in your local area and and
it will bring back that group and you can give
directly to them, or you can give, you know, maybe
discover an organization you might have been looking for, you know,

(06:22):
like I said, as something that is about you know,
the place that you live, like a park to support
or the environment. So you can put those keywords in
your zip code and they'll pull back organizations that do
that very thing.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
It really is an easy website. You can just look
at this give now and give, just give, and it
shows you everything.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Yeah, that is exactly what it's all about, is just
making giving easy and accessible. You don't have to worry
about you don't have to think about it. You'll get
an automatatic response into your email that will allow you
to then use that for tax purposes if you are
an itemizer. And certainly you can also give like a
tribute to somebody that you care about. I'm giving this

(07:01):
gift to the Humane Society on behalf of the you
know my friend, my you know friend dog that died,
or or my dad or whatever you have. You can
find a cause you can give a tribute. And we
also have prizes John that that organizations can compete for.
It just helps kind of amplify the message. So, for example,

(07:25):
Arby's has put up thousands of dollars to help organizations
who work on childhood hunger, and so they can compete
for what we call power hours. So throughout the day,
you'll notice that there are hours that are called the
Arby's in Childhood Hunger Hours, and so if you give

(07:46):
during that time period, the organization that you're giving to,
if they get the most donors during that hour, will
get an additional amount of money. And that could be
something like five hundred dollars, it could be one thousand dollars.
And so those are peppered throughout the day, and we
have many many companies that are contributing to this, and
you know they span from RB's to Coca Cola to

(08:09):
you know, CRI and Marshall Jones and other accounting firms.
So lots of different participants in that from a corporate sector,
which we are grateful for. And it just allows you
to sort of give and then promote which you're giving.
So our hashtags are at GA gives. Our hashtag GA
gives and so we're asking folks to give some dollars

(08:32):
but also give some.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Love, give some social media amplification to this.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Just talk about giving throughout this thankful you know, Thanksgiving
season and encourage people to go to GA gives dot
org and give a little or a lot to a
cause that they may care about and the community really
needs it.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
At this point.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Great, Great, and how what is your what is your
goal for this year? Do you have one?

Speaker 2 (08:53):
We have a goal of participation.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
So every year we we we always want to raise more,
but we never know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Last year, we raise thirty three point.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
One million dollars thanks to the generosity of thousands of
everyday donors. You don't have to give, you know, hundreds
of dollars. You could give three dollars, you could give
five dollars. So it is thousands of donors across the
state supporting causes and that's really our goal is to
get people to participate. So giving is not mysterious, it

(09:22):
is not hard. You just go to GA gives dot org,
put in a keyworder of your zip code. It'll pullback
organizations that really need the support this year and you
can give a little bit and help a lot of
folks or a cause that you really care about.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
And it's really everything from arts to.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
The environment to you know, helping people you know, and
on and on. So it's really about working together as
a community to support what matters to us here locally.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
And to get more information on Georgia Center for Nonprofits.
Where sho did you go?

Speaker 3 (09:54):
You go to GCN dot org, Georgia Center for Nonprofits
gc org and Georgia Gibbs is GA Gibbs dot org.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
That's Karen Baver, President and CEO of Georgia Center for Nonprofits.
You can visit them at GCN dot org. One of
the nonprofits involved in Giving Tuesday is Atlanta Children's Day Shelter.
Their mission is to break the cycle of poverty for
families facing homelesses by building pathways to long term self
sufficiency and providing quality early learning education. Here's Cameron Turner.

(10:24):
She's executive director of Atlanta Children's Day Shelter. Cameron, your
charity is Atlanta's Children's Day Shelter. Talk about them. What
do you do Atlanta's Children's Day Shelter.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
So, the Atlanta Children's Day Shelter is a nonprofit that
we're about to celebrate forty years next year. But we
were started by the Junior League of Atlanta in nineteen
eighty six to serve homeless families and children with day
services and so. On the child side of things, we
serve kids between six weeks and six years old with

(10:55):
early childhood education and mental health and developmental programs. But
on the parent side of things, we're helping homeless moms
and dads find housing and employment. We provide mental health
services and education services that that's what they're looking for.

