Philanthropy for the masses: Give!Guide engages community-minded donors

Photo by V. Kapoor

by Israel Bayer, Staff writer

The Give!Guide, created by the Willamette Week in 2004, started by raising $20,000 for a handful of local nonprofits. Nine years later, it helps raise more than $1.5 million dollars for more than 100 local organizations. The groups span the fields of animal services, the arts, community, education, environment health and wellness social action and youths.

The mission of the Give!Guide is to instill an annual giving habit in Portlanders under the age of 36. Equally important is the guide’s goal to raise as much money as possible for the nonprofits profiled online at wweek.com/giveguide.

Street Roots, which is among the nonprofits in the Give!Guide, sat down with Nick Johnson, the guide’s executive director, to talk about the project.

Israel Bayer: Tell us about the Give!Guide.

Nick Johnson: The goal of the Give!Guide is to create a platform to compel the Willamette Week’s readership to give back to the community and engage individuals in their civic duty.

It’s also meant to encourage people under 36 to give at a younger age. We know that if younger people give a donation, even if it’s only $10, they are more likely to give throughout their entire lifetime. 

Plug in, turn on, get engaged and volunteer

Muhammad Ali once said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” That quote couldn’t be more telling during these hard times. Street Roots along with hundreds of other nonprofits across the city rely on community support in the form of volunteering to make their organizations the best they can be.

It’s important for all us to work towards marrying the changing demographics of our city with the many organizations working to make a difference. There’s no question that with the ever-increasing need, coupled with government decreasing its ability to deliver any number of important services, from the environment to animals to human beings, Portland has its work cut out for it.

April Fools: Homelessness and the media in PDX

The Willamette Week exposed Street Roots for attempting to rob homeless people of 25 cents a paper, while the other 75 cents was being used to go toward the undeserving poor. The newspaper published two articles this past year that uncovers SR working with people without homes who are dealing with addictions and people dealing with mental health issues. The paper’s in-depth reporting on the subject matter also determined that SR works with people with disabilities, determining that SR could no longer be trusted to work with people, unless they were in fact, down and out.

The Portland Mercury along with lefty activists accused SR and the Business Alliance of moonlighting after dark and plotting to destroy all that was good downtown. The Mercury also editorialized that SR was probably to blame for most of the laws created by City Hall targeting homeless people. “They’re advocacy efforts this past year have just sucked,” said the Mercury’s British News Editor. “I have two sources that tell me they’re sleeping with the enemy.”

The Oregonian’s publisher told readers that the newspaper’s lack of coverage on why Portland’s homeless population was growing due to the lack of housing was balanced this past year with in-depth reporting on how 21,000 pairs of socks, 1,400 toothbrushes, and 1,000 new coats were going to help the homeless in the region.

The Portland Tribune profiled chronic homelessness and panhandling in an in-depth article that found many individuals living outdoors actually want to be homeless, voluntarily giving up everything they own and their kids to sleep on the streets. One business owner told the Tribune that the homeless people panhandling in front of his store told him that, “Living with rats in the rain under threat of violence and disease was fun,” and then asked him for a dollar to buy drugs.

The Portland Business Journal ran five news stories this past year on homelessness — all after the Business Alliance called and asked them to cover the subject matter. Portlanders were able to read the first half of all five articles, but due to an online subscription model and an overpriced product, readers determined the last part of the articles didn’t really matter much.

An independent consulting firm looked at homeless coverage by TV news stations in Portland over a one-year period. The firm found that the news stations combined ran a total of 37 news stories on homelessness from January to December of 2009. The firm also found that no one inside the city proper actually paid attention, and even fewer polled said they cared.

The streets and Street Roots

There’s been a wave of press this month on aggressive behavior by panhandlers and canvassers on Portland’s sidewalks, mostly due to the fallout from the sit-lie ordinance being struck down by the local courts.

None of that coverage has included Street Roots vendors.

At Street Roots, we train individuals experiencing homelessness and poverty to sell the newspaper and be polite – treating people like they expect to be treated. And the rhetoric about the problems on the streets have not gone unnoticed among the team. Here is an e-mail one of our vendors sent today to Commissioner Randy Leonard, who has included “magazine” sellers among those to be treated equally in the city’s next approach to the streets:

Mr. Leonard,

I read the article in today’s Willamette Week on your proposal to regulate panhandlers. Like you, and many others, the more aggressive panhandlers – particularly more able-bodied ones who hold cardboard signs when they could be working to make a decent living for themselves – can be a thorn in the backside. While I applaud this, I am concerned about the canvassers and other vendors.

