Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta’s Post

The amount of impact we have when we all work toward a shared goal is transformative for our communities and our company culture. I'm in awe at the level of commitment and compassion I witnessed as thousands of Applied Materials employees volunteered and creatively fundraised from each other to be able to collectively donate $1.68M to 60 Food Banks across North America. With the match from the APPLIED MATERIALS FOUNDATION, this amount is doubled! This equates to many million meals... and it also is a very strategic intervention by our communities: When food security rises, families struggling financially can remain housed, employed, and healthy. Children can focus on learning and just being kids, and seniors can thrive. Food security is foundational to everything else. This campaign has become increasingly global with more than 11 other countries joining this effort and counting! More exciting updates to come in January to share how this aligned effort shows up across the world. (Spoiler alert: It's SO AMAZING!) Some creative ways employees raised funds and built community in case you could use some ideas to bring to your company: - 🏀 Basketball shooting contests (Hoopla!) - 🥘 Heritage/International potlucks - 💌 Candygrams - 🎙️ Karaoke and lip sync contests - ⛳ Golf putting contests at the office - 🚶♀️ Walk-a-thons around the office buildings - 🏋♀️ Virtual 5Ks/Step challenges - 🎄 Ugly sweater throw downs - ☕ Hot Chocolate day - 🌮 Taco Truck day - 🎯 Corn Hole Championship - 🥳 Drag bingo - 💃 Taylor Swift Trivia night - 🧘♀️ Yoga - 🏓 Ping Pong Tournaments - 🎮 Pinball/video game showdown - 🌶️ Chili Cookoff - 🎲 Bunco tournament - ♣️ "Chip-in" card games -🚲 Bike rides - 🧸 Holiday markets - 📺 Auctions - 🍩 Ya, also those good ol'fashioned bakes sales! All of these build Applied Purpose, bring our values to life, increase engagement and belonging while raising vital funds for our communities. In case you are curious, the largest portion of our overall money raised comes from generous individual donors who are giving because they know the impact we're making is critical. 💓 Many thanks to my team who've scaled this operation over the many years ... and this year engaged more employees than ever: Jessica Stanford, Michele Walker-Moak, Sarah Dao, Anthony Lin, & Kaylah Glaspie! My deepest thanks to the many hundreds of colleagues across the company, our ERG leaders, and BU Champions and captains who organized events and were courageous enough to ask colleagues to help. Thank you! #AppliedPurpose #WeAreAppliedMaterials #GreatThingsHappenHere #EmployeeEngagement #Community #CSR

❓ 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘃𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗻? For me, it’s Samyang carbo noodles - spicy, creamy, chewy; it’s all my favorite things in one bowl! 🍜 I'm happy to have a diet and lifestyle that align with my values. But it would be silly to say that it doesn't come with any downsides. Changing my diet was fairly easy. For many people, however, it’s really hard. Those people who still make that change have my respect. 🥳 But there are lots of people out there who love animals and hate factory farming but are not ready or able to adopt a plant-based diet. As people who care about building a world free from animal exploitation, we need to welcome everyone and celebrate their contributions—whether that’s making small diet changes, getting involved politically, or simply donating. Instead of excluding those who fail some kind of purity test, we should focus on what matters most: doing everything we can to build a kinder world for all animals (including the human ones!) 🐥🐷💚

Innovations instrumental and it's not all tech talk. Sometimes (often) nature knows its needs! An exceptional seeming initiative from the as so Tabitha Jayne. Food Forests are an inspired form of biodiversity, centered around replicating a natural forest ecosystem to develop healthy soil and subsequently a good source of edible fauna. #EmielsFoodForest wants to establish a public Scottish food forest to supplement large scale food production and help the local ecosystem thrive. Initiatives like this could be the key unlocking a more viable #NetZero for some and showcase the overwhelmingly positive side of what could be considered "de-industrialisation". Or rather, making the most of what's willingly provided. The Fox Run Environmental Education Center notes that practices similar to this are found frequently in Native American history and proved fruitful for both people and planet. Find out more and show your support for the project here: https://lnkd.in/eGDz92Ew FREEC: https://lnkd.in/eBANmZPr #Sustainability #Biodiversity #CSR #ESG #ClimateAction #ScotlandIsNow #FoodForests #Climate

It's a simple idea but a rare one. Here goes: give cash to communities & they'll do good things. 💡💷 We've been running our anti-food waste Halloween campaign #EatYourPumpkin  for 10 years. In 2015, 21 million pumpkins were thrown away at Halloween In 2023 it was down to 12 million. We can't take all the credit for the shift (but please can we have a bit of it??) A big part of the campaign is our Eat Your Pumpkin community grants. Here's what we add to the cauldron: 🎃  Pumpkins (lots!) 🙋 110 creative community groups  📓 Resource packs with step-by-step guides to putting on a pumpkin event  🥧 Recipe books with creative and kid-friendly ways to eat pumpkin  And last but not least... 💷 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽𝘀 ↳ Community groups know what they’re doing - they just need some money to get on with it! One thing lots of our projects have in common, from the Community Fridge Network to our Nature Hubs, is that groups on the ground are already doing great work. They know what their local area needs and how to do it. ✅ So, by building connections and supporting with both money and other resources, we can help them turbo-charge their impact for both community and  environment. If you want to explore how this could work with us, do get in touch 📯 ++ P.S. Follow me - Alex Robinson - for insights on environmental change, leadership and more. I'm CEO of environmental charity Hubbub. We create campaigns with business, government and civil society that inspire environmental action. #environment #sustainability #foodwaste #community  

Having led The Coca-Cola Foundation through a transformation and transition, it is time for me to say goodbye. It has been a busy three years establishing a new strategic model that leverages collective partnerships and investment tools to deepen the Foundation's global impact and reach, recruiting a world-class team to execute the new strategy, and backing transformative programs that address some of the most pressing global challenges of our time. I cannot wait to see the results of the many recent collective action programs the Foundation shaped and contributed to: Climate resilience programs such as Recharge Pakistan (WWF), CI Ventures (Conservation International), Accion Andina (Global Forest Generation), Living Danube 2.0 (World Wildlife Fund), and Nature for Water Facility (The Nature Conservancy) to advance nature-based solutions that help vulnerable communities adapt to the impacts of climate change in a world where over the last two decades floods and droughts have impacted 3 billion people. Water innovation programs such as Source of Innovation (IDB Lab), Sustainable Access Solutions Fund (Imagine H2O), and Uptime Catalyst Facility (Uptime) to advance innovative solutions that provide access to safe drinking water in a world where 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Circular economy programs such as IslandPlas (IUCN) and Nigeria Plastic Solutions Activity (TechnoServe) to invest in solutions and models to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy. Economic empowerment programs such as Change Make Her (Kiva), JOBS (Generation), and Jamii Femmes (WIA Philanthropy) that foster economic development and inclusion in a world where 3.4 billion people are considered economically vulnerable. Preparedness and relief programs such as the Caribbean Water Utility Insurance Collective (Inter-American Development Bank) and the Surge Fund (CARE) to protect communities against disasters and to enable an agile humanitarian response in uncertain times. Thank you to the nonprofits, funders, and stakeholders who partnered with us to bring the new strategy to life. The list is long. I am grateful to you and my team for the engagement, the partnership, and the memories. https://lnkd.in/dWwcQaqk

McKnight's Tonya Allen set the stage for an important discussion about philanthropy's role in transforming global food systems hosted by International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Tonya started with a Nelson Mandela quote: "It always seems impossible until it's done." Creating sustainable, resilient, and just food systems is a monumental task, and Tonya asserted that "big bet philanthropy can be a big part of getting it done. But it is not just about big dollars, it's also about acknowledging big ideas that are coming from the field and making sure that the people closest to the challenges and furthest from power are the people that we center," she shared. "How are we using our power to re-write the rules? If we want to get the impossible done, we have to disrupt the ways that we've been doing things. We have to disrupt the way we value people and what knowledge looks like, we have to disrupt the rules that have created the conditions we're in." Hear Tonya's full introduction and the panel discussion that followed including other philanthropic leaders tackling food systems transformation, Anna Lappé with Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Masego Madzwamuse at Oak Foundation, and Sonia Medina with Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF): https://lnkd.in/gWezjSzn #agroecology #climatesolutions #foodsystems #philanthropy

Applications for Top 50 Farmers are just opened. We recently sat down with the founders Cindie Christiansen and Analisa Winther to explore their journeys in the regenerative agriculture space and how a first-time non-profit raised over €1 million to put 50 top regen farmers in the spotlight. Key points:  👩🏻🌾 Why we need new farmer role models 👧🏻 How we inspire the next generation to enter into the field (less than 12% of farmers in the EU are under the age of 40) 💶 How they fundraised almost €1,000,000 from vision and value aligned investors and  the importance of raising from the right funders 💪🏻 Why it is so important to ‘fight’ for proper salaries in non profit work to not burn out 🌳 The growing European regen movement and how we drive change and connect corporations, non profits, and farmers working to advance regeneration https://lnkd.in/dTKh4pvp Foodprint Nordic Astanor AVINA Stiftung The DOEN Foundation The Nest Family Office Future Food with Analisa Winther

Now this is a perfect story to start your Sunday. It has multiple elements that warrant our attention and our celebration. A perfect example of how abundance and need should trigger spontaneous and deep collaboration. A few elements that in my humble opinion should be consciously celebrated: 1. Generosity: This story exemplifies the profound impact of generosity, showcasing how a simple act of donating potatoes can make a significant difference in the lives of those facing food insecurity. 2. Community Spirit: It underscores the power of community spirit, demonstrating how individuals coming together can create a ripple effect of positive change, inspiring others to contribute to the collective well-being. 3. Resourcefulness: It highlights the importance of resourcefulness, as individuals creatively address challenges by leveraging available resources to address critical needs, showcasing an innovative approach to problem-solving. 4. Compassion: At its core, this story is a testament to compassion, showcasing the empathy and care demonstrated towards fellow community members experiencing hardship, reinforcing the importance of kindness and understanding in our interactions. 5. Impact: The tangible impact of the potato donation underscores the significance of collective action, demonstrating how small gestures can lead to meaningful outcomes, transforming lives and communities. 6. Systems Thinking: This narrative invites us to consider the broader systems at play, prompting reflection on the interconnectedness of social issues and the importance of addressing root causes to create sustainable change. 7. Individual and Collective Leadership: It exemplifies both individual and collective leadership, illustrating how individuals stepping up as leaders within their communities can inspire others to join in collective efforts, fostering a culture of empowerment and initiative. You can read the inspiring story here: [CBC - Potato Donation in Manitoba](https://lnkd.in/d5XSz3xB) Let's celebrate these remarkable elements and be inspired to take action in our own #communities! #CommunityEngagement #Leadership #SocialImpact #SystemsThinking #Generosity #Compassion #Resourcefulness

#FridayFeelings - Successful major gift officers embody the inspiring principles of the “harvest cycle," much like seasoned farmers who cultivate growth and reap the rewards of their dedication. They grasp the metaphor deeply, recognizing that nurturing relationships and cultivating opportunities is essential before making any requests for major gifts. They excel at planting the initial seeds of connection, fostering the relationship with care and attention. Just as farmers prepare their fields with diligent tilling, they strategically prepare the groundwork for fruitful partnerships and major gift conversations. They invest effort into watering these relationships, ensuring they grow strong and vibrant by providing valuable insights and engagement. They enrich these relationships with an expert's touch, as if applying fertilizer to promote healthy growth. When the time for solicitation arrives, they possess an acute sense of timing, knowing precisely when to harvest the fruits of their labor, ensuring that both the organization and the donor benefit. #movesmanagement #cultivation #philanthropy #healthgiving #healthphilanthropy #healthcarephilanthropy #majorgifts #majorgiftofficers

Ag leaders have a responsibility to mentor and develop civic responsibilities in the next generation of ag leaders as they have the daunting task of addressing food insecurity.