The membership meeting will focus on the landscape of charitable and volunteer giving in Alexandria and how you can become involved in it.
The guest speakers are John Porter, former T.C. William High School principal and now executive director of ACT for Alexandria, and Marion Brunken, executive director of Volunteer Alexandria. The two organizations sponsor two of the largest charitable and volunteer giving events of the year in Alexandria, Spring2ACTion and Spring for Alexandria.
Launched in 2004 as a community foundation, ACT works to increase local philanthropic giving to new levels, increase the abilities of existing service agencies and organizations to help others, and bring Alexandrians together to create new solutions to community problems.
Spring2ACTion is billed as Alexandria’s giving day. It is a 24-hour online event that encourages everyone to contribute to the city’s nonprofit organizations through spring2action.org, a single online giving platform, on Wednesday, April 9. Donors choose which of the nonprofits they will contribute to.
Last year, Spring2ACTion received donations of $660,000 in one day, benefitting 97 local nonprofits. This year’s goal is $1 million for more than 100 nonprofits.
Volunteer Alexandria’s mission is to build a better community by inspiring and mobilizing people to volunteer. It maintains a database of hundreds of volunteer opportunities.
Spring for Alexandria, run in partnership with the city of Alexandria, is a series of events celebrating working, living, and giving in the community. Spring for Alexandria will include two community service days, May 16 and 17, during which people can volunteer to help numerous nonprofit organizations and city agencies, as well as the schools.