I am a vendor for Street Roots, which I’m sure you’re familiar with.  As the director, Israel Bayer, himself would state, selling Street Roots is a more acceptable alternative to panhandling. The majority of us- 99.99% of us – are courteous, friendly, and do what we can to build community and contribute to the betterment of society. My concern is this regulation could wrongfully target those who are behaving themselves as they canvass for charities and/or selling SR. What I basically ask for is assurance that you only target those who are overtly aggressive and belligerent.

In closing, I want to thank you for your service to the city, and thank you for listening.

In kindest regards, I remain,
Darren W. Alexander

Commissioner Leonard’s response:

I agree with you, Darren.  I have had nothing but positive experiences with Streets Roots vendors.

Thanks for writing….Randy

Which leaves a lot flapping in the wind on how folks like Darren will experience the next generation of street ordinances.

So we want to know: What’s your experience with Street Roots vendors been lately?

April Fools: WW, Mercury, KGW, Oregonian cover Street Roots and homelessness

From the April 1 edition of Street Roots. (The April Fools edition was one of the most popular Street Roots ever published. We sold out of the newspaper in a week and ordered more. It’s on the streets for two more days – get your copy while it’s hot!)

– A Willamette Week intern asked Street Roots this week if money provided by the city of Portland for the Rose City Resource Guide is in fact being channeled to the mostly volunteer editorial board as a payoff. Questions arose after Street Roots claimed it could help facilitate communication among more than 350 social-service agencies and people experiencing poverty. The paper reported that Street Roots had in fact, “Sit. Lied. Rolled over. And fetched” for the payoff from City Hall.

– The Portland Mercury has decided to cover issues of poverty and homelessness without doing research on the subject for one-year. Mercury reporters told inquiring minds on their company blog that they are working circles around the Street Roots staff. One reporter blames Street Roots for not “manning up” and covering the issues he thinks the paper should be covering. “Why aren’t they just printing our stories on the front page?” he asked reporters.

– The Oregonian called to verify that homeless people are still, in fact, homeless.

– The Portland Monthly has decided to profile the Top Ten Reasons Why no one really gives a crap what the Portland Monthly says about the economy. Coming in at No. 1 was, “No one really does give a crap about what we say about the economy.”

– KGW decided to air a special about how homeless people living out on the streets actually get wet during the rainy season. In an early morning investigative report, KGW found that 14 out of the 14 individuals they interviewed who had slept outside during Rainstorm 2009 actually woke up wet and miserable.

– Several neighborhood newspapers have reported a homeless invasion of neighborhoods. One neighborhood leader told the Portland Sentinel that if any public housing was built in the area, they would post videos on YouTube of neighborhood activists ripping the hearts out of poor people at a public event. Editorials from various neighborhood newspapers agreed, after brokering a deal for sponsoring the event in exchange for three months of advertising. Various musicians around Portland agreed to play the YouTube event, saying, “We owe this to ourselves; we’re poor too.” Microbrews from local breweries and restaurants will be available at the event. Children and pets are welcome.

Street Roots April Fools edition to sell out in a week – we’re ordering more!

The Street Roots special April Fools edition is on the verge of selling out. Nearly 10,000 papers have been sold in just a week. We are ordering more.

The special edition is one of the newspapers most popular editions. The organization has received several letters to the editors and phone calls from many readers saying they read the paper cover to cover – laughing until they cried.

In the course of this edition we’ve also fielded numerous calls asking if former President Bush was really moving to Portland and if Executive Director Israel Bayer is leaving to take a job at the city to work on the sustainability of homelessness.

Inside this edition readers will find satire covering Portland’s City Hall, Ted Wheeler, secret lists, a private takeover of local prisons, life on Alberta, the stimulus package and much, much more including a story of how one homeless man turned his life around after being critiqued for his personal choices. For a quick sneak peak of the wall to wall satire in this edition on the streets we’re including our local Media Roundup:

– A Willamette Week intern asked Street Roots this week if money provided by the city of Portland for the Rose City Resource Guide is in fact being channeled to the mostly volunteer editorial board as a payoff. Questions arose after Street Roots claimed it could help facilitate communication among more than 350 social-service agencies and people experiencing poverty. The paper reported that Street Roots had in fact, “Sit. Lied. Rolled over. And fetched” for the payoff from City Hall.

– The Portland Mercury has decided to cover issues of poverty and homelessness without doing research on the subject for one-year. Mercury reporters told inquiring minds on their company blog that they are working circles around the Street Roots staff. One reporter blames Street Roots for not “manning up” and covering the issues he thinks the paper should be covering. “Why aren’t they just printing our stories on the front page?” he asked reporters.

– The Oregonian called to verify that homeless people are still, in fact, homeless.

– The Portland Monthly has decided to profile the Top Ten Reasons Why no one really gives a crap what the Portland Monthly says about the economy. Coming in at No. 1 was, “No one really does give a crap about what we say about the economy.”

– Several neighborhood newspapers have reported a homeless invasion of neighborhoods. One neighborhood leader told the Portland Sentinel that if any public housing was built in the area, they would post videos on YouTube of neighborhood activists ripping the hearts out of poor people at a public event. Editorials from various neighborhood newspapers agreed, after brokering a deal for sponsoring the event in exchange for three months of advertising. Various musicians around Portland agreed to play the YouTube event, saying, “We owe this to ourselves; we’re poor too.” Microbrews from local breweries and restaurants will be available at the event. Children and pets are welcome.

– KGW decided to air a special about how homeless people living out on the streets actually get wet during the rainy season. In an early morning investigative report, KGW found that 14 out of the 14 individuals they interviewed who had slept outside during Rainstorm 2009 actually woke up wet and miserable.

Support Street Roots through the Willamette Week Give!Guide!

Nov. 12, 2008

Street Roots has been selected by Willamette Week for inclusion in the 2008 Give!Guide. The fifth annual Give!Guide is a holiday season fund raiser that serves as a unique vehicle for generating donations for a collection of Portland area non-profit organizations.
With a donation this fall, you will:
– Provide a way for more than 200 homeless and low-income individuals to secure immediate and basic needs
– Offer a path to self-sufficiency, including skills development and resume building
– Foster self-respect and a sense of personal worth
– Expand opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and poverty to sell the newspaper in outlying areas of Portland

But Street Roots does more than help individuals. With your donation, Street Roots will commit to:
– Bring Portlanders alternative news you can’t find anywhere else
– Foster dialogue about important issues facing neighborhoods and communities throughout the region
– Advocate for change on issues that affect people experiencing homelessness and poverty
– Report on a broad range of issues, including civil liberties, immigration, the environment, economic development, the war on drugs and much more
– Deliver in-depth journalism and opinions from an international movement made up of more than 90 street newspapers worldwide

You can make contributions online to Street Roots via the Give!Guide Web site. Donations are accepted from today through midnight Dec. 31.

With each donation of $25 or more, friends of Street Roots receive some great incentives.
• If you donate between $25 and $99, you’ll receive an envelope containing the following: A couple of TriMet bus tickets, a coupon good for a loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread, a coffee drink of your choice from any Portland-area Peet’s, two scoops from Staccato Gelato, a Stash tea bag, and a coupon good for a discount at Trebol restaurant.

• If you donate between $100 and $399, you’ll receive all of the above plus: a coupon good for the cleaning of a shirt or blouse at Bee Cleaners, a coupon for three free yoga classes at Amrita Yoga, a couple more TriMet tickets, a Kiehls’ bounce-back card. In addition, the first 200 donors in this category will get free passes to Beavers games next spring, and the second 200 donors will get a free classic doughnut from Voodoo’s new location on NE Davis.

• If your donation is $400 to $999, you get home delivery of: a bottle of fine wine, a half pound of Peet’s coffee, a coupon good for a discount on Castor & Pollux organic dog food, a coupon for a free load of Dave’s Killer Bread, and a box of Stash tea. All of this will arrive in a reusable New Seasons bag.

• For donations of $1,000 or more, there’s a full pound of Peet’s coffee, a five-pound bag of Castor & Pollux organic dog food, a Go Fetch coupon book, a Dave’s Killer Bread free loaf coupon, and a nice bottle of sparkling wine.

But wait! There’s more! For donors under the age of 36, there’ll be a raffle for 10 pairs of Keen Footwear, a basket of Snook’s doggie treats, a check for $1,000, and a year’s ZipCar membership – including a free weekend with the ZipCar of your choice. (That includes a BMW, Prius, or Mini Cooper.)

To donate to Street Roots go to www.wweek.com/giveguide. All donations are tax deductible.

Donors who wish to avoid giving online may download and print out a copy of the Give!Guide donation form here and mail it to a local post office box address on the form.

Street Roots could use your help now more than ever! Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Street Roots

Candidates talk street politics with Willamette Week

July 30, 2008

Amanda Fritz and Charles Lewis on affordable housing and homelessness

Posted by Israel Bayer