The Orbiter

This year’s Chicago Cause was a huge success. I want to take a few moments to give a shout out to all the applicants, the finalists, our partners, and most of all our 2011 Chicago Cause recipient!

Chicago Cause is a philanthropic partnership between Orbit Media, Lightspan Digital, Flanigan Communications, and ShiftFocus Productions. Together as partners we committed to donate over $32,000 in marketing services to one deserving Chicago nonprofit. Each partner contributed their time and resources in their area of expertise for web design, video production, social media efforts and public relations.

The 2011 Chicago Cause Winner

We received over 30 applications from a variety of different nonprofit organizations located here in Chicago. Myself and 4 other judges then had to narrow down the applicants to 10 finalists, threw a party to meet them all, and then after much deliberation (it was a tough one!) we chose the 2011 Chicago Cause winner.

This year’s recipient is…dun dun dun dun…Inspiration Corporation (clap clap clap!).

If you’re not familiar with the Inspiration Corporation here is their mission statement:

• Inspiration Corporation helps people who are affected by homelessness and poverty to improve their lives and increase self-sufficiency through the provision of social services, employment training and placement, and housing.

After 21 years of service, Inspiration Corporation has grown to serve over 3,000 individuals every year and continues their mission to end homelessness and poverty in the Chicago area.

In my own words; they are extraordinary humans, doing incredible things. We recently went to the Inspiration Kitchen, which is a restaurant training skills program started by Inspiration Corporation, and had the pleasure of meeting some of the people that they’ve helped. Honestly, some of the best people, stories, and food (insert “I want to hug everyone around me right now emoticon”). I highly recommend you head there with some friends to see what I’m talking about!

A little more about the other 9 finalists…

We love all of the finalists so much and what they do for the Chicago community, so we decided we wanted to offer something to the rest of the 9 organizations. Here’s how we’re trying to help:

• Free web marketing consulting (Orbit)
• Free use of EventBrite for one year (thanks to our friends at EventBrite!)
• Free half day seminar on social media marketing, event planning, and promotion (Lightspan Digital and EventBrite)

We’re so proud to be able to help these super-humans that are making a difference around Chicago. If you’d like to learn more about the finalists and how you can help, we’ve included all of their information below.

• Book Worm Angels – Book Worm Angels is a literacy organization that promotes development of recreational reading habits among students pre-kindergarten through 8th grade.
• Read/Write Library Chicago – Read/Write Library, formerly known as Chicago Underground Library, is an all-inclusive collection of Chicago-specific media, produced by and for the community whose current focus is on print. However, the RWL is planning to expand into audio, video, and performance documentation.
• Slow Food Chicago – Slow Food Chicago creates dramatic and lasting change in our local food system to ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in the food we eat.
• Support 1000 – Bra Donation – Support 1000′s mission is to affirm the dignity of women by collecting new and lightly used bras to donate to organizations that serve women and families.
• Growing Home, Inc. – Growing Home provides job training on its organic farms, creates green jobs, promotes healthy food and organic agriculture, and increases the availability of local, healthy produce in the City of Chicago.
• Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation – The PFF is an advocate for the pulmonary fibrosis community, promoting disease awareness and providing a compassionate environment for patients and their families.
• Snow City Arts – Snow City Arts is a pioneering program that provides arts, cultural, and educational programming to hospitalized children unable to attend school because of serious illness.
• Haymarket Center – Haymarket Center’s mission is to aid people with chemical dependency in their recovery by providing optional professional care that is responsive to the needs of the community.
• Illinois Science Council – The Illinois Science Council was created on the premise that having an understanding of the scientific method and of scientific discoveries is crucial to a well-rounded civic life.

What some of the finalists had to say about Chicago Cause….

Oz, Support 1000
“Gotta tell you. I found out about the contest right before the deadline and jumped on in. Glad I did! Congrats to Inspiration Corporation, they’re really a big contribution to the community. Good choice!”

Monica, Illinois Science Council
“Thanks so much for letting us know the decision for Chicago Cause.  I’m familiar with Inspiration Corporation; they do great work and are absolutely worthy of the award.  I really enjoyed meeting you and the others, and learning about the other finalist organizations through Chicago Cause.  Even writing the application was a worthwhile effort as part of this process for me.”

Mike, Book Worm Angels
“Amanda, our congratulations to Inspiration Corporation, and to you and your partners in Chicago Cause for the excellent initiative you all exhibited in putting this together.”

Polly, Growing Home, Inc
“Thanks Amanda. Was out of the office at the farms yesterday, so just getting this. I was inspired by Inspiration Corporation too – have signed up to volunteer with them! I know they’ll really benefit from the package! All the best and thanks again for involving us in this initiative”

We’d love to hear from you about your experience with the Chicago Cause or if you have any recommendations for the 2012 Chicago Cause, please feel free to leave comments below.

Keep it up do-gooders!!

Amanda Gant is the Marketing and Relationship Manager at Orbit Media, a web design company here in Chicago. You can find Amanda on Google+ and LinkedIn.