(11:16):
So our mission is really to help each family find
self sufficiency in the way that they define it and
help them get out of homelessness.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Oh wow, So you do great work, great work, and
you're going to be participating in Georgia Gibs Day Giving Tuesday,
they which is Tuesday coming up this Tuesday, talk about
that what would it mean to you? Because this obviously
is something that takes a lot of money and you
have to have a lot of people and a lot
of money at a lot of resources available. What would
this do for you if people give for you?

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Yeah, so, especially right now in the current climate that
we're in, it's more important than ever that the community
really rallies around us and stands with us to support
our homeless families. All of our families we serve have
lost their snap benefits and so our organization is standing

(12:05):
in the gap right now by providing one hundred percent
of their grocery needs, which is just an added extra
cost to what we already are providing them every single week.
And so by being a part of Georgia Gives Day,
it's really an opportunity for the community to walk alongside
us and really make an impact on each of our

(12:27):
family's lives.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Have you participated in Georgia Gives Day before?

Speaker 4 (12:30):
We have? Okay, we love participating.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
And you need this every year? Right yes? Yeah, so,
I don't know, I'm about your day shelter is for
children only, but you work with their parents. Now, you
work with children who have mental illnesses and who as
long as they're homeless. Right.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
So yeah, so any family that is homeless or on
the verge of homelessness, we want to be able to
support them with day services.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
And so.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
Anybody that comes into our care has access to all
of our and some of the kids they need some
extra health care services, right, it's physical health care, it's
mental health care, it's trauma. Right, They've all walked through
some significant trauma in their lives. So we're really we're
helping children grow not just educationally and developmentally, but emotionally

(13:18):
and socially as well.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
What facilities do you use in the Atlanta area to
house these children?

Speaker 4 (13:24):
Yeah, so we have our day shelter facility downtown on
Peachtree Street. We're housed in North Avenue Presbyterian Church, and
so we have five classrooms there and spaces for parents
to come hang out and do their programs with us
every day.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Now, of course being in Atlanta, this shows her statewide.
Everybody across the state can donate for you to do
something in Atlanta, but you helped kids in Atlanta mainly,
but Georgia Gibbs is so important. Everybody help you out.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Right, So we serve Even though our shelter is based
in downtown Atlanta, we serve families from all over the
metro region, So we're covering all of the thirteen metro counties,
no matter what shelter they're in or where they're coming from.
We even serve people that have come in from out
of state that are escaping domestic violence, that they've come

(14:26):
from California and Mississippi. And so we don't just serve
the downtown area. We're really across the whole region.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Oh great also outside of Atlanta's great great. So everybody
they need it, they need the money, they need the
money they need to just go to Georgia Gibbs. But
you don't have to. You don't have to wait until
this Tuesday. You can go now right now, today, right
right right.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Every every day that we walk through this is just
added cost to how we're serving our families. And so
if somebody is interested in supporting now or on Georgia
Gives Day, they just need to. If they want to
serve port ahead of time, they can visit our website
at acsatl dot org.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Okay, that's your website. And then Georgia Gives Day is
Georgia Gibbs. We just talked about that with Karen and
Karen Beaver on a few minutes ago, and she was
talking to us about the Georgia Center for Nonprofits and
what they're doing for Georgia Gives Day and telling everybody
about the website. And but you at Atlanta Children's Shelter,
your charity is just one of many thousands that need it.

(15:32):
But I know you need it bad unique you can
use the money. Yeah, help those children out and the
children's families out, families that you should not be homeless
in Georgia. You should not be homeless in Georgia. And so, uh, exactly,
it's it's a very very worthy cause. So what else
do you do your Atlanta Children's Day Shelter?

