Greater Washington DC Kick-Off Event

By Aaron Hurst on March 7, 2008 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is now official: With the support of The Case Foundation, Meyer Foundation, and CityBridge Foundation, Taproot Foundation has kicked-off our Service Grant Program in Greater Washington. When all heads were counted, we had approximately 44 attendees from the public, private, and governmental sectors. We were so pleased to have the opportunity to communicate the impact our Service Grant model is having on the communities we currently serve (San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and NYC), to celebrate the people we are grateful to for supporting our expansion into Greater Washington, and to share some highlights from our participation in the Summit on Corporate Volunteerism convened by The President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.

Michael Smith, Director, Social Investment, at The Case Foundation, served as the Master of Ceremonies, with help from co-hosts Annie Linehan of CityBridge Foundation and Rick Moyers of Meyer Foundation. The program also included presentations by Siobhan Canty, President & CEO of Greater DC Cares, who discussed landscape and pro bono in DC, and Evan Hochberg, National Director, Community Engagement, Deloitte Services, who did a fantastic job presenting on Taproot's potential impact on the region and why Taproot is important for the private sector.

Metro International, one of our New York City grantees, sent their ED Tracy Snyder down to DC to offer a first hand account of the Taproot model from an organization's perspective, which succeeded at pumping up all future grantees in the audience. Lynsey Wood Jeffries, Deputy Director of Higher Achievement, confessed, "Although I entered the event somewhat skeptical about the quality of pro-bono consulting, Taproot's structure is very impressive.  Washington's nonprofits, and by extension our communities, will be well-served by your expansion here."

With nearly 200 local business professionals eager to volunteer their skills and expertise (as of 11/07!), Taproot is poised to award 5 Service Grants in our first grant round (March '08), and is thrilled to be able to help Greater Washington's high-performing nonprofit organizations build their capacity to be better able to deliver on their mission.