I am in New Orleans in the rain today…and am now the proud owner of yet another umbrella…  Earlier in the week, I facilitated the session, Transitioning to New Opportunities, at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) sponsored Gulf Coast Convening (Twitter – #gulfconvening).  148 people representing the nonprofit, government, and business sectors from 4 states (LA, MS, AL, and FL) attended to share ideas and best practices for how national service and volunteer programs can support the recovery efforts post BP oil spill.  The Convening also offered participants an opportunity to discuss needs of affected local communities and ways to collaborate for greater impact using available resources.

Today while I was wandering around in the rain after having my mandatory beignets and coffee at Cafe du Monde, I noticed an Abita beer poster in a bar window detailing that Abita would donate $.75 for every SOS beer sold to saving the gulf coast.  So while I am drying out before my next walk in the rain, I went to the Abita website to learn more.  The site is great – complete with moving birds and fishing boats.  Very creative!

“Working with the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board (LSPMB), Abita Beer announced that it has established ‘SOS – A Charitable Fund’ that will assist with the rescue and restoration of the environment, industry and individuals fighting to survive this disastrous oil spill.

The fund has pledged that 100% of all money raised will go to charity. In addition, the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board will play an important role in advising where the money can do the most good. An advisory committee is being established as the donation process and grant procedures are finalized.

The centerpiece of the fundraising effort is a new charitable beer created by Abita. The brew, called SOS – A Charitable Pilsner, will generate 75¢ for every bottle sold. This Abita Beer is a message in a bottle…a distress signal for the troubled waters of our Gulf Coast. For every bottle sold Abita will donate 75¢ to the rescue and restoration of the environment, industry and individuals fighting to survive this disastrous oil spill.”

“In addition, related retail merchandise (hat, tee shirt, lapel pin, decal and car magnet) will be sold and 100% of the net proceeds will also go to the SOS Fund.”  Check it out here.

The special web pages allow visitors to donate directly to the SOS fund, which I like.  Abita Beer has pledged to cover administrative fees associated with the SOS fund so that 100% of donated money will reach those most in need – which is great!

Founded in 1986, the Abita Brewing Company is nestled in the piney woods 30 miles north of New Orleans.  I love this visible support of a local company for their community!!

This week I did an all day training in Louisiana for AmeriCorps VISTA members on resource development and developing strategic partnerships with businesses.  VISTA (started by President Kennedy in 1965) is one of the National Service program funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

For more than 10 years, I have worked all over the country with VISTA supervisors and members helping them develop performance measurement strategies and tools to gauge and document the impact of the VISTA members on strengthening the capacity of their host organization.  It was a great group of dedicated VISTA members in Louisiana this week – ranging in age from their early 20′s to mid 60′s!

“VISTA members commit to serve full-time for a year at a nonprofit organization or local government agency, working to fight illiteracy, improve health services, create businesses, strengthen community groups, and much more. With passion, commitment, and hard work, [they] create or expand programs designed to bring individuals and communities out of poverty.”

One of the things I focused on a lot in my training was how to look beyond old school “checkbook philanthropy” and asking for donations from businesses to really developing multifaceted  win-win partnerships.  As part of the training and my self study nonprofit toolkit, I offer 65+ options for nonprofits and businesses engagement to expand the mindset of what is possible – using real life examples and offering food for thought.  All strategies are not equally appropriate for all organizations, so you need to pick and choose the ones that could work best for your own situation and goals.

So with this post, I am kicking off a series of blog posts about the various ways to give back – so stay tuned!  Hopefully you will get some great ideas for new things to try!

Today I got notification from the Chronicle of Philanthropy about a call on August 25th you might want to join. I interviewed Mike Hannigan for my book and he has a lot of great things to share.  For highlights from my interview about Give Something Back, click here.

From the Chronicle’s website I found the following, “Mike Hannigan, a co-founder of the Give Something Back office- supply company, in Oakland, Calif., and his employees calculate how much of the store’s previous year’s profits they can afford to give to charity. So far, the company has donated about $4-million.

Through a balloting process, the company’s customers choose which charities will get 40 percent of the business’s donations, employees decide on 30 percent, and Mr. Hannigan and Sean Marx, his business partner and co-founder, decide on the other 30 percent.

You can learn more about the company’s approach in a conversation sponsored by The Chronicleand Bolder Giving, an organization that works to encourage philanthropists to give more generously.

Mike Hannigan will be available on Wednesday, August 25, at noon U.S. Eastern time to take questions about how he devised this unusual approach to giving and how others can copy it. Also joining the discussion will be Anne Ellinger, a co-founder of Bolder Giving.”  Click here for details on joining in on the 25th.