Good People Fund awards grants to two area nonprofits
September 1, 2014 – , The Jewish Georgian
Atlanta based non-profits Second Helpings Atlanta (SHA) and Creating Connected Communities (CCC) recently received opening grants totaling nearly $10,000 from the Good People Fund, which will also provide ongoing management guidance.
GPF discovers and supports small, effective tzedakah initiatives dedicated to tikkun olam, in the United States and Israel, that might otherwise not be on the radar of larger charities.
What sets SHA and CCC apart from many other nonprofits is that they are the products of individual visionaries. These organizations help meet basic human needs, while operating with very low overhead and generating inspiring results. They join nearly seventy other nonprofits that are financially supported and professionally guided by The Good People Fund.
In 2004, Guenther Hecht founded SHA (www.secondhelpingsatlanta.org) as a social action project of Temple Sinai, in Sandy Springs. An independent nonprofit organization since January 2013, SHA harnesses a force of nearly four hundred volunteer families and individuals, to rescue food that would otherwise go to waste from restaurants, supermarkets, churches, individual donors, schools, caterers, bakeries, and other establishments. SHA distributes the food to Metro Atlanta agencies to feed people who are homeless, abused, or living in poverty. SHA has collected and distributed nearly 3.5 million pounds of food. Its GPF grant will go towards general operations.
CCC (www.cccprojects.org) provides leadership training for teens to work with vulnerable children receiving services from Atlanta’s local agencies. Each year CCC mentors 30-40 Atlanta teens, raises their awareness on issues relating to homelessness, and teaches them important advocacy skills. CCC plans social and educational activities at local shelters. As a capstone project, it plans and hosts Amy’s Holiday Party for more than 700 underprivileged children from the greater Atlanta area. Its GPF grant will underwrite increased busing to bring more children to events, as well as costs involved in its spring event.
SHA was introduced to GPF by one of Temple Sinai’s associate rabbis, Elana E. Perry. Rabbi Perry’s bat mitzvah project involved collecting toiletries for battered women and homeless people; by the time she graduated high school, she was collecting upwards of 100,000 items and sending out start-up kits to others. She was recognized as a “mitzvah hero” by Danny Siegel, author of numerous books on tzedakah, mitzvahs, and bar and bat mitzvah projects.
Both SHA and CCC encourage teens in the areas of social responsibility, philanthropy, and an investment in tzedakah. At the age of 12, Amy Sacks Zeide was devastated after seeing a TV news report about the theft of all the presents from an Atlanta homeless shelter just before its annual holiday party. Amy then donated her time and bat mitzvah money to throw a holiday party for the children at a local Atlanta shelter. Today, she serves as the executive director of CCC.
Founded in 2008, The Good People Fund responds to significant problems such as poverty, disability, trauma, and social isolation, primarily in the United States and Israel. It provides financial support and management guidance for small-to-medium grassroots efforts, with annual budgets under $500,000 and no professional development staff. Since its inception, GPF has raised and granted more than $6 million dollars. For more information, visit goodpeoplefund. org.
