$50k is on the table. Will you champion Mixed Greens/Blandford Nature Center with me?

I’ll be honest–I love to learn about emerging approaches to philanthropy and civic engagement. I have a copy of the Case Foundation’s Citizens at the Center covered with highlighting that migrated from my desk to my nightstand to my kitchen counter for quite awhile. I’ve been watching with excitement (but didn’t have the nerve or time to create a project for) the Make It Your Own Awards. When the Giving Challenge was announced, I did a little dance for the ongoing push to make philanthropy not just a mainstream concept, but an everyday activity.

And the rewards are big: in just one part of the Giving Challenge, eight individuals who champion a cause and recruit the highest number of individual donors will earn $50,000 for their charity. The size of the gifts does not matter–this is all about attracting unique donors to causes that matter (as determined by individuals themselves, yet another way of growing philanthropy bottom-up).

As I sub-consciously noodled on that this morning, I received a regular email update from the Grand Rapids Public Schools, which is a news round-up of stories–positive and otherwise–regarding the schools. The story today caught my eye because it was about an organization I had made part of my 2007 year-end giving: Mixed Greens/Blandford Nature Center.

Wood TV8 reported the following (full story):

The Blandford Nature Center is once again in financial trouble.

The center, which includes of 143 acres of wildlife amid an urban area, is taking steps like making employees take unpaid vacation time around the holidays to save money.

“We’re working through it and I’ve got a really, really fabulous staff that’s doing the hard work even in light of there being people having to have their hours changed and cut back,” Executive Director Lisa Rose Starner said…

To keep the nature center sustainable, the business model that has been in place for six months must be changed. That model was set after Blandford merged with Mixed Greens, an environmental education group that Starner founded.

The bad news is relevant, but what interested me was this part later in the story:

Starner says she’s hoping to get more everyday people to donate. “This can’t be funded by the traditional community donors…but how do we get this to be a community asset and where everybody is stepping up and remembering that Blandford is here and it’s here for families of the Grand Rapids community,” she said.

Everyday people. Giving Challenge. A critical need meets an exceptional opportunity–perfect!

So here’s the scoop. I decided to “champion” (Giving Challenge’s language) Mixed Greens/Blandford Nature Center–hence the charity badge you see in the right-hand column. I care about this organization because I attended Blandford School in sixth grade and it was the most memorable school year of my life… and over the course of this month, I’ll share more reasons why Blandford is such a special place worthy of your support.

But here’s what you can do right now:

• Visit Mixed Greens to learn more about this organization.
• Become a fan of Mixed Greens on Facebook.
• Give to Mixed Greens through my charity badge and share it with others. To count toward the Giving Challenge, all donations must go through this badge (or use this text link: http://www.networkforgood.org/pca/Badge.aspx?BadgeId=108928). Donations must be completed by January 31, 2008. Remember–this is about how many unique donors we can recruit. Give what you can, but don’t take for granted the power of recruiting others!

And if you need a little inspiration to get started, watch this video: