Nonprofit

After attending the inaugural Common Ground on July 30, 2017, I knew that I would want to make a point of attending future Common Ground community conversations and related events. When I learned that the Cleveland Foundation planned to have the 2018 Common Ground on June 24th, which was during a week I had planned to be out of town, I delayed the start of my vacation. I am glad that I stayed in Cleveland that day to attend Common Ground 2018!

With so many interesting topics, I had a problem. It was great to have the problem of having to choose from so many options. In the end, I was able to take the 13+ sites that had topics that interested me, and decide on four that I would really like to attend. With the very full agendas happening at each location, I ended up only having time to visit two sites:

• Sunday, June 24 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM - Social Enterprise: Uplifting the Underserved at Cosmic Bobbins

• Sunday, June 24 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM -Why Do Parks Matter? - The Trust for Public Land

I first learned about the July 30, 2017, Common Ground event from an announcement by Global Cleveland on Twitter. I immediately knew I needed to attend, and share my thoughts about it in my blog.

I also want to thank Cleveland Foundation Senior Marketing & Communications Officer Jennifer Trivelli, who reached out to me via a Twitter direct message on July 7th to confirm that I knew about #CommonGroundCLE -- Greater Cleveland's largest outdoor community conversation and meal.

I attended the BlueBridge Networks Third Non-Profit IT Innovation Summit on July 27, 2017, at the Cleveland Museum of Art as a guest of Kevin Goodman, managing director and partner at BlueBridge Networks.

This was the second time I have attended this nonprofit IT summit, having attended in the BlueBridge Networks Non-Profit IT Innovation Summit II on November 5, 2014. I want to thank Kevin Goodman for inviting me again, and let the presenters know how much I appreciate them taking time to share their knowledge. 

I want to begin with a BIG thank-you to BVU Director of Communications and Technology Melanie Meyer for inviting me to attend the inaugural BVU Ohio Nonprofit Technology & Communications Summit on Friday, September 30, 2016, as their guest representing the good work of Cleveland GiveCamp.

The mission of BVU: The Center for Nonprofit Excellence "is to promote business volunteerism and foster excellence in nonprofit organizations." This has led Melanie and me to explore how Cleveland GiveCamp can reach out to the nonprofits served by BVU. As a provider of free tech solutions to Cleveland and Akron area nonprofits, it seemed logical that Cleveland GiveCamp be present at BVU's first tech summit. Cleveland GiveCamp has the largest number of tech volunteers of any of the nation's other GiveCamps. 

The Mission of Cleveland GiveCamp is to pair creative and technology talent with nonprofits in need.

Cleveland GiveCamp Weekend on July 29-31, 2016, marked the seventh year of serving nonprofits from the Cleveland and Akron areas. I am fortunate to to be part of Cleveland GiveCamp every year.

Cleveland continues to have many creative people volunteering (over 225 registered for 2016). It is believed that Cleveland has the largest GiveCamp in the nation. It is exciting that again this year there were so many volunteers that the tech volunteer tickets sold out, and a waiting list had to be started.

The Mission of Cleveland GiveCamp is to pair creative and technology talent with nonprofits in need.

The tech and design volunteers at Cleveland GiveCamp 2015 really "wowed" the nonprofit partners served this year with some incredible projects. The many tweets I embedded in this blog really give a flavor of the weekend. I recommend scanning through them and reading those that pique your interest.

I have been fortunate to be able to attend all six Cleveland GiveCamp weekends! Cleveland GiveCamp is believed to be the largest in the United States. Read on to learn how so many volunteers come together to make a huge difference in our community.

The fifth annual Cleveland GiveCamp took place over the weekend of July 18-20, 2014 at LeanDog and Burke Lakefront Airport. In 2010, the first year there was a GiveCamp in Cleveland, our tech and design community set a record for having the largest first-time GiveCamp in the nation. Today, Cleveland GiveCamp (@CleGiveCamp) has grown to be one of the largest (possibly the largest) GiveCamps in the United States.

This blog post will share the involvement of Mike, Kevin and Stuart Smith, plus links to resources shared during the weekend, and links to other blogs about the weekend. We highly recommend reading through the tweets from the event, since they will give you a taste of the weekend. If you have never participated in a GiveCamp, we highly recommend volunteering your talent to help local nonprofits. It is a lot of hard work, and more fun than you would imagine.

Cleveland GiveCamp, which took place over the July 19-21, 2013, weekend was truly a remarkable event. Amazing work was done by over 200 volunteers providing tech solutions for nonprofits. This being the fourth year of Cleveland GiveCamp, the whole operation felt like a well oiled machine.