CitySprouts’ DigIt! An anniversary celebration blossoms into an annual fundraising event

Last year, CitySprouts ushered in spring – and a new growing season – with a 10^th Anniversary cocktail party. This year, the organization will celebrate its second annual fundraiser with tapas, cocktails, and jazz in the heart of Harvard Square. Featuring local chefs and a silent auction (featured lot: amazing cuisine prepared by Cambridge locavore gourmet J.J. Gonson), DigIt! will celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of another year at CitySprouts.

CitySprouts is especially excited this year to bring in their summer interns as the guests of honor. These young teenage students spend all summer cultivating local gardens and learning the benefits of locally grown produce, both for health and as a connection to the natural environment. This is a great chance to put the interns in the spotlight – for once, adults in the community get to ask them the questions! “It’s a good time to take stock of what they’ve learned from CitySprouts,” said Kim Goldstein, the organization’s program manager.

Tickets for the event are still available and include tapas, beer and wine, bidding opportunities at the silent auction. Please join our Cambridge neighborhoods in support of a wonderful organization having a significant and positive impact on our schools, our children, and our urban community. We look forward to hearing about your DigIt! experience!

Peas in a Pod: A local nonprofit teams up with the Cambridge public school system for serious impact

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.  ~Thomas Fuller

How can you combine math lessons, food education, community service, urban gardens, and a city service contract?

There’s a nonprofit for that.

Through the establishment of gardens in every Cambridge public school, CitySprouts offers a number of programs focusing on promoting food awareness and an urban connection to the natural environment. Local students chart the growth of their own personal pea plants as math lessons, create organic art sculptures out of garden objects, or spend a full summer month visiting local farms. CitySprouts also offers training to teachers on how to use the gardens in their lessons, summer fellowships to college students, and consulting services for organizations throughout greater Boston.

Despite a limited growing season, CitySprouts keeps busy all year round – the winter and early spring months provide an opportunity for continued program development, factoring in feedback from participant experiences each year. In the midst of all this come a fundraiser party and setting the stage for expansion into greater Boston, including an appearance by Executive Director Jane Hirschi at the Be Healthy Boston expo this weekend.

The entire CitySprouts curriculum revolves around the Cambridge Public School system, which guides the program calendar and provides a framework that makes it easy for schools to take advantage of the on-site gardens. Thanks to this system, district teachers can incorporate CitySprouts programs directly into science, math, art, and even literature and social studies classes. Building on this connection with municipal infrastructure, CitySprouts fulfills a service contract with the city of Cambridge, cementing the partnership and ensuring resources to support continued programming.

Certainly an overwhelming characteristic of the Cambridge nonprofit scene is an openness to collaboration. CitySprouts represents an intersection of municipal, community, and national working partnerships that enhance its offerings in a unique and highly effective way. In an industry defined by a profusion of small, under-resourced nonprofits, CitySprouts has embraced collaboration with open arms, actively pursuing partnerships with the city of Cambridge, local school networks, and neighborhood youth centers. On a state and national level, the MA FoodCorps Initiative places service workers in CitySprouts programs to assist with food distribution and education. CitySprouts is also actively working to expand its tried-and-true school garden model into other Boston area communities.

CitySprouts staff had a difficult time identifying their favorite parts of the job – certainly a newfound interest in social media ranked at the top of the list, along with getting to work with a very diverse group of constituents including students, parents, and community leaders. Perhaps most significant is that each of these constituents has a very different agenda in working with the organization. Whether you’re looking to promote health education, locally grown produce, community development, youth activities, or urban environmental concerns, it all starts right in your neighborhood garden.

resource: The Networked Nonprofit

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr… The menu of social media channels out there today is vast, and the potential for disorientation in this cyber-universe is very real. Fortunately, The Networked Nonprofit guides nonprofit organizations and their leaders through the process of “connecting with social media to drive change.”

By de-bunking common myths and preemptively addressing many concerns shared across the sector, The Networked Nonprofit seeks to reassure even the least tech-savvy among us that social media tools are intuitive and effective. Most emphatic among all this advice is the reiteration that social media functions best when it is uninhibited by traditional corporate red tape: sit back, try to relax, and harness the full power of these networks by letting them take their own direction.

The book also focuses heavily on relationship building through social media, emphasizing the fact that this type of networking is about creating social capital and finding effective ways to engage with your constituents. If an organization participates in social media only with an eye toward fundraising, they will be disappointed with the results and, more importantly, will be sacrificing the resources uncovered through an open exchange of ideas among stakeholders.

While avoiding in-depth studies of any particular topic, the book provides an approachable overview of ways to leverage social media to enhance organizational efficiency and expand your network of supporters. Of particular interest are the sections on network mapping (visual indicators of patterns and connections), transparency (if you post your 990s online, you’re already halfway there!), and crowdsourcing (think wiki, collective creativity, and open innovation).

Maybe Guy Kawasaki said it best in his own review of the book: “Kanter and Fine provide the ‘Google maps’ for nonprofits to harness social media to kick butt and change the world.” Start here for a great roadmap of resources that will steer you toward a more in-depth understanding of social media and help you to drive change.

glossary: Trustee

Trustee: A member of an organization’s governing board. (http://www.npgoodpractice.org/)

"The term 'trustee' originally refers to the person who has the fiduciary duty for a charitable trust or a foundation. By tradition, the higher education institutions also tend to refer to their board members as trustees. (http://www.boardsource.org/)

"Trustees are the same as members, directors, regents, or governors, but the term trustee implies more of a custodial function that is appropriate for social-benefit, as opposed to investor-benefit, organizations… [T]he term “trustee”…connotes positive action, as well as action that’s 'in trust' for a higher purpose." (http://nd.alliance1.org/)

"A foundation board member or officer who helps make decisions about how grant monies are spent. Depending on whether the foundation has paid staff, trustees may take a more or less active role in running its affairs." (http://www.foundationcenter.org/)

"Something attempted, something done": Celebrating National Poetry Month

Click here for our Poetry Quest
album on Facebook.

Vote for your next Poet Populist here!


“Arts move through boundaries that might otherwise be obstacles.” – Jason Weeks, Executive Director, Cambridge Arts Council

In honor of National Poetry Month, c4c spoke with the Cambridge Arts Council about the variety of programs supporting literary arts in the city. CAC holds a unique position in the arts community through its dual role as both a department within the municipal structure of the city, and a nonprofit organization. This combination emphasizes the interplay of civic responsibility both to the citizens of Cambridge and as an independent advocate of the arts. A close connection with city government also enables CAC to incorporate public art into the urban landscape in a meaningful and accessible way, driving home the point of art as everyday life in Cambridge.

Central to CAC’s commitment to encouraging visibility for the non-visual arts is the Poet Populist program, conceived in 2007. Inspired by Seattle’s Poet Populist Project, the program seeks to “establish a dialogue between the poet and the people of Cambridge.” A selection committee narrows public nominations to a diverse pool of candidates, who campaign by presenting their work at readings throughout the city. Cantabrigians People’s-Republic-wide then submit their votes and eagerly await the inauguration “ceremony” at the Cambridge River Festival in June.

The Poet Populist program aims to illustrate the city’s historical connections with poetry and to celebrate the depth and scope of the literary arts in Cambridge – in other words, to treat poetry and poets with the respect they deserve. In contrast to a traditional Poet Laureate appointment, a Poet Populist encourages personal connection and implies the accreditation of the poet by the people. The Poet Populist serves as the city’s “chief liaison for poetry,” connecting citizens to the art form and ultimately leaving a legacy imprint on the program itself (see Peter Payack’s scavenger hunt and poetry cookies, or his community poem On the River).

CAC emphasizes the vivacious literary scene in Cambridge, which includes open mic nights, poetry readings, and discussion groups. Executive Director Jason Weeks points out that April’s Cambridge Poetry Festival marks the launch of a nonstop celebration of the arts running from spring through summer: stay tuned for Cambridge Open Studios in May, June’s Cambridge River Festival, and the Summer in the City series that runs through July and August. Most importantly, Jason encourages the citizens of Cambridge to be engaged with public art, to be in touch with CAC, and to rock the vote for your next Poet Populist – polling closes on Friday.