Category Archives: Non-Profits

Thanksgiving Events for a Good Cause – Cycling, Yoga & More

With Thanksgiving just one week away, one of the questions that pops up around this time of year is “where can I volunteer to help serve a holiday meal?” In addition to volunteering, here are some Thanksgiving events around Pittsburgh that support great local causes. Know of other events that should be on the list? Please share in the comments below.

Pedal for the Pantry 2018 – Food drive bike ride/race

Sat. 11/17 – for those who like to bike in the cold

This one caught my eye on Facebook because of the image posted on the Facebook event. Pedal around Pittsburgh picking up items for a Thanksgiving dinner and drop those items off at the Wilkinsburg Food Pantry, earn points and win awesome prizes. Check out the Facebook page for some of the very nice prizes including swag from BikePgh and a bike that was donated by Golden Triangle Bike Rental.

Saturday, November 17, 2018
The race starts at 2 pm, afterparty at 5 pm
Register online here. More details here.

44th Annual Thanksgiving Eve Community Meal – Volunteers & Donations Needed

Wed. 11/21: for anyone who can lend a hand or donate a few dollars

This one is near and dear to my heart. A friend who grew up helping with these dinners asked me to help out a few years ago. I showed up late, which ended up being helpful because they needed someone to take over on the dishwashing. (Life lesson – it is never too late to show up to volunteer). This meal started as an Eagle Scout project – offer up a free, home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. Last year over 100 volunteers showed up and helped to cook and serve dinner for 200 people. It is a beautiful thing when neighbors come together to share a meal. Every little bit helps if you want to volunteer for an hour that is great. If you can donate $10 that is helpful too. Last year 64 people made a donation to the GoFundMe page, I’m hoping we can beat that number this year.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Volunteer – anytime after 10 am
Dinner 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Location: First United Methodist Church Social Hall, the entrance is on Centre Ave above the Toy Lending Library, across from Panera.
Volunteer Sign Up here – http://bit.ly/2OHsFHv
Donations can be made on the GoFundMe page here – http://bit.ly/2OHszQ9

YMCA Turkey Trot

Thur. 11/22: for runners/walkers who want to burn a few calories and support the YMCA

Thursday, November 22, 2018
8:00 am – 1-mile walk
8:30 am – 5k and 5-mile race
The races start at PNC Park

Giving Thanks – Thanksgiving Day Yoga + Live Music to Benefit 412 Food Rescue

Thur 11/22: for anyone who needs some gentle yoga before a big meal

100% of the proceeds from this class will be donated to 412 Food Rescue. This gentle yoga class will be accompanied by live guitar music.

Thursday, November 22, 2018
9:00 am
BYS Yoga Collective, 1113 E Carson Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203
See the Facebook event for details

Coming this Fall, a Transit-Tastic Event!

Are you a big sustainability nerd? Or are you looking for ways to improve transportation in your area? Well, then you’re going want to check out the Rail~Volution conference coming to Pittsburgh this fall. What’s Rail~Volution, you might ask? It’s a non-profit organization that seeks to build more livable communities with transit. You know, like what’s happening in forward-thinking cities like Pittsburgh.

The annual three-day conference, previously held in places like Denver, Portland, Dallas, Boston, and San Fran, features 80 sessions related to transit and livability. The event is for “people involved in urban planning, people who are involved in policy-making, people who are involved in advocacy related to development issues in any way shape or form,” says Breen Masciotra, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Project Manager for the Port Authority of Allegheny County. She explains that the event will “offer education, networking, and community…. and connects you to like-minded people that you can reach out to all year; it’s like summer camp for adults.”

Rail~Volution will be held on October 21-24, with registration in June. But before then, the Rail~Volution National Steering Committee, made up of 40+ livability professionals from across the United States and Canada, is calling for conference speakers. The committee seeks presenters for the event’s workgroups on topics that include: Innovations in Mobility to Enhance Livability; Transforming Communities through Transit-Oriented; Making Transit Great Again; Shaping Transit for Community Needs; Diversity: Equitable Development, Community Engagement, Communication and Placemaking; and Rail~Volution PK Slam, powered by PechaKucha. “Everyone and anyone should submit something; we are hoping to have a strong participation from local speakers,” notes Masciotra. Proposals are being accepted now till March 22nd. To learn more, visit the Call for Speakers page on Rail~Volution’s website.

To find out more about the conference or Rail~Volution head over to RailVolution.org. Also, stay tuned to Rail~Volution’s Facebook page for details on upcoming Happy Hour events and volunteer opportunities.

2 Women-Focused Organization Awarded At Nonprofit Accelerator Event

Lakeisha Wolf, Executive Director of Ujamaa Collective, presents at the Full Circle Impact Accelerator Pitch Event

Two women-focused nonprofits were awarded $500 each at December 15th’s Social Venture Partners’ Full Circle Impact Accelerator Pitch Event. The event, held at Google Pittsburgh’s HQ, was a culmination of a fourteen-week accelerator program from Social Venture Partners Pittsburgh, a philanthropic grantmaking organization based on the venture capital model.

The night’s $500 recipients were Ujamaa Collective and Prototype PGH. Ujamaa Collective invests in the economic and social growth of Africana women entrepreneurs and artisans through a boutique in the Hill District and Prototype PGH operates a North Oakland maker-space and offers maker educational programming focused on equity and feminism.

Prototype PGH co-founders, Erin Elizabeth (Oldynski) Gatz & E.Louise Larson, give their pitch at the Full Circle Impact Accelerator Pitch Event

At the event, five nonprofits presented information about their organization to three judges and to a packed room full 170+ people. Pitching, in addition to the two $500 recipients, were the Alliance for Police Accountability, the Global Switchboard, and New Fear Being Different. The night’s judges were Ilana Diamond, Managing Director of AlphaLab Gear, Mike Capsambelis, Product Management at Google, and Karen Brackett, Vice President at NexTier Bank, the marquee sponsor for the event.

The participating nonprofits also competed for an ‘audience favorite’ award. This prize, also for $500, was awarded to New Fear Being Different, a media platform that uses inspirational and entertaining content to shed light on social issues and connect people.

Those that didn’t receive a $500 award were also supported. Each nonprofit received $2,000 for completing the Full Circle Impact Accelerator program, which was sponsored by UPMC/UPMC Health Plan. Also, an additional $2,600 was separately pledged by the night’s audience and spread across all the organizations that pitched at the event. In total, $14,000+ indirect contributions were made to the five nonprofits.

Social Venture Partners Pittsburgh’s Full Circle Impact Accelerator is managed by the Social Impact business development firm, CitizenCity, and its principals Ryan Gayman and Benjamin Utter. To learn more about Social Venture Partners and its programs visit, svppittsburgh.org.

Disclaimer: The author attended this event for fun and never identified himself as a reporter at the actual event. The author has also attended other events put on by Social Venture Partners for fun.

Summer Harvest: Come Support 412 Food Rescue and Help Fight Hunger in Pittsburgh

On July 25th, The Livermore will be hosting Summer Harvest, an event that celebrates the spirit of entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh while raising money for an important social cause: fighting hunger in Allegheny County. All proceeds from this event will go to 412 Food Rescue, a non-profit started by Leah Lizarondo (The Brazen Kitchen) and Gisele Fetterman (The Free Store).

412 Food Rescue hopes to “rescue” every bit of food that stores can no longer use and convert them into meals for more than 175,000 “food insecure” people in Allegheny county, including over 43,000 children.

According to the Pittsburgh City Paper, this space is largely occupied by food banks that are unable to accept every donation in time to adequately provide for those in need. 412 Food Rescue’s approach quickly finds donors and brings the food directly to households in need, much like an “Uber for food-rescue.”

The co-founders of 412 Food Rescue: Gisele Fetterman (left) and Leah Lizarondo.

With the additional support of Jenny Liu, Geoff Misek, Nate Cochran, Jessie Schalles, and Shawn Rancatore, 412 Food Rescue won both the Jury Prize and the People’s Choice award at Steel City Codefest in February 2015. Currently they are actively recruiting volunteer drivers, app developers, and fundraisers to further their cause.

Summer Harvest will feature some great perks for its attendees:

Music by Heardle, an up-and-coming music startup in Pittsburgh
Light food provided by one of Pittsburgh’s top restaurants
Two complimentary drinks in The Cloak Room

Tickets are $20 ($25 after July 21st) to attend, and every cent of proceeds from this event will go directly to 412 Food Rescue. According to Lizarondo, for every ticket sold at Summer Harvest, 412 Food Rescue will be able to provide meals for a family of four for an entire week.

Food rescued for many needy families. Photo courtesy of 412 Food Rescue.

Summer Harvest is supported largely in part by Startup Weekend Pittsburgh (@swpgh), a local group of community leaders who organize 54-hour events that teach entrepreneurship through competition. The next Startup Weekend will be a civic-themed competition on September 18-20 in Pittsburgh’s Allentown district.

Lee Ngo, Summer Harvest co-organizer and one of Startup Weekend Pittsburgh’s community leaders, says that Startup Weekend has been a core presence in Pittsburgh for over three years, cultivating a family of solutions-oriented collaborators in the community. He feels that it was time that they give something back to the city and make a real difference in the lives of Pittsburghers who struggle daily.

This is the first time that Startup Weekend Pittsburgh has ever donated to another cause in the city. Community leaders believe 412 Food Rescue is an obvious first choice, as it is introducing a substantial difference in the way our city engages intelligently with food in our community.

For more information or to purchase your tickets, go here: summerharvestpgh.eventbrite.com

Summer Harvest is also accepting sponsorships and donations for the event. Contact Lee Ngo for more information.

Celebrate space with Yuri’s Night Pittsburgh tomorrow!

Space is pretty awesome. Blockbuster hits like Gravity and Interstellar, privatized space exploration such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and incentives like Google’s Lunar XPRIZE, which awards $30 million to the first private company to send a robot to the moon, have renewed our interest beyond our atmosphere.

And Pittsburgh has great representation with local NewSpace company Astrobotic leading the race to the moon, having won initial milestones of the Lunar XPRIZE and currently accepting payloads to be sent to space on their first launch.

And lucky you– you can get in on some space-related fun tomorrow evening with Yuri’s Night! From 4-7pm (don’t worry, plenty of time before the Game of Thrones season premiere) the Livermore will be hosting Pittsburgh’s celebration of mankind’s achievements in space, named after Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who was the first human to journey into outer space.

The event is totally free to attend, and there will be space-related drinks, stellar beats, complimentary snacks, and tons of space talk, videos, and fun. The event will also serve as the afterparty for the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, brought to Pittsburgh by SpaceChallenges.org, a local non-profit aiming to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education through charitable competitions using space exploration as inspiration.

What: Yuri’s Night Pittsburgh
When: Sunday, April 12, 2015 from 4-7pm
Where: The Livermore, 124 S Highland Ave
Cost: Free, including light appetizers