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Any parents, once they're enrolled in our program, then we
are helping parents find housing or helping parents find employments.
We allow them to have access to mental health counselors
if they need it. We also help parents with continuing education.
We've had moms that say, hey, I can get a
better paying job if I had my degree or a

(16:12):
certificate in something and so we will go and partner
with local universities and tech schools and pay for those
parents to get continuing education because we want them to
thrive and find better employment so that they can support
their families.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Who are staff members that you have.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
We have twenty staff members. We are small but mighty.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah. Yeah, we have.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Licensed social workers.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
We have just a top of the notch education team
that really focuses in on the developmental needs of our kids.
So we have amazing staff working with our parents and
kids every day.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well, Atlanta Children's Day Shelter needs everybody's help no matter
where you are. They need your help. And go to
Georgia Gibs on Georgia Gives Day and donate to them.
But you should not wait till then. You should donate
to now right right.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yes, whether it's today or on Georgia Gibbs Day, we
would be super appreciative for the support. Every one hundred
percent what's given is going right back to those families
to support.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Them right right, So you can go to tell again
where to visit you.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
So.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
Our website is acs at l dot org.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
That's Cameron Turner, Executive director of Atlanta Children's Day Shelter
a participant in Georgia Gibbs. You can give to them
by going to ga Gibbs dot org. Angel Alonzo is
a Georgia emergency search and rescue. They assist law enforcement
or families and looking for people for free. They're taking
place in Georgia Gibbs and you can find out about
them at Gagibbs dot org. Well Angel, we have Georgia

(17:40):
Emergency Search and Rescue. And first of all, I have
to say first full disclosure. I'm part of your group,
So that's one thing. I am part of the group.
But you're the president of Georgia Mergency Search and Rescue.
Talk about that. What do you do with that organization?

Speaker 5 (17:54):
Basically, Georgia Emergency Search and Rescue is an organizational group
of pete that are volunteers. We're a five O one
seed three nonprofit. We look for Alzheimer's dementia, missing kids,
all kids with autism or adults with autism that go missing,

(18:16):
and our job is to help families bring them back
home as well as law enforcement. But I will say
this right off the bat, because we're a five oh
one C three, we are a free service.

Speaker 6 (18:28):
We don't charge.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Anyone and the police have to call you, are the families.

Speaker 5 (18:33):
Call you both? If the police call us, we go
out immediately. If families call us, of course, we're going
to call law enforcement to make sure that you know
things are ready for us to come out.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
You want to know who's going to search for when
you get there?

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Oh, yes, yes, I need. We need to gather all
the information.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
Make sure that you know we have all our facts
ready so when we approach the scene and get on
the scene, we can actually go out there and do
what we're supposed to do our job.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
And you want to do it, I guess in a hurry.
You want to. You want to you want to find
out sooner rather than later.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
I mean, like you know, we push families in law enforcement.
Please don't wait as soon as someone goes missing give
us a call. I'd rather be on our way out
there to the scene and get turned around then to
find out that the person's been missing for hours and
hours and hours, you know, because that just means that

(19:33):
things can go from bad to worse, or you know,
we might not be able to find the individual because
now you're talking about a large area to cover, and
we try to cover as much as possible to bring
them home.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
You are are statewide. To talk about that, how you
stay wide, because I know everybody says, well they in
this Atlanta. No, you're stay wide. You're stay wide.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
We cover the whole state of Georgia.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
We have two teams, a what we call GSAR North,
which is our North Team, uh and it's based out
of Gwenette County. And then we have our GSR South Team,
which is out of Moultrie, Georgia. So basically Perry, Georgia
is the I guess the middle point of Georgia. But
we make sure that we cover the whole state because

(20:25):
you never know when someone's gonna go missing down south
or up north.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah. Yeah, well, I know you're coming up. Have some
some some fundraising opportunities for people to get to Christmas.
Let's talk about those some You have one coming up
this Saturday, right, Well.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
We're trying to get some fundraising done. We have of
course hopefully we'll be on giving Tuesdays so then that
way we can raise some money. And also Saturday, December
sixth at cool ray Field, if people go to our website,
they can they can actually sign up there to bring

(21:05):
their dogs and have their dog pictures taken with Santa.

Speaker 6 (21:10):
So it is a small fee.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
But the fees go to cover like equipment, our website,
our call out system, are licensing. This is what we
use the money for. Nobody gets paid in our you know,
but we do have to you know, take care of
the stuff for the state, the counties and and also

(21:36):
you know, to make sure that we have all the
equipment that we need when we go out on the scene.

Speaker 6 (21:41):
And it helps us with the training too.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, I want I want to emphasize too that you
are you are free twenty four seven, three and sixty
five days a year.

Speaker 5 (21:48):
Right, Oh, yes, we that is that's the main goal
is to stay free to all the families. You know,
when you get when you arrive on the scene. The
last thing a family member needs to worry about is
how am I going to pay for all these people
coming out to try to help. And by being a

(22:11):
free service, they can put that behind them. They can
just worry about making sure to give us all the
facts that is needed to bring their loved ones home.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
But of course it takes some things to do that.
Some certain expenses you have you just outlined and you're
taking part in Georgia Gibbs Day. You go to Georgia
Gibbs and you can just type in Georgian bris' Search
and Rescue in there and give on that. That's one thing.

Speaker 5 (22:35):
Give they can we on our website, we have a
donate button that they can push and donate through there.
And also if they want to volunteer, yeah, you know,
if they want to volunteer, get certified and stuff, they
can go fill out the form also on our website.
So but we're encouraging people please donate to the calls

(22:59):
because because we do cover the whole state of Georgia,
people go missing constantly.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
And where's your website?

Speaker 5 (23:07):
The website, they can go to Georgia Emergency Search and
Rescue dot org. They can also go to GSR team
on Facebook and follow us there and they can see
everything that we we've been doing throughout the years.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Now, should wes just the family or police call? Should
they call you first? What's the number?

Speaker 5 (23:29):
Well, they can call us directly at four seven O
five two five eight six nine five, and if they
did not get the phone number, they can go to
our website and the phone numbers are there, or they
can call law enforcement and ask law enforcement, Hey, you know,

(23:49):
we want this team to come out and help us
search and they can get a hold of us.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
And that's Georgia gives you. You should go on Georgia
gives Day and going to Georgia gives say website and
it's just in you in there and you're there, you
come up and then you get give there.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
Yes and they and you know, we are grateful that
uh for the opportunity to to be on there. So
that way it makes it life easier for people to
help us out, so we can help others.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (24:18):
It's basically help everybody helping each other.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
And finally, what's the one thing you want to tell
people to do if somebody is missing, What's what's the
first thing they should do.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
The first thing they should do is pick up the
phone and call us, call us like right now, don't wait,
don't hesitate, don't don't wait hours to call. You can
call us immediately as long as soon as someone goes missing,
because it is important that we know, uh and we
get out on the scene as soon as possible.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
That's Angel Alonzo, president of Georgia Emergency Search and Rescue.
Find out more about them at GA Gibbs dot org
or visit them at Georgia Emergency Search and Rescue dot org.
Today we've talked to you about two nonprofits, but there's
thousands of nonprofits available all over the state of Georgia.
All you do is go to gagives dot org, click
in the search, and there you are. You're ready to

(25:10):
give on Tuesday, December the second, or go to them
right now, give to them now giving Tuesday gagives dot org.
I want to thank Karen Biaver, President CEO of Georgia
Center for Nonprofits, Cameron Turner, Executive director of Atlanta Children's
Day Shelter, and Angel Alonzo, president of Georgia Emergency Search
and Rescue. If you have questions and comments on today's program,
you can email me, John Clark at Georgeannewsnetwork dot com.

(25:33):
Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week right
here on your favorite local radio station on Georgia Focus