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Who Won the Starbucks Upstanders Challenge?

Starbucks Foundation Nov 28, 2017
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starbucks upstander when i grown up
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Need an extra boost of inspiration? Starbucks is at your service.

Just in time for Giving Tuesday, the Starbucks Foundation announced the 27 winners of its “Upstanders” challenge, awarding $25,000 grants to nonprofits nominated by advocates through the Indi video sharing platform.

The goal of the contest was to give recognition and support to difference-makers who may be flying under the radar, with judging based on inspiration, community impact and the quality of video submissions. Twenty-three total runners-up will also receive a surprise $2,500 grant.

Upstanders Among Us

The winning organizations are located across the U.S., from big cities like San Francisco and New York to smaller communities such as Stoneham, MA and Schertz, TX. Each entity’s mission is equally diverse, whether it’s the Scottsdale group supplying essential needs to foster kids in the area, or the Brooklyn-based nonprofit training refugees in the culinary arts, or the Lynnwood, WA rehabilitation center for injured wildlife.

Here’s a more detailed look at three of the grant winners:

  • 4 Paws For Ability: An Ohio-based organization that, since 1998, has trained service dogs and placed them with children with disabilities (such as deafness, seizures or mobility issues), while also working with military veterans who have lost limbs or hearing in active combat. The group says they will put the prize money toward building a puppy socialization room, where ramps and elevator simulators can help the pups (labs, golden retrievers and standard poodles) prep for a life of service.
  • Cities at Peace (aka “The Possibility Project”): A New York charity (founded in 2001) that uses the performing arts as an entry point to reach at-risk youth and positive community reinforcement to transform their lives. The program brings in 150 teens from the New York City area to collaborate on a musical based on their own life stories and performed off Broadway. Ninety-nine percent of participants have gone on to graduate high school or have obtained a high school equivalency; 92 percent have continued on to college. With the money earned from the contest, “We will have a bigger, better theater,” founder Paul Griffin said. “We will be able to pay for artists’ time — a musical director, an artistic director, a choreographer and an assistant director — and more of it.”
  • When I Grow Up. This global nonprofit seeks to lift children out of extreme poverty, making an impact in places such as Guatemala, Haiti and Kenya. One partnership provides education for 500 children living in a Kenyan slum and goes beyond the classroom with efforts involving healthcare, food and clean water. The organization will use the $25,000 to help build permanent dormitories for high school students educated outside of Nairobi. “We have never gotten this type of grant before so it’s very exciting,” said Carrie Taves, operations manager. “It’s going to change destinies and literally save lives.”

The contest coincided with the second season of “Upstanders,” a series of 11 short films that highlight regular citizens making a difference in their communities and the world at large, from a former chef opening a restaurant staffed exclusively by former juvenile detention inmates to a Montana mother convincing her skeptical neighbors to welcome in refugees. (Season One, released in 2016, reached more than 60 million people, according to Starbucks Executive Chairman Howard Schultz.)

You can find the “Upstanders” series on Amazon Prime Video and Facebook’s Watch platform (there’s also an Audible version narrated by actor Michael B. Jordan), with the challenge videos at Indi.com/starbucks.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for feature stories highlighting some of the winning organizations on Giving Compass.

Learn more about the Starbucks Foundation Upstanders Challenge winners.

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Learning and benchmarking are key steps towards becoming an impact giver. If you are interested in giving with impact on Impact Philanthropy take a look at these selections from Giving Compass.

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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    Implementation Research in a Cyclical Evidence-building Framework

    Giving Compass' Take: • MDRC shares how a cyclical evidence-building framework for implementation research allows for layers of refinement and helps to hone impact.  • How can existing programs be altered to fit this model? What are examples of successful implementation of this process?  • Find out how MDRC uses this model hone their program to nudge people to use human services. How do we build evidence about effective policies and programs? The process is commonly depicted as a pipeline: from developing a new intervention to testing it on a small scale, to conducting impact studies in new locations, to expanding effective interventions. Implementation research has long provided insights into the what, who, where, why, and how of interventions and programs by analyzing details in a number of areas A cyclical framework that takes the research process further: Building impact evidence about new approaches to social programs Implementing evidence-based programs and supporting their expansion in ways that recognize the complexity inherent in replication Encouraging adaptations and improvements Assessing the need for further impact evidence Through iteration, this process promotes innovation in a changing environment and continues to build credible evidence about whether and how programs bring down costs or have greater effects than the status quo. It has two key features that distinguish it from the pipeline framework: It emphasizes the value of considering service contrast at every stage, not just in the evidence-building stage of impact studies. The implementation of an evidence-based program is not the end point, as it is in the pipeline framework. Instead, the cyclical framework assumes the intervention will be adapted over time and across settings, so that impacts can be sustained or increased under changing circumstances. Innovation, learning, and building new evidence are part of the cycle.


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If you are interested in Arts and Culture, please see these relevant events, training, conferences or volunteering opportunities the Giving Compass team recommends